Love can be the best thing in the world for some people, while on the other hand love can make one feel like they have nothing to live for. In most songs about lost love there is a lesson to be learned. In the song “Said the King to the River” by La Dispute, Jordan Dreyer uses interesting view points as well as a plethora of other poetic devices to give multiple stories about the pain of post love.
La Dispute is a melodic post-hardcore band from Grand Rapids, Michigan. They are known for their varying song structure, genius guitar parts, and poetry like lyrics. Most of the lyrics in their songs are haunted by stories of failed relationships. In the song “Said the King to the River”, Jordan weaves his stories of love into the lyrics and gives the listener the sense of disparity between him and his significant other. When he says things like “pack your bags this place is not your home” and “precious pain you’ve given us a name”, you get a sense of him being done with his relationship. At the end of the song he sings as if from the point of view of two lovers in a conversation. The boy says that he has carried his love a long way just to see his lover. While the girl says “’leave!’...’I’ve given in. If love is a bridge, we built it wrong!’”. This could be a direct allusion to something that has happened in Jordan’s life or just a metaphor for his feelings and how they were stomped on by the one he loved. In the part before the scene with the two lovers Jordan sings as if from the point of view of a king speaking to a river and then as the wind speaking to the water. He makes the parallel between the flame of love extinguishing and the wind freezing water. If you actually listen to the pattern of the vocal parts, in the whole song, there is an interesting back and forth feel throughout the song. There isn’t a set verse, chorus, verse, bridge, chorus pattern, but Jordan does a very nice job of separating the parts so as to make sure the listener can tell the differences. Throughout the song he uses a motif of medieval language saying things like “Up M’Lady”, “I Beseech thee, ‘Shed thy beauty.’”, and speaking of a king asking a river for a flood.
La Dispute is a very unique and innovative band. The way the band can fit screaming poetry over complex and beautiful musical pieces and make a stimulating form of art speaks to the artistic abilities of everyone in the band. La Dispute is a pleasant but moody vacation from the monotonous one named “artists” that make up American popular music today. The way Jordan Dreyer can spit out a string of screams that fit so many extended metaphors, examples of imagery and allusions to his own life make La Dispute more a form of poetry with accompanying music than just rock music.
