Honeyhoney – Thin Line

A lot of what we’re trying to do here at The Daily Soundtrack is to simply share the personal stories about our connection us to the songs we love. It can be a moment, or a story, or a period in our lives that will always be associated with a song. It can be something that we look back on fondly, or it can be a reminder of how we made it through when things weren’t so cheery—the pain of an old wound that lets us know how we got here.

What happens, then, when a song provides the story for us? Songwriters like Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan (two of the very best) sketched entire, detailed, worlds in the span of a few minutes. But, I’ve always found that some of the most powerful stories get told in songs that build the space of a memory while leaving the details a bit hazy.

There is a hollowness to the main lick of “Thin Line” that does exactly that. It provides the song with a certain level of darkness without dragging it down too far into the shadows, leaving enough light for you to see your way around, and enough space for the lyrics and voice of Suzanne Santo to circle around the room with you. Somewhere between a crooning lament and a declaration of future plans, lines like “I want whiskey when I’m sick, and a man when I’m well, but it’s good to have them both sometimes when I feel like raising hell” will leave you grabbing for a shot glass, if only to steady your knees.

It’s hard to listen to the lyrics of “Thin Line” and not come away thinking that it was all the result of some volatile relationship, and that she isn’t at least partially responsible for that volatility. Santo could have spelled it out for us, but why tell you how she feels when she can let you feel it for yourself?

Comments are closed.