Laura Nails

Hi lovelies,

Here's a little bit of background into my life. :) Music is quite a big part of my life. I did it as a subject in school from year 2 to year 11 and I have been in 6 different choirs in my lifetime. I have had 12 different conductors and each of them have taught me something new about words and about singing.



I love to sing. I always have. I love to sing seriously and I love to sing loudly. I love to sing stupidly and I love to sing quietly. I love to sing sad songs and I love to sing happy songs. I think that until you start to sing, you don't really think about the words that come out of your mouth. When you sing in a choir, everything is important. The shape of your mouth when you sing, the shape of your mouth when you breathe, the different emphasis you give to different syllables, which letters are nice to sing and which are evil. As a result, when I find a song, or artist, that can really use words, I love them. I really, really do. Bat For Lashes (also known as Natasha Khan) is one of them. These nails were inspired by her song 'Laura'.

I first heard this only recently and I have to say, I am so enamoured with it. Actually I think all her songs are pretty fab but this one really stuck with me. I don't know what it is, but it really got under my skin. The melody and piano accompaniment is really quite haunting and the lyrics are beautiful.

'You're the train that crashed my heart, you're the glitter in the dark'

Isn't that beautiful? Listen to the syllables as you say those words. The harshness of 'crashed', with it's 'cr' and 'shhhhh'. It sounds like a crash. The sharp, sudden impact of the 'cr' which fades away into the 'shhhhhhed'. It contrasts beautifully with the mellowness of 'train' and 'heart' with their long, long vowels. Then comes the short, sharp sparkle of 'glitter' with it's high 'gl' and punctured by the double 't' which contrasts with the roundness of the 'ar' in dark. It's a dark sound. Think about it. The 'ar' goes right to the back of your throat, making it sound ominous and black.

The chorus says 'Oh Laura, you're more than a superstar'. Say those words out loud. Do it. Do you hear it? The plaintive sigh of 'Oh Laura'. There's nothing harsh there. It's soft, sweet and sad. It's long and the melody takes it up and there down again. Rising and falling like a sigh. The explosion of the 'more'. The way the closed, quiet 'm' gives way to the emotion of the 'ore' as it comes forward and pushes it's way out of your mouth. It's as if it wants to give more than the 'm' allows. It's as if it's exploding in an expression of more emotion than you first imagined when you began the word. Like you can't fully express all your emotion. And then 'superstar'. Listen to that 'sssss'. It's the only harsh sound in the whole line. They want to be noticed - just like a superstar. Emphasis the 's'. Elongate them. Give them the attention they deserve. And the way the word fades away into 'star' - the 'ar' drifting off into the sky, so far away, just like a star.



The line 'you're the glitter in the dark' is what really inspired these nails. When I heard it, I could see the tiny flash of glitter in the deep endless black.  The tiny light that made everything worthwhile. That one patch of colour in an otherwise barren, black pit.

That's what I love about these nails. That imagery they provoke.

Oh, and for these nails I used Black Out by Sally Hansen and 100s & 1000s by Savvy.

And.... that was a really long post considering what I actually talked about. What do you guys think? Do you think about words when you say them, or do you just say them? Are you singers? Do you also have conductors big on making the words sound that the thing that they are describing?

In any case, I hope you found this interesting. :)