Lately
"Lately" is the seventh track on Angels & Ghosts.
Lyrics
My mind just keeps on racing all the time
Lately, I don't see so well
My conscience is beginning to unwind
Sail with me, we can fly away
Let's stay together, leave this all behind
Sail with me, let's go all the way
Just give me one more chance, don't say goodbye
Lately, I don't feel you here
There's an emptiness inside that's all too much
Lately, I don't have the time
My patience is beginning to run dry
Sail with me, we can hide away
Let's stay together, leave this world behind
Sail with me, let's go all the way
Just give me one more chance, don't say goodbye
Don't say goodbye
Lately, I don't care so much
I find myself just staring at the floor
Lately, I can't feel your touch
I'm cold and empty like I was before
Sail with me
Sail with me
Dave's Take
"['Lately'] is actually probably my favorite on the album, and it was the hardest for us to place. It always felt like it should definitely be on the second side, and it should be on a side that takes you down to a different place. I think you've got a lot of space for you to use your own imagination. That's the real key with that song. Again, I'm looking outside of myself, and using current events of things going on around me, a feeling of disappointment or feeling let down by whatever. Politicians, you know. [laughs] Whatever it is at any given moment. The climate. Actually, weather comes into things a lot for me. I don't know why, but it just does. I seem to draw analogies there a lot. This song in particular — I was feeling particularly low, to be honest, but I wanted to find a way to dig myself out of that. The song makes fun of my own wallowing and my own dark place and is a little cynical of my own thoughts, too. I say 'feel' so much. That's a choice. That's a direct choice. I used to spend a lot of time trying to actually avoid feeling anything, using various chemicals. But I don't have that anymore, so I just have to sit with it. Quite often, what comes out of that is this feeling of — there is a way to dig out of it. You've got to do something. You've got to take an action. You can't just sit there and wallow in what's going on around you or in your personal life. Some of that song, for me, helped me to get through that and to see myself in that picture. For me, the melody lifts, and it lifts you out of that, and I'm asking you, let's join forces, let's come together. It's my own humble way, if you'd like, of trying to do better...I'm jumping all over the place, but it makes sense to me in the melody. When I sing that song — I've been doing some rehearsals — it gives me goosebumps, and I wonder who that person is. Sometimes I still feel so far away from that person, and other times I completely identify with not just the lyric but the way that it's sung."1
My Take
Here is another stripped-down acoustic ballad on a similar vein as "One Thing." I have to say that this one catches and holds me to a lesser degree than the former, though. There is not much going on instrumentally- not many moving notes or memorable melodic motifs to be found. Also sonically, this song's verses are decent, but the chorus is somewhat weak, failing to reach a climax that grabs one's attention, in my opinion. My take on the lyrics is that they sound like the laments of someone getting very world-weary. Perhaps it is just a side effect of getting older and more careworn, but it sounds like they seem to find less pleasure in the things that they used to find pleasurable. And so in the chorus, they beseech the listener to escape with him somewhere else, perhaps in order to regain that lost sense of wonder and youthfulness. In that sense, it's very similar to the theme of "One Thing," as well, but this one sounds a lot more despondent, both in sound and attitude. If "Shine" is on one side of the spectrum on this album with its positive and uplifting feel, then this song is totally on the opposite side. With that said, haven't we all been feeling that these days (I'm talking about COVID fatigue in early 2021, specifically)? So, sure, I'll take Dave up on his offer to go "sail with" him to someplace far away! Right now!
P.S. Wow, Dave had a lot to say about this song! And I must admit that I'm pretty surprised to hear him say that it is his favorite on this album. I have to say that it is my least favorite right now so I am compelled to understand why. Am I simply missing something? I definitely do get the sense of a "low" feeling here as Dave describes, but I am struggling to find a strong melodic hook here that brings me out of that low point. Perhaps I need to give this song a few more listens; after all, it does say right in the words to "give me one more chance, don't say goodbye." Okay then, I won't write this song off just yet...
Music Video
There is no music video for this song.