Anything

But we're sealing our lips for the someday

When the needle and the vinyl play

All the songs of our pain

Songs that explain

All our circles and strains

Which begs the question: "What the heck are circles and strains?"

One John Adams, who named his blog after a line "Anything" (as I did this one) answered this question better than I could. Though his blog "Circles and Strains" has since been abandoned to the wilderness of the internet, here's what he had to say, way back whenever.

" The song is about their band being down in the dumps, haggard with the writing and recording process. They're tired, depressed, sick of seeing each other, sick of singing the same songs over and over, sick of hearing their songs over and over, sick of wondering whether or not they still have it, etc. The only thing that keeps them together, ironically, is pain. The pain inside them that fueled the creativity to write those songs in the first place. The pain that is reflected in every melancholy note the guitar plays. The pain in every percussive note missed due to sheer exhaustion. The pain that drove the pen to write words that sear the conscience with their honesty. The pain in taking the risk to bare their souls in order to record an hour's worth of music. Most of all, the pain transmitted in every breath the singer breathes, struggling to relay with honesty and conviction the battle going on inside her. Those feelings that drive us to our wit's end—seemingly on a quest to be exorcised—are our circles and strains. "

Man, I wish I had written that.

And it's an interesting comment on what, exactly, is the "essence" of Sixpence, of what they are as a band. I've brought up certain repeated motifs -- being trapped, being weary, longing, and the big dumb obvious divine discontent itself -- each of which suggests flux, a temporary state that always involves hope and change even if it is rooted in pain. Adams, however, places pain itself at the center of Sixpence's work. It's hard to argue with that -- even if pain is a catalyst, if tension really is a passing note, pain may just be the first and most immediate force driving the songs of Sixpence.

"Anything" is a song about wanting to give up, wanting a sign that it's time to quit, a sign the band wouldn't get for years after "Anything" was written. One wonders, then, what sign, burning-bush-type or otherwise, they got when they decided to regroup and start the band again. Surely, it is not only pain that compels the two principal members of Sixpence None the Richer to continue their partnership -- joy and beauty are there, undeniably, if subtler.

But watch, just watch Leigh singing one of the band's new songs earlier this year at the Greenbelt festival , as she repeats "I've failed to make it...I've failed to make it..." The guitar shrieking, her body twisting and swaying -- circles and strains here become present tense verbs, not abstract ideas. The song circles, the singer strains, and more than a decade after "Anything," Sixpence is still making songs that explain.

Watch a performance of "Anything" here.