In April 2012, five months before they released their second album, The Peace of Wild Things, Paper Route performed a concert in an art studio, which was filmed and aired as the third episode of Brigham Young University Television’s music show, Audio Files. The show only lasted for two seasons, but the first episode featured then up-and-coming band Imagine Dragons. Paper Route performed songs from their first album Absence, but also indulged listeners’ expectation by performing several songs from their upcoming album and shared stories about the songs and the recording process.
WE WELCOME YOU THIS EVENING. The entire performance used to be up on the show’s now defunct website, but now we can only watch “Wish” and “Tamed,” on YouTube, the latter being a short eerie duet with singer-songwriter Cacie Dalager, lead singer of the indie band Now, Now, and harpist Timbre. I don’t remember all of the songs Paper Route performed on the show; however, I’m pretty sure they performed the album closer “Calm My Soul” and today’s song “Rabbit Holes,” but beyond that I’m a little fuzzy. At the time of the promotion-to-delay-to-promotion of Peace, I remember Chad Howat talking about the composition of “Rabbit Holes.” He said that the string arrangement doesn’t resolve; the strings are always looking for the resolution. The deep harmonies in this song remind me of the classical music I grew up listening to, whether it was my great aunt’s violin recitals, my grandfather practicing for hours while the rest of the family sat around the dinner table, my mother squeaking and squabbling to prepare something for special music at church because she hated practicing–but pulling it off at the last minute–, or simply just classical records at home.
NO ONE KNOWS HOW THEY WOUND UP IN RABBIT HOLES. For me, there is only so much emotion a classical piece can convey. It can paint a scene of childhood for me, but a string quartet in E minor does make me feel sad like an Emo rock song can. I don’t turn to classical music when I want to dwell in self-pity, but I listen to it to uplift me to a better place. I associate a minor piece with growing up poor or a scene that I’m looking on with others’ sadness, not my own. It seems to be a collective experience, whether joyful or morose. I don’t think that’s how my musical family thinks of music, though. A song like “Rabbit Holes,” one with pointed lyrics–I’m guessing aimed at JT Daly‘s ex-wife–uses composition skills that, without the rock instruments and vocals, I wouldn’t associate with lost love. Lyrics reminding listeners of the rabbit hole down which Alice discovers Wonderland, today’s song helps to keep The Peace of Wild Things a mixed bag of emotions. The album is filled with profound love songs and songs of deep loss. “Rabbit Holes” doesn’t resolve until “Calm My Soul.” It throws the album into unpredictability toward the end, but the unpredictability is really what Paper Route is all about. And yes, this was quite the rabbit hole.
Austra-South African YouTuber-turned pop star and actor Troye Sivan creates a kind of infectious electro-pop that brilliantly celebrates love, acceptance, and sexuality. From my vantage point in South Korea, I saw the rise of Sivan’s career. With his debut album, Blue Neighbourhoods, Sivan could be heard everywhere in 2016 and not only was his music making an impact, him and fellow LGBT+ singer Sam Smith were starting conversations around sexual orientation that would have been considered taboo even five years before. My middle school students, in their free time at school, would often play Sivan’s music videos. “Wild,” “Fools,” and “Youth” depict a teenage secret relationship between two boys. Being a teacher at a Christian school and working in a conservative country where it was illegal for teachers to talk about LGBT+ issues at the time, undoubtedly these middle school students were trying to press some buttons. Still, with some of Korea’s own K-pop groups coming out in support of LGBT+ youth, it is certainly a different experience from my middle school days. Thank God for that.
MY BOY, LIKE A QUEEN. In Sivan’s sophomore album, he continues to write about love, but this time making his music less ambiguously gay and singing about specific experiences. Songs like “Seventeen” and “Bloom” and this song, Sivan proudly uses masculine pronouns and says “boy.” This was rarely seen in pop music in past eras. In the past, musicians who had come out either wrote ambiguously or changed pronouns in hopes of greater market reception. But on Bloom, Sivan bent the pop charts to him rather than editing for mainstream approval. And while some of the songs on Bloom tell explicit tales of gay love just as many straight artists get explicit with tales of straight or bi-curious sex, “Lucky Strike” is a subtle love song that talks about a pretty innocent crush. You could play it in a coffee shop.
