OK, I'll be honest - I wanted to have a look here and see what others thought about the meaning of this particular ABC song.
This is part of a sequel album, Lexicon of Love II, released in 2016, 34 years after the original. The original album was followed up with 'Beauty Stab', which featured a very different sound. Although it's considered to be a 'brave' artistic endeavor, it was not very commercially or critically acclaimed. What probably should've happened back then, is that ABC followed up with another album like Lexicon Of Love (which was a #1 album in the UK!), but that's all water under the bridge now.
Martin Fry, the songwriter, and arguably the main creative force in the band, decided to have a proper go of Lexicon I's follow up album. But, in the 34 years since, Mr. Fry has not gone unchanged. His bout with cancer, career ups and downs, and split up with his band partner, have clearly affected him - as it would anyone.
This song in particular is my favorite on the whole album, although I'm not entirely sure what he's trying to say - and I'd love to hear if anyone thinks otherwise. Like Martin, in my middle age, I have also struggled to understand the world I'm living in 'these days'. I also often feel as though I'm 'trapped in rewind', preferring the old and comfortable to the new and untried.
The question I have, and I've not found an explanation for this online: Is Martin being sarcastic about the future being brighter than the sun? Because it doesn't sound like he's very hopeful. He says that he's "...a man out of time, till the stars realign..." Does this mean he expects things to eventually return to his 'normal'?
Alternately, this is what I think is going on here:
In rhetorical fashion, he asks the boy he once was about who he's become. Perhaps the boy's reply is simply a reflection of the fact that he is trapped in his own time as well. To him, the boy - not the man - is saying, 'when all's said and done, the future's looking brighter than the sun...'
When we are in our youth, we generally tend to be more hopeful about the future, but Martin, as a grown man, does not appear to be so anymore. He speaks of the 'days and days' gone by and 'nights still yet to come', and he punctuates all this in a minor key, particularly the way this song ends. This sure isn't 'Poison Arrow' - it's not even 'When Smokey Sings'.
It's a sad lament that he's lost the youthful energy he once had. The stars will re-align, perhaps, but will he be around to see it?
OK, I'll be honest - I wanted to have a look here and see what others thought about the meaning of this particular ABC song.
This is part of a sequel album, Lexicon of Love II, released in 2016, 34 years after the original. The original album was followed up with 'Beauty Stab', which featured a very different sound. Although it's considered to be a 'brave' artistic endeavor, it was not very commercially or critically acclaimed. What probably should've happened back then, is that ABC followed up with another album like Lexicon Of Love (which was a #1 album in the UK!), but that's all water under the bridge now.
Martin Fry, the songwriter, and arguably the main creative force in the band, decided to have a proper go of Lexicon I's follow up album. But, in the 34 years since, Mr. Fry has not gone unchanged. His bout with cancer, career ups and downs, and split up with his band partner, have clearly affected him - as it would anyone.
This song in particular is my favorite on the whole album, although I'm not entirely sure what he's trying to say - and I'd love to hear if anyone thinks otherwise. Like Martin, in my middle age, I have also struggled to understand the world I'm living in 'these days'. I also often feel as though I'm 'trapped in rewind', preferring the old and comfortable to the new and untried.
The question I have, and I've not found an explanation for this online: Is Martin being sarcastic about the future being brighter than the sun? Because it doesn't sound like he's very hopeful. He says that he's "...a man out of time, till the stars realign..." Does this mean he expects things to eventually return to his 'normal'?
Alternately, this is what I think is going on here:
In rhetorical fashion, he asks the boy he once was about who he's become. Perhaps the boy's reply is simply a reflection of the fact that he is trapped in his own time as well. To him, the boy - not the man - is saying, 'when all's said and done, the future's looking brighter than the sun...'
When we are in our youth, we generally tend to be more hopeful about the future, but Martin, as a grown man, does not appear to be so anymore. He speaks of the 'days and days' gone by and 'nights still yet to come', and he punctuates all this in a minor key, particularly the way this song ends. This sure isn't 'Poison Arrow' - it's not even 'When Smokey Sings'.
It's a sad lament that he's lost the youthful energy he once had. The stars will re-align, perhaps, but will he be around to see it?