The Seattle-based band, Among Authors, and their most recent release, "Butterfly Christmas" is an intimate, yet expansive experience paired with delicate instrumentals. A sorrowful Christmas carol consisting of mourning, grief, and loss during the holiday season, highlighting the beauty of emotional willpower to turn over one's emotions to comfort another's.
"Butterfly Christmas" pushes the barriers of a holiday song. It feels like a ballad many can connect with. This grievous anthem reflects the emotional strength needed to navigate the holiday season with the experience of loss. With its evocative lyrics and gentle tune, the melody not only honors the sorrow we bear and the love that upholds us but provides comfort to those familiar with heartbreak.
The song unfolds with delicate piano notes, and angelic vocals, the opening line: “You took that call, not knowing at all, this one would bring you to your knees,” pulling us into the moment. It’s a line that hits close to home, mostly for those who have received world-altering news over the suddenness of the phone. Yet rather than dwelling solely in sadness, “Butterfly Christmas” moves toward celebrating the quiet heroism of someone who, despite this hardship, shows up for their family year after year. Pushing their pain aside and pulling themselves together for other's happiness.
The double meaning of the lyrics, "We can't explain why a butterfly dies, on its way down to the sea" is a line that lingers, capturing the fragility of life itself, and the complexity and vagueness of loss. During a time of the year when everyone is singing songs of joy and union, and celebrating peace, the holidays simply did not hold that for some.
The song paints a vivid image so specific, yet universal to everyone's cherished family memories "Dad’s stealing cookies from the hot cookie sheet, while we shake the presents to hear what we could not yet see,” the verse is ridden with nostalgia, a feeling of the lingering of the past. Bringing us, the listeners, closer to Among Authors' unique, yet relatable holiday sorrow.
Just as delicate as the lyrics, are the vocals and instruments themselves. The choir in the last chorus takes the song to a state of subtle ascension, while the soft piano seems like a loving hug to those of us who know how it feels to have someone missing on the holidays. The arrangement has a feeling of closeness that reflects the intensely intimate nature of the song.
"Butterfly Christmas" reminds us that holidays are not only about joy, but it is also about the love that, against all odds, draws us together; and those who make that holiday magic come to life.
