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TITLE: Warm At Night ARIST: Cherry Street GENRE: Alternative dance, synthpop, folk, folktronica LENGTH: 5:06 RELEASED: March 4th, 2014 LABEL: Independent WRITERS: Tessa Laity, Aubrey Fabricant PRODUCER: Reza Vranitzky From the Album: Love Songs After only a little over a month since their first release, Cherry Street gives us another taste of their almost polyphonic sound with their second single, "Warm At Night." Normally if a newer band like Cherry Street released a couple songs in their first year, nobody would be surprised, but with a band like Cherry Street, who took a little over six months to release their first single - "Breathing" - after a First Look interview with AllMusic, most expected not to hear anything from the Baltimore quartet for another half year. But this quartet is full of surprises, and this was just another one they're releasing onto the listening masses.
"Warm At Night" shows that the girls definitely learned what works and what doesn't from their first single, and they're using the knowledge to try to woo their moderate audience into a larger one. The song is a story of a girl who is in either a long-distance relationship or is in a relationship that is just very distant in it's nature, and she's declaring that she's done with all the distance, and that the relationship is over unless the person she's dating can change their ways and they become closer. The song starts out with all four girls harmonizing together with a repetition of "No, no, no, no, no, no / Yeah, yeah!" four times before Tessa jumps into the song with her low, sultry, jazz-club like voice, singing the first verse of the girl who seems to have accepted the way that her relationship with all it's distance and lack of communication. It is only until Tessa sings, "I'm still lost and alone, but I will pray / I am still lost and alone, but I will find you again and I'll say:" that she seems to come to the realization that she doesn't have to live with a relationship like this, and she can give her partner an ultimatum instead. It's Eva that sings this ultimatum, asking, "Who's going to make this right? Who's going to make this right all over again?" - asking which one of them is going to make the first move in changing the relationship: The girl, who's plan of action would be to leave, or the partner, who's only other plan of action could be to restore communication between the two of them and try to help the relationship again. Eva and Tessa seem to be the leaders of this song, using both of their very distinct voices to drive the message of separation and anxiety home. It's Aubrey's voice, however, that ultimately changes the course of the song in the first verse, singing in her smooth voice, "I'm going to try to lose my thin skin / I am going to make you feel like loving me is a sin." The line give the song an almost sexy feel to it, but is coupled with Aubrey's innocent-sounding vocals. The mixture of the two makes the listener realize that although the woman in the song is trying to be very strong in telling her partner what she wants and that she will leave if she doesn't get it, she is still very scared about the possibility of losing her partner, and is anxious about the outcome and reaction to her making this very strong move.
All four of the girls sing the chorus together, their voices harmonizing perfectly the same way that they did at the beginning of the song. The chorus brings the entire premise of the song together, still using the metaphor of warmth. The girl proclaims that she's going to write her partner a letter, telling them how she feels about their relationship, but she won't send it. She written it for herself, like when you write an angry letter to somebody and don't send it. And although the letter will make her feel better about their relationship, they sing at the end of the chorus, "I can't deny, I will need more than a letter / To protect me from this loneliness / To keep me warm at night." Simply put, although she does feel better about the relationship now that she's written the letter, the letter didn't change the situation at all. Her partner is still distant and she still feels lonely.
Vanessa's takes the reigns at the beginning of the next verse. Her dramatic soprano voice helps to set up the story behind the couple, explaining in one line that the girl is very much in love with her partner because her partner has seen her through tough times, and has only recently become this distant person. She tells him that the passing days that she doesn't seem him are starting to mean less and less to her, and are beginning to become the norm. She has nothing left to say to her partner that she hasn't said before, which is why this confrontation "... might take all night, take my night's all." Eventually it should become obvious to the listener that her partner is terribly stubborn when it comes to changing or the topic of their distance, so when Eva chimes in with her theatrical voice, asking, "Tell me when you become the man you were before / Please shake me awake / When you become the person I knew before," it's not so much begging for him to change back to the way that he was as it is her saying that she's frustrated with what he is and that she won't be speaking to him anymore until he changes. All four of the girls sing, "knew before," together, the music going dead and only the sound of their voice being heard, making it a dramatic moment in the song.
The last verse repeats, and then the chorus repeats, leading into the "No, no, no, no, no, no / Yeah, yeah!" again as the song starts to end. The last thing you hear in Tessa's low voice singing one of the, "No, no, no, no, no, no / Yeah, yeah!" lines alone. Although it's never explicitly said in the song what might have happened to this couple, judging by the lone singer in the end, it could be interpreted that the couple did eventually break up, or that nothing came of the argument and there's still major distance between the two.
The music itself is a great addition to the song, keeping the song upbeat and almost confrontational sounding as the girls sing their song to their distant lover. It uses a mixture of electronica/dance sounds and folk sounds, creating a folktronica genre song, if you will. It's highly different from Cherry Street's first song, Breathing, which was very down beat and melancholy sounding. This change in sound doesn't mean that Cherry Street has changed their direction completely, but instead means that they have a lot of different types of music to offer the world, and are now showing everything that they can do, trying to see which sound will work best for their audience. Which ever one the general public likes more: "Breathing" or "Warm At Night," they're sure to hear a lot more from Cherry Street in the coming months. TessaAubreyVanessaEvaAllNo, no, no, no, no, no Yeah, yeah! No, no, no, no, no, no Yeah, yeah! No, no, no, no, no, no Yeah, yeah! No, no, no, no, no, no Yeah, yeah!I'd knit myself a sweater to stay warm, baby I'll need one to prepare for the next rainy day I'm just waiting here until you take me away And I'm going to stay warm, baby I'm still lost and alone, but I will pray I am still lost and alone, but I will find you again and I'll say:Who's going to make this right again? Who's going to make this right all over again?I'm going to try to lose my thin skin I am going to make you feel like loving me is a sinI'm gonna write, I'm gonna write you a letter To make myself feel so much better I'll read it while I knit that sweater I can't deny, I will need more than a letter To protect me from this loneliness To keep me warm at night
No, no, no, no, no, no Yeah, yeah!Nine days don't mean too much when you mark them off a wall I was out of luck when you made me fall But now I have nothing left to say at all This might take all night, take my night's allTell me when you become the man you were before Please shake me awake When you become the person I knew beforeNine days don't mean too much when you mark them off a wall I was out of luck when you made me fall But now I have nothing left to say at all This might take all night, take my night's allTell me when you become the man you were before Please shake me awake When you become the person I knew before
I'm gonna write, I'm gonna write you a letter To make myself feel so much better I'll write it while I knit that sweater I can't deny, I will need more than a letter To protect me from this loneliness To keep me warm at night
No, no, no, no, no, no Yeah, yeah! No, no, no, no, no, no Yeah, yeah! No, no, no, no, no, no Yeah, yeah! No, no, no, no, no, no Yeah, yeah!
No, no, no, no, no, no Yeah, yeah! No, no, no, no, no, no Yeah, yeah! No, no, no, no, no, no Yeah, yeah! No, no, no, no, no, no Yeah, yeah!No, no, no, no, no, no Yeah, yeah!SOUNDS LIKE: Crystal Fighters - At Home
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