If Only You Knew by An Atlas To Follow
In 2012 An Atlas To Follow released Golden Sun, a six track EP, and toured through 2014. Since then their website has become entirely Chinese and they haven’t posted on Facebook one time. This Knoxville, Tennessee modern indie folk band consisted of Thomas Smith (lead singer), Zac Smith, Amanda Kinney, & Josh Jones. Currently An Atlas To Follow has 6,053 monthly Spotify listeners making them an excellent candidate for our Artist Spotlight.
An Atlas To follow slowly formed into a four piece band over the years of 2009 and 2010. Thomas and Amanda met and discovered each other in a study abroad program in 2009 and started singing together shortly thereafter. Golden Sun was An Atlas To Follow’s only album, although they did release an album under another name in 2010, Suite C.
The first track on the Golden Sun album to catch my ear was Be Kind To Boston. I loved the harmonies and how the song builds up. However, after I dived into the album a new favorite quickly emerged. Enjoy the second track from the Golden Sun album If Only You Knew by An Atlas to Follow. Find lyrics and the meaning below.
Lyrics (Corrected from songlyrics.com)
Let me tell you dear,
I know I said it’s just a story
But the truth is
I write words to form a crutch
to help me get by
It wasn’t my intention to leave
you out in the cold
I wrote this all down and I put it in a song
Cause I found that my words fail me
When I need them most
I’ve got a way with words
But I’m not sure it’s the good kind
Cause I let them get away from me
And I just hope that you’ll find
That your name is hidden somewhere
Deep between most of them
Bah-di-dah-dah…..
I once had a mind to let this run its course
But the wind and the rain had their way with us
Cause something deep inside me said I had to learn the hard way
I’m scared of being alone, but I’m scared to look you in the eyes
And ask you if you’d like to dance with me
Because I’ll make a fool of myself
These words are nothing more than pebbles thrown
In desperation at your window pane
Just hoping that the rhythmic sound
will help you sleep tonight
If only you knew
If only you knew
If only you knew
If only you knew
If only you knew
If only you knew
Bah-di-dah-dah…..
If only you knew
If only you knew
And if only you knew
If only you knew
Bah-di-dah-dah…..
Meaning
I really really like this song. There’s something magical in the bah-di-dahs. It feels like its taking me somewhere. It makes me close my eyes and smile.
I really like to dive into the meaning of a song’s lyrics, but I love it when it artists tells us (most of the time) what the song is actually about. In an interview, An Atlas To Follow expanded on the meaning of the album and what each song meant to the writer.
“Golden Sun” has a lot to do with unrequited love, or rather, unrequited feelings, with the two bright spots on the EP being Call this Home and the title track. Louisiana was born from the frustration of still carrying around the weight of regrets and remorse from a failed relationship. Really it wasn’t a relationship at all; I was just very emotionally involved. The song does it’s best to say without saying that I was tired. Tired of having her in the back of my head every other day. Tired of not being able to move forward due to the delusional hope that something where I was might change for the better. Be Kind to Boston, If Only You Knew and Too Late to Say I Love You all come from the same situation where I had some very strong feelings toward a certain someone but knew that they weren’t shared. If you listen to them in the order listed earlier you can see the thematic arc of the “situation”: from hope to desire to desperation to loss. It all worked out in the end though, she changed her mind… and that album is in the works.”
I love happy endings! I hope y’all did too.
You can find An Atlas To Follow on Facebook, Spotify, or Youtube. You can purchase their album on iTunes or through Amazon. A large portion of this post was taken from an Interview found on sonicbids.com.
