Aimee Mann's 'Today's the Day'

Better pack your bags and run
Or stay until the job is done
Or maybe you can sit and hope
That providence will fray the rope
And sink like a stone
Or go it alone

And isn't it enough - for you?
Isn't it enough?

So better pack your bags and run
And send it to oblivion
Where you don't look like anyone
That anyone would care about
And do what you do
'Til it buries you

And isn't it enough - for you?
Isn't it enough?

And baby - isn't it enough?
Like Major Reno at the bluff
Wondering aloud if help is on the way
And baby, isn't this your chance
To make a break with circumstance
Isn't it enough to prove today's the day?
Isn't it enough to prove today's the day?

General conceit: Run away and start anew, leave a negative situation that's keeping you from being free; can be widely applied to many situations - breaking away from a relationship, leaving home, leaving a job. The song featured in the 2002 movie 'Enough', giving it associations with escaping abuse. The song has a gentle and introspective tone that encourages and accompanies difficult movement/change.

Illustrating lyrics

The Beatles

Mike Harding

Belle and Sebastian (Pamela Tait)

I was interested in the comic-style interpretation of 'She's Leaving Home' by Julian Allen from The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics book, and found another similar piece for the same song ostensibly by Tony Bannister for BBC4's 'Sgt Pepper's Musical Revolution'.

Artists of note

Nagabe

David Wiesner

Shima Shinya

John McNaught

Development

Switch to 'Love in a Vacuum'

Wanted to convey the idea of a love that burns brightly and intensely but quickly burns out and ends in harm; a sense of a shooting star in the vacuum of space