A HIT OF DOPAMINE. In “Lucky Strike” Sivan says that the boy the singer likes tastes like the classic British/American cigarette brand. In my lifetime, it seems like smoking in the media went from a wistful nostalgia to complete disgust to a devious behavior. When I was young, I watched old movies in which everyone smoked on screen. I even remember seeing cigarette ads in magazines at home, whether it was the smoking Camel or the Marlboro cowboy. But in the late ’90s to early ’00s smoking couldn’t be shown on TV unless it was a villain or a special episode. I still remember the shock and betrayal I felt when the episode of How I Met Your Motherrevealed that actually, the characters had been smoking all along. But that was kind of like the beginning of the neo-rebel cigarette depiction in the media. It’s almost as if culture collectively realized, yes smoking is bad and it might kill me or make me impotent, but some badasses can pull it off–occasionally. And nobody is ever addicted to smoking, right? In the song “Lucky Strike,” Sivan lays out a contradiction–a boy who is “safe like springtime” but who “taste[s] like Lucky Strikes.” He’s a good boy with a bad edge. It’s that romantic James Dean image. But isn’t it funny how, unlike coffee, cigarettes can go from smelling interesting to wearing out their welcome. Sure, some people may not like the smell of coffee, but most people–even those who don’t drink it–like it. And coffee’s scent fades over time. There are some hunks I think a fresh cigarette on the breath is kind of sexy. What’s not sexy or pleasant, though, is sitting in the house I just started renting, waiting for the stale smell of the previous tenant’s habit to clear.
Trying to unclutter today as it was Korean presidential elections, which is a holiday, I listened to folkloreagain as I played with my adult Legos, assembling two wardrobes and a desk. This was sparked by hearing “exile,” when I watched music cynic Todd in the Shadows‘ only positive list of the year, his “Top Ten Best Songs of 2020.” Even the most cynical of critics–Todd in the Shadows being one of the most cynical along with A Dose of Buckley–praised folklore.
YOU NEVER GAVE A WARNING SIGN. Taylor Swift‘s 2019 album Loverhelped the 29-year-old singer shake off her reputation from both self-indulgent lyrics and overly processed EDM tracks. Lover was the logical follow-up to her critically acclaimed 1989, but something about the Taylor Swift formula was getting stale. Lover ended the feud between Swift and Katy Perry and Swift began tackling controversial subjects from LGBTQ+ rights to sexism. Lover, however, was in classic Swift fashion songs about Taylor Swift. Lover was the logical conclusion to the pop star, and fans began to expect this kind of light, fluffy pop sound with more socially conscious lyrics from the singer. This expectation made folklore all the more shocking. There were two takes on the album that I heard in podcasts today. The first was the argument by the podcast The Dish that the lyrics of folklore were metaphorical but ultimately deeply personal. The hosts bring up how Swift was dealing with issues with Scooter Braun and her former management as well as falling deeper in love with English actor Joe Alwyn. The argument Dr. Kutter Callaway presents on Where Do We Go From Here?is that Swift is writing social commentary. His theory is that Swift has realized that many ideals that are touted in American society are a lie. However, Callaway says that the Taylor in folklore says, “I realized that it’s a lie, but I still want it.”
