"Élan" is a single by Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish, the first from their upcoming eighth album Endless Forms Most Beautiful. The song marks the first Nightwish song to feature its newest frontwoman, Dutch singer Floor Jansen, on vocals, and also the first to feature Troy Donockley as a full-time member and Kai Hahto as a temporary replacement for Jukka Nevalainen.
The song was announced on 8 December 2014 at the band's official website. According to keyboardist and songwriter Tuomas Holopainen, the song is "a wonderful teaser for the full-length album, giving out a little taste, but revealing very little of the actual journey of grandeur to come."
According to Holopainen, the starting point to write the song was a citation by Walt Whitman (described by him as his "hero Uncle Walt"): "'Oh, while I live to be the ruler of life, Not a slave To meet life as a powerful conqueror, and nothing exterior to me will ever take command of me". He commented: "The underlying theme of the song is nothing less than the meaning of life, which can be something different for all of us. It´s important to surrender yourself to the occasional 'free fall' and not to fear the path less travelled by."
LYRICS:
Leave the Sleep and let the springtime talk
In tongues from the time before man
Listen to a daffodil tell her tale
Let the guest in, walk out, be the first to greet the morn
The meadows of heaven await harvest
The cliffs unjumped, cold waters untouched
The elsewhere creatures yet unseen
Finally your number came up, free fall awaits the brave
Come
Taste the wine
Race the blind
They will guide you from the light
Writing noughts till the end of time
Come
Surf the clouds
Race the dark
It feeds from the runs undone
Meet me where the cliff greets the sea
The answer to the riddle before your eyes
Is in dead leaves and fleeting skies
Returning swans and sedulous mice
Writings the gardens book, in the minute of a lover's look
Building a sandcastle close to the shore
A house of cards from a worn out deck
A home from the fellowship, poise and calm
Write a lyric for the song only you can understand
Riding hard every shooting star
Come to life, open mind, have a laugh at the orthodox
Come, drink deep let the dam of mind seep
Travel with great Élan, dance a jig at the funeral
Come!
14 окт 2024
