matt’s music blog

(the intro is quiet, and about 20 seconds long, so be patient)

As usual, The Faint are addressing a social issue: whether we’re ‘teaching’ or ‘training’ our children.

Teacher, bring me to heaven or leave me alone
Why make me work so hard when you know I work slow
Don’t make us watch you scrape more powder on the walls 
Show us a laser, take to space, or let us go 
We got violent games on pause at home

I love the wording, too – “show us a laser, take us to space – we’ve got violent games on pause at home,” that’s what kids want. While the instrumentation is great on this track, it’s the words that really matter:

Sergeant, I don’t remember how you said to deal with guilt 
I’m haunted by families, even ghosts of soldiers’ kids
Is it god against god and the pawns are people?
If they’re both the same god then the battle’s over

You gave us guns for toys
Imposed beliefs then pride 
We were taught that God prefers the U.S.A. 
Just like the billboard sign: “This is God’s country”
If it’s true that God roots for the U.S.A. 
Is every bomb we drop in God’s name?

The peppy drums and occasionally blippy snap-crackle-pop sound effect accent the accusations, and the whole thing ends up feeling pretty heavy in subject, but almost light musically.

Preacher, am I going to make it? Am I going up?
Am I forgiven for the humans I dropped?
It’s not like a game once the guilt piles up

All in all, it’s a beutiful song, probably my favorite (or tied-for-favorite) song on the album.

The haunting upper synth line at the beginning of this track is what it’s all about – and it’s woven amongst the no-nonsense drums and bassline, a declarative establishing first few bars, easily sliding into the first verse:

All along the western front
People line up to receive
She got the power in her hand
To shock you like you won’t believe

It’s epic sounding, and has enough funk/disco to make you think of disco balls, fog machines, flashing floor tiles, and brooding bass players. The apex of the song at 3:15, “Do what you feel now, electric feel now!” is almost a relief, as if you’ve been waiting all that time for a storm, and the rain has finally broken – just in time for the song to fade out.

The lyrics are about a girl, obviously, one so good that she’s like electricity. It’s not ground-breaking, but the words fit perfectly:

All along the eastern shore
Put your circuits in the sea
This is what the world is for
Making electricity
You can feel it in your mind
Oh, you can do it all the time
Plug it in and change the world
You are my electric girl

The mention of the western front and the eastern short, the ocean, the amazon, all of it makes the song seem somehow bigger and more encompassing, as if everyone were dancing in a blissfull trance, turned on by the electric feel.

edit: I just realized that the distinctive open synthline and chorus are in 6/8 time, while the verses and rest of the song are 4/4. Crazy! It’s the percussion in the intro that tipped me off – the stereotypical drum pattern would be ‘kick – snare – kick – snare’ in a 4/4 measure, but instead we get ‘kick – snare – kick kick – snare snare’, which fits perfectly into 6/8. I wonder if that’s part of the appeal?

(the first 14 seconds or so are quiet, so be patient – or turn it up!)

a billion words ago
the sailors disappeared
a story for the children
to rock them back to sleep

tonight we light the fires
we call our ships to port
tonight we walk on water
and tomorrow we’ll be gone 

a billion words ago
they sang a song of leaving
an echo from the chorus
will call them back again

It’s nearly midnight, and the wind is bitterly cold – yet the entire population of a small arctic fishing village stands in a line along the shore, facing outwards into the frigid bay. Wrapped in animal skins and furs, the children watch intently as an old woman stands before the congregation, raising her mittens, her breath puffing out in tiny clouds lost amongst the sparse snowfall.

She tells the story that they’ve all heard on the same night every year – none alive remember, but all imagine the sailors guiding their proud ships out of the harbor and outwards towards the ocean, never again to return. As she finishes her story, she steps back and joins the line of villagers. In her hands she holds a small box of matches and a expertly folded paper boat, coated in wax. She removes one of her mittens, and, with numb fingers, lights a match. Fumbling, she manages to light the edge of the paper sail before the match is extinguished in the wind – immediately, the people on either side of her edge closer, to tip their own paper boats against hers, spreading the flame one by one down the line. As the fire spreads, the woman carefully walks to the place where the icy waves lap ceaselessly against the pebbles of the beach, and sets her sputtering boat afloat, watching as her friends and family do the same.

When all the boats have been launched, everyone watches the ragged ‘V’ sail outwards, towards the darkness. Everyone quietly hums an old hymn as they wait for the long-promised return of the sailors they lost so many years ago – hoping against all odds that their lost fellows will let the flambeaux armada guide them back home.

I’m not sure if I read a folk story along these lines somewhere, but that’s what this song sounds like to me. There’s some interesting imagery used in the lyrics: “a billion words ago”, “a million burning books”, “a fabric of ideals to decorate our homes”, “a mountain of mistakes for us to climb for pleasure”, “a hundred clocks are ticking”, and of course the chilling: “a billion words ago they sang a song of leaving. an echo from the chorus will call them back again”.

Fire seems to figure heavily in the verses, as well as the final chorus: “tonight we light the fires, we call our ships to port. tonight we walk on water and tomorrow we’ll be gone”. It creates an almost tactile environment for the song to take place in (helped by the album title, ‘Northern Lights’) of cold wind, snow drifts, icey water, and guttering flames.

This song has its apex at the final chorus (3:51) – throughout the song, the melody has stayed low, and at this point it nearly jumps an octave, until the lead singer’s voice echoes the sustained synth lines that were carrying the song along up to that point.

The instrumentation is driving and keeps things saturated, with only a couple of breaks around 1:47 and 2:17. The bass synth almost steps in to shore up the percussion (a single kick drum) and keeps a sort of rolling beat that carries everything along, and the ghostly higher synths float above, keeping things interesting while you wait for the next verse to start.

This is quite possibly my favorite track on this album, although Northern Lights is full of good ones. If you’re into this kind of music, Covenant has put out a couple of albums that I’d recommend: Northen Lights and Skyshaper.