The Cinematic Orchestra’s “To Build a Home” is one of those songs that you hear for the first time and you let it pass you by. The second time, you might stop and think, “that’s nice,” or “not bad.” But you don’t realize your mistake until you hear the song for the third time, when you finally listen with intent and you regret bypassing it the first two times around.
It’s not pop-culture. It’s not danceable, uplifting, and probably not even karaoke-able. “To Build a Home” is the piece you keep sacred to your own and don’t tell anyone about because you’re afraid the masses will diagnose you with severe Depression for listening to it. But for what it is—a beautiful melody, soft piano chords, and powerful lyrics—I wouldn’t want to share this treasure with the rest of the world, anyway.
The Cinematic Orchestra is a British band founded by Jason Swinscoe that primarily composes its work through electronic production. “To Build a Home,” released in May 2007 under the album Ma Fleur, was co-written and sang by Canadian singer-and-pianist Patrick Watson. The song was Swinscoe’s first great attempt at creating a stripped album. “I wanted to create something more musical, in the song form,” says Swinscoe in a 2007 interview with Pop Matters’ Adam Green. “[I wanted] to take out the drums, and the overtly soul-jazz club thing…and do something for everybody” (Green, 1). “To Build a Home” was the album’s greatest hit.
The piece starts off soft and melodic, both in music and lyrics. The narrator begins his story describing a stone house filled with much virtue and furniture worn by dust (Ma Fleur). The house he illustrates is home for him, and we feel nostalgic and almost safe with content. The chorus of the song, which repeats itself twice only, states that the narrator “built a home” not just for himself, but for someone he loves. Though literal throughout the lyrics, the narrator’s building of a home is his metaphor for creating a happy life together with his lover.
The next verse after the chorus illustrates a tree which is healthy and growing, symbolizing his relationship with this woman. He sings, “…we planted the seeds/…branches were sewn by the color of green/ Ground had arose and passed its knees” (Ma Fleur). The comparison of his relationship to a tree is quite beautiful; a tree is a living, breathing organism that grows more each day and can live to old age. The bark of a tree is sturdy, just as is the stone of the house he built. We see a repetition of strength and solidarity as key factors of their relationship.
Suddenly, however, as he is climbing to the top to “see the world,” signifying a height in his relationship, strong wind comes and knocks him down from the tree. The narrator experiences a great loss. What is unclear in the song’s entirety is whether it is a song about break-up or a stronger loss. In my analysis, I infer death to be the cause of this loss. The wind which knocks the narrator down is an external force, of which neither he nor his lover have control over. He follows this part of the story with the line, “I held on as tightly as you held onto me,” which he repeats twice. They did not want to let each other go, and it seems as though it was not their decision to lose one another. The narrator then repeats his chorus on the home he built for himself and his lover.
There is one particular line that is sung twice in the song: “And now, it’s time to leave and turn to dust” (Ma Fleur). Each time the line is sung, it immediately follows the chorus. However, it stands alone. Both in the published lyrics and judging by the pause in singing before the line, it is given that this sentence is not joined with the chorus. It is also the very last line of the song. “Dust” was first mentioned in the first verse of the piece, when describing the “tables and chairs worn by all of the dust.” However, the mood at this point in time is pleasant and peaceful. The dust signifies a sort of nostalgia, almost like the bountiful memories that linger in the house like dust lingers on furniture. Therefore, “turn to dust” could mean moving on and leaving the present as a memory. However, I do believe the line has dual meaning. To go along with the theory of the narrator’s lover dying, dust might metaphorically stand for ashes of the dead, and “leave” would be to die. Being that the last line of the song is “And now, it’s time to leave and turn to dust,” I believe that by the end of the story, the narrator grieves the loss of his lover.
Adam Green of Pop Matters was sharing his opinions on the piece in its entirety with Jason Swinscoe back in their 2007 interview. Green said, “…the arrangement services the song perfectly; a sad piece about loss, friendship, and sanctuary” (Ma Fleur). The lyrics do, in fact, draw a timeline of joy, loss, and reflection. The title of the song, “To Build a Home,” provides its own message. The writers could’ve used “I Built a Home” as its title, quoting directly from the lyrics. However, choosing the present-tense verb almost says the cycle is never-ending; in life, we will always be building sanctuaries and always experiencing loss.
Milana Lipkind