#secretcrazy

are we ever really ready?

I thought I'd done that one, but it turns out I had done both Holy Ground x Sweeter Than Fiction and The Albatross x Dancing With Our Hands Tied. Alas, we have a new entry in the Mashup Madness sweepstakes!

Man, it's been a while since I've watched one of these! It feels so long ago now.

First of all, I'm a sound girl. As in, the first thing I'm always going to be drawn to the sound of a song first before the lyrics register, and that's usually the first hook for me. And I love this mashup because it feels extra yeehaw-ified to me in such a genuine way! I LOVE her strummy strum guitar and twang on both songs in the mashup, and the little inflections and yodels and cracks she adds sound so so lovely for both songs. I find that the driving bass and drums really power the album version of Holy Ground (which I love), and the orchestration of The Albatross on TTPD really does add this like, almost mariner chant vibe to it. But here she's in peak Girl With A Guitar Doing A Bit At A Coffee House mode, and it transforms them both to me in their own ways!

(It's particularly noteworthy to me when she sings the last verse of The Albatross, which is extra-countrified.)

I'm super rusty on this so it took me awhile to digest the mashup and dive into it like I used to!

If I had to pick, I'd say the theme is: None of it matters, so tonight I'm gonna dance for all that we've been through.

Looking at what she chose to include in the mashup, she's removed the parts about the breakdown of the relationship from Holy Ground and the longer parts about the external forces trying to divide the pair in The Albatross. Instead, what emerges in what she's kept sounds slightly less like a warning and perhaps more like the evolution of a relationship from the cautious beginnings to embracing what it all entails.

Wise men once said "Wild winds are death to the candle" A rose by any other name is a scandal Cautions issued, he stood Shooting the messengers They tried to warn him about her Cross your thoughtless heart Only liquor anoints you She's the albatross She is here to destroy you ... I was reminiscing just the other day While having coffee all alone and Lord, it took me away Back to a first glance feeling on New York time Back when you fit my poems like a perfect rhyme Took off faster than a green light, go Yeah, you skip the conversation when you already know I left a note on the door with a joke we'd made And that was the first day And darling, it was good Never looking down And right there where we stood Was holy ground

It's almost like she/the narrator is telling a story of remembering the early, exciting days of a relationship where nothing outside of the two people in it mattered, and they go, um, full throttle into it.

Actually in hindsight, the parallel between the wise men warning "him" about her and "him" ignoring them, and "darling it was good, never looking down" reflects the commitment of the two "characters." As in: he doesn't care about what they say about her, and she relishes in living in the moment without outside forces telling her to stop.

I also just realized there's a parallel between "Darling it was good, never looking down" and "Spread my wings like a parachute/I'm the albatross, I swept in at the rescue." They're soaring through the sky at lightning speed, and she can keep them afloat! That's such an interesting way of linking the songs.

(Plus, it just hit me that there's a big of a link between the wise men of The Albatross and the holy ground of Holy Ground but I'm not dialed in enough to go there now haha.)

I also love how she then melds the two bridges together:

And when that sky rains fire on you And you're persona non grata I'll tell you how I've been there too And that none of it matters ... Tonight I'm gonna dance For all that we've been through But I don't wanna dance If I'm not dancing with you

Especially for how it changes the context to the Holy Ground bit, I think. Because Holy Ground on its own is a song reminiscing about a lost love ("I guess we fell apart in the usual way, and the story's got dust on every page..."), but by pairing these two sections together, to me the story feels like it's saying: When things get hard, I'm going to help us get through it, and tonight I'm going to remember that when I miss you because you're the only one I want.

So then when she closest out the last section of the song, the final verse of The Albatross feels like a victory lap:

So I crossed my thoughtless heart Spread my wings like a parachute I'm the albatross I swept in at the rescue The devil that you know Looks now more like an angel I'm the life you chose And all this terrible danger ... Tonight I'm gonna dance For all that we've been through But I don't wanna dance If I'm not dancing with you Tonight I'm gonna dance Like you were in this room But I don't wanna dance If I'm not dancing with you

Because all together, it's like she's saying: Everyone was skeptical, but we were so good together right from the start that we knew this was special. You know I know how to protect us when things get hard, and you made the choice clear-eyed about making a life with me. So when we're apart and I miss you, I'm going to remember that you keep choosing me.

I guess I could have skipped all this retread and just summed it up as: I stay when it's hard, or it's wrong, or we're making mistakes.

Or basically, like, "don't sweat the small stuff."

It's such a lovely evolution of how she's depicted relationships, particularly given the original context of both songs, and yet again another testament to how brilliant the mashups were on Eras!

i haven’t taken a photo of myself in aaaaages AND forgot it was selfie night so i wasn’t gonna participate buuuut 🥺 this is so kind…i’ll share my selfie here lol if that’s weird i can delete it idk!!!

it’s me, hi 🥰