April 28 - Indonesia

"The summer came in carrying spring in its mouth" is an incredible first line, and the rest of the song follows as poetic metaphor that starts from love but soars into something elemental.

There's an interesting thing happening with John's lyrics as time goes by. His content isn't getting more simple, he still writes complicated and layered metaphor and delights in wordplay, but he's found a level of wry accessibility that he hadn't worked out yet in his earlier songs. The emotions aren't simpler in this song than in John's early stuff, but they are expressed in a way that is felt before it is thought. There's something coming here, and it's going to require the melding of this advanced lyricism with an expansion of musical ambition.