Song of the Week: Over the Rhine's "Here It Is"

The Committee To Save Christmas Music from Inanity has prepared a new playlist for radio stations as an alternative to holiday pablum. Last week it was "All That I Want" from The Weepies. This week, "Here It Is" from another husband-wife band, Over the Rhine. I like just about anything from their Christmas project, Snow Angels. You can listen to it online for free here.  This song was written about reconciliation after a rough patch in their marriage.  Don't you like the line about accepting love and life "as is"--

Somewhere down the road
We’ll lift up our glass
And toast the moment
And moments past
The heartbreak and laughter
The joy and the tears
The scary beauty
Of what’s right here

I cried when I wrote this
I’ll always remember
The worst kind of lonely
Is alone in December

The act of forgiveness
Is always a mystery
The melting of ice
And the future of history

Some call it obsession
I call it commitment
I make my confession
I make it in public

I hope that it’s helpful
That others can use it
That it’s more than my ego
And my need to abuse it

I’m wrappin’ up my love this Christmas
I’m wrappin’ up my love this Christmas
I’m wrappin’ up my love this Christmas
And here it is

The leaves on the oak tree
Hold on through the winter
They’re brown and their brittle
They clatter together

I can’t seem to let go
I’m so scared of losing
The deeper the love goes
The deeper the bruising

The trouble with talking
Is it makes you sound clever
The trouble with waiting
Is you’ll just wait forever

There’s a loop of excuses
That plays in your mind
And makes the truth
Even harder to find

I’m wrappin’ up my love this Christmas
I’m wrappin’ up my love this Christmas
I’m wrappin’ up my love this Christmas
And here it is

When they blow Gabriel’s horn
Rip fiction from fact
I want to get caught
In some radical act

Of love and redemption
The sound of warm laughter
Some true conversation
With a friend or my lover

Somewhere down the road
We’ll lift up our glass
And toast the moment
And moments past

The heartbreak and laughter
The joy and the tears
The scary beauty
Of what’s right here

I’m wrappin’ up my love this Christmas
I’m wrappin’ up my love this Christmas
I’m wrappin’ up my love this Christmas
And here it is