Writing about music sometimes is made out to be a lesser art form, by those cynical minds who have no sense of a composition or the variegated forms in which it expresses a million minute emotions that bind us as an unit of humanity. I'm sure this period of extraordinary silence and reflective tempers made them appreciate the presence or rather omnipresence of music, in a new, robust light.
I'm glad artists proved that their sustainability was much beyond our expectations or even the grim forecasts occasioned by a global pandemic. I think at the very least, we have come to understand that musicians/artists are the true liberators and independent pursuers of creative expression.
When their zeal to create is inextinguishable, the yearning to share their output with the world and write about them becomes greater and urgent. Here I come again hence to let you know that the state of the world is such that it grasps the idea of a changed order but meaningful music is there to aid us and lift us up. In the long run, I think we writers don't ever have to defend our musical tastes or writing styles to staunchest critics. We must write and enjoy the process of partaking the act of creation as that's the cue we take from our favourite musicians.
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USE MY VOICE by EVANESCENCE
The push for reformation and swift changes in an already embattled sociological order is a call discerning musicians have made for years, since the dawn of first recorded songbooks.
EVANESCENCE, a band that recalls its gritty nature and passionate advocacy for the greater good while keeping its core of trademark darkness mimicking our immediate world, comes up with a winner in USE MY VOICE. It's the first person perspective that enables this song to become so powerfully universal, especially when the collective 'oh, ohs' in the chorus swell ; when Amy Lee seethes, "but don't you speak for me" , she expertly implores both the decision makers to rise up to the great challenges of our unprecedented era and also not to dare muffle our opiniated public discourses. The personal becomes political here, with the charge to lead change by the simple act of exercising our right to vote.
USE MY VOICE is a song then tailormade for this very present moment.
I'M NOT OKAY by H.E.R.
H.E.R. keeps her sound close to the slow burn R&B template that absolutely suits her smoky vocals and I'M NOT OKAY takes the narrative forward from I CAN'T BREATHE with a shorter, lyrically pithier but nevertheless strong message. Her subdued vocals actually befit our state of exhaustion and highlight the unending cycle of racial injustice that somehow end up making us numb and clueless. I'M NOT OKAY is in recognition of that yet attempts to bring notice to systemic apathy affecting lives.
IMPLODING THE MIRAGE by THE KILLERS
Brandon Flowers and his band bring a retro styled concoction to their latest album, evoking the melodies and fervour of vintage Bruce Springsteen on such standouts as MY OWN SOUL'S WARNING, BLOWBACK, LIGHTNING FIELDS( with a beautiful vocal assist from KD LANG) and MY GOD.
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A LETTERED SOUL: REFLECTIONS ON LITERATURE, CINEMA AND CULTURE .
Non-FictionI have often wondered about the very curdled natures of our opinions so much so that the perch of imagination simply becomes a bystanding abstraction and real thoughts of genuine merit slip between the fingers. That is a human tendency, to beat arou...
