Float On
In 2004, Modes Mouse released the album “Good News for People Who Love Bad News” It was
this album that put them on the charts for the first time. Their hit song “Float on” was the bands first song to ever hit mainstream popularity. This song really steps away from the darkness embodied in most of their previous work. In an interview with The A.V. Club Isaac brock, the band’s front man states, “It was a completely conscious thing. I was just kind of fed up with how bad shit had been going, and how dark everything was, with bad news coming from everywhere. Our president [George W. Bush] is just a fucking daily dose of bad news! Then you've got the well-intentioned scientists telling us that everything is fucked. I just want to feel good for a day.”
The song really does portray a positive and happy message, no matter how bad things may seem, they will always get better. Sometimes life really isn’t that bad, it could be better, but it’s not going
to get worse.
Bad news comes, don't you worry even when it lands
Good news will work its way to all them plans
We both got fired on, exactly, the same day
Well, we'll float on, good news is on the way
As I continue through the other songs I have chosen, you will see that some of Isaac’s previous
music wasn’t nearly as cheerful.
https://youtu.be/CTAud5O7Qqk
My hell comes from inside, comes from inside myself
Everyone's afraid of their own lives
Why fight this
In the year 2000, Modest Mouse, still away from the mainstream released the album “The Moon and Antarctica.” The album was criticized by fans for its in-depth discussion of rather dense subject matter all tied in with Brock’s clever and introspective lyrics.
In his song lives he preaches that people take life for granted, they don’t appreciated how short
and precious it really is. We, as a species, are not living up to our potential. We settle for what is best at the time instead of waiting for something better. “No one really knows the ones they love, if you knew everything they thought I bet you’d wish that they’d just shut up.” Marriage today is almost taken too lightly, I’m only 22 and I know at least ten people who have been married and divorced at least once.
It's hard to remember we're alive for the first time.
It's hard to remember we're alive for the last time.
It's hard to remember to live before you die.
It's hard to remember that our lives are such a short time.
It's hard to remember what it takes such a short time.
It's hard to remember to live before you die.
https://youtu.be/OP1IVNVS5bI
Be Brave.
I thought a lot about what song I should write my final installment on, it was a tough decision there are many that I have connected with over the years. This song in particular is off their new album, Strangers to Ourselves. I first heard this song when they came through Tennessee on tour back in march, and ever since then it has stuck with me since.
As sharks in sheep's clothing, pumping with our hips
Filling every single corner with our soft little gifts of ourselves
Getting carried, so, so carried away
As the song plays, it opens with heavy guitar riffs followed soon my Isaac’s cynical lyrics mocking
humanities unnecessary need for mass reproduction. As we “get carried away” filling earth with our offspring with our intent not necessarily pure. We think we are so innocent and pure such as a sheep, but we terrorize the earth more than we may know just as the sharks terrorize the water. We rampage and kill everything in our way, while getting carried away with out actions. With super megacities and a natural tendency to be greedy.
I am not afraid to be dead but it's scary for me to stay
From day to day, from day to day to today
Be brave, be brave, be brave, be brave, and be brave
Be brave, be brave, be brave, be brave, and be brave
The next verse is an allusion to the tale of Sisyphus. Just as he was destine to complete a
meaningless task essentially for all eternity it’s not easy to live in a world that doesn’t care about us. The world itself is absurd, Mankind has a fundamental sense to find meaning in things but we live in a world devoid of meaning or eternal truth. Camus concludes just like Isaac in that we should revolt and continue pushing the boulder up the hill, Isaac is telling us to push on and “be brave” as we continue on this difficult journey.
Another monster hiding inside of a cave
We go from day to day misbehaving in the most appropriate ways
The unicorns missing last call to get on Noah's ship
We don't quit, we won't quit, we can't quit, we just don't quit
Humans are always trying to find the balance between dark/light and good/evil we strive to be
perfect yet we end up always having that struggle to find equilibrium. We have the resilience and spirit to keep on even though we are destined to screw up again. We just can’t quit.
Well the Earth doesn't care and we hardly even matter
We're just a bit more piss to push out its full bladder
And as our bodies float down onto all their rocky little bits
Piled up under mountains of dirt and silt
And still, the world, it don't give a shit.
But be brave…
The world will live without us, hell it would probably be better without us, however, just like
Sisyphus pushing that boulder up the hill we must keep trying. We must keep pushing, revolting against nature.
https://youtu.be/gNy4GbqfEFM
What do they mean, "we"?
ReplyDeleteJust kidding, I know they mean us as a species. But some of us are more oblivious and destructive than others. Pessimists have a tendency to see the glass more than half-full of trouble, and consequently overlook the good.
But I like the nod to Sisyphus. I hope "we" will keep pushing. It gets better.
P.S. Your formatting wasn't preserved, in fact it was pretty messed up. I cleaned it up the best I could.