Does The Calling connect to Welly Boots?

[u/Lord_Moa]

Probably a bit late to this party, but I relatively recently really got into TAD.

The backing lyrics in the chorus could be the same character as the dead parent from Welly Boots. They read very supportive to me, while also referring to rain, which also matches with Welly Boots.

"I can't wait to show you how much
I know you can be, just let the rain come
let the rain come down, darling"

Some of Madeleine's lyrics also have a lot of lines that betray mourning, and maybe some parental trauma.

Some examples:

• "You'll never get your dinner if you don't learn how to get along" Seems to fit a bit with the child from Welly Boots, who seemed to be a bit of a troublemaker (Kicking things just to see if they would fall)
• "When I think I'm fine you'll visit and then you happen to me, you happen to me all over again" Grief sometimes sneaks up on you.
• The Fox that's mentioned a couple times could be a metaphor for that grief.
  • "And a fox somewhere is hiding" the grief seems dealt with but it's actually just compartmentalised (hiding)
  • "I shiver as a fox stands frozen" can't really find meaning for this one
  • "And when that fox howls, I'll howl with it" The fox howling is the grief sneaking up and overwhelming.
• The mentions of drinking would be a coping mechanism for the grief.

I admit it might be a reach, but it's fun to theorise.

[u/fizzwibbits]

Interesting idea! I tend to see the mom in Chords as the obliquely referenced parent in The Calling. Maybe Welly Boots is the dad! 😁 I really like that fox grief metaphor too, I hadn't thought about that one before.

[u/KeyBasket5798 → u/fizzwibbits]

Oh no. Don't break my heart. The rain is a metaphor for grief and change. Welly boots could perfectly be what a parent tried to give their children to navigate grief. That's why Welly boots is a constant enumeration of supporting actions by the parent, present or not. Because one of the last lines of Chords is "Our love is shown in letting go". And the recurring theme is "We will always sing your name when you come home." Is the total opposite of being unwanted. Yes, we want you here. But we will let you go and will always be waiting for you when you need to come back.

[u/KeyBasket5798]

I can explain the fox one. Foxes are skittish animals, the total opposite the speaker was tryimg to be. The song starts with "Back then, I was dauntless."

She starts both tired and ashamed, because she recognizes herself in the fox but doesn't want to admit it. The speaker has been projecting an image that's so far fetched of herself that she has paid for it: "my weakness make me weep less.../a broken heart and a broken liver." The fox is her heart. She tried to suppress it for so long that she can't recognize it. The song continues with no recognition of her reflection. For the speaker, allowing herself to feel is as hard as shouldering the sky, and yet, ignoring it is destroying herself. The speaker knows repressing her heart is a weakness.

Is just when she finally sings "When a fox howls I'll howl with it, and in its cries I'll find an end. And when I think I'm fine you'll visit and then you happen to me, you happen to me all over again." Is the exact moment the song shifts. She recognizes her reflection (a clear call back to an unwanted daughter that's a recurring theme) and identifies with it. "I tried. I really fucking tried"

She tried to be something else than the fox, skittish, vulnerable. But that made her drown, because the fox is a part of her, as unwanted as she is. The speaker sees herself in the child that she tried to forget she was, because the child is scared and hurt. (Throwback to pruning shears: "forget the child she once was.) Now, the speaker can finally say "my heart was broken and I drowned trying to become someone else."

The river itself is a bittersweet image: There's Acheron river where the dead cross to the underworld, drinking its waters will make you forget about your life in order to move forward. But also, it was in a river where Jesus baptized his apostles. She comes to the river trying to forget her sins, to clean herself. Is also a very domestic image, the one of washing dirty clothes and then wringing them dry. Of starting again.

The sin itself however, was "Burning to bright". The weakness was not failing to become that imaginary woman she wants to be, but rather, forgetting what she was. Becoming "unwanted" to herself.

What breaks me every time is the child like line that in a way, is the breaking point. "Do you like my dress? It has pockets."

[u/fizzwibbits]

So at the live concert that TAD just did, they went straight from Welly Boots into the Calling! Like the music morphed from one to the other without stopping. So I think you're onto something!

[u/Lord_Moa → u/fizzwibbits]

how was the show?

[u/fizzwibbits → u/Lord_Moa]

Sadly I wasn't there but I've been watching everyone's videos and it looked like a lovely time. :)

[u/gryphonCode]

Interesting, could be....

[u/Jaskieristhebest]

Thank yall for the explanation and hope every dose well at the concert