Black and White Horse

Even though the song "Zebra" by Beach House has been an old favorite of mine for many years now, I didn't truly appreciate or understand the complexity of the lyrics until I read them and an analysis for this assignment. What appears to be a strange song about a zebra actually serves to characterize a manipulative man and his actions.

After the slow, instrumental intro, vocalist Victoria Legrand sings "You know you're gold, you don't gotta worry none / Oasis child, born and so wild / Don't I know you better than the rest / All deception, all deception from you." The pronouns "you" and "I" immediately serve to establish a close connection between the singer and the audience. Legrand's confident tone, especially visible in "Don't I know you better than the rest," makes it evident that the person she's singing to is someone she understands. Yet it is also clear that she doesn't like him: "Oasis child" conveys the sense that the man is prideful, immature, and isolated from others, only capable of 'all deception.'

This conception of the man's scheming ways extends into the beginning of the next stanza, where many of the lines contain multidimensional language: "Your love is stag / In the white sand / Wilderness for miles / Eyes so mild and wide." Legrand's diction is interesting here--at first glance, it seems like these lines reference an animal. However, in this context, the lyrics are more descriptive of the 'manipulative man' if stag is defined as 'alone.' Thus, the man stares out into the metaphorical 'wilderness' of life and relationships passively, seeing everything in front of him as his bounty. He cannot conceive love as anything more than ownership.

The chorus is short - "Any way you run / You run before us / Black and white horse / Arching among us" - yet it brings the listener to the central metaphor of the zebra. The most obvious descriptor of a zebra is its black and white stripes. In terms of the man Legrand sings about, these stripes are a physical descriptor of his contradictory personality. The contrast between black and white is essentially the contrast between his multiple attitudes and the shifts between how he portrays himself so that he can trick others. In this sense, the man's "running before us" means that he parades around and tries to impress Legrand and her other friends, showing off ("arching") to make up for his duplicity.

The rest of the song is mainly repetition of the earlier parts, often "Oasis child," "Wilderness," and "deception," emphasizing the connection between man and zebra, metaphorical and literal beast. Legrand weaves natural imagery with the language of lies to convey her disappointment and observation with this man.

I'll admit that I thought this song was about an actual zebra for years. Despite this, I still gained the sense that Legrand was singing about some deep connection since I first listened to it - her melancholic voice, the calming beat, and instrumental buildup over time imbue the song with emotion. As a whole, it seems truly poetic. If anyone is interested, the rest of the album is amazing, and I love this album of theirs as well.