Penniless Cove’s “River Lea” is a Breakup Song Imbued With Creativity and Poetic Wit

PennilessCove1_crop — Penniless Cove, photo courtesy the artist

“River Lea” by Penniless Cove begins with what promises to be an unusual story of a brief romance colored by deceit and interpersonal intrigue accompanied by impressionistic strums of acoustic guitar or ukulele. But as the song develops, the narrative swells accompanied by keyboards, drums and piano and then back to voice and guitar as details of the story emerge. The metaphor of a voyage and by boat and a day out on the riverbanks as the course of a relationship and the very end when the narrator tells us “No the tide is not right, nor the chemistry.” The latter is a poetic way of saying, in brief, that the relationship wasn’t going any place she wanted to, that it wasn’t oriented in a way that felt right and that ultimately there was nothing really there even if it seemed so at the outset. Most break-up songs are a bit more blunt but, if indeed this is one, “River Lea” conveys such so-over-it-let’s-move-on disdain with a creative flourish. Listen to “River Lea” on Soundcloud and follow Penniless Cove at the links provided.