![]() ![]() ![]() (While it's unrealistic that someone would choose to do so, this image increases the mythical symbolism that is Of Monsters and Men's signature style.) ![]() In the image they have created, they seem to be swimming in the ocean alone, away from community with others. Not needing anything or anyone isn't portrayed as a desirable state on other songs on the album (like in "I of the Storm" when the protagonists wants desperately to be needed). Of Monsters and Men is trying to communicate that traveling "the sea" alone is possible, but not desirable. In the first verse, Raggi and Nanna sing, "I need nothing / To travel the sea / I need nothing / I need nothing." The sea is a dark and lonely place, and one can be alone out there for a long time without meeting anyone else. All of this suggests that "Black Water" is going to be about something undependable and treacherous. "Black Water" should be helpful as most water is, but it isn't. In addition, the further one dives into the ocean, the darker and blacker and more mysterious the water gets. Water infected by an oil spill, black water as waste water, and treacherous water viewed at night in the dark are all black water not safe for humans. People drink water to gain nourishment, but black water has many connotations-all adding to a reputation for danger. The title "Black Water" is ominously foreboding. The music itself is not as folk-based as most of the songs on Beneath the Skin, but it ultimately stays true to Of Monsters and Men's style-haunting vocals, soaring harmonies, and crashing climactic symbols, sprinkled all over with abundant nature-based symbolism that gives the song an epic and mythical atmosphere. In this song, co-vocalists Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir and Ragnar "Raggi" þórhallsson sing together in a duet that gives extra power to the ideas in the lyrics. In fact, not counting repeated choruses and lines, there are only 54 unique words in the entire song! The ninth track on Beneath the Skin is, however, still very interesting and fits well with the theme developed throughout all of the album: the acceptance of aspects nature imparts to human identity-a marrying of human civilization with nature's wildness. While not the shortest song on Of Monsters and Men's Beneath the Skin, "Black Water" may have the fewest unique lines of any song on the album. ![]()
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