Landshapes - The Ring

NICK DUTFIELD
Oct 8, 2020
2 min read

Among the perennial favourites, repetition is probably the most perennial. It’s really really perennial and offers discussion opportunities beyond limit, as long as you mention Mark E Smith, who loved it.

Sometimes when song lyrics repeat I get the feeling that a lack of ideas is to blame. But today’s subjects are Landshapes and according to their label, their last album tackled, ‘everything from a 17th Century tale about migratory space geese; tragic Dutch artist Bas Jan Ader who died on a failed Atlantic crossing, the desire to inhabit another’s psyche and nights out at drag bars.’ So I think we can rule out a shortage of verbosity.

The Ring’s big repetition (not the first mind) involves the semi-anatomical rhyme finger/linger – shoulder/older. It appears three times, and my reactions did a little slump in the middle, before reviving at the end. Something like this…

1st time finger/linger – shoulder/older Reaction -“That’s nice”

2nd time finger/linger – shoulder/older Reaction - “Oh dear, not again”

3rd time finger/linger – shoulder/older Reaction - “Wait, there’s something going on here.”

That Something Going On was me thinking that, as the song is called The Ring, we should explore the matrimonial metaphor route. Is it possible that the rhyme is meant to induce feelings parallel to those which appear in the minds of husbands and wives? Let’s sum it up like this…

1st time Spousal Habit Reaction - “That’s nice”

2nd time Spousal Habit Reaction - “Oh dear, not again”

3rd time Spousal Habit Reaction - “Wait, there’s something going on here.”

And this time by Something’s Going On I mean love, devotion and that unerring craving to see those habits again and again. That’s a great example of repetition.

THIS WEEK

Landshapes – The Ring

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69mONcHJZJA

1,178 views since 25th August Weekly Average Views – 187

LAST WEEK

Matt Mæson – Hallucinogenics (feat. Lana Del Rey)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy9sXy5oHjw

Weekly Average Views – 338,491 Blog Week Views – 257,959

EXTRAS - Top 3 Rings

Freda Payne – Band Of Gold

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daxiMb0rITA

The Smiths – This Charming Man