| Thrice – Wood and Wire Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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This song is amazing. I am sitting here just listening to it on repeat. Even the tone of voice of the singer is spot on - it has hints of depression, sorrow, mourning, but also partial rejoice . . . finally the prisoner will no longer languish in a cell. "The dawn is coming. All is well, I will rejoice." |
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| Bad Religion – Avalon Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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Well, I think this song might be discussing life, death, and change. Avalon, being a place of immortal beings, seems to fit this theme. Also, I think then that Avalon can be a metaphor for the afterlife (or at least that metaphor is hinted at). "As the sun comes creeping up the mountain and the wind blows over from the sea." Think of this verse as a day beginning. The day represents life. "Hey, we're brought into this land like tiny particles of sand, unsure of who we're smarter than, or what we're meant to be." When you are born you are small and lack identity or purpose. Young people are especially full of doubt, speculation, and wonder. When you are young you are finding out your limits (who you are smarter than) and what your possibilities in life are (what we're meant to be). "Oh the grains sift coarsely through the hour glass and collect like their victims in the bowl." Here is a metaphor for life through the hourglass. The hourglass symbolizing time. So you are a grain of sand and when you get to the bottom of the hourglass you die. "The ungodly force of change erodes all sense of earthly gains. While tending to the mundane will terrorize your soul." I'm not very sure about this line. I think BR is saying that change and time will erode your former self. That is, you'll lose your connection to your former, child-like, ways of thinking (earthly grains). The second part is more clear. If you "tend to the mundane," that is, having a boring job or tend to boring mundane details in your life it will drag you down and "terrorize your soul." "And it's no! It's no use thinking that you're wrong. The past is old and gone. It's best to move along and find your Avalon." So here the lyrics are suggesting, I think somewhat mockingly, that you should not reflect on your life or contemplate your wrongs. Instead, you should try to "find your Avalon." Avalon here could represent some sort immortality -- like writing a great book, a great song, being famous, etc or it could represent Avalon the place -- like making enough money to retreat to some Avalon-like paradise. Another possibility might be with Avalon the mtyh. According to wiki Arthur went to Avalon to recover after a big battle. So the lyrics might be suggesting that you not fight time and change, but instead retreat, not fight it, and find your personal little happiness. I think of all the lyrics, the chorus is the most ambiguous. "Well, I wish that I could tell you it was easy, just take the paved road right to paradise. But the truth is my friend, the pain and suffering never ends. Make amends with medicine, amnesia, and lies." Life is not easy and there is no easy way to true happiness. In reality, life is hard. There is "pain and suffering" through all of it. The second part regarding "amends" I think is a critical lyric. It is saying that people deal with life through medication (drugs, alcohol, etc), amnesia (just forget the hard times or the bad events), and lies (self-explanatory). "The grains sift coarsely through the hour glass and they pound like boulders on the brain." To me, this means as time goes and you get older you think more and more about death. "All those things you did for fun, never hurting anyone, careless shadows in the sun, just empty and lame." As you approach death, all the things in your life just seem empty and lame. I think this hooks into the "Avalon" thing. That is, the trivialities in life seems meaningless and you might want to find your own time of immortality through your deeds. "And it's no . . . it's no use thinking that you're wrong. The past is old and gone. It's best to move along and find your Avalon." "So now the day races from the twilight. How the fields are enveloped by the shade. And the story that you'll tell, inventory of your well, crack the shell and find the mortar silted and decayed." Death (twilight) approaches. What does your life mean? The story that you'll tell will not be fulfilling. When you dig beneath the surface the shell will be "crack[ed]" and the "mortar silted and decayed." "And it's no! It's no use thinking that you're wrong. The past is dead and gone. It's best to move along and find your Avalon. It's best to hurry on and find your Avalon." Again, a critical lyric, why worry about the past? Try and find the mythical Avalon where you (king Arthur) can heal. But maybe King Arthur should be thinking about where he went wrong in battle? Instead of moving along? These are my initial thoughts. Perhaps someone else has a better read of the song. I may comeback and reply to myself after I've had more time to think about the song. |
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| Thrice – Circles Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Dubbaeww - Consider this: Since artist thrice has released 4 albums. Of the 4 albums you give me THREE songs, including one from Vheissu (released 5 yrs ago), a b-side, and firebreather (which is a song I enjoy). Nonetheless, I think you have some good points. Thrice still does some good work, but in their quest to experiment and evolve they've adopted some poor habits. They often substitute one good element for one bad element. Take "flame deluge." Really? Maybe the lyrics are good, but what the hell is the background crap? I got into Thrice for what it used to be. Now many songs emulate the band Tool in song making (like "Kings Upon the Main," "Night Diving" (seriously could this song suck any more?), "Open Water" ETC ETC ETC). But Thrice isn't Tool and they'll never be that good with that type of music. Anyway, like I said, some people like it and there are still complex and good elements ('arsonist' is pretty good), but I'd rather listen to "the melting point of wax" ten times before listening to any song off any Alchemy Index once. |
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| Thrice – Circles Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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The point I am making is that Thrice has made the choice to move away from complex music to slower (though calling it ambiance might be a stretch) lighter songs that rely heavily on vocals. I'll give an example. Put on Cold Cash and Colder Hearts from AITA for thirty seconds or so. Obviously you'll notice that it has a quick tempo, but it's more than that. The music is also more complex. Cold Cash and colder hearts had dueling guitars going playing riffs, quick chords, occasional tempo changes, etc. Now compare by playing Circles from the Beggars album. You'll notice that this music is much slower with simple notes and combinations. I would imagine that a beginning guitarist could play Circles with just a couple lessons. The same cannot be said for cold cash and colder hearts. Now, I recognize some people prefer Thrice's newer stuff and that's certainly their right. However, I do wish they'd move back towards AITA where not only were the lyrics & vocals powerful, but the rest of the music was complex and interesting as well. |
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| Bad Religion – The Lie Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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I think the song is somewhat self explanatory, but I wanted to point out one of BR's best lyrics ever...so poetic. Freedom is such a loaded word So full of hurt and such aplomb Loneliness saunters in its breeze Like a disease it drags along Stuff like this is what keeps me listening to BR |
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| Thrice – Circles Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| The two are not mutually exclusive. Thrice has made many songs that are both musically great and lyrically great. This includes some songs that are slower in tempo. However, if you listen to all their albums after Artist you will see just how much they turned to a ambient and "mood" style for their music choosing to move drastically away from their earlier music. | |
| Thrice – Circles Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| Leave it to thrice to put a sleeper song after a great 2 song album beginning. All the world is mad and the weight at least give me hope that Thrice might abandon this farce of a style -- ambient, slow, and at times painfully dull. They started beggars off so well...I went and listened to artist in the ambulance just to remember how good they used to be. Here's to hoping that next record is a return to previous form. | |
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