"What More Can I Do"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

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Since Begin Here was released in the UK to-day (at least according to the Zombie Heaven liner notes), I listened to it, and I noticed something about "What More Can I Do."

In the first verse, there's the line "But something always holds me back."  As if to mirror the "hold[ing]… back," there's a caesura between "always" and "holds."

In the second verse, there's a similar but opposite line: "But something always keeps a hold on me," which - along with directly opposing the line from the first verse - doesn't include a caesura.  There're no pauses in the line, and the continuing forward helps to impart the "keep[ing] a hold," as if the lyrics are being pulled along with the rhythm.

So those two lines are opposite in what they say and in how they're articulated.