“Magic”: Orlando Weeks’ favourite lyric of all time

Posted On July 26, 2024July 26, 2024

Although Orlando Weeks‘ teenage dream was to be a visual artist, realising his creative vision became a necessary aspect of various art forms, including music. As he explained during a recent interview with Far Out: “I never thought music would be my career. I definitely didn’t think I’d still be doing it 20 years on. Art was always my first passion and the first I felt like I was any good at.”

Fronting The Maccabees might not have been his first choice when embarking on a creative career, but Weeks’ involvement ushered them into the limelight, attracting popularity beyond any quantifiable measure Weeks’ ever deemed imaginable. For Weeks, the unspoken is one of the most beautiful aspects of artistry, but the challenge is putting it into words or visual representation.

Luckily, however, the former frontman has creativity pumping through his blood at all times, meaning that most concepts or ideas that catch his attention can be transitioned onto the stage, paper, or into studios with the effortlessness of a true visionary. Despite his many creative outlets, however, he remains consistent in his ability to be present.

As he once put it: “I think people are so many things, I try to make the best record I can create at the time. Then I want to get straight back into it and make another record.”

He added: “Being able to fully express myself through anything is unrealistic. I get close in some aspects but miss by miles in others.”

Therefore, Weeks might be regarded by most as merely the former lead singer of a popular indie band, but his interests and capabilities run much deeper. Many of his solo albums reflect the various reasons why he is a musician who deserves much more than just a reputation as part of The Maccabees. For instance, his latest album, LOJA, demonstrated the singer’s ever-evolving lyrical prowess and ability to intertwine hope and optimism with the inextricable darkness of the past.

Weeks has always been intrigued by putting the seemingly simple parts of life into words, which is why it makes sense that when he was asked for his favourite-ever lyric, he immediately mentioned Randy Newman’s ‘Marie’. Specifically, he drew attention to one lyric that articulated the very thing most of us will likely experience at some point or multiple times in our lifetime—Dutch courage.

“In that ‘Marie’ song, there is a great line that goes ‘I’m drunk right now baby, but I’ve got to be, or I couldn’t tell you, what you mean to me,’” Weeks told Shortlist. “I think that is beautiful. That’s a magic lyric. Is it similar to Pet Shop Boys’ ‘You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You’re Drunk’? I read it as he’s too shy – he wants to say something nice – rather than a drunken ‘I love you’, but maybe I’ve always misread that.”

‘Marie’ might have incorporated a deep and somewhat melancholic love, but it also demonstrated Newman’s ability to capture his shortcomings and acknowledge his own flaws. As someone who knows the art of navigating complex relationships in the form of poetic lyricism, Weeks’ appreciation for the song likely stems from its raw honesty and the nuanced portrayal of vulnerability and regret.

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