Afterglow - Luna Li
Afterglow - Luna Li
10 April 2020 - single
Luna Li produces “Afterglow” by imagining a difficult conversation. Strings are pulled, literally, on a harp and through an orchestral arrangement. Figuratively, they pull at her heart while she attempts to find a way to let someone down. She’s not ready for something that seems so ideal. We hear two voices: a higher pitch in the chorus and the regular tone in the verses. These two voices merge at the end when Luna Li owns her intention. Even though this person brought brightness to her life, she needs to turn away from it. If she ever comes back, it’ll be after the sun sets and all that’s left is an afterglow.
The strings pull the listener into the melody, aching back and forth while a piano walks across the opening chords. Luna sounds jaded, recalling how another person would “stir” her heart. It wasn’t all clean. There were “vinegar smiles,” or an inauthentic attempt to smile through bitterness. Luna notes that they “never believed me” when she defined who she was. Luna doesn’t entirely know who she is on her own yet, and now someone is trying to know her at that same level.
At the chorus, Luna sings in a higher voice. Instead of pacing along, the chords glow at every downbeat. She takes the side of this other person, projecting what they might say to her. “I spoke all the words that you said/don’t tell me your loving is dead,” and it’s clear that this person was methodical in their approach. They wanted to go through the motions and do all the right things. But things aren’t moving how they expected. Where did the glow go?
The instrumental break features a guitar solo. It begins climbing with a bright tone before settling off into more somber notes. It’s reaching across the memories these two shared. There aren’t regrets in any of them, but they still need to come to an end. Luna returns to reflection in her second verse. She remembers unoriginal people, “carbon copy lady,” that never appreciated her dreams. They held her back, keeping her from understanding how to be individual. Turning back to the conversation, Luna admits that she needs to be alone. “If I ever met you in my dreams…I would not say hello” and would instead wait for when it’s safe in the afterglow. With another chorus, Luna listens to the other person’s plea. Before letting them finish, Luna ends it. “I’ll catch you in the afterglow.”
Luna admits that this person was good to her; “You said that you would never leave me” among the right words that were spoken. But they got in the way of her daydream. It was so good, that it made it difficult for Luna to know if she was ready. In this tragedy of bad timing, Luna has found the right person at the wrong time. She still needs to “explore/how to be alone.”