YOU’RE NOT MY HOMELAND ANYMORE. Where Do We Go From Here? is a progressive Christian podcast, and the thesis of Dr. Callaway’s argument is that Taylor Swift’s music parallels an American demographic starting with Disney princesses and ending in shows like The Bachelor. He uses Swift’s stardom as a backdrop for a chapter in his book Breaking the Marriage Idol: Reconstructing Our Cultural and Spiritual Norms,especially with examining American purity culture. One thing I’ve been thinking about since I’ve been listening to “exile” is, what if Bon Iver’s character is not a person, but a toxic ideology that plays out in groups of people and embodied in individuals, but not actually a single person. It’s a system that you’ve unmasked, but without missing a beat, the system puts the mask back on and pretend it never happened, hoping to fool you again. Maybe it’s a theology that has a sweet taste but with toxic side effects. Maybe it’s political ideology that doesn’t live up to its ideals. Maybe it’s an unethical company that tries the same thing on unsuspecting customers. “I’ve seen this film before,” I know how it ends, yet I see you giving the guided tour, making the sales pitch, laughing at the same jokes you did when you were trying to sell it to me. There’s a side glance between us when I pass you on the street. I shake my head and lower it as I pass by, you pause for a second, partially thrown off your sales pitch, but only skipping a beat, you continue with your guided tour, spouting lies. Nope. I’ve since this one before.
I really hate to keep pushing reposts, but right now my life is in boxes, and I’m slowly unpacking them. No this isn’t purely metaphor. I moved and then school started and there hasn’t been much time to dig into the stories behind my songs. So today, I’ll share a dusty old memory I shared last year. Buried under twenty years of dust in my parents garage lies an old Yamaha keyboard. It was my dad’s Christmas present to my mom in the mid-90s. This model came with 100 recorded instruments, 100 styles of drum beats, everything from foxtrot to metal, and 25 or so recorded songs. It was a pretty typical family keyboard, but it kept me entertained for years. Although I started playing guitar at the age of 12, I had spent a long time messing around on that keyboard trying to make music. I loved playing the keyboard but hated how fake the instruments sounded. Strings, brass, woodwinds–all sounded like the vegetarian version served at camp meeting tasted. Still, that keyboard played such a crucial role for music in my life.
WHEN I WAS A VERY SMALL BOY. I got my first taste of synthesizers from my keyboard. I learned about the Orchestra Hit. It was the sound used in the hits by Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, and *NSync. Other synths were used in hits like Eiffel 65‘s “Blue” or Darude‘s “Sandstorm.” And of course all the computer games I was playing had similar synth music. But as the 2000s took full swing, I started to feel frustrated with the family keyboard. My friend’s family had a newer model, and their instruments sounded 2% realer. This didn’t stop me from playing it or using it to create weird songs with my sister on a tape player. I was fully loving keyboard synthesizers without appreciating their origin story. My mom told me one day that I was going to start guitar lessons. I just said okay, but part of me was screaming out that I wanted to learn piano first. Why? Michael W. Smith was so cool back in the ’90s. I wanted to learn how to record trippy music like on Delirious’s Mezzamorphisalbum. And there was Skillet‘s Invincibleand Alien Youth albums. And Linkin Park was getting popular. And Earthsuit‘s Kaleidoscope Superiorhad me wondering how could Paul Meany rap so fast when playing the keyboard. I took guitar and loved it, but rock without keys is kinda boring.
MY MORNING SUN IS THE DRUG THAT LEADS ME NEAR TO THE CHILDHOOD I LOST. I talked about my history with New Orderin January of last year and about my initial disdain for the ’80s sound in February of last year. Anberlin was certainly my gateway drug to New Order’s discography, as they released a cover of this song as the third single from their New Surrenderalbum cycle, rereleasing their album with a bunch of B-Sides. A college professor I worked for loved this song, so I started getting into New Order. I don’t remember when I first heard this song, but I steered away from it for years because of the old synthesizer sounds. I thought it sounded like something I could have recorded on my mom’s keyboard. But years down the road, I see that’s the charm of these old synth classics. The song opens with larger-than-life electronic drums. The keyboard keeps a dark atmosphere throughout most of the song until the end, shifting into a major key. New Order is the real deal. Pop and rock musicians look to their synth-pop songs for inspiration.
