OUGD406 - Secret 7 - 'Clearest Blue' Lyric Analysis/Further Research

Prior to idea generation, I first wanted to explore the lyrics of Chvrches' 'clearest blue' as to identify themes and/or structural patterns that could help to evoke concepts and directions to be considered as having potential to be visually created in response to the Secret 7 brief.

Significant/re-occuring themes/lyrics within the song include:

• Repetitive lyrics such as 'like it always was,' 'tell me you'll meet me halfway,' 'it's not enough' and 'Shaped by the clearest blue.'
• Movement / Directional imagery- 'down,' 'up,' 'push' and 'shifting ground.'
• Reference to the album title via lyric 'Just another time we're caught inside Every Open Eye.'
• Weather - 'You were the perfect storm.'

Chvrches saw this track as pivotal to nailing the sonics they desired  on their Every Open Eye album. "'Clearest Blue' was the 17th song we wrote, and it sort of informed the rest of the production," Martin Doherty of the band told NME. 'To me it came to define how the rest sounds.' When asked what he meant, Doherty replied 'Well, it's big and happy and sad and a banger.'
"It's sort of cry-dance," vocalist Lauren Mayberry added.

The Every Open Eye album title is a lyric taken from the song:

Just another time we're caught inside
Every open eye
Holding on tightly to the sides
Never quite learning why

Chvrches' Iain Cook explained to HMV.com why the band decided the lyric summed up the record. "We've had a mad couple of years and at times it's been kind of overwhelming, it's been great, but exhausting. We like the duality of that line, it's not necessarily a negative thing and not necessarily a positive thing."

Martin Doherty recalled the writing of the song to FMQB: "We kept trying and trying and trying to pull it back and pull it back and pull it back. We originally didn't intend for this to be sort of a festival banger song. It started out super, super low key and it just wanted to come alive. It became clear that the whole thing was building to that crescendo, the way the meter of the melody works, it's really frantic and quite anxious. That release is my favorite moment on the record. I think it's just Chvrches in a bottle, that 8 bars and that explosion. That's what we do."