The Temper Trap is
an Australian indie rock band that formed in 2005. The lead singer,
Dougy Mandagi was born in Indonesia, and some of his rich influences
from singing in church choirs and listening to his dad play guitar
are integrated into the band's sound. As a collective, the band's
vocals, guitar, bass, drums, and other instrumental creations produce
this unique transcending sound found nowhere else but in The Temper
Trap. Love Lost is one of those transcending pieces.
Beginning with a
classy keyboard progression, the song is accompanied by the uniform
sound of clapping hands. The singer sings “our love was lost, but
now we've found it”. Dougy’s voice that so much resembles the
Gibb brother's vocals (BeeGees), add to the song's spiritual and
emotionally uplifting quality. With just that first line, those four
words illustrate an obvious circumstance in which someone (presumably
him) and someone else had once lost their love. He sings with so much
passion and raw emotion with the proceeding lines of “our love was
lost and hope was gone.” Although those lines are very simple, the
way Dougy sings those words illustrates this running image of the
situation. Further ahead into the song, the words “and if you flash
your heart, I won't deny it” suggests the willingness of the lover
to take up this salvaged love once again. He then declares that he
“won't deny it”, this sacred love, and this other person's heart.
And after that, he says “I promise, I promise.” If the words were
sung by any other artist, the ingenuity and power of the lines would
be lost.
Encroaching upon
the situation, it seems that the love and the pleading person are
trying to cross into the once-known barriers of this relationship. He
sings “your walls are up too cold to touch it, your walls are up
too high to climb”, meaning that this other person is not
comfortable opening up his/her heart to this person yet. Either too
much damage has been done in the past, or the idea of re-opening this
love is frightening and risky. But Dougy then pleads with the
comforting lines of “I know it's hard but I can still hear it
beating.” He tells this person that he understands the difficulty
of all of this, but he also knows that this person's heart is still
“beating” with all the love in the world, and that he/she has
that recognizable thump (heart beats) rhythm that he knows all too
well. He then promises again to not “mistreat it”, or take
advantage of this person's heart.
In the end, he
acknowledges that their love “was lost in the rubble” of all the
things this person has “been dreaming of”, meaning that their
first run was disappointing and perhaps even disastrous.
Nevertheless, he begs this person to “keep [him] in mind” when
he/she is ready, because he is “here to take [him/her] every time.”
Those ending lines followed by the usual refrain illustrate the
devotion and gratitude of this lover.
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