listen

florence and the machine – heavy in your arms
(from the album lungs :: b sides, 2011)

photography by khomenko

los angeles’ foster the people‘s pumped up kicks became a familiar summer soundtrack in the background while you were jetsetting to foreign islands, drinking pina coladas, laying underneath the sunshine, swimming in a fancy pool, feeling the heat, riding your bicycle, laughing with friends, and dreaming to the nighttime’s cool warm breezes. although previously released in september 2010 to modern rock radio stations, it was first thought of as a sleeper hit without too much recognition. happily now almost a year later, pumped up kicks quickly grew to be a constant part of billboard’s alternative top number one singles of the summer of 2011.

I have come curiously close to the end, down
Beneath my self-indulgent pitiful hole,
Defeated, I concede and
Move closer
I may find comfort here
I may find peace within the emptiness
How pitiful

It’s calling me…

And in my darkest moment, fetal and weeping
The moon tells me a secret – my confidant
As full and bright as I am
This light is not my own and
A million light reflections pass over me

Its source is bright and endless
She resuscitates the hopeless
Without her, we are lifeless satellites drifting

And as I pull my head out I am without one doubt
Don’t wanna be down here feeding my narcissism.
I must crucify the ego before it’s far too late
I pray the light lifts me out
Before I pine away

So crucify the ego, before it’s far too late
To leave behind this place so negative and blind and cynical,
And you will come to find that we are all one mind
Capable of all that’s imagined and all conceivable.

Just let the light touch you
And let the words spill through
And let them pass right through
Bringing out our hope and reason …
before we pine away.

~*~

Reflection

Music by Tool

Words by Maynard James Keenan

Artwork: Tool, and Alex Grey