Nothing burns that bright and lasts
There’s a certain maturity about relationships that can only be gained with age and experience. It involves coming to terms with the fact that the majority of romances one will experience are temporary, existing in “the moment” for however long that moment lasts. It’s a learned perception of space and time that forever alters your understanding of yourself and others in the grander scheme of things. “Nothing lasts forever,” crooned Maroon 5. “Don’t look back in anger,” sang Oasis.
“We were meant for a different time,” belts Agelast.
Listen: “A Different Time” – Agelast
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/269383026″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=true&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]Following up from April’s debut single “Fever,” Nashville indie duo Agelast (pronounced like “agile-list” or “a-jealous-t”) is back with sophomore single “A Different Time.” A new musical and thematic showing from the band, and one that Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering, “A Different Time” paints a portrait of Devin Hill and J Daxton Fann as hopeful romantics. Love, hope and nostalgia intertwine as the narrator looks back on a former relationship:
We were meant for a different time
Everything in black and white
When the world wasn’t spinning so fast
And the days would last all night
Lost inside
The moment we came alive
Blink and it passed no going back if we tried
We were meant for a different time
It’s easy to dwell in the past when the past feels so good. Sadly, our consciousness exists only in the present – meaning our memory is as beautiful as it is dangerous. One can approach this concept with several different philosophies that dig right down to the core of existence. If time is linear, that means there is no going back; hence, the past should be “in the past” and treated as such – over and done. However, we enhance and move forward without taking lessons from the past, whether it be ours or others; therefore it must be acknowledged in some way.
There are those who choose to ignore their past relationships; “what’s done is done.” Move on. Pretend it never happened? Eventually the memories fade and, like a tree falling in a forest, it’s as though a relationship never happened at all.
Agelast approach the past in a different way.
The compact disc that sits in her radio
Used to remind her of me everywhere she’d go
Long forgotten, replaced with playlists on her phone
We were high, making out and couldn’t resist
Thinking no one else in the world exists
Thought this is as good as it gets
You were as good as it gets
Yes, time is linear, but that doesn’t mean that something in the past is gone forever. It still exists in that singular space and time; it is still a shared moment that can never be undone or taken back. You don’t erase the past; you embrace it for what it is or was. It lives forever in a moment, regardless of how two people ended things and went their separate ways.
Life is a journey; we are born to live, not to die. “A Different Time” finds Agelast appreciating a love that existed, cherishing it for what it was, when it was. “We were bulletproof with nothing to lose, and too much time and freedom to abuse.” They sing into a distant past that might fade away, but in creating this song around it, its transience becomes immortality.
And then, at the very end, comes that lingering hope… That refusal to say goodbye forever. The music gets heavy and the words are held longer as Agelast makes one last attempt to live in that moment, fighting with feelings and logic as they make one final stand: “Slow down, take one more ride with me.”
But what’s done is done, and Agelast knows it. It’s time to wake up; time to move on and appreciate a love for what it was. If any moral can be taken from this angst-ridden ode, it would be to make the most of every moment and take nothing and no one for granted. Agelast’s musical fire continues to burn bright with “A Different Time.”
