검정치마(The Black Skirts) – Everything

A two day streak on keeping my promise! Today I’m bringing you guys a song that’s very fitting for Valentine’s day (I’m a couple days late, but what’s new?). I hope your Valentine’s day was as good as mine . And for all you singles out there… good for you. My bank account envies you.
Everything has that 조휴일’s (Bryan Cho) trademark muddy melody and muffled voice, too perfect for rainy days like today. While listening to this song the first time through, I realized how boring the song must be for the non-Korean speakers. A good part of The Black Skirts’ uniqueness come from their lyrics, and not being able to understand any of the words takes so much away from their songs. It’s songs like these where I have the most trouble finding the middle ground between literal and figurative translation, and end up having to settle for one or the other. For this song, I stuck with the literal translation, but that was more out of laziness than anything else. (Brownie points for honesty?)

Weirdly enough, the lyrics for this song reminded me of my most recent church service (which is like 4-5 months ago). The pastor condemned what he called “modern love,” that momentary surge in emotion that sprouts when you’re lying down, cuddling with that person, only to wither with little time physically apart. While I certainly agree that the idealized “love” is unconditional and immutable, love realistically is much like the “modern love” as he described; all feelings are fleeting and conditional, and so is love. Still, for me, the idealized notion gives a goal to strive for, provides a base for the promise I make to myself, for that one person who is my everything. Sure one of us may get hurt in the end, but what’s the fun in love without that stinging stab.

I probably shouldn’t have killed this bottle of wine.

Good night to me. And to you all.