SOTD – Bel Canto, Spiderdust

July 8th, 2010

Goddamn, I love Bel Canto. Not one of those bands I think of as a favorite, until I realize how many of their albums I have, and how many of their songs I adore. They’re just that band that’s always around, doing great things in the background.

I particularly love how many languages they sing in. That might be part of their charm, they have a poetry to their lyrics that comes from not being native English speakers. They put words together based on how beautiful they sound, without thoughts constrained so much by meaning. Phrases like:

Hodgepodge for haunted lusts
Sixteen rifts inside of me, inside this solid tube, inside is solitude, inside this solid tube…
There is a chapel in the woods where from the farthest-seeing senses rule

Are not typical English constructions I think. And that makes them beautiful because they can mean whatever you want them to. A little bit of the magic of Cocteau Twins and earlier Dead Can Dance, probably.

I think “Dreaming Girl” is probably my favorite song of theirs – but that changes based on my mood. Today it’s this one. Anyway, not an official video here, but just a way to let you hear the song in case you have not ever.

Bel Canto – Spiderdust

she lived in limbo
time showed no mercy
til an ingrate gave her
doses of a sweet poison
Ooh she got ooh she got hoodooed, voodooed
Ooh she got ooh she got finally released
she stirred huge cauldrons
with toads and henbane and…
spiderdust, spiderdust!
hodgepodge for haunted lusts
spiderdust, spiderdust!
hodgepodge for the evil-eyed
spiderdust, spiderdust!
hodgepodge for spellbound lusts
spiderdust, spiderdust!
Ooh she got ooh she got hoodooed, voodooed
Ooh she got ooh she got finally redeemed
she stirred huge cauldrons
with toads and henbane and…
spiderdust, spiderdust!
hodgepodge for haunted lusts
spiderdust, spiderdust!
hodgepodge for the evil-eyed
spiderdust, spiderdust!
hodgepodge for spellbound lusts
spiderdust, spiderdust!

she bred toads
she got burnt