In 1954, when the Supreme Court ruled that segregation of public schools was unconstitutional, Chief Justice Earl Warren declared that American schools be integrated “with all deliberate speed.” What does that mean? I think that if you are trying to speed something up, being deliberate about it, you press your foot on the execrator and the car gains speed. You go as fast as you can go, looking out for cops and and pedestrians, but your intention is to go quickly to your destination. Apparently, I’m wrong. Chief Justice Warren’s meaning was that the change be gradual as not to stir the anger of the states. Don’t let change happen too quickly.
WHAT BROUGHT YOU HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE?Now is this even related to Mae‘s song? The lyrics without considering the quote by Chief Justice Warren, made me think about the band’s dreams. Perhaps internal band strife with management, particularly as they are almost making it. In fact, in an earlier season of Labeled (Tooth & Nail’s podcast) there is a now unavailable two-part series in which Dave Elkins talks about the stories behind Destination: Beautiful. It doesn’t seem that he was drawing on the injustice of segregation, but rather trying to make a personal point: change happens at a deliberate speed, which is a speed that no one is comfortable with. When trying to jumpstart a musical career, most bands will never make it. Some will get a little success and then interest will fade. Some blow up over night and the band members might not be able to cope with that level of success. Mae’s career has had its own ups and downs. Two highly successful Tooth & Nail Records, a major label flop, independent releases, a hiatus, and a return to Tooth & Nail.
WE SAID, “WE’RE FRUSTRATED.” The emotional climax of the song comes with the lyrics “Sound off, we’re going to L.A. / If it’s going to be … It’s got to be enough for me.” The synthesizer takes the song to a dreamy place where the guitars started the song in a kind of gloomy, pensive mood. This song deals with both the hard work and the reward of waiting for the hard work to come to fruition. That doesn’t make the frustration sting any less, but at night after a hard day, we have to lie our heads down and tell ourselves it wasn’t for nothing. We have to have the “We’re going to L.A.” wins, otherwise we’ll be swallowed by the hum drum of life. When the band manager says “All deliberate speed” and it’s slow, we have to focus on going to L.A. I can’t say that this is the best advice in terms of activism, but when it’s situations you can’t change, we can focus on those moments.
Around 2007 Internet bloggers started sharing a song by an edgy new pop star called “Ur So Gay,” a song in which Katy Perry complains about her metrosexual, emo boyfriend who is more feminine than she wants in a man. The song was one of many cringe-worthy homophobic, sexist, or otherwise problematic songs that could exist only in the noughties, the UK pronunciation for the time period of 2000-2009. I think that it’s apropos when talking about this era of music. While “Ur So Gay” never impacted radio, other head-scratching lines littered Perry’s major label debut One of the Boys.
YOU CHANGE YOUR MIND LIKE A GIRL CHANGES CLOTHES. Katy Perry broke through with the single “I Kissed a Girl.” After the 2004 Super Bowl incident involving Janet Jackson‘s wardrobe malfunction, the Bush-era FCC heavily censored the television and radio waves. While there were edgy hits from that time, “shock pop” seemed to abound at the end of George W. Bush’s presidency. And who better to lead in the new era than former CCM singer, Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson, better known by her stage name, Katy Perry. Born to Maurice Hudson and Mary Hudson (née Perry), Pentecostal ministers, Katy Perry’s transition to fame involved both embracing the showmanship of a Pentecostal service and shedding the rigid morality associated with the Evangelical denomination. From 2008’s One of the Boys until 2010’s Teenage Dream most of her sugary pop singles weren’t heard on your mom’s light rock station–the lyrics were to overtly sexual. But then something happened around the time of her 2015 Super Bowl halftime show that didn’t involve left shark–her songs were even on mom’s radio stations. The shock value had worn off, and Perry’s singles focused more on her voice than her sexuality. Looking back at Perry’s “shock pop” from her first two albums– kissing girls, complaining about male PMS, “freaking in a jeep,” looking back at being a teenager and remembering her fantasies, a video with fireworks shooting out of her breasts, a song about freaky alien sex, and finally a song about getting drunk in a “blacked-out blur“–we see a playful, comedic side rarely seen in pop stars today.
