"The Best Is Yet to Come"

I listened to Colin Blunstone's On the Air Tonight last week and noticed a handful of small features.

In the line "You say the words that help me carry on" in "The Best Is Yet to Come," "on" is sung with a melisma (A E G), giving a sense of that continuation.

In the line "'Cause it's hard, but it's the same for ev'ryone," "ev'ryone" is sung with a melisma, giving a sense of breadth.  Initially (at ~0:41 and ~1:44), it's A G A B, but later in the song (at ~2:56), it's E F# E B C# B.

In the line "When ev'rything is wrong, hold on," the three syllables of "ev'rything" are all sung to different pitches (C B A), providing a sense of that breadth.

"The Best Is Yet to Come"

I've been transcribing the song lyrics from the liner notes of Colin Blunstone's On the Air Tonight album, and I noticed a small thing about "The Best Is Yet to Come."  In the bridge there are the lines "And if the stormy nights surround you / I will always shine the light that guides you."  There's a similar image of surrounding night* in "Maybe after He's Gone" on Odessey and Oracle:  "As the night folds in around me / Night surrounds me; I'm alone."

"Maybe after He's Gone" was written by Chris White, and the liner notes of On the Air Tonight credit "The Best Is Yet to Come" to Charlie Grant, Pete Woodroffe, and Melanie Chisholm (Woodroffe is also credited with playing keyboards on the album, although specific tracks aren't mentioned).  I'm not sure if this line in "The Best Is Yet to Come" was written as a reference to "Maybe after He's Gone," but I think it might illustrate something about Blunstone's taste.

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*There's also "I want to hold you tight / While the warmth of the night surrounds us" in "Don't Go Away" (also written by Chris White), but - like I mentioned back in November - the situations are different.  The surrounding night described in "The Best Is Yet to Come" has the same desolation that's in "Maybe after He's Gone."

"The Best Is Yet to Come"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

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Last night, I happened to think of Colin Blunstone's "The Best Is Yet to Come" (from On the Air Tonight), and I realized that the line "Whatever doesn't break you makes you stronger" is basically the same sentiment as "What doesn't kill me will fill me with life" in "Moving On" from Still Got That Hunger.

I recently read this Rod Argent interview where he mentions the internal rhyme there (kill, will, and fill), which I'll admit I hadn't noticed before.