Lost in Translation Vol. 9 REVEALED

Lost in Translation is back with the answer to this week's song! While we did have a winner this week, it took an additional hint (and a lot of hard work) to pull it off.

So it’s the Easter Bank Holiday weekend as they refer to it over here in the UK. Back in Bermuda it’s also a long weekend (but only three days, with no Easter Monday). This is the first holiday weekend we’ve experienced since being based in the UK full-time and it feels like . . . just about any other day! I guess this is what retirement will feel like, where there’s not much to separate one day from the next. That’s not to say that life will be boring, far from it in fact. We’re continuing to settle into the new house, with bedroom furniture arriving on Monday and a train trip down to Preston on Tuesday to pick up our new car. Thankfully most of the big moving tasks are just about complete (or will be this week) and we can begin to settle down into a routine.

We’re continuing to explore the countryside that surrounds our new home and have now amassed half a dozen separate walking routes, some of which can be mixed and matched with each other for even longer walks. Last weekend we hiked from our front door up to the summit of Gragareth, a small mountain at 627 metres and the second highest peak in Lancashire (we’re just over the county “border” in North Yorkshire). This afternoon’s outing was a little more laid back with a 6-mile circular walk across sheep-filled fields to take in the lovely village of Burton in Lonsdale, with its 19th century church and the impressive remains of a 12th century motte and bailey castle. It was a lovely walk, one of our favorites so far.

And now what you’ve been waiting for! It’s time to provide the answer to Monday’s Lost in Translation.

The Translated Lyric

Here’s the lyric I provided:

I just needed a little sign.

I walked behind the sun, leaving my weight behind

Chasing the sun

I just needed a place to find it.

I celebrated there.

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The Original Lyric

And here’s the original lyric as it was before being passed through half a dozen languages:

All I need is a little sign

To get behind this sun and cast this weight of mine

Get behind the sun

All I need is the place to find

And there I'll celebrate

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The Song

I definitely tried to increase the difficulty level a little with this week’s lyric, both in terms of the song I selected and in the initial clues I provided. This proved successful in that the answer didn’t immediately pop up in the comments as it has every week for the past month and there was certainly much more activity in the comments than there had been recently. My initial clue for this week’s song was “we’re heading back to the late 90s for a female-voiced ballad, a magical song from what has become, in my mind, a stone cold downtempo classic. The single did chart, albeit at a middling level, in both the UK and the Netherlands.” My clue was, admittedly, a little cagey as it implied that people should be looking for a female-fronted band (my first misdirection). The “downtempo classic” moniker (my second misdirection), while true, was also intended to direct people down the trip hop rabbit hole (think Portishead, Morcheeba, Sneaker Pimps, etc.), which it did. Several people were dipping into the comments throughout the day on Monday with guesses and a robust discussion ensued; it was a lot of fun to see the engagement!

A month ago I decided that I’d post a Note in the middle of the week providing an additional hint or two if nobody had come up with the correct answer. This week was the first opportunity to do so and it’s hard to say what helped most, the hint itself or the dogged determination of longtime supporter and friend of Joy in the Journey Andy, who publishes the always fabulous The Vinyl Room. Within hours of posting the hint (“for their debut album, the electronic duo brought in an unknown female singer who co-wrote and provided vocals for both this track and another on the album.”) Andy replied with the correct answer. I was excited. And impressed. Knowing that this wasn’t necessarily one of Andy’s preferred genres (he acknowledged “I wasn’t familiar with the song, band or album at all), I wondered exactly how he’d managed to come up with the correct song from the meagre hints provided. His answer was, in a word, mindboggling!

“I searched for articles and rankings of best downtempo/electronica records from the 90s. I narrowed it down (by hand, of course, as there were no pre-made filters) using debut+duo+late 90s as criteria. I then searched for relevant albums on Wiki and checked personnel. After many failed attempts, I stumbled upon this record, noted a female name was credited with lyrics twice, searched the lyrics of the only one of those two songs that had an article link (because I remembered you mentioned it was released as a single) and voila.”

I particularly loved the “and voila” ending, I literally laughed out loud! I mean, come on man, seriously?!?! “AND VOILA”—hahaha—absolutely fucking hilarious!! Andy credited some degree of clinical insanity and his legal industry background for his detective skills. I’m not so secretly leaning towards the former 🤣🤣.

For those that didn’t see my conversation with Andy in Notes, or weren’t able to guess the song, the lyric is from the track “All I Need” from Moon Safari, the 1998 studio debut of the French band Air. The track, co-written and sung by Beth Hirsch, was the album’s third and final single; Hirsch also co-wrote and provided vocals for the non-single track “You Make It Easy”. Although the album made the top 20 in half a dozen countries and the lead single “Sexy Boy” was a massive hit, “All I Need” is definitely a deeper cut and proved to be a perfect candidate for Lost in Translation. Here’s the video of the song, cued up at the start of the lyric:

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Feel free to jump into the comments with your thoughts:

• How did you do? Were you close? Or completely stumped?

• Did you know this song already?

• Would you have been able to name the song from the original lyrics?

We’ll see you again on Monday with a new installment of Lost in Translation. Until then, happy listening!!