GOT A CASE OF LOVE BI-POLAR. But does it hold up? If Setlist.Fm statistics are to be trusted, Perry last performed “Ur So Gay” in 2012. She also hasn’t performed today’s song much lately either. There are certainly one-hit-wonders with novelty songs, some of whom have loyal fans and large music catalogues, but they are forever attached to that one embarrassing song. Katy Perry, however, is a singer with many hits and she can easily bury her more embarrassing songs in her catalogue, even if said song was one of her biggest early hits. But just because she doesn’t play it live, doesn’t mean millennials have forgotten that these songs exist. But what made me feel old was last year was when I was talking about the temperature in the school, and I said, “You know it’s hot then it’s cold,” and my high school student said, “Just like that Katy Perry song my parents used to listen to when I was little.” So, yes, the erratic weather we’re having inspired the song of the day. So could a song with lyrics like “Hot N Cold” or other early Katy Perry songs be released today?
Not since Michael Jackson has an artist had five number one singles top the Billboard Top 100 chart in as quick succession as “Dynamite,” “Savage Love,” “Life Goes On,” “Butter,” and “Permission to Dance” from late August 2020 to July 2021. Of course, the hit parade continued in late 2021, as a featured spot on Coldplay‘s “My Universe.” The South Korean phenomenon Bangtan Boys, better known by their acronym BTS, don’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon.
GOT ARMY BEHIND US WHEN WE SAY SO. It’s no secret that BTS’s fan ARMY is strong. According to Quora, there are estimated to be anywhere between 40-60 million fans worldwide. It’s because of this ARMY buying multiple copies of the groups singles that propelled the boy band to number one. Some have called this chart manipulation, mainly because of the strategic planning to buy the song, overtaking any other single that would be pushed up the charts based on the now meager sales, streams, and radio play by the sheer amount that BTS sold. However, in a time when streaming has overtaken most music sales, it’s a little heartwarming that music fans care so much about their favorite band to actually buy the music. And yes my hipster indie heart is crying just a bit. “Butter” is the group’s second English single, following “Dynamite,” which helped bring the band to US radio. The band’s popularity has raised international interest in other K-pop groups and many have gone back to BTS’s back catalogue of Korean-language hits.
A’INT NO OTHER THAT CAN SWEEP YOU UP LIKE A ROBBER. It’s important to tread lightly as I am only one person and there is literally an ARMY of fans across the Internet. I have a lot of admiration for BTS as I’ve written about in previous posts. The light, sugary “Butter” isn’t on my personal shortlist of best BTS songs, but there’s something catchy about it that will get stuck in your head all day. But try to put the lyrics together, nothing seems to be sticking to the stand mixer. What does stick out are lyrical fragments. Jenna Andrews, one of the songwriters for the single, told American Songwriterthat the song was based on the line “Smooth like butter/ like a criminal undercover,” a reference to Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal.” The songwriters included more references to MJ’s songs as well the line “Don’t need no Usher / to remind me you got it bad.” There’s also a line taken from “Rapper’s Delight” and Justin Timberlake. In small doses, “Butter” can be a delicious addition to your playlist, but let’s make sure we don’t add too much sugar or other saturated fats.
Director Luca Guadagnino approached Sufjan Stevens to provide narration to Guadagnino’s 2018 film Call Me By Your Nameand Stevens refused. Guadagnino reached out to Stevens again, but this time asking him only to provide music for the movie. Stevens accepted and provided three songs to the critically acclaimed film. He reworked a track from his 2010 album Age of Adz, “Futile Desires,” and wrote two new tracks, “Mystery of Love” and “Visions of Gideon.” The songs were used throughout
the film along with classical, jazz, and early ’80s music as a backdrop to the setting of Northern Italy in the early ’80s.
