How Best to See the Light

One voice. One piano. One cell phone.

  • I'm slipping down the alleyway
    Through places where I used to play
    A stranger to my neighbourhood
    Oh how it's changed but I knew that I never could

    I'm longing for the longer days
    When time was slow and friends were made
    The future wide as open sky
    And all the stars would look me in the eye

    Chorus
    But as I look into the past
    So many things that didn't last
    Could I have changed the way that it went?

    I'm walking down this winding road
    And where it's leading I don’t know
    When to lead and when to follow, oh?

    I'm fonder than I used to be
    Of racing cars and skinning knees
    Maybe I'll learn or maybe not
    Either way, I see what fate has got

    So this is how the story goes
    I never guessed, I didn't know
    When all the things that pass us by
    Return as questions without answers why

  • How best to see the light
    Than to bring it to the darkest night?
    How best to see the dark
    Than to bring it right inside our heart?
    How best to see the sun
    Than to see all it has done?
    How best to see the stars than in the darkest of night?

    Ooooh ooooh
    the darkest of the nights
    Ooooh ooooooh

    How best to see the sky
    Than to reach your arms open wide?
    How best to see the moon
    Than to watch the way the waters move?
    How best to feel the cold
    Than to have someone to hold?
    How best to see the light than in the darkest of nights?
    How best to see the light than in the darkest of nights?

  • I come without anything
    But a hunger not yet named and yet it stands like February, stark and true
    I come to you: I'm hopeful and I'm tender and I love you

    I'm hushed and I'm mesmorized
    Won't you tell me, if I blink then will I turn your beauty into a mirage?
    I watch and wait your presence only ever getting stronger

    Oh mirror moon
    Oh moon mirror
    Oh mirror moon
    Oh moon mirror

    Please come a' travelling
    Across a thousand seas and maybe then you'll tell me how the waters move
    The blind, the blue, they feel their own devotion when they're near you

    You are contented
    To make your magic in the dark, to travel in the night
    To live so proud and quiet in the shadow of the sunlight

    Oh mirror moon
    Oh moon mirror
    Oh mirror moon
    Oh moon mirror

    I would give anything
    To rule the night as you do, so perfect and loved
    Your light, a crown, a beggar has more riches than a kingdom

    I come without anything but a heart that once was empty
    Now it's overflowing, filling with your light
    You heal, you glow, revealing what can only show at midnight
    Oh mirror moon
    Oh moon mirror
    Oh mirror moon
    Oh moon mirror

    Oh mirror moon
    Oh moon mirror
    Oh mirror moon
    Oh moon mirror

  • I met you at the market
    I don't know what we started
    The trouble with my heart is
    It's hopeful as the dew

    White sneakers on the table
    Before they hit the pavement
    The intoxicating fable
    Of something fresh and new

    Chorus
    I know I have to let you but I'm holding on
    I feel the push and the pull can't stop holding onto
    The dream of you

    The coffee shop is closing
    Cupid's arrow's barely showing
    Our lover's game is growing
    I even know your middle names

    Juggling all the voices
    And the disappearing choices
    You're getting way too boisterous
    Have you always been this way?

    Chorus

    Meet me at the station
    When all the seats are taken
    I suppose the constellations
    Told us this could never could be

    The hopes of us were shattered
    The new paint has all been splattered
    Our love forever scattered
    But I have my perfect dream

    Chorus

  • You, the bringer of treats
    I am down on my knees
    I'm praying for a sunny day, but not as much as you

    My life, depending on this:
    Trading words for a kiss
    Must I leave the warmth of sun, just to see the moon?

    Chorus
    A beaming sun
    A monarch wing
    A gentle hug
    The scent of spring
    I can not say why my heart sings

    You, with caramel eyes
    Me, with plenty of smiles
    We're hoping for a brand new day, something just like this

    You, the bringer of treats
    I am down on my knees
    I've fallen for the simple things, just as much as you did

    Violet sky
    A toothless grin
    These and so many things
    Laughing eyes
    A golden ring
    So, so many things
    An apple pie
    A moonlit
    ...
    Hot July
    Meandering
    I can not say why my heart sings
    Why my heart sings

  • I have a habit of falling in love with each beautiful moment I meet
    Want to hold it, want to keep it
    Want to show it all about the now or never
    Tried to bottle it up but it just flew away

    I have a habit of falling in love with each beautiful breath that I breathe
    Want to taste it, want to chase it
    Want to show it all about the now or never
    I put into my cup and my cup overflowed

    Oooh!
    If you love it let it go!
    Oooh!
    If you love it let it go!

