Just a quick post... in case you haven't heard it yet. The internet is going wild for the final track on The Weeknd's new album Dawn F.M. It's called 'Phantom Regret by Jim' and it's written and narrated by Jim Carey with backing by The Weeknd.
It's so powerful. I've listened to it about 20 times in two days! I haven't listened to a track so feverishly since I was a teenager. And I know a lot of people debate whether song lyrics are poetry (maybe because music helps the words along) whereas poetry stands alone in silence.
But 'Phantom Regret by Jim' is pure poetry; the music, while affecting, remains in the background, leaving the words to pull their own weight. Saying that, The Weeknd's backing and the poem work together beautifully. They were meant to be together.
I read somewhere that the metre is inspired by the poems of Dr. Seuss. The whole sound has a Seussian feel and there are some killer lines and sentiments; lines that activate your deepest emotions, send the shivers soaring and the mind meandering to places past, present and future simultaneously.
Anyway, it's not for me to tell you what the poem may or may not mean: that's your job ... so I'll leave you to discover this end-of-album gem all by yourself.
You're tuned to Dawn FM
The middle of nowhere on your dial
So sit back and unpack
You may be here a while
Now that all future plans have been postponed
And it's time to look back on the things you thought you owned
Do you remember them well?
Were you high or just stoned?
And how many grudges did you take to your grave?
When you weren't liked or followed, how did you behave?
Was it often a dissonant chord you were strumming?
Were you ever in tune with the song life was humming?
If pain's living on when your body's long gone
And your phantom regret hasn't let it go yet
You may not have died in the way that you must
All spectres are haunted by their own lack of trust
When you're all out of time, there's nothing but space
No hunting, no gathering
No nations, no race
And Heaven is closer than those tears on your face
When the purple rain falls
We're all bathed in its grace
Heaven's for those who let go of regret
And you have to wait here when you're not all there yet
But you could be there by the end of this song
Where The Weeknd's so good and he plays all week long
Bang a gong, get it on
And if your broken heart's heavy when you step on the scale
You'll be lighter than air when they pull back the veil
Consider the flowers, they don't try to look right
They just open their petals and turn to the light
Are you listening real close?
Heaven's not that, it's this
It's the depth of this moment
You don't reach for bliss
God knows life is chaos
But He made one thing true
You gotta unwind your mind
Train your soul to align
And dance 'til you find that divine boogaloo
In other words
You gotta be Heaven to see Heaven
May peace be with you
