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Alvar
  • Vote Up0Vote Down JoeyJoey
    Posts: 197
    I can't get enough of this song. I think at this early stage it's my absolute favorite song on the album.

    Any other Alvar lovers? :)
    I had a king in a tenement castle, lately he's taken to painting the pastel walls brown. He's taken the curtains down. He's swept with the broom of contempt, and the rooms have an empty ring. He's cleaned with the tears of an actor who fears for the laughter's sting...
  • 26 Comments sorted by
  • Vote Up0Vote Down CervusCervus
    Posts: 1,624
    Love the guitar at the beginning and the lilting melody....some are saying that it is boring but it is wonderfully epic.
    '' Sometimes I think I've felt everything I'm ever going to feel and from here on out I'm not going to feel anything new, just lesser versions of what I've already felt ''
  • Vote Up0Vote Down iuventusiuventus
    Posts: 5,377
    They are all luscious!
    If I were dead, could I do this?
  • Vote Up0Vote Down CervusCervus
    Posts: 1,624
    They are.....trying to put them into words is failing me...I so wish to be able to do them justice but I cannot.
    '' Sometimes I think I've felt everything I'm ever going to feel and from here on out I'm not going to feel anything new, just lesser versions of what I've already felt ''
  • Vote Up0Vote Down iuventusiuventus
    Posts: 5,377
    Ineffable, just like...
    If I were dead, could I do this?
  • Vote Up0Vote Down The_CarpathianThe_Carpathian
    Posts: 1,837
    It's most direct allusion to her time in Iceland and the line "I want to swim your silk black skin to the floor" might well be one of the most enigmatic and beautiful she's ever written.

    The way it drifts into the spliced and treated vocals merging with the guitar lines and onwards to the play-out is just about on the money. That could carry on for as long as they want as far I'm concerned.
    A million fires before your harvest comes. To burn out.
    Wear the mask of a heathen. For the moon's lonely eyes.
  • Vote Up0Vote Down ArchwayArchway
    Posts: 782
    I have a mental block about Alvar. I'm trying to work out why, but can't figure it out as yet. Like Ulla, I like Alvar (and probably prefer Alvar to Ulla), but for some reason, Alvar is the ibe song I can't remember.

    I can recall every song or bits of it in my head, except for Alvar. I was talking to various friends about Tales Of Us and could name every track on the album, in the right order, but Alvar is the one I forget. It's hapenned a few times now.

    I hope it will sink in at some point.
    I hope that you die in a decent pair of shoes
    You got a lot more walking to do where you're going to.
  • Vote Up0Vote Down cw37frappcw37frapp
    Posts: 3,494
    Yes i love it. I love them all. I have played it loads of times now. Annabel is my fave then all the rest are about the same.
    JAMIE CARRAGHER= LEGEND
  • Vote Up0Vote Down thom_in_nycthom_in_nyc
    Posts: 22
    My absolute favorite track on the album.
    Hypnotic, otherworldly - touches something inside and transports me.
    Has a Massive Attack vibe.
    And the layered vocals starting at 3:40...STUNNING!!!
  • Vote Up0Vote Down ArchwayArchway
    Posts: 782
    thom_in_nyc said:

    My absolute favorite track on the album.
    Hypnotic, otherworldly - touches something inside and transports me.
    Has a Massive Attack vibe.
    And the layered vocals starting at 3:40...STUNNING!!!






    The first time I heard it I thought it had a Cocteau Twins vibe, which is also why I can't figure out why I have a mental block about this song. The guitar reminds me of Robin Guthrie, which is why I associate it with the Cocteau Twins.
    Post edited by Archway at 2013-09-10 09:39:54
    I hope that you die in a decent pair of shoes
    You got a lot more walking to do where you're going to.
  • Vote Up0Vote Down Stuart_PStuart_P
    Posts: 100
    i love it. but i LOVED the live versions in manchester more! guitar had more ooomph and given that it was very un-frapp like to even go with an electric gave it that little bit more more 'wow' for me :)
  • Vote Up0Vote Down thom_in_nycthom_in_nyc
    Posts: 22
    Very much looking forward to hearing it live this evening!!!

  • Vote Up0Vote Down CervusCervus
    Posts: 1,624

    The_Carpathian said:

    "I want to swim your silk black skin to the floor" might well be one of the most enigmatic and beautiful she's ever written.

    I kept waking during the night with this in my head and these lyrics kept drifting in and out of my mind as I slipped off back to sleep it is wonderfully hypnotic. This disc as a whole seems to have lodged itself solidly inside me...and I am sensing that it is going to there for a lifetime.
    '' Sometimes I think I've felt everything I'm ever going to feel and from here on out I'm not going to feel anything new, just lesser versions of what I've already felt ''
  • Vote Up0Vote Down subrussiansubrussian
    Posts: 88
    i love Alvar, very hypnotic, and the ending gives me goosebumps everytime. And though it was inspired by Iceland, I keep imagining desert landscapes, and I think there's arabic vibe in that guitar - am I the only one to feel that?
  • Vote Up0Vote Down The_CarpathianThe_Carpathian
    Posts: 1,837
    I have a small part of Alvar on an infinite-loop earworm today. It's obviously been buried very deep in a very short space of time!

    It's driving me mad but in a lovely way @-)
    A million fires before your harvest comes. To burn out.
    Wear the mask of a heathen. For the moon's lonely eyes.
  • Vote Up0Vote Down Border_MindBorder_Mind
    Posts: 3,465
    This is a great track,  I can't help feeling the live version was more powerful though, you have never heard electric guitars like it in Goldfrapp before, and this doesn't translate onto record so well.

    I guess I am the only one who is slightly reminded of Massive Attack Tear Drop at times with this song, it's only a vague reminder though.

    Alvar and Thea are probably my favorite tracks on this album!
    It's a re-creation
    Again I live another life
    My imagination
    Can't cross the borderline
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