No Other One

one of my most favorite songs of all time is No Other One by Rachael Lampa. I remember reading the lyrics and sypnopsis on her website before actually listening to the song, and just from that i was really impressed. caution: long post ahead.

here's the stuff on her site:
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NO OTHER ONE
RACHAEL LAMPA/TOMMY SIMS

Sing to me beauty
let your voice lead the way
And in your words I’ll find the things I could not say
Oh how I’ve longed to write a love song just for you
But on my own I’ve found it’s just another thing I couldn’t do

Whisper the reason
when the sun just hides away
How do the seasons know exactly when to change
Who on earth could find a language or a line
Or count the ways to best describe the beauty found in your design?

CHORUS
No other One - There is just no other like you
No other One – There is no one else but you
It’s in the way you will the wind to calm the ocean
That’s who you are to me
There could never be, another one

V.2
So amazing kind of crazy but it’s true
That my affection is obsession when it comes to you
And let me say as I am falling on my face
That I am lacking better words but I just write them anyway

CHORUS
No other One - There is just no other like you
No other One – Lord there is no one else but you
It’s in the way you will the wind to calm the ocean
That’s who you are to me; it’s all I’ll ever need
It’s so clear to me, there could never be, another one

SYNOPSIS
This song has been written and rewritten more times than I think I have ever seen a song rewritten, but I really always felt like this was an important song that needed to be just right. Our thought when writing this song was to write a worship song that went somewhere no other worship song went, but in my attempt to be profound, it only came out a little overdone. How do you write a love song to God? There aren’t enough beautiful words to describe such a love, let alone then try to squeeze them into a four minute song! I decided to ask myself what I thought about worship overall and realized that it was so simple. Worship goes beyond big words and music; it is an intimate encounter with God. An encounter that is just honest and real. I think the fact that I couldn’t find strong enough words makes me even more in awe of how big He is and I think that’s how He intended for it to be. So I sat down with my producer, Tommy, and we wrote exactly what came to our minds when we thought about speaking to God. It was the truest way we could do it even in all its simplicity.

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wow. let me just say that the more i listen to this song, focusing on any instrument or just zoning in on her vocals, the more i see the beauty in this song. i really respect Rachael as an artist because she co-wrote this song as well as a lot of stuff on her albums. wow. she has a true talent and i am really proud to share the same faith as her. her faith DEFINITELY strengthens mine in a way that i am most receptive - through music.

you know, it's true what they say about songs - they say what you want to say, what you feel. this could not have been more true for me, but what's rare is that this is exactly how i feel in accordance to my relationship to God. not many praise and worship songs can actually be on the same wavelength with my feelings in faith. i usually feel that i'm not at that level of grace or confidence to actually be what is written in the lyrics. how can i express precisely how loving and great He is to us in just mere words? not even words and music put together can express that feeling but it can sure try.

i think the thing i LOVE most about this song is the second verse, put in bold. my most favorite 2 lines are "and let me say as i am falling on my face / that i am lacking better words but i just write them anyway" it's just the honest admission of humanity and not being sufficient for the praise of God. it truly reminds me that we are nothing without him, and he is everything in and around us.

songs like this really make me thankful for the God-given gift of music and talent singers such as Rachael Lampa. If i meet her, I have to remember to thank her for being a child of God and expressing her faith so openly to us. She's truly one of my role models in accordance to faith.

ok that was a long post, but there's so much i have to say about this song that i can't even type it all down. lol i suck with words, so i'mma just cut it here. later!

wow it's been forever and a day since i've been wanting to update this blog. i've been so busy i couldn't even make the wallpaper i wanted for this blog, so yeah.

anyway, for the first music post i'd like to write about utada hikaru's "sanctuary" from the kingdom hearts 2 soundtrack.

In you and I there's a new land,
Angels in flight
My sanctuary, my sanctuary, yeah
Where fears and lies melt away
Music will tie
What's left of me
What's left of me

wow, where can i begin? this is the chorus of the song, and at first when you read it, it's just... simple and easily overlooked. but wow once you go and really read it and think about it, you can get some interesting visualizations.

for instance, i get this image of a piece of heaven in this refrain. haha besides the obvious imagery of "angels in flight", it's just the concept of sanctuary.

"where fears and lies melt away" - what better place to let go of fears and lies than heaven? in liwanag we say that fear is the absence of God, so here it's like we're getting closer to him since the fears and lies melt away.

"music will tie /what's left of me" - i think this is my favorite line. i guess for me it means that music fills the void left behind from the absence of fears and lies. to a lot of people, music is their passion and their escape.

here music is their sanctuary, their little piece of heaven.

wow i didn't know i can critically break down some lyrics like that, but eh. i hope it wasn't too boring haha.

more to come. eventually.