The loss feels concussive on Photo Ops songs.
It feels like these are headaches and heartbreaks that will keep pounding.
They will smash you to pieces. You can hold on all you want - brace yourself - but the waves will get stronger. They will keep ringing your bell until you just let go.
There was beauty once, which just filled the eyes, which occupied the space where the throbbing loss is now commandeering. There was something to come home to - something to hug and to kiss and to whisper sweet things to. Now, there isn't.
Lead singer Terry Price sings, "I suffered in ways I never thought I would/I loved you in ways I never thought I could." It's within these lines where the broken parts dance - where the past meets the present and there's work to be done. Some of the feeling here is, in recognizing that those days are over - the ones filled with suffering maybe less than the ones filled with loving - a newness could be sampled. The crying and the yelling have all been done and they accomplished little. The loving - all of the significant parts and all of the missed opportunities to do it - accomplished little as well. It's when everything feels most hollow, knowing that all of the loving meant so little and got you nowhere sustainable.