The Corrs Club

My thoughts
12-Oct-2015 20:20:47

CorrsClub Time:
28-Mar-2024 13:10:50

I totally agree with you that Andrea has a tendency to explore dark themes while masking them in a cheery and uplifting song, and I love that ability of her's because that's certainly not an easy thing to do. But she doesn't do that all the time, a couple of songs I can think of, in which she lets the darkness win (for lack of a better phrase wink.gif) are: Queen of Hollywood and Somebody for Someone, I'm sure there are many others.

You wrote: "Whether the two seemingly different outtakes at life and death in Andrea's and Sharon's songs actually reflect their personal thought on the matter would be something else to see... "

You actually hit the nail on the head there. I recalled reading in an interview of Sharon in which she expressed her opinions on this very matter. Here's the link

The particular quote "I’m not what you would call the religious type and I’ve always believed that most religion is based on nothing more than fairytales. But in 2001 I had a strange experience. I was on holiday with my husband in St Lucia. I stopped in my tracks when I saw this woman on the other side of the room. Everything about her reminded me of my mother who had died a couple of years before – her body shape, her hair, the way she twisted her mouth when she smiled, the kindness in her eyes, the way she moved… I was in no doubt that my mother’s spirit was present in this lady. We smiled at each other but didn’t speak. There was no need for words. We both understood"

It is quite clear that her beliefs on this subject are not conventional and that is reflected in her lyrics. As for Andrea, I believe that her opinions regarding the matter are more along the conventional lines. Here's an interesting article I found. It is somewhat related to this discussion.

Another one that is more to the point.

Particular passage: "It was only with the sudden death of her beloved mother in 1999 (of a rare lung disease, aged 57) that Andrea really came to terms with her profession.

‘It made me think, “I really need this”.’ One song on the new album, Angel, expresses Andrea’s absolute certainty that her mother is in a better place (a religious conviction not shared by the more sceptical Sharon, who contributes a lament entitled Goodbye). Yet the standout song is the title track, Borrowed Heaven, a strange and beautiful ballad that Andrea wrote, about the impermanence of everything, which opens with the striking line: ‘All beauty, all fade away, borrowed’.

‘It’s basically a prayer about the transience of our lives,’ she says. ‘We can feel so much, but all good and bad, all painful experiences and all beautiful ones will go in the end, because they’re only on loan from God.’

Such poetic flourishes (in lyrics and speech) hint at Andrea’s hidden depths. There is a vague quality of melancholy there, too, a darkness that can be found lurking behind the cheerful facade of the Irish character.

‘All of us have our insecurities and I think they come out in songs,’ Andrea says. ‘The desire to write comes out of a bad day, or all the vulnerable thoughts you have, certainly for me.’

It is this vulnerability that adds the final grace note to the Corrs’ appeal, diminishing the blandness of beauty and ambition. Not that it is something she would emphasise.
"

And this concludes my longest post so far, in the two years I've been posting here smile.gif

OsamaRaashid
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