Onward to day 08 of Song Solstice -Summer 2024! Today's track is an incredibly lovely song by Alison Moyet, of solo and Yaz/Yazoo fame. Join me as I explore my adoration of this track.
Once again, we are flying back to the 90s and the music I discovered and still love from back then. I knew of Alison Moyet best as half of Yazoo (Yaz in the US back then) who, along with co-founder and ex-member of Depeche Mode Vince Clarke (in his pre-Erasure days), brought us a couple of the great synthpop albums of the 80s. From this, I found my way to her 1994 album, Essex, which is honestly a fantastic album all around. (The 'Essex' re-works of “Ode To Boy'', the song she wrote on Yazoo's 1983 album, 'You And Me Both', are fab, by the way.) The song that has become my most favorite track—and today's feature—is the incredibly lovely and emotional, “Satellite”.
If I listen too close and too deep, this song has the power to make me cry, with all the feelings weaved into the gorgeous vocal. This is a classically beautiful piece of work, including lovely layered backing vocals placed over beautiful strings (by the quartet, Electra Strings). This song just... Although I used this term early on in this list, it fits: This song arrests me. The lyrics brim with both conflict and deep love, Alison's delivery echoing the personal and confessional nature of the words she wrote. I just fall into the inescapable pull this song has, letting it hold me in its web until it takes me in the most stunning way. I can't help it. I stop everything damn near every time I hear it, just to feel it and sway until it's over.
You were alight
and I wouldn't look away
You said I was sky
and caught me anyway
How could I ever know
you burn all that you hold
Now sing to the walls
I've cared more
I want to go
I want to stay
I want your name
And I want nothing that you are
Not even when you're moving me
(and you're moving me)
I want to talk
I want to sleep
Want to get up
and wash the rest of you away
You never had me
Satellite
Maybe today
I'll not wear you anymore
I'll fold you away,
lay you down where you belong
Maybe you'll wake in time
to break open a smile,
wide and wild
as the Humber
I want to go
I want to stay
I want your name
And I want nothing that you are
Not even when you're moving me
(and you're moving me)
I want to talk
I want to sleep
Want to get up
and wash the rest of you away
You never had me
Satellite
Are you dancing tonight
Are you burning as bright
As the she- boy outside
the Firefly
I want to go
I want to stay
I want your name
And I want nothing that you are
Not even when you're moving me
(and you're moving me)
I want to talk
I want to sleep
Want to get up
and wash the rest of you away
You never had
Never had
Never had me
Satellite
Satellite
~~~
Photos, videos, and lyrics used for reference and informational purposes.
