Key Lyric: “Turn your light on: Look at us, you and I, back at it again.”
On my album that speaks to my experience at BC, I wanted to pay tribute to someone who also studied Philosophy at a Jesuit University: That being Lana Del Rey, an alumni of Fordham. I often sit and wonder what I’m supposed to do with my Philosophy degree… I haven’t found much success with it, to be honest. But I like to tell myself that I’m just following Lana’s path!
As for its place in the album, lyrically. The Light refers to a lot of things. The Light is BC apologizing to me and other queer students. Getting my tuition back and taking a three month vacation to Italy to make up for the semester I should’ve been abroad but went through this album instead. The Light is my alma mater doing better and supporting LGBTQ+ causes on and off campus. The Light is queer marriage in the church. The Light is reuniting with some of the people I lost through this. The Light, most of all, is the future where I can afford a cute little 1-bedroom above the water in Westport… I hope this song leads the way!
Purpose (Why this song?)
I created Let The Light In, like many tracks on the album, fairly quickly. My focus was building up my vocals to create the sort of sound you might expect from a liturgical men’s choir. There are plenty of ways to do this, but the easiest is to literally just turn yourself into a choir. I recorded myself singing the chorus over and over again, with different harmonies and breath-work, to create the same ambiance and dynamics you’d find from an actual group of me’s. A fun aspect of this is that the song features every vocal session I had for the track, from its first demo to the final master. Each recording was part of the journey of the song, which is always true: But it hits a little different here, where each one really does impact what you’re hearing in the finished product!
The Creative Process:
Sonic Identity
Let The Light In aims for ultimate simplicity throughout the majority of the song, opting for just a few stringed instruments playing chords throughout the verses with the addition of only a bass and organ in the choruses. It focuses instead on my vocals, layered to the heavens and dampened with a ton of reverb to sound like a men’s chorus. The song ends with a light instrumental that evokes the sounds of contemporary Catholic church services across the United States.
Core Sounds
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Storyline
Let The Light In was originally inspired by a friend. See, I had played my first draft of the album for them on my birthday, and they mentioned something about wanting to hear me sing Supercut without as much vocal production surrounding my voice. They mentioned a strum. While I didn’t want to touch the concept of Supercut for the album, their comment inspired me to want to record something that highlighted my voice in a direct fashion.
Let The Light In is a song I’ve always loved, especially for its lyrical melody and duet harmony during the chorus. And with an album that already had been tying together my time as a pop lover and a singer in liturgical environments, it made sense for me to take my crack on the song by Lana Del Rey. I imagined it as a song you’d hear at church, when getting communion and then waiting for the procession to die down. I imagined myself as the men’s choir providing vocals while a single guitarist strummed. And let that idea guide me and the song’s creative process. I think I did a pretty good job in that sorta hybrid pop-liturgical moment!.
Key Moments
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As previously mentioned, this lyric is the reason for Babylon’s inclusion on the tracklist of this album. Already a cute cheeky line from the original, my rendition allows the lyric to become a play on words referring equally to the Era “Before Christ,” B.C, as well as the instituion of “Boston College,” BC.
Within the song, the line is emphasized through some additional background harmonies and a little chipmunk voice saying “oh, nice!” It kinda sounds like “all night,” too, which I like. Both work for the line!
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Before the final chorus and song outro, I have a section that centers vocals that have been pitched down considerably. I sang those lyrics with the intention of sounding commanding, envisioning myself as a sweaty athletic coach instructing my team to strut it out. It becomes an important moment in the song as a short shift in energy before exploding into the track’s finale, making the loud finale sound even louder than it actually is.
