Carnaval (feat. Bridget Low)

from Une Débutante Au Jeu by Poplin

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about

Words and music by Yap Koi Yim © MAKEMERRYMUSIC Publishing

I have always loved Manhã de Carnaval, and the notion of suffering a seeming eternity just to live for a moment - the archetypal Brazilian fatalistic romanticism. I loaned Black Orpheus from the library and thought I should write my version of a Carnaval, perhaps a European or New World notion of it, a Carnival or traveling funfair. And instead of writing about the “morning” of the Carnaval, I wanted to write about the “morning after”. Essentially the song is about how it is so hard for a certain type of people to leave the past behind, and how goodbye is so different when said from opposing perspectives - the Carnival that moves from town to town, versus the small-town kid. The lyrics also tie back to the theme of the first track, about escapism from the daily grind, and how when the halo of love has dimmed, mortals are once again relegated to “the rest (who) haggled on below” - the context perhaps markedly more poignant if set against the backdrop of favelas.

lyrics

We'd swivel
on Love's carousel
In its spell
Just what were we to do but let
Our hair down
Our feet off the ground
Vive la carnaval

That night it seemed
No one could reach
Our perch on top the
tower of love
The lights of grim
Reality
Were far like stars
In galaxies

The rest they haggled on below
But the silence was ours alone

Daylight permits
no one reprieve
To wean oneself
from reveries
Against the scene
Of teeming spring
I drivel on
About winter dreams

Yes I should smile like the children
Tears the minute past all but forgotten

Farewell
to Love's carousel
We'd dismount
And watch the vertigo wind down
This fairground
Has long shifted town
The day after carnaval

credits

from Une Débutante Au Jeu, released January 20, 2010

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