Twilight

I know I'm a bit behind in music. This includes buying the new Elliott album, uh which I just bought tonight, in addition to the new Aracade Fire (hadn't heard them until I was in a rental minivan headed to Elizabeth NJ). But I just wanted to briefly mention Elliott's Twilight, a beautiful song.

The choruses, 'I'm/You're already somebody's baby,' is so wonderful because it spans the entire life cycle. Let me explain.

Already being somebody's baby suggests something like, "hey, I'm sorry, but I can't go out with you because I've already got a girlfriend." It affirms the existing relationship, and turns away someone interested in you. But at the same time, it destabilizes the existing relationship itself, the one just defended: being somebody's baby, also means, "you can never be my mother or father -- I'm already somebody's baby/child,"

So the two meanings -- most immediately, "I'm taken", but simultaneously (and less obviously, but more literally) "I'm yours, sure, but in a way, I'm still only 'a baby' to my parents" -- gracefully combines adult love and childhood. I really think it's kind of brilliant. It takes a throwaway word like 'baby', and juxtaposes the love meaning with the literal, infant one. Fuckin' A. It gets me every time.