Track 3: “The Snapping Sound” by il gato

“The Snapping Sound” is actually the longest song on the album. It was a song I wrote several years ago but eventually seemed to become entwined with the song before it on the album, “All these Birds in my Hair”.

We perform the songs as a medley and it seems this has always really worked because while “All these Birds in my Hair” always wound up with a sense of contentment, or at the very least optimism, “The Snapping Sound” is a much more ambiguous love song. It personifies love as potentially a vengeful, scary entity. Obviously both of these are true, sometimes we are filled with optimism and sometimes we are scared to our wit’s end when loves comes around, but without both of these emotions how are we to know when a love really stands out and is something we need either to follow or move on from.

“The Snapping Sound”

The snapping sound is just my heart, my sunshine, I’ll be alright
But I go too far when I play the part, my sunshine, I must confide
That there are fiery flames on the tip of my tongues, lost dancing with the devil while trying to please everyone
They float heavenly as if they had a choice, all these evil words born in the softest voice, confused as whether to melt or just to rejoice
But I’ll withdraw these hands which were built to kill, to my saintly side which subverts my will and stare at all the glasses filled,
with all the discarded progress so prominently displayed on the windowsill
But now I’m only in a knot from dreaming of you
Lost in all these sentences which will never soothe

I don’t think I can stand without your weight, my sunshine, I’ll be alright
But I’m left with only a shirt to compensate, my sunshine, and it’s not my size
And now I scream from the tips of my lungs, at all these slippery things in which our dreams are so tightly wrung
We finally flinch and shed a tear and collapse in these seconds which now feel so near and expose all of these moments which were once revered
And now it all seems so, so clear
But now it stings, this we can’t conceal, but now I know our tragic tongues will never heal

Now this is me looking at you
We played loved like a game, just a word we outgrew
So now we’ll bow, rest our goddamned feet
A love is not for laughs, so watch out, we better clench our teeth
So now I’ll say, “Maybe we’ll see each other soon”
And now we’ll walk away, a cold wind’s coming through
Now this is me looking at you, so tell me,what are we gonna do?