Full disclosure: this song is the only one to predate my relationship with Brandy, having been started shortly before I met her. It was one of those flights of fancy, not referring to anyone specifically, more a reflection on love developing suddenly, with no predictability or pattern, subject to vague concepts like “chemistry” or “destiny.” There may have been an element of wishful thinking or longing in my initial lyrics, and although I spent some time reworking them after the fact, the chorus retains that vulnerable uncertainty: “I want to believe / You feel the same way too / Do you?” No other song on Suite: Dreams expresses any doubt about reciprocated feelings, and being the oldest composition it had a solid claim to kicking off this album. It is still early in the order, but as mentioned I found a better opening track, and the second song I wrote for Brandy, “Sunshine”, flows so well out of it that “Suddensweet” settles naturally into the third spot.
The title is obviously a coinage, a key hook that I hung the concept of the song on when I was coming up with it. A made-up word seems apropos for an imagined relationship, but both were based solidly in truth, and of course the ideal connection described in the lyrics quickly became real. The third verse expounds generally on love, how it must be a reciprocal experience, it is never exactly “free” because both parties have to give, and put in effort. The line “Love’s much more than charity” reinforces that while playing on the modern meaning of the word (giving to others in need) compared to the older English usage of Charity to mean simply Love (see: Bible, King James). Love is the best thing in the world to give, because the more freely you do, the more you receive in return.
Suddensweet
You came into my life so suddenly
But who’s complaining? Not me,
Chalk it up to destiny…
What else could it be?
I could not have foreseen
what you’d be meaning to me
There’s nothing more to it than chemistry
Whatever that means – got me
I talk it up but fail to see
How we came to be
I could never have dreamed
what you’d be meaning to me
Ooo-oo-ooh I want to believe
You feel the same way too
Do you? Darling, do you?
‘Cuz if you do…
It’s suddensweet to be discovering
Whatever we need – it’s not free;
Love’s much more than charity
We give to receive
I could hardly conceive
that you’d be giving it to me
Ooo-oo-ooh I want to believe
You feel the same way too
Do you? Darling, do you?
‘Cuz if you do…
Darling if you do …
(I do too)