And her mom's from Indiana and she
She married an Asian man and they
They brought her from Japan to be
Happily suburban and I
I met her one summer when I was
I was just visiting ten days
Her wrists were island thin but she
She smiled like her Indie kin
And she's half
She's into strictly rich and
Overworked businessmen
She don't remember when
She used to hold my hands
After the Rollerland
After she closed the stand
Now it's supply and demand
And it just comes down to the math
And she's half
And she's half
--The American-Analog Set, "She's Half"
Set Free
When read, these lyrics create a stunning image of a girl.
What really gets me is when you think about the fact that he wrote this about a real person. It's touching and poignant. The detail, the history of where this girl comes from and where she is now, you can picture a well-dressed, shiny-haired thin woman in business chic, a girl who once ran around holding hands with indie guys with guitars. The fact he only met her when he was around for 10 days-- How many times did he see her? How old were they? The fact that holding hands seems so poignant, and yet was that all they did or just what stood out?
Creepy eerie harmonies on the repeated "she's half" line, matched with the soft bells as percussion are magical, which sound somehow exotic and familiar at the same time. (Couldn't find a streaming link of the song anywhere--je suis desole, live YouTube will have to work). Plus, soft male vocals have a great effect on ambiance, i think--like when Thom Yorke gets all creepy-high, or Chris Martin, Sufjan Stevens.
There's a hint of regret in this song,a soft anger at how things ended up. Something a lot more furious than the lightness lets on. It gets in at the end, with the repeated echoes. Somehow it's not as sweet as it seemed.
The rest of their record is okay,I guess I haven't listened to it that much. It has one lone comment on songmeanings.net--one of the best ways to gauge how songwriting touches the Internet masses within all their personalized lenses. (I love thumbing message boards for that reason--people say some weird shit).
Pretty okay as a song, but great, i think, read as poetry.
