Rapid Eye Movement

Album: This Loud Morning (2011)
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Songfacts®:

  • On this album closer, Cook sings of his desire to, "kill the blinding lights of day." The singer's life changed after winning American Idol and losing his older brother to cancer. "The world around me got a little loud, so there were mornings where I woke up and it was just like, 'OK, I just need to stay in bed and try again tomorrow,'" Cook told MTV News.
  • In an interview with AINow Cook explained he wanted This Loud Morning to have a loose theme that is open to interpretation by the listener. He described the opening track "Circadian" as using sleep as a means of escaping life, and this track being about waking up from a dream and having to face actual reality.
  • The album title comes from a line in this song: "Give me one more quiet night, before this loud morning gets it right, and does me in."
  • Rapid eye movement sleep is a normal stage of sleep characterized by the random movement of the eyes. It typically occupies about a quarter of total sleep, and during a normal night of shut-eye, humans usually experience about four or five periods of REM sleep. Vividly recalled dreams mostly occur during this stage.

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