No one sings quite like Yukimi Nagano of Little Dragon. The voice is one thing, which has some similarities to soul singers past, but what sets her apart is her phrasing and completely singular sense of timing. Of the many gems in her sparkling, though very fresh career, is “After The Rain” from Little Dragon’s debut self-titled release of 2007.
Like this reading of the song, I did the stereotypically American thing and thought perhaps the song was related to Hurricane Katrina and the shock of the man-made aspects of that catastrophe. Taking a deeper look, I feel like Nagano’s theme is probably not so specific, but might still be related to man-made disasters, real and metaphorical.
After the rain the temperature drops
And covered in ice was my window top
I’d like to take these two lines more or less on their face as being related to seasonal weather changes and what should be a recognition that coming with those changes come the regular spate of bad weather, perhaps given its location, Gothenburg gets either a bit of flooding or some heavy snow. Just from what I can tell online it seems to have a very Bay Area kind of climate, but even in the Bay, you know that it will rain pretty much all Spring and then never again til the next spring. How people forget that cyclical nature to weather is always surprising to me. It’s not a mystery. It happens every year, but somehow we’re always surprised. In SoCal, there seems to be some genuine surprise when wildfires break out in the summer, even though it happens every single year in more or less the exact same places!
But this line could just be an opening location, for something a bit less directly weather related. Perhaps the “rain” refers to relationships, whenever something major and catastrophic happens, that causes the rain, or tears to fall, the temperature definitely drops between those in the relationship.
After the rain we forget
We make sure we gain then we leave it
‘Cause we’re a nation of forgetters
Oh after the rain we pretend
It’s easier to begin without looking back
Now this verse, which repeats a couple of times could be literal or metaphorical, especially that “nation of forgetters” line, which does really speak to a mindset in many parts of the world, where people think “it won’t happen here” or “it won’t happen to me” and eventually they get caught up in the same cyclical disasters. I think this constantly about the people who refuse to live in a “safer” environment and instead choose to reside in wildfire/mudslide zones in Southern California.
But these lines can also refer to something broader in our culture (or perhaps cross-culturally) when it comes to love and all the drama connected to it, we often choose to forget about what just happened, in one relationship or in the next, in many cases repeating the very mistakes that caused the “disaster” to occur, again and again.
People where have you been
Have you been hiding
In your big houses
People after the rain
Will your life
Will it ever be the same
(Ooh!) people what will you do
When your luck
When it turns on you
(Woo!) people after the rain
Will your life
Will it ever be the same
To me, this series of lines towards the end of the song seems to be the strongest case for a social commentary in “After The Rain.” Nagano appears to be calling out people who have the ability to change things for the better, but who remain disconnected and aloof, hiding in their big houses. But this could be metaphorical as well, after all we do erect pretty big houses for ourselves and when someone comes along and blows that house down, we are rarely the same.
Incidentally, there is a music video for this song and it’s no real help at all in terms of elucidating anything about the song’s meaning, unless Nagano and crew are suggesting people should move their houses (perhaps not on snails) instead of staying around in the same place where these disasters continually occur. At least that’s my take, let me know what you think!
(After the rain)
After the rain the temperature drops
And covered in ice was my window top
I say goodbye I wave my hand
As a thousand doves fly
Across the blackened night
(Wooo!) After the rain we forget
We make sure we gain then we leave it
‘Cause we’re a nation of forgetters
Oh after the rain we pretend
It’s easier to begin without looking back
‘Cause all at once air so thin
And there’s nothing left to breath in
After the rain we forget (2x)
Behind the dream so rosy and red a pile of things to forget
A voice of the past tiptoes in a cracking ghost whispering
(Wooo!) After the rain we forget
We make sure we gain then we leave it
‘Cause we’re a nation of forgetters
After the rain we forget (2x)
People where have you been
Have you been hiding
In you big houses
People after the rain
Will your life
Will it ever be the same
(Ooh!) people what will you do
When your luck
When it turns on you
(Woo!) people after the rain
Will your life
Will it ever be the same
After the rain we forget (4x)
nice music! I love this song!