Music Review // Tig "Ferris Wheel"

 

When I was a kid I loved going on the ferris wheel because it felt like you could see everything from up there.  As I got older, and heights became less of my friend, I start sticking with the carousel because it felt more grounded.   Tig has managed to use that idea of a "Ferris Wheel" in this song to not only capture the lyrics but also the musical aspects of it all.  There is something sort of magical about a ferris wheel as you start at the bottom, reach the peak of heights and then come back down.  It also has a lot to do, within this song, as being part of the vantage point.

"Ferris Wheel" begins with these slow, chill beats that can make me think of mall pop.  As the verses begin, there is a soft, somber style in here like Lana Del Rey.  Then this line hits which say "I wanna see the world from your shoes" and just a flurry of guitars come in, changing it to a rather more chaotic and louder sound, before drifting off into what feels like a post rock sound.  You could listen to this song and without hearing the vocals just think about it in terms of getting onto the ferris wheel, going up, hitting the top and then coming back down.  

Lyrically Tig uses the idea of the ferris wheel to demonstrate not just the motion- the highs and lows of both the ferris wheel and life, relationships, etc- but also the perspective of it.  The way that these lyrics can go from "I got hurt last week when I thought you didn't want to meet for dinner" to the ending which says "I'd do it again" you just get that full range of emotions, much like how the ferris wheel ride itself brings you back to the start but it's not quite the same you've been at the top and seen things you didn't see when you were "waiting in line for the ferris wheel"

To not only be able to think of the ferris wheel ride as a cycle like in the same way you'd spend a year of your life or the starting point to the ending point of a relationship, it's not just about the journey and how you got there, which this song does discuss and is also about, but it's also largely about the idea of reaching that peak.  Sometimes you'd ride that ferris wheel to see across a park and locate someone or another ride you wanted to go on, but you'd always come down afterwards with new knowledge and a fresh sense of things because at the top you'd see things you otherwise wouldn't on the ground.  This song takes you to that top and lets you see those things.