Monday, September 30, 2013

Rae & Christian - The Ballad Of Roza Shanina ft Ed Harcourt



Taken from their forthcoming third album, Mercury Rising – their first since 2001's Sleepwalking – it features the soft, crumpled croon of Ed Harcourt and is based on the life of Soviet sniper, Roza Shanina, who fought and died during World War II. Having put herself forward to serve her country following the death of three of her brothers in battle, she went on to become the first Soviet female sniper to be awarded the Order of Glory and died trying to shield a wounded soldier in 1945. It's this context that fuels the lilting strum of The Ballad, with Harcourt singing from the perspective of Shanina and a loved one, the chorus of "Over and over, I'll wait for you, my Roza, my Roza", mocked by the line that precedes it: "one day all the shooting stops...One day came too late for you and me"..

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