Love: The Ultimate Weapon
Love: The Ultimate Weapon closes the song cycle by restoring peace and truth after the war and destruction explored in the preceding tracks. Inspired in part by the TV drama Years and Years, the song imagines an omnipotent female voice who rises after devastation to restore balance and human connection – a vision of a future where everyone is equal.
Sophie wrote this piece alone, composing the two piano-based bookends of the cycle – Unwritten Song and Love: The Ultimate Weapon – before the four interior songs. She started writing the song the weekend the Taliban retook Afghanistan and was still refining it when Russia invaded Ukraine. Those events weighed heavily on her, particularly the thought of mothers losing sons in war and of teenage Afghan girls, a similar age to Liberty, suddenly being denied an education.
Recording Process – Sophie Says
When I began working with Catherine, I was beyond excited, but I was nervous and aware I had high expectations for the process and our work together. We started with the two piano songs that bookend the song cycle (Unwritten Song and Love: The Ultimate Weapon), and Catherine had me play and sing this latter song in one take.
It’s the song I’m most sure of musically and emotionally. Like I Can Love You From Here, it gives me power and emotional strength when I sing it. Catherine was visibly moved by the song and my performance and bond to it, and that made me feel so comfortable towards her and the project. Seeing how meaningfully she connected with my sense of purpose was the perfect start to our creative relationship together.