I was introduced to this song by a former love interest. What He Wrote by Laura Marling has such a mood. The lyrics carry it, as its a woman recounting the end of one relationship that cut her deep, she constantly is reminded of him referring to a letter the man wrote. She starts of by saying she had nothing to say after the devastation, but then goes to tell the rest of the story, a bit ironically. Yet you don’t feel that irony at all, the listener only falls into her sorrow that cuts much deeper than melancholy. She expresses a regret that she doesn’t quite place what she actually regrets or what she would have changed, I think because she loved the relationship how it was. So in lieu of regret she immediately talks of real anger of when she fought the man that she fell for when he left and broke up with her, choosing war over her.
Laura seems to relate both of the men in her life almost perfect, as she sees herself as the broken one and the men in her life are in control of something, maybe it’s in control over her. Laura’s in love with the man who left her alone, but respects the man she’s with. The idea is that there are these 2 lives she could have had: she’s living one, and the other is with the man she truly loved. This new man forgave her, but the scent of the first man holds her memory, which is so lustful that you can almost imagine the sins that she constantly accuses herself of.
The song feels like another version of Sisyphus, but instead of a rock, there is this forever longing that plagues our singer, the hopeless romantic, of a life torn away from her due to war.
I learned this tune on guitar way back when and listened to it on repeat and have never gotten sick of it.