TJLQ – Quark

Wew, satu album penuh ditulis untuk Hozier. Dari surat-cinta-berbentuk-album itulah lahir Quark, lagu dari proyek pertama TJLQ yang direkam dan diproduksi sendiri dari nol.

Dulu orang cukup kirim salam lewat radio, lengkap dengan nama kota dan request lagu. Sekarang orang meracik album.

Ia terbuka pelan, dengan synth yang hangat dan denting electric piano yang empuk, sementara keduanya hanya memberi denyut konstan tanpa pernah menghentak dan meliuk rendah di bawahnya, seperti asap tipis di ruang tertutup. Teksturnya basah dan sinematik, dan vokal TJLQ yang berlapis-lapis dibiarkan mengembang lalu larut, sering kali nyaris berbisik, sehingga kita seperti diajak mengintip buku harian yang ditulis di bawah lampu meja. Ada kesabaran yang jarang dimiliki sebuah rekaman perdana.

“One in a billion chance, Metaphysical romance”, nyanyinya. Kita semua tahu ke mana alamat suratnya.

Liriknya memang sedang jatuh cinta pada kosmos, dari kuark, partikel, cahaya bintang, sampai kehidupan-kehidupan lain, dan sesekali bumbunya kebanyakan sampai kata-kata harus berlari mengejar melodi. Saya tidak keberatan, sungguh, tapi ada bait yang terdengar seperti catatan kuliah fisika yang tertukar dengan surat cinta.

Tinggal satu pertanyaan, apakah mas Hozier sudah memutar Quark?

Lirik Lagu TJLQ – Quark

Razor's edge of a rainy night
Hear the drip of the drops at the windowpane
It's a soft glow, golden candlelight
Laid over this evening like cellophane

With poetry penciled-in next to me
I contemplate our state of reality
How all time trick-trickles right through me
Weaving the image that's spinning out rapidly

If this power's a fright
Why do I find delight
That it's chosen for me
To be what I want to be

If the light of your soul
Isn't for me to know
Then why put it so close
That I can feel the glow

And you know I would know you in every life
In every story, in every rhyme
Every legend, each day that we find
From now 'til the day that we die

If to know you is only the start
Honeybee, then, I know you by heart
Every quark of the way that we are
Of the way that we are

Do you hear something echoing
Some shadow outside your view beckoning
A soft touch inspiring
Some shaky need, soul-deep reckoning

I fall still and meet you there
At the edge of the world in your starlit snare
And we feel peace while we linger there
Sharing the only thing a lonely soul can share

If this power's not real
Tell me why, then, I feel
I was born to this light
This has always felt right

And the voice in my heart
Always knew what we are
One in a billion chance
Metaphysical romance

And you know
I would know you in every life
In every story, in every rhyme
Every legend, each day that we find
From now 'til the day that we die

If to know you is only the start
Honeybee, then, I know you by heart
Every quark of the way that we are
Of the way that we are

When you hear me's just the start
You've no idea how alike we are
I've been waiting for all of my life
To use this voice I've nurtured inside

Find me honey
I swear that it's real
Swallow back the fear that you feel
Every cry in the night
The echoing's fading, you're hearing it right

And
I would know you
In every life
In every story
In every rhyme
Every legend
Each day that we find
From now, 'til the day that we die

If to know you is only the start
Honeybee, then, I know you by heart
Every quark of the way that we are
Of the way that we are

Every article, starlit particle
Of the way that we are

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Atmosfer sendu yang tenang dengan eksplorasi suara senada hadir dalam ulasan Tom Sless – Not Famous Yet serta materi menarik di arsip ulasan Alice Gold – Both Hands.