Pardon my impromptu analysis, but this is such a wonderful opening to the album for so many reasons! If "Cold" is a direct response to "Passerine", even containing a leitmotif from its melody, then "A Kindling of Sorts" provides a perfect transition between them. In "Passerine", the narrator fearfully cries, "When the cold wind rolls in from the north, what am I to do, what am I to do, oh, Lord?" And here, the way the string instruments squeak and whistle reminds me of a winter wind, gradually escalating to a blizzard as the music crescendos! The title itself, "A Kindling of Sorts" even foreshadows a line in "Borealis" that goes, "I'm one spoon away from setting the ends of my hair on fire / if I'm kindling for a little while, at least I'd feel of use." It refers to how the narrator struggles with feelings of purposelessness to the point of being willing to burn themselves out - as long as its for a good cause. It's a martyr complex stemming from feelings of apathy and bitterness. Notos was about the danger of perpetuating harmful ideologies, Euros was about deconstructing and criticizing one's beliefs, and Borealis is about coping with emptiness after successfully discarding a damaging mindset and/or worldview. Sometimes, what feels safe and familiar isn't good or right for us, but there's an understandable pain in longing to return to previous ignorance, even if we know it's not logical to feel that way. And if my estimation of the theme of Borealis is correct, wintertime is a perfect analogy to describe that emotional landscape. "A Kindling of Sorts" prepares us, the listeners, to brave a winter storm in the hope of something better springing up in place of what was lost during autumn's reckoning. It's a time of mourning and tribulation, but it's not without its own moments of beauty. After all, you have to travel to one of the coldest, most hostile places to see the Northern Lights in all their glory!
thank you so much for sharing, it’s wonderful to see the messages and correlations laid out like this, easier to understand, though beautiful poetically as well
Pardon my impromptu analysis, but this is such a wonderful opening to the album for so many reasons!
If "Cold" is a direct response to "Passerine", even containing a leitmotif from its melody, then "A Kindling of Sorts" provides a perfect transition between them. In "Passerine", the narrator fearfully cries, "When the cold wind rolls in from the north, what am I to do, what am I to do, oh, Lord?" And here, the way the string instruments squeak and whistle reminds me of a winter wind, gradually escalating to a blizzard as the music crescendos!
The title itself, "A Kindling of Sorts" even foreshadows a line in "Borealis" that goes, "I'm one spoon away from setting the ends of my hair on fire / if I'm kindling for a little while, at least I'd feel of use." It refers to how the narrator struggles with feelings of purposelessness to the point of being willing to burn themselves out - as long as its for a good cause. It's a martyr complex stemming from feelings of apathy and bitterness.
Notos was about the danger of perpetuating harmful ideologies, Euros was about deconstructing and criticizing one's beliefs, and Borealis is about coping with emptiness after successfully discarding a damaging mindset and/or worldview. Sometimes, what feels safe and familiar isn't good or right for us, but there's an understandable pain in longing to return to previous ignorance, even if we know it's not logical to feel that way. And if my estimation of the theme of Borealis is correct, wintertime is a perfect analogy to describe that emotional landscape.
"A Kindling of Sorts" prepares us, the listeners, to brave a winter storm in the hope of something better springing up in place of what was lost during autumn's reckoning. It's a time of mourning and tribulation, but it's not without its own moments of beauty. After all, you have to travel to one of the coldest, most hostile places to see the Northern Lights in all their glory!
thank you so much for sharing, it’s wonderful to see the messages and correlations laid out like this, easier to understand, though beautiful poetically as well
this song is so nice!!
lyric video for a kindling of sorts: ....
/lh
will you be making a playlist for Zephryus?
yep!