Wrap Your Arms Around

So Good News for Love has been out a month today.

So far, so good.

And not a bad time to consider the song from which the album takes its name: Wrap Your Arms Around.

This one takes the prize (if we're giving prizes?) for "Song that Changed Most in the Recording Process," as you can hear in the demo

compared to the final version

So yeah... this one went in a little bit of a different direction.

Which is great.

The freedom to take different approaches and change up tunes in recording is one of my favorite things about Paper Arrows... and that's been there ever since the very first song we recorded, Look Alive.

It's fun for me for a couple reasons.

First of all, it allows me to write without considering production.  I can focus on good chords, good words, good melodies... all the while knowing that once I get the song with a producer like Jay or Darren and in a room with guys like Miles and Dan, as long as the fundamentals of the song are good, things will turn out well.

Second of all, it allows me to have an almost third person relationship to my own material... which in turn makes it more exciting for me to work on and hear in finished product because it's new to me.

And that's pretty much how Wrap Your Arms Around unfolded.  We had worked it a little bit in pre-production, but the final recording was largely a product of getting good music minds in a room and playing the tune until it clicked, not being afraid to follow it somewhere different.

When it came time to mix, we followed the sound completely and wound up with something of which I'm really proud... organic but produced, roots but modern.  Good stuff.

The lyrics...

Well, of course the song from which I took the album title (or rather the song in which I PUT the album title) would be important.

3/4 of it was written pretty quickly, in a day, and attached to the chorus, which was written a week prior.  The last verse (which is actually the third verse of the song: "He was grieving in the morning") wasn't written until just before the sessions and was just about the last lyrics written for the record.

While the "good news for love" line is big (wrote about it HERE), the most important line on the whole record is "love is not an answer or a battle to be won."

That's really the best news Love has gotten in a long, long time, and it's what I'll continue to wrap my arms around each and every day.

*****************

WRAP YOUR ARMS AROUND

He was working on a novel and sleeping in the days
With a cigarette companion, going page by page
But somewhere in the years, he got out of the game

She was dreaming of a painting and working in the days
Looking out the window and bleeding blues for grays
But somewhere in the years, she got out of the game

What are you gonna wrap your arms around?
Who is gonna hold you safe and sound?
Who is gonna keep your heart
From sinking in the dark
You're not alone

He was grieving in the morning and leaving in the days
Singing til he whispered and nothing was the same
And somehow it was clear, so he got out of the game


What are you gonna wrap your arms around?
Who is gonna hold you safe and sound?
Who is gonna keep your heart
From sinking in the dark
You're not alone

He was hoping for a daughter, praying for a son
But love is not an answer or a battle to be won
And somewhere in tears, he got back in the game


What are you gonna wrap your arms around?
Who is gonna hold you safe and sound?
Who is gonna keep your heart
From sinking in the dark
You're not alone

Good News for Love

jbg