    I have a habit of falling in love with each beautiful soul that I see
    Want to be them, really see them
    Want to show them all about the now or never
    They won’t fit in a box, on a hook or a chain

    You've won my heart
    And soon we'll part
    But just before you go
    I love you, don't you know

    I have a habit of falling in love with each beautiful moment I meet
    There's another, then another
    They can show me all about the now or never, now or never
    When I'm falling in love the whole world comes alive

    Chorus
    Chorus

  • Who could've known
    That the beauty of the sunrise,
    the promise of the light could make me cry
    If we're lucky, we get second and third chances,
    Learn the steps before we're dancing in the light
    Hope we get it right

    Once in a while
    I hear my baby crying
    I can't stand the pain inside his gentle heart
    Don't know what he's hiding
    We're all afraid of dying
    Come, love, please just show me what's inside
    While we're still alive

    It keeps breaking my heart
    It keeps breaking my heart
    It keeps breaking my heart, again and again
    It keeps breaking my heart
    It keeps breaking my heart
    It keeps breaking my heart 'til it opens

    I never knew
    All the ways that I could hurt you
    What carelessness could make a young girl do
    Didn't mean to make you angry
    Step on toes or get too fancy
    How can I just forgive me and move on?
    I can't right the wrongs

    I couldn't give
    What I didn't have inside me
    Still can't give you all the credit you deserve
    How could you ever love me
    All the faults and all the mystery
    As I age I'm getting wrinkly
    Can't you see?
    Time won't wait for me

    Chorus

    I forget why it is that we were fighting
    Sometimes I have to fight to feel alive
    You pull my chain
    And I'm as stubborn as a pitbull
    I stop listening
    I start singing to myself
    Know it all so well

    Chorus

    Now it's open

  • The wind is howling like a coyote
    Something is a'foot
    But I am staying put

    It speaks of things I don't yet know
    But like a Japanese movie
    Somehow it cuts right through me

    I just woke from a night of a thousand dreams

    And secrets in forgotten tongues
    How could we let it break?
    Was it grandma's worst mistake?

    A dance that I have never learned
    But the swaying is familiar
    And I can hear that distant whisper

    I just woke from a night of a thousand dreams

    Picking up the pieces, disconnected from tradition
    Like the child of a child
    Trying to put them back together without a picture of the puzzle
    I'm the child of a child

    Oooooh

    And now I whimper in the stillness
    Something's passed me by
    And I couldn't tell you why

    And all those dreams that I've forgotten
    Just an imprint or a feeling
    What were they all revealing?

    I just woke from a night of a thousand dreams
    And I just lost a thousand dreams

  • Love leads, love leads us right back to the centre
    When we're circling 'round to find the answer
    And it's hidden deep within us

    Love brings, love brings us right back to the middle
    When the edges are so tough and brittle
    It can soften us, a little

    That is love
    That is love
    That is love
    That is love
    That is love
    That is love

    Love brings, the farthest people back together
    When the words won't ever make it better
    It can help to keep us tender

    Love waits, 'til we've exhausted every reason
    It knows no bounds and knows no seasons
    And it never stops believin'

    Chorus

    Love knows, love knows us in our darkest moments
    Love is soft enough to break us open
    And be the thing that keeps us going

    Love lifts, love lifts the things we can't look under
    It can calm us in the face of thunder
    It's the holy place of wonder

    Chorus

    This is love
    This is love
    This is love
    This is love
    This is love
    This is love

It can creep in when you least expect it. The tiniest amount can change everything. It brightens, illuminates and incorrigibly draws us towards it.
Such is the power of light.

In "How Best to See the Light," Anne Janelle's fourth full-length album, she follows the light, even from the darkest of places.

Each one of her nine original songs beams with hope, a beacon for muddled times. "I began writing these songs almost like a safety blanket for myself. I have taken solace in singing them and I hope others will find comfort in them too," Anne says.

The recording concept started with a simple voice memo message to a friend. "I usually use my phone to record new song ideas. I had a song that I wanted to share with a friend so I performed the whole thing and then texted it to her," Anne says. And there was some magic to the recording, a familiarity in its often-heard tones and distortion. "I was talking with my engineer, wanting to try and capture that intimate sound in the studio. We talked about so many options but, as often happens, the best solution was also the simplest!" And so, she recorded the album, singing and playing the Yamaha upright piano in her living room with nothing more than her cell phone and scrawled lyrics on the pages in front of her.

Throughout the album, her luminous melodies soar, accompanied simply by unadorned piano chords. Though detailed and personal, Anne's lyrics resonate far and wide. From the nostalgic "When to Lead and When to Follow" to the upbeat and innocent "The Ice Cream Man," Anne explores themes of family, including her Danish-Canadian heritage. In "A Thousand Dreams" and "Keeps Breaking my Heart" she wrestles with incoming wrinkles, internal turmoil and forgotten dreams. In "How Best to See the Light" and "Love Is ... " she gives us hope that the future is bright and full of light.