Glass in our coffee
Towels on trees
Blood from your nostrils
Blood from your ears
Soil splattered on the walls like drops of blood
Home is so sad
On the evening of August 4, 2020, a large fire ignited at the Port of Beirut, setting off an explosion of ammonium nitrate, sending a colossal mushroom cloud into the air and sending a supersonic blast levelling the already struggling city. There were at least 215 reported deaths and 7,500 injuries, leaving an estimated 300,000 people homeless.
Two of those 7,500 injuries belonged to the band members of the dream-pop trio Postcards. Frontwoman Julia Sabra tells KEXP, "The three of us were at home when the explosion hit, as we live around the same area near the port. I was home with Pascal, our drummer, and he got severely injured, but I was saved by chance because I stood with my back to a wall. I won't go into the details of the whole thing... We luckily made it to the hospital in time, thanks to our neighbors and friends." (The band discussed the explosion with KEXP's Sound & Vision last year.)
You were lying where
you had cut my hair
right beneath the table
where we eat the bread you make
Home is so sad
Today, KEXP premieres the new single and accompanying video for "Home is So Sad," inspired by the disaster. Sabra explains that a few days after the explosion, "my cousin posted the Philip Larkin poem 'Home is So Sad' on Instagram, and it struck a chord with me. The explosion almost took away everything that stands for home: my actual home, the home I found in a loved one, and my city as the home I lived in all my life."
"We wrote the music during one of our first rehearsals in September, with no kick because Pascal couldn't bend his right leg yet. I found myself singing 'home is so sad' as a chorus, and the rest of the words flowed."
There’s a hole
where your knee should be
but I am not afraid
I am not afraid
Home is so sad
It stays as it was left
"Home is So Sad" will appear on the band's upcoming album After the Fire, Before the End, out in the fall of 2021 on t3 records.
