I love a waltz, don’t you?

I’ve got a feeling Mandi Mapes might be partial to one as well, judging by the joyous way she delivers Daffodil Floors.

I found myself immediately swaying my head from side to side as her latest song started to play with a sweet little piano line. It’s pretty, pretty disarming, and she seems pretty worried for the first thirty seconds about losing her fire or getting life wrong.

Then she sings,

I thought if I did something great maybe I’d matter

Singing about flowers, for a start, is a brave and great thing to do in this day and age. Some modern songs seem to suggest being strong, bold, striving towards excellence is the only way to thrive, to survive!

Contrary to this, Mandi sings

Find me where the lily grows wild

I’ll be running free as a child

And they’ll say that I should be doing more

While I’m making snow angels on daffodil floors

And it’s just delightful. I kind of wish I had been in the field with her so that we could have done it together.

She has done something great, and it matters.

And after that chorus, the band starts to play. The song opens like the daffodils in the field.

In the second verse, she apologizes to her friend and admits her mistakes before returning to the fields for another chorus but the middle 8 that follows is beautifully crafted with strings floating around her voice, strings that briefly break out on their own after she sings

I can hear the music

before we fall back into that expertly-worded chorus and the strings blossom again.

The piano plays by itself again at the end of the track, not quite resolving at the end, to leave a subtle feeling of melancholy.

This lovely, gentle song fights the case for daydreaming, for spending time wandering in fields feeling free and child-like as an antidote to the pressure that naturally comes from living in the modern world, and the delivery of the song perfectly reflects what it’s trying to communicate in the lyrics.

As a call to fighting back against expectations and taking life at your own pace when you need to, it’s a triumph.

And while you’re listening to it, why not grab a partner, find a local field, and go for a quick waltz?