On Leisure Society and the Ivor Novello Award

Lately, I’ve had a rash of search hits, of various phrasings, looking for the lyrics to the Leisure Society’s song, “The Last of the Melting Snow.”

I bought their album, The Sleeper, about a month ago, and I’ve really been taken by it. It’s my innate Anglophilia, no doubt. 🙂

The upswing in interest may be that the song has been nominated for an Ivor Novella Award, competing against Elbow’s “One Day Like This” for Best Song Musically & Lyrically.

Such a nomination is an impressive feat for an unsigned band. (Note, the song’s video is through the link.)

As for the lyrics, based on a listen to the song, this is roughly what I make out:

Wait all year
For the parting shot
For the epilogue

For the moment when it stops
And the days fade away

In no doubt
As I leave this town
I will not return

For I haven’t got
The room
In my head, for these things

And America
Seems an awful long way to go
As we hide ourselves
In the last of the melting snow

So we find
In the fading light
Of the wintertime

That there’s nothing left to try
All is best
Left unsaid

And America
Seems an awful long way to go
As we hide ourselves
In the last of the melting snow
In the last of the melting snow
In the last of the melting snow

I think it’s quite a touching song. It’s sad and wistful, and the performance really puts that across well.

Personally, as much as I love Elbow, I’d probably give the edge to “The Last of the Melting Snow.” :cheers: