Pale Compromises

Commentary:
An old song that I finally got down to recording. It was written on the piano as a follow-up piece to "Against Pain"-- as part of my effort to write a happy song and articulate my own particular aesthetic vision: trying to find joy in imperfection as the kind of reversal of original sin-- imperfection as that which makes us ultimately more reversible and more free, a more positive version of Montale's idea of the miracle.
The astute will realize that it is also a response to Oh Mercy's "Everything is Broken" echoing its structure in the chorus and one line word for word. It changes keys, which is something I never do, and I intentionally leave myself on the wrong note on the last "with."

Lyrics:

A broken bell is pretty thing
needs no hunchback to make it ring
empty spaces in broken chains
broken cracks in the world we sang

Broken the promise, broken the vow
Broken the progress, broken the now

Break into laughter, burst into song
Everything joyful begins as wrong
The smile that cracks across your face
Leaves behind such a bittersweet trace

Broken books on a broken shelf,
broken the wisdom, broken the self

Far in the distance a little boy
finds a new game for a broken toy
Only the broken is born again
Only the broken can have no end

Open your arms and welcome the flaw
Love it with passion, love it with awe
Night alone is a perfect dark
Except for its broken freckle of stars

Broken glasses on broken heads
People sleeping in broken beds
Open your arms and welcome the flaw
Love it with passion, love it with awe.