There’s a well-known British Rom-Com film from 1985, ‘Letter to Brezhnev’, in which two young women from Liverpool head out for a night on the town and meet two visiting Soviet sailors on shore leave. While one of them only looks for a casual good time, the other falls deeply in love with one of the sailors, who must soon return to his ship.
Missing him and feeling that economically depressed 1980s Liverpool offers her even less of a future than does Vladivostok, she writes a letter to the then Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev asking to move to the USSR to be with him (the sailor, not Brezhnev).
And there’s no fairytale ending such as he miraculously reappears at the airport just as she’s about to board the plane, clutching a British visa. She does actually fly out in the final scene, probably never to be seen again or to end up as James Bond’s nemesis in a remake of ‘To Russia with Love’.
I wondered if a similar premise might lie at the heart of Valerie Melina’s latest single, ‘Navy Eyes’. No clue is offered other than that it is a “bittersweet” song. But is she the “Moth to a flame” that is “Lost in the waves”?
Certainly some of the lyrics point in that direction, for example:
“Encaptured by your gaze/Couldn’t hold the storm at bay
Lost in the waves/Ooh/Then how can I resist?
I’ve forgotten how to swim/Now I’m falling in, falling in”
And:
“So I’ll succumb/Deep in your ocean
I’m going under, baby/I’m drowning in navy eyes
I’ll never resurface/I’ll never resurface”
Indeed the entire song is replete with maritime references.
On the other hand the whole sea/waves/ocean/going under thing might just be a metaphor for getting sucked helplessly into a relationship in which you know you will eventually drown in, with the title, ‘Navy Eyes’ being the allegorical link.
Musically there’s a slight variation on the usual theme of a Valerie Melina song, it’s a tad more ethereal and in patches channeling an Aurora song. (I couldn’t think who it was until Aurora turned up in an advert that followed the song, would you believe it).
And as always her smooth vocal hits the mark perfectly. It’s Valerie’s very own trademark.
Find her on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/valerie.melina.artist
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/valeriemelinamusic/