Sandro Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus
I FLEW UP TO YOUR ARMS. I often think of Elaine Benes stuck in the theater with her boss J. Peterman, forced to watch The English Patient, a movie that received so much praise in the ’90s. Seinfeld‘s Elaine can’t stand the long, pretentious movie, despite everyone in her circle loving it. And yet twenty-one years later, a few of us in the LGBTQ+ community were scratching our heads about the movie that was supposed to be for us. Despite all of its accolades, some of us had a hard time getting into Call Me By Your Name. The film is visually stunning. The music is breathtaking. The acting was good. It provided LGBTQ+ representation in the mainstream media. The story was sexy–a teenage boy’s fantasy. I personally have no problem with the film–my problem is with the baroque source material. The 2007 novel of the same name droned on and on about classical music, Italian art, literature, and food. The story reads as if Sandro Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus were a novel, showing Venus and the others at their best at all times.
I HAVE KISSED YOU FOR THE LAST TIME. I might give the book another shot someday, but I felt that the film captured the characters and setting in a far better way than the book. The film techniques bring to life dormant emotions as Guadagnino tells the story of the romance between a 17-year-old Italian boy, Elio (Timothée Chalamet), and an American grad-school student, Oliver (Armie Hammer). While the book’s sequel, Find Me, has been scheduled to be filmed, the allegations against star Armie Hammer may have put the project on indefinite hiatus. While the love between a late teenager and a late twenty-something has been subject to criticism, the film portrays a realistic end for a time when same-sex love was taboo. The closing scene features Sufjan Stevens’ “Visions of Gideon.” A whispered final phone call between Elio and Oliver marking the end of their relationship, the crackling of the fireplace, the table being set, the snow in the background, and Timothée Chalamet fighting back tears before being called to dinner will have anyone who has ever experienced heartbreak feeling something.
Last year I taught a lesson on Irish music to my students. I played examples of Celtic instrumental music. I showed videos of River Dance. I played sad songs like “The Parting Glass” and “Danny Boy.” Then I played some famous Irish artists like Enya, U2, and The Cranberries. Then I played Kodaline‘s “High Hopes.” When I asked my students which they like the best, they said Kodaline. But that was kind of a stupid question for a music lover. There are times when I want to listen to Celtic bagpipes and jigs. There are times I want to go out and have fun an Irish pub and hear Celtic-punk rock. There are times I want to listen to U2, and it’s certainly not the same day I want to listen to Enya, but those days happen too. But like my students, I think Kodaline’s first album fits more into my everyday listening habits.
BROKEN BOTTLES IN THE HOTEL LOBBY. While In A Perfect World is a great everyday listen, you have to be careful watching the music video for “High Hopes.” It’s a beautiful love story between an older man and a somewhat younger woman. The couple meets when she runs away from her wedding and she saves him from trying to kill himself in his car. They begin their relationship when he takes her to his meager cottage. The two build their relationship, but the tone of the video changes when they are lying in bed and he notices the scars on her back. Then, as the guitar solo starts, the couple is shot by a man carrying a shot gun. The two are in a pool of blood. The man wakes up in the hospital and sees her bed is empty. At the end of the video, she hugs him from behind. Lead singerSteve Garriganwrote “High Hopes” after a bad breakup. I think the graphic nature of this video is meant to be metaphorical. The woman saves the older man from his destructive ways. They fall in love but when he discovers her scars, the relationship reaches levels of problems that lead to another person/outside factor “shooting” both partners. And the end of the video could either mean she left him and he’s remembering her, and the embrace is just holding on to memories, or it could be that she left for a while but comes back to him. Either way, the video is a bit shocking, so I didn’t play it for my students.
