Music Review: Billie Myers "Kiss The Rain"

Billie Myers

Kiss The Rain

Album: Growing, Pains

Year: 1997

           Billie Myers struggles to connect her long-distance boyfriend in the withdrawn         “Kiss The Rain.”

          A deflated guitar opens the single, setting a disillusioned tone. The static on the phone obscures his response. She says his name several times. She checks the time. It’s 6 pm. Maybe it’s early morning there and she just woke him up. A muffled chuckle breaks through the line. She heaves a relieved sigh. Something is going right. Her corny joke made an impression. However, in the background, she thinks she hears murmurs and giggling. She asks him if he has company over. She adds she would really to talk to him. He has an aloof tone in his voice, as though she’s keeping from something – or someone else. (“Hello, can you hear me?/Am I getting through to you?/Hello, is it late there?/Is there laughter on the line?/Are you sure you're there alone/'Cause I'm trying to explain?/Something's wrong/You just don't sound the same.”)

             In the pre-chorus, she tries to think of something that will keep him in the forefront of his mind. He had mentioned that it was thundering outside.  She asks him go on his porch. (“Why don't you?/Why don't you go outside?/Go outside.”)

            In the chorus, she asks him to let his lips taste the rain as it falls. The rain will be a symbol of her love for him. She says though they even though they are thousands miles away from each other, the sky is theirs. It is something they both see at the same time. She tells him she misses their intimacy. (“Kiss the rain/Whenever you need me/Kiss the rain/Whenever I'm gone too long/If your lips feel lonely and thirsty/Kiss the rain/And wait for the dawn/Keep in mind/We're under the same sky/And the nights/As empty for me as for you/If you feel/You can't wait till morning/Kiss the rain, kiss the rain, kiss the rain.”)

           He says he thinks of all the time. Nonetheless, she counters it that she lost without him. She can’t really think of much else to talk about. She decides a safe topic would be the weather. She says it’s pouring and doesn’t seem to be letting up anytime soon. He says it’s a bit cloudy. It’s as though he’s thinking of other things while he’s on the phone with her. What’s more important than her? She’s not getting the answer she wants and decides to manipulate some reassurance from him. She says there are some awful things going on inside her head. It’s all too much, she says, baby, it’s hard. (“Hello, do you miss me?/I hear you say you do/But not the way I'm missing you/What's new? How's the weather?/Is it stormy where you are?/You sound so close but it feels like you're so far/Oh, would it mean anything/If you knew/What I'm left imagining/In my mind, my mind.”)

In the pre-chorus, she didn’t hear a door creak or birds chirping the last time. She asks to please to do with this her. (“Would you go? Would you go?/Kiss the rain.”)

   The deflated guitar has a solo.

       In the bridge, she’s demands him to not forget her and leave her. (“As you fall over me/Think of me, think of me/Think of me, only me.”)

             An extended chorus is sung. (“Kiss the rain…kiss the rain/kiss the rain/kiss the rain/kiss the rain.”)

             At the end, the static appears again and she wants to know if he’s still there. (“Hello, can you hear me?/Can you hear me?/Can you hear me?”)

             Myers’ icy vocals imagine the worst and then  projects it onto him. She doesn’t believe him and thinks he’s cheating on her. Nothing he says is enough. The more desperate she gets, the more controlling she becomes. At this point, she is grasping at something and can’t admit to herself it’s over. Somebody is going have to be the grown-up eventually and make the hard decision. It won’t be her. But it won’t stop her from blaming him.

          The  choleric  “Kiss The Rain” is one test after another in which there is only failure.