Your Light

After consulting my long list of possible songs and then cruising around YouTube suggestions this afternoon, I found a fabulous, upbeat tune by a band I hadn’t heard of before, The Big Moon, an alternative rock band from England.

“Your Light” is a light, indie rock number that starts with a sustained synth/vocal chord, then an electric keyboard reminiscent of the 1980s, then the basic drum beat, before the “four-to-the-floor guitars and pianos” (as lead singer Juliette Jackson refers to them) and drums join in at 0:30 with a lively, toe-tapping road trip beat.

The official video for the song was filmed in a farmer’s field in Essex, England, and shows the band members joining Jackson on a bike ride, in formation along a paved path then on tractor trails, as they perform various moves choreographed to the song’s playful and witty lyrics. What fun!

“Don’t don’t don’t don’t say another sorry today
One more time is more than you mean anyway
Lately I’ve been fine, floating away
Got so out of touch and started to levitate

Now we just hang around like a haircut growing out
This planet never needed gravity to drag you down

But days like this (days like this)
I forget (I forget)
My darkness (my darkness)
And remember your light

And remember your light

Don’t don’t don’t don’t blame another night on the moon
Suntime’s faith just sings to a different tune
Why do you have to take it out so hard on yourself
We were promised the world, so was everyone else

So maybe it’s an end ’cause this don’t feel like a stop
But every generation probably thought they were the last

And days like this (days like this)
I forget (I forget)
My darkness (my darkness)
And remember your light

And remember your light
Oh oh ohhh

(Do I wanna lose myself
Wanna lose myself
Wanna lose myself)

(Do I wanna lose myself
Wanna lose myself
Wanna lose myself)

I wanna speak but I’m wondering how
And I wonder since when was my voice a foreign object in my mouth
But what you’re doing for me
I wish I could do, I could do it for you

Yeah what you’re doing for me
I wish I could do
I could do it for you (I could do it for you)

‘Cause days like this (days like this)
I forget (I forget)
All of this (all of this)
And remember your light

And remember your light

And remember your light
(I don’t wanna lose myself
Wanna lose myself
Wanna lose myself)

And remember your light
(I don’t wanna lose myself
Wanna lose myself
Wanna lose myself)

And remember your light”

“Your Light,” by Juliette Jackson.
Lyrics retrieved from AZLyrics.com.

“Your Light” was released as a single in the fall of 2019, leading up to the January 2020 issue of the band’s second studio album, Walking Like We Do.

On the band’s intentions for the album, Jackson told Apple Music, “I’d love to tell you that we made an album to distract you from the scary things in the real world, but it’s more about facing up to them and finding your strength in turbulent times.” And about the second track, “Your Light,” she said, “I was thinking about how hard it is to tell if things are worse now or if they have always been this way and I just grew up and started paying attention. It feels like we are at this unprecedented tipping point, but then it occurred to me that every generation before us probably had a moment when they thought they were going to be the last generation on earth. This song is about freeing yourself from all of it, just for a moment. It’s a thanks to the one person or thing in your life that knows how to come in and open your curtains and light up the darkness—and restore your strength so that when you clatter back down into the real world, you have the strength to fight your battles, whatever they are.”

We all lived in a much different world when this album came out, two months before the World Health Organization declared a worldwide pandemic in March 2020. It’s noteable that many of the comments on the YouTube video post refer to the song raising people’s spirits during the Covid-19 pandemic. With 7.7 million views, people have clearly caught the song’s positive vibe and enjoyed it. It’s the type of content that should be filling people’s timelines instead of the online arguments and vitriol that consume so much of the time, energy and good feelings in our world.

Whether today has been a good or a wobbly start to your week, I hope this song will add infectious positivity and fun to your life.

Now you know a little about why this is my Song of the Day for Today. Thanks for joining me here.

Here’s the official video on the NME Records VEVO/YouTube channel:

And here’s an episode of NME Records’ Song Stories in which Jackson and drummer Fern Ford talk about the making of the song and video.

Ride on,

Steve