I KNOW IT’S CRAZY TO BELIEVE IN STUPID THINGS. Last year, Garrigan released his memoir, titled High Hopes: Making Music, Losing My Way, Learning to Live, in which the singer talks about his shyness and became the lead singer of the immensely popular Irish band. Sure, Kodaline doesn’t have the 17 million monthly listeners that U2 has, but 8 million a month certainly isn’t bad. I’m curious to read the book, to see what Garrigan has to say about the song that was birthed out of a break-up years ago, why he used this song as a spring-board to write about his career as a rock star. For me today, though, “High Hopes” got me thinking about how futile it seems to get ahead. It seems that I’ll always be plugging along at the same type of job, even if I get more education. Every year the resources dry up just a little bit more, and you’re left feeling as if you should be grateful for your job in the ever growing “hard economical times.” Still, why are more duties added to the contract and no extra pay? I think back to my hopeful outlook just graduating from university and how oblivious I was to how the world actually works. And yet, the world keeps spinning around the sun.
With fans’ hearts freshly broken from the whirlwind year of 2014– when Anberlin announced their disbandment, final album, and last world tour—lead singer Stephen Christian certainly wasn’t walking away from music. First settling down in Nashville, he began exclusively writing songs for other artists. But in mid-2015 he released two Anchor & Braille tracks, “Detroit Stab” and “Fatal Flaw.” In February of 2016, Anchor & Braille released Songs for the Late Night Drive Home, the third full-length project with the lead single, “Watch You Burn” and a lyric video proceeding the album’s release.
I WANNA WATCH YOU CATCH FIRE. In interviews Stephen Christian has stated that Anchor & Braille projects usually reflect the style of music he’s currently listening to. For the third installment, Christian talks about listening to Washed Out and M83, which can be heard in the chill, “late-night” synth sounds of the album. Working with songwriter Joey Belville of the ‘90s electronic band The Echoing Green on several songs, the dreamy pop sounds further the vision Anberlin started to realize from their Vital/Devotion era. Lyrically, Anchor & Braille’s second album, The Quiet Life, seemed to be lacking, almost as if Stephen Christian was in the uninspired lyrical phase of Dark Is the Way, Light Is a Place. His songwriting picked up by Lowborn, yet the majority of the last album was about saying goodbye. And while Anchor & Braille and Anberlin often have thematic crossover, it seems that Late Night is a fresh approach with Anberlin’s demise being a distant memory. As an album, Songs for the Late Night Drive Home feels like it’s a soundtrack for after the party and everyone is going home. It’s the emotional opposite to The Weeknd‘s After Hours, in that The Weeknd wrote an album of that partially deals with the emotional crash after the party ends. Whatever you’re driving home from in the late night hours when you listen to Songs for the Late Night Drive Home, probably was something you look back fondly on.
BUT IF I DON’T MOVE ON, THEN ALL THEY’LL EVER BE IS DREAMS. “Watch You Burn” opens Songs for the Late Night Drive Home with dreamy synths. The lyrics are cliché and the metaphors mixed. It’s an empty motivational speech. But Stephen Christian’s voice brings a level of authenticity. It doesn’t matter that it’s a motivational speech that gives no concrete details other than “go out there and get to work,” it’s a song. The song gives some relatable imagery of lying beside the one you love “staring up at ceilings” talking dreams. But the chorus reminds us that if we don’t put our dreams to action, nothing will come of them. And while the lyrics don’t give us a path to success, Stephen Christian is an example of someone who has made his dreams become a reality. Besides his music career, he founded a charity, wrote several books, dabbled in podcasting, earned his MBA while touring full time, and became a music pastor. Not all of these ventures worked out, but he often attributes his success the Rick Ross song “Every day I’m Hustlin’.” And that hustling is what we have to do in today’s economy to make the money we need for the lifestyle we want. Sure, somethings down work out, but “Watch You Burn” challenges us to try.
Mixtapemotions 