HOME TRUTHS

Fyfe Dangerfield - High On The Tide

One of my albums of last year is ‘Fly Yellow Moon’, the debut solo effort from Guillemots frontman Fyfe Dangerfield. When Dan Black-esque album opener ‘When You Walk In The Room’ was the iTunes single of the week, I didn’t expect the rest of the album to be quite as different, and acoustic-orientated as it is. Ranging from the fantastic high of ‘She Needs Me’ to the delicacy of ‘Firebird’ or ‘Livewire’, and the anthemic ‘Faster Than The Setting Sun’; it certainly deserved the increased exposure it received from his gorgeous cover of Billy Joel’s ‘She’s Always A Woman’ being featured on a John Lewis TV ad. Rather more deserved than the exposure received after in the same way by ‘honestly, I’m frail’ Ellie Goulding, but thats a different story.

Nestling nicely mid-album is a nice little ditty called ‘High On The Tide’. Opening lyric ‘There’s salt in the air, its a taste that I know’ sets the scene, and the verse ends with a ‘cheap train ticket carrying me back to my home’. This is indeed the path my life has taken in the last few months. In that post-graduate haze I had a brief stint living in Cardiff, but pretty underwhelmed by the experience after having lived in London for several years, I came home at the bottom of my overdraft and at a pretty low ebb.

Most graduates find themselves in this position, and it was simply money landing me in this state. Coming back home after being independent is a strange smack in the face, and not being able to pursue my career quite as ably in this small town on the coast is a frustrating realisation. However, slowly but surely, I’m learning how to battle these facts and look toward the end goal, and battle away the low moods and anxiety that I’ve been experiencing; ‘High on the tide, chasing my demons away completely’. But theres far more than just career opportunities I’m missing…

On a recent visit from my girlfriend, we walked along the beach from my hometown to the next; a lovely one hour stroll, and a funny one hour trek through rocks and mud, before a sit in a beer garden. ‘With the waves on the shore and the sea in my hair. I can honestly say this - I really and truly don’t care’. I was content. The times we can be together are the best of my life. Its not the places I miss, its the people. So when I find great solace in friends, ‘for once in my life, I’m glad to be here and not there’, I feel found again. ‘Finally this world resembles something’.

Theres still an element of worry at the end of the song, as Fyfe sings ‘Don’t wake me up and tell me that you’re leaving, I already know’. Coping alone is nowhere near as easy. But as the carefree whistles at the end of the song fade, it seems like whatever I feel, life goes on. We all move on to the next song, it just takes a little bit of time sometimes.

Tom Stephens
Editor
http://tomstephens.tumblr.com