Oh, BOYS.
The following entry is made for fun and about an inside joke. While the people mentioned are real, the situations referred to most certainly are not (or are they?), and no offence is meant to anyone. It's all in good fun, people. Songs belong to their appropriate owners.
So one of the things that I love about most Gospel songs is that, taken completely out of context, they can be seen as a love song. Wes' new CD is no exception. My little boy's all growed up -_-
And no, I haven't actually listened to it yet, except for the little snippets on his site. (A quick look on YouTube just now confirmed the only "Man Like Me" online is RDJ's. Which, incedentally, I do own.) However, with what we know about him and Marsh (and if you don't know, haha that sucks), these songs just scream out with unrequited, pulsating love. And Wes did say that he personally picked every song on the album...
One Day
Some days my hands are wide open
Some days I only think of me
...
Some days there's anger when I speak
I don't always do what I want to do, it tears my heart in two
(By the by, it's really hard to remember lyrics on another page while listening to iTunes.)
Analysis: There's not really any ambiguity to this, I think. He's a bit resentful at himself for letting Marsh go, but at the same time he's admitting that, at times, he can be selfish and drive others away. A slight admission of guilt for pushing Marsh away?
Man Like Me
A man like me
Says one thing and does another
A man like me
Holds a grudge against his brother
A man like me
Thinks a promise can be broken
Just as easy as a glass on the floor
A man like me
Seems to speak before he listens
A man like me
Seems to always have a reason
...
A man like you
Always loved without condition
...
I want to walk with you, I want everyone to see
That you can make a new man from a man like me.
(So, alright, most of that is out of context, but what did I say at the beginning of this whole thing, hmmm? Being out of context is what makes this all possible, people.)
Analysis: Again, there's a bit of admission of guilt, and bit of insecurity. And while, yes, okay, the second stanza is talking about Jesus, it just has to be looked at while we're making this a love song, especially one about Marsh, y/y? I mean, how epic is that line? I think even IN context it's going to make me giggle. Oh, Wes, your subtley is slipping.
Find Me
Find me with a gentle heart, find me with an open door
Find me dancing with my wife across the kitchen floor
Find me speaking words of grace, find me in my lonely hour
Find me when I'm on my knees, desperate to feel your pow'r
...
Find me in the little things, when life is turning upside down
Analysis: ...I love stretching things out, don't you? The second line is a bit of a burn, I think. Harsh, Wes. Harsh.
Also, finding him on his knees desperate to feel his power? Guess Steve was right--Marsh is too hot to be a good little Christian boy. And he would know.
The last line mentioned, I think, is a bit of a plea. He's asking Marsh to not forget him, and that he cares, no matter what. That he'll always be a call away, and that even if he is twirling Andrea around the kitchen, he'd probably drop her in a heartbeat and have her crack her head open if Marsh's ringtone started playing.
Poor Annie.
Because of Love
When you gave to me the one thing that I don't deserve
And I can't believe the price that I was worth because of love.
Analysis: So, there were a couple more lines I could've included in here, but they were, like, happy and stuff. And this whole 'secret love done me wrong' CD totally is not. So. Here we see Wes reflecting and trying to bring Marsh back a year or two to when they were happy and going strong, before kids and lives really started to get in the way. He's telling Marsh that he still, on some level, loves him, and that he's open to getting that love back, if Marsh is. (Which we'll have to see when Marsh's new one comes out, and won't THAT be interesting.)
Hands (Okay, I just have to stop right there and say the title? Totally Marsh. Have you SEEN that man's hands?!)
...I can't see any way through this situation
Every step to me feels like a wrong direction
Can't stop this darkness from closing in on me
There's nothing left for me to do
I'm on my knees, I cry to you.
I need your strength to take me through this moment
I need your peace 'cause I feel so desperate
Give me more faith
To trust in you
When the world falls down, help me to believe
That everything I see is in your hands.
Analysis: Okay, first off, let's do a reference count. 'I'm on my knees' (again, Wes?) 'I cry to you.' Does anybody else hear "When I Cry" in that? One.
'Give me more faith to trust in you.' And, again, I hear "Faith" , another song sung by our dear ole' Marshy. Two.
'When the world falls down.' The BEST REFERENCE EVAR.
'Everything I see is in your hands.' Not a Marsh reference, but still an awesomely good song.
So. Four references, all of them probably unintentional, and yet all of them still pertaining to a certain someone. Except maybe 'Your Hands', but hey, beggars can't be choosers.
Okay, so If Sunday Had Not Come doesn't really have any direct statements about Marshy, but srsly. If 'Sunday hadn't've come', they never woulda met. Sad face.
Sweet Surrender
...Lord, mend me, don't condemn me
...
In sweet surrender
I've never needed you so much,
I'm desperate, Lord, for just one touch from you
Analysis: Condemn you for what, there, sweet cheeks? I wonder.
Also, I left the 'Lord' in there because, in a way, it can be taken as a simple plea, not just a plea to a deity.
New Day
I made mistakes
I was defeated
I ran away
From the love I always needed
Until I fell down
That's when you found me
And in my brokenness
You changed everything.
I'm not looking back
Wasting time on the past
...
All the old is washed away
And I'm living a new day.
Analysis: This one and the next one kinda throw me off. It's like he's asking for, like, actual redemption for this thing with Marsh. Which would be, you know, weird and straight and stuff. Which, ack, Is Not Wes. But then again, this whole Wes being all deep voiced and stuff isn't my Smurf anyway.
Heal the Wound
I used to wish that I could rewrite history
I used to dream that each mistake could be erased
Then I could just pretend I never knew the me back then
I used to pray that you would take this shame away
Hide all the evidence of who I've been
...
I am broken, torn apart
Take the pieces of this heart
Heal the wound, but leave the scar
Analysis: I...but...WESLEY!!! D:
The next song, "Jesus Saves", has the title in, like, every line. That one's all religion. And the last one, "It is Well (With My Soul)" ... I don't even have to look at that one to know there's no underlying message. God knows I'd heard it enough within those five years of my life that I devoted everything to these backstabbers.
I mean.
So, yes. Obsly Wes is totally all like "OMG ILU COME BAAAAACK." We'll have to wait and see what Marsh answers.
;