Gallows - 'In The Belly Of A Shark'
Where I live we have sharks. Big ones. Fortunately, being Basking Sharks their main aim in life is to look truly disturbing with their huge gaping maws and also to filter thousands of gallons of water through said maws, to feed off the plankton therein. They can, however, grow to about 9.5m long on average and have been found up to 12.5m long. Which is bigger than most caravans, so supposing you got through the filtration process, you might assume it'd be quite roomy in there.
Admitedly, Frank Carter doesn't specify what sort of shark he's trapped in in this song. In fact, his biology is generally quite inadequate, as a simple google can produce hard academic evidence of sharks being generally warm-gutted, in particular the Great White (ie: yer common or garden Jaws) and I have little reason to assume that it would be particularly chilly in any shark's internal organs. You can't really fault his position that it is, ahem, rather dark (Gallows themselves use considerably stronger language to emphasise the, erm, extreme darkness that they are experiencing) inside whatever fish he's lurking in, though. Unless of course it was a Basking Shark, in which case I suppose their gaping maw probably lets quite a bit of light in.
Mr Carter probably isn't talking literally, though, I suppose and so you've got to ponder what situation would make you feel as though you were in a dark, cold shark belly. I have to say, this is a metaphor that hasn't ever occurred to me to describe feelings of misery/frustration/isolation/imprisonment but perhaps this just demonstrates a limited imagination on my part and top marks to Gallows for being vaguely original, anyway. Especially since the metaphor seems to extend to romance - again, never thought of telling a girl that I can see me and her hanging out in a man-eating shark's belly, but different strokes, etc.
Even so, despite the aggression and the apparently inappropriate lyrics, it's not totally unromantic. Maybe I'm misreading this and in fact it's a threatening desire to have them die and be digested together (again, there've been weirder) but it's actually faintly cute, in a bizarre way.
I'm not sure I'd necessarily find it amazingly touching if someone invited me to get trapped in a shark with them but there's definitely something appealing in the sheer messiness of the song, like this is just the first thing that popped into his head with regards to how he feels towards a girl and even if it makes no sense whatsoever, e's going to shout it at her over the next breakneck two minutes and forty one seconds.
Which of course doesn't bring any resolution to the issue of which breed of shark would be best to convert for a romantic getaway (and I've checked and they don't mention this on the album, either...) so I'll be off down the beach now for a bit of property speculation.
Download: Out now
CD Released: September 17th
(Hazel Robinson)
Comments
It IS fairly cute in a strange, strange, twisted way.
Hazel, it is metorphorical, the gallows, especially frank carter are heavily involved in the art of tatooing, especially that of "old school" naval designs, depicting images of monsters of the deep, ships ect.... Frank carter is expanding on this idea through the guise of music, doesnt neccessarily relate to emotions.
I suggest next time you do some actual research, instead of waffling on about basking sharks, jeesus h christ, i bet u get payed for these articles aswel!
Dude, dude, I was joking. I like Gallows a lot and I know they weren't actually talking about literally sitting in a shark (and said as much above) but a) I hadn't looked up basking sharks for nothing, b) please remember this is the internet. Not everything you read may be dead serious. :)
I certainly got the impression that, despite the amount of naval referencing in their songs, it is all a metaphor for something emotional. And like I said, I actually rather liked the idea that this song was a strange, dark, impassioned chat up.
What a load of waffle in the review. It's a simple song not to be taken literally.
[Sorry, which is it? Simple or not-literal? Cos literal is simple - ie he actually IS in a shark and it's cold and dark, and metaphorical is not simple - ie it's about feeling brutalised and lonely. - Fraser]
This is not a good review, Hazel. You are a good writer but this is more about you trying to be clever rather than this very talented band. I suspect that you have never seen them live in which case your understanding of the music would increase.