Splitting at the seams of now

This week I will be comparing "No One's Gonna Love You" by Band of Horses and covered by Cee Lo Green.

   

Musicality

The original has a bit of a slow feel to it, they sing it more softly. The instruments do a good job of making the pace of the song sound much faster. Cee Lo Green's version sounds more sensual than the original. His deep and more baritone voice gives it a different sound altogether. Cee Lo Green is more of a rapper while Band of Horses is more of a Southern rock band. The versions don't sound too different, Green's version sounds faster with the tempo and pace as well as his strong and powerful voice. The original has a slower pace compared to Green's version.


 

Lyrics

The lyrics of both versions are still relatively the same. The title of the song seems to say it all. The singer/song writer is talking about how much they love someone and that they would do anything for them. The best lyric that exemplifies that is: "And anything to make you smile/ It is my better side of you to admire." The singer seems to be saying that they want this person to only focus on the good things and not on the bad things.

The first stanza really stood out to me: "It's looking like a limb torn off/ Or altogether just taken apart/ We're reeling through an endless fall/ We are the ever-living ghost of what once was." The singer seems to be saying that their relationship has taken on a different level. Maybe he's saying that their relationship isn't the same as it used to be and he misses what it was like before. It seems very jarring compared to the title of the song. The singer states that no one will love this person the same way that they do, but the "it" in the beginning sounds like it's referring to the same love. So this "love" looks "like a limb torn off" that's a very gruesome way to put it.

Another lyric that stands out to me and gets repeated is: "When things start splitting at the seams of now/ The whole thing's tumbling down." I'm assuming that the "things" the song is referring to is the relationship between the singer and the person he's singing to. Their whole relationship is falling apart because it's just not the same as it used to be. Their relationship is now "the ever-living ghost of what once was" and it can't go back to the way that it used to be.

The instruments in both versions give a very upbeat and happy tone. Closer inspection of the lyrics show that this song is not has happy as it may seem. The singer goes on to say: "I never want to hear you say/ That you'd be better off/ Or you liked it that way." This lyric is referring back the line "the ever-living ghost of what once was." The singer doesn't want to go back to their past relationship, or maybe he likes her better now that she's changed from who she once was.

Overall, both versions are good. I can't really choose between the two because I like them both equally for different reasons. The versions don't even sound all that different, even the instruments sounded very much the same. It's just the vocals that are different, but even the lyrics stayed the same.