Mirage Lyrics – Caitlin and Brent

Song Facts:

• Genre: Indie Folk
• Featured on the soundtrack for the TV series "Lousy Carter"

Annotations and Meaning:

The song "Miracle" by Caitlin and Brent dances with celestial imagery and the dynamic rolls of the forces of nature to show themes of illusion, unmet desire, and the implausible situation that relationships are sometimes found in. The author places two opposite phrases to express the interaction of the couple within the movements and influences of the moon and the tide. Right from the first lines, "You are a moving target / That can't be nailed down," the relationship being spoken about is set—of uncertainty and elusiveness. One partner is compared to a target, always moving, avoiding 'being fixed.' That sets up a story of trying to reach something that is inherently impossible to reach. The metaphor of the moon and the tide is central to the song. "For I'm just the tide, and you are the moon" is a statement that actually signifies a fact where the person, the tide, is completely affected by the other, the moon, but there is no avoidance of a distance factor or a push-pull dynamic between them. This relation results in the tidal wave as it struggles against the shore to the moon, representing effort that fails to carry along a permanent connection or change. The "house built upon sand" could be just about any other edifice with uncertain or unsolid foundations, meaning the relationship—or in this case, probably the emotional investment therein—is of a fragile nature and will fall apart, just like a mirage that seems real but ultimately turns out to be insubstantial. This can be insistent through the persistent use of "outta phase" and "outta my mind," which seems to emphasize a great dissociation or turmoil the speaker was going through. The lyrical phrase "You deal in gold leaf / Zirconium dreams / Hold hollow hopes / Nothing as it seems" is directed at the interactions' pretentiousness and superficiality, or maybe it points toward the very nature of the wider social context in which the characters of the play live. It paints a picture of deception or self-deception, where appearances are misleading and promises are unfulfilled. The fact that it was included in a TV series' soundtrack would seem to imply that themes of illusion and unattainable desires pervade either the story or theme of the program and somehow mirror those of the characters themselves, or perhaps just the illusory environment they live in.