Thursday, May 31, 2018

“Black Cloud” by Postdata – A Song Review

     “Black Cloud” has an eerie, almost haunting vibe that would be suitable for a soundtrack of a drug smuggling movie. The song ends with thunderous percussion and demands of “Give me the drug.”

     “Black Cloud” is a song from Postdata, a supergroup fronted by Paul Murphy of Wintersleep. Other contributors are Grant Hutchison and Andy Monaghan (both of Scotland’s Frightened Rabbit, which sadly lost its frontman), Simone Pace (Blonde Redhead), and Wintersleep’s Loel Campbell and Tim D’Eon.

     The song is one of ten tracks on “Let’s Be Wilderness” which is available via Paper Bag Records. Quoting content from the label’s site:
  “I want my body back: Mama, I’m contaminated,” Murphy submits wearily on the chorus. The imagery came from a dream in which his bedroom was consumed in a dark cloud, while the lyrics developed after he watched a documentary on soldiers returning home with PTSD. The film depicted how some soldiers repurposed their uniforms into pieces of art as part of the healing process. It struck Murphy as “trying to change the meaning of the symbol for them and to be able to create and dictate the meaning of their uniforms in their own terms.”
  The track is a window into a key tenet of Murphy’s songwriting: empathy. “It's kind of told from the perspective of someone who is trying to empathize or help someone who is in a desperate headspace,” he explains. “I've always been intrigued or interested in arriving at a place of empathy in a situation you can't really understand.”

     “Black Cloud” by Postdata


Lyrics of “Black Cloud” by Postdata
She can't get out of her bed
The big black cloud
In the river of her head
Little by little by little
Just a little bit
It enters the room

Behind the eyes
You can feel the mind slipped
Flow to the spine
It doesn't matter what you did
Little my little by little
Just a little bit
It starts to consume

I want my body back
Give me the drug
You say you never had
Give me the drug
You say you never had
Give me the drug

My mind's contaminated
Give me the drug
You think you never had
Give me the drug you say
You never had
Give me the drug

There's nothing outside
There's nobody left
There's nowhere to hide
Nowhere to run and to forget
No one to find you
If you ever try to
And nobody tries to

Sand in the sky
Drowning in the wind
Look in my eyes
Mama I've been contaminated
Little by little by little
Just a little bit
Can you forgive me?
Can you forgive me?

I want my body back
Give me the drug
You say you never had
Give me the drug
You think you never had
Give me the drug
Give me the drug
My body

My mind's contaminated
Give me the drug
You think you never had
Give me the love
You say you never had
Give me the drug

Give me the drug
Give me the love!
Give me the drug!

3 comments:

  1. I've been looking for lyrics to this song for forever since I'm a little hard of hearing and have trouble making them out. This article has been of great help :) but do you know where there's a posting of the lyrics?

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