Although this was, as far as I know, never a single, and certainly never a hit, Smile and A whisper, from Fairground Attraction's First of a Million Kisses album is my favourite of all the band's tracks, because it is a simply beautiful love song. Gentle, hypnotic and with lyrics that actually have something to say it is happy and dreamy and a sheer delight to listen to. Eddi Reader's voice always sends shivers up and down my spine and never more so than in this track.
It's one of those self-referential songs, like poems about poetry - effectively, it questions whether a love song can ever really convey love, since the emotion is expressed more in wordless actions, expressions and movements than it ever is in explicit words - of course, the declaration that you can't use words to speak of love is circular, the denial of our ability to vocalise the emotion acting as its own vocalisation.
Sky of ink and diamond stars
Empty streets with just occasional cars
Here we lie in a lullabye of a stillness in our ears
Words are unable to speak of love
Like a smile in a whisper does
Woah-oh words are unable to speak of love
Like a smile in a whisper does
All of the letters in all of the words
In all of the books all over the world
They're nothing but sounds, and vowels and nouns
For talking to strangers, that's only words
Words are unable to speak of love
Like a smile in a whisper does
Woah-oh words are unable to speak of love
Like a smile in a whisper does
Orchestra of tiny
harps
It's like
pepper sprinkled on our hearts
We're threading a
needle with
boxing gloves
When we try to speak about love
Words are unable to speak of love
Like a smile in a whisper does
Woah-oh words are unable to speak of love
Like a smile in a whisper does
Words are unable to speak of love
Like a smile in a whisper does
Woah-oh words are unable to speak of love
Like a smile in a whisper does
Wohoa woah, woah-oh-woah
Like a smile in a whisper does
Fairground Attraction