“Fineshrine” by Purity Ring
Purity Ring’s “Fineshrine” is highly metaphorical in nature. Owing to this, a lot of energy has been dedicated to analyzing its symbolism, including the content of the music video. But what it all boils down to, most simply put, is “Fineshrine” reading like a love song, though one in which the graphic depiction of body parts intermingling acts as the motif.
In terms of said body parts, no, the lyrics are not sexual in nature per se but rather mention the likes of the “sternum”, “ribs” and “lungs”, i.e. the upper parts of the body. And as you may have noticed, these are the areas which surround the heart.
The heart is not mentioned forthrightly. But of course, as far as human anatomy goes or in general even, the heart acts as perhaps the most globally-recognized symbol for love.
So it can be theorized that in this case, the artist is taking the concept of a man and woman becoming one flesh a bit more literally than usual. For instance, the title is derived from a line in the chorus. In that line, the singer talks about the addressee making and building ‘a fine shrine in her’.
But again, such lingo is of course symbolic, to say the least. And besides alluding to the vocalist’s commitment to the addressee, they also give the impression that she idealizes protecting him in one way or another.
Purity Ring
Purity Ring is a musical pair from Canada consisting of vocalist Megan James alongside instrumentalist Corin Roddick. This particular act has been extant since 2010 and between now and then have dropped three studio albums, the most recent being a 2020 outing called “Womb”.
To note, they also came out with an EP titled “Graves” in 2022.
Release of “Fineshrine”
“Fineshrine” was released back on 23 July 2012. It served as the second single from “Shrines”, Purity Ring’s debut album, as issued by 4AD.
Credits for “Fineshrine”
This song was written by Purity Ring, with M. James and C. Roddick being individually credited as producers of the track.
The music video to “Fineshrine” was directed by a filmographer who goes by the name of Young Replicant.
