Emory Thorne — I Care for You

The bumpy green beast, cotton-balled with shining fluffs of mist that trail off and reappear in constant flow, floats with lackadaisical non-effort through the air. On its back, an unimaginable distance above the surface of Miralai, ride Emory and Tamuu. Emory turns his head constantly in a frantic attempt to absorb as much of each moment’s view as possible, wishing that he could somehow see in all directions simultaneously. Symmetric trails of winding air ribbon out from the head of the creature, stretched backward by its silent locomotion. Emory could not seem to find a reason why he should remove the static, prolonged, cartoonishly open-mouthed grin from his face. Tamuu’s ears flap behind his back-tilted head, his eyes closed in a basking acceptance of the breeze.

I Care for You is a personal favorite of mine! I think more than anything else, I saw it as something that should be fun to listen to. It has more of a traditional pop structure and feel to it. There is perhaps a theme throughout of the contrast between openness and closed-off-ness, of expanse and claustrophobia, both in the literal spatial sense and the metaphorical sense. To grow, to explore, to change, to show up with a radical curiosity and openness to ideas, to see things without the jaded patina of cynicism and shallow attention. To really look at a tree and think, yeah, that’s original and infinitely detailed and an incredible thing. Of course, the Cloudmeleon imagery (thanks to Alice for bringing it to life) is amazing and fits the song perfectly.

Sitting on a great big tree Climbing up above the sea Where a sunny breeze takes my hat I asked him nice, so he gave it back, and I wish that he could curl inside My jar of glass and stay alive, but Bottled up, you lose your gust On the shelf Collecting dust, and Part the sea Of open air I care for you Part the sea of open air I care for you Part the sea Of open air I care for you Part the sea of open air I care for you Drumming up a great big sound Bellowing above the town That I never meant to make so small The olive branch and the crystal ball Watch me holding on with two weak hands Contorted, tied, tangled up in plans That have never ever shrunk in size The more I learn, the less I try Put your head down into the rain Tell me, baby When you see light to guide the way Part the sea Of open air I care for you Part the sea of open air I care for you Part the sea Of open air I care for you Part the sea of open air I care for you I care for you

I have again, as I tend to do, varispeed-ed the recording from 135 bpm to 136.4 bpm, meaning that it is ~17.86 cents out of tune with standard keys, so it will sound sharp if you play along to it. (The instrumental and vocal-only files included in the audio links folder are not varispeeded and are in “tune,” i.e. A=440) No capo, standard tuning The main progression, which repeats throughout the song in all sections except for the prechorus that appears before chorus two, is: G -> D -> Am -> C Which is the following chord shapes: G: 320033 D: 200232 Am: 002210 C: 332010 The prechorus before chorus two is: Em -> C -> D i.e. Em: 022000 C: 332010 D: 200232 In terms of Roman numerals, since I Care for You is in the key of G, this means the song’s two primary progressions are: I -> V -> ii -> IV vi -> IV -> V