Quinn XCII (pronounced like 92)’s song “Another Day in Paradise,” from his album Change of Scenery, is considerably the best song choice to prove that music is poetry. Some argue that this song is his most popular and known song. I believe that is because of its tropical, vibrant tone reflecting on the ups and downs of life in a cunningly poetic way.
The song begins with a lovely melody of a women and a brief moment of EDM. Quinn XCII does not actually start singing until about 20 seconds after the song has begun. The quick shift between the beginning and Quinn singing opens the viewer to the song and creates excitement and anticipation. The song follows the concept of two events taking place at the same time that correlate with each other–a relationship a women has with life and the overall outlook on life.
The first opening lines of the song are, “Her body’s gold like September/She burns through the night like an ember.” These lines are striking and immediately draw a viewer into understanding what Quinn XCII is feeling and communicates with the viewer how he feels about this women with deliberately comparing her actions to an ember– a heated piece of coal, usually a remain from a fire. I believe that Quinn XCII set the song like this in order to introduce the idea of how people often look at the end of an event rather than enjoying the moment as it is happening.
Quinn XCII follows this idea with the next couple lines singing, “A little sunshine cause she need it/A dose of rainfall in the evenin’.” Quinn XCII believes that people often take for granted what life has to offer and the small things people do not cherish like the sunshine and rain. As the song continues, he continues on the path of using fire-related diction to describe the difficulty of appreciating life and allows the viewer to feel comfortable by stating that this woman does too. He continues with the lines:
Loose cannon but still it won’t fire
No need to leave, spend our whole lives
Another day in paradise
By using the word fire in the context of firing a cannon, I believe he also uses this word multi-purposefully and strategically playing it into the role of fire vs. ocean. He brings up the idea of a wave/ocean and compares it to the complexities of life. Quinn XCII uses these words at the beginning of each chorus, “All the good comes in waves/ I bide my time by the ocean.” I believe his song is explaining the battle of getting caught up on the insignificant troubles life brings and encourages the reader to truly look as life as a gift and live everyday to the fullest. He uses these words repeatedly throughout the song to ensure the viewer understands and listens to the words to engrain and communicate this idea.
Quinn XCII does not explicitly say that life is tough, things will get better until the last part of the song, during the bridge of the song. He says, “Mistakes we made, they made us who we are/These games we played they got us really far/That shit to most won’t ever mean a thing/But it got us here, so I hold on”. With these words, Quinn XCII communicates this idea about life through personally experiences and experiences he has witnessed.