Another Music Blog

To start this post I’d like to mention that I hate slagging off music by artists who work hard like BMTH, especially as they are one of my favourite bands with Sempiternal being in my top 3 albums to date. However, I still feel like I need to discuss “amo” which is a term meaning “master” in Portuguese. So naturally upon hearing this I was excited as it seemed in a similar vein to “Sempiternal”. I will also mention that I am not totally against an artist changing their sound, I was still a big fan of “That’s The Spirit” despite it being a progressive move towards “amo” and seems a good mix between new and old BMTH. 

From the off I was feeling disappointed when I heard auto-tune in the first song which was just Oli repeating the same line over and over again, very little change in instrumentation and vocal style left the song feeling empty to me. 

MANTRA is a special song to me, I saw the live debut of it days after it came out my first time seeing BMTH and I actually do like this song. It’s a good rock song and has change ups within it and seems to claw back some emotion into the album with signature raw vocalism, even though minor at some points, until about halfway through when it sounds like a Justin Bieber song, although when live this wasn’t that noticeable. I’d argue the sound of this song wouldn’t be out of place on “That’s The Spirit”

The rest of the songs (except for “wonderful life”) sound like they belong in a dance club to me and don’t seem to actually vocally express any emotion. In previous BMTH albums you could not actually listen to any words and still know the emotions that Oli was trying to bring across to us and these themes would be consistent across a whole album. This brings me onto my next point. While most of the songs all sound similar, which is extremely boring, they don’t seem to have any common theme between them other than that. Once again looking at “That's The Spirit” as it is the most similar album they have produced as well as being another example of Oli, post-rehab, it was a celebration of depression and struggling through life and “Sempiternal” was an album about death, Heaven and Hell, dealing with huge issues with some very poetic lyrics, another classic BMTH feature that “amo” is lacking. 

However there are some things I do like about this album and its not entirely devoid of its moments. “MANTRA”, “wonderful life”, and “sugar honey ice & tea” I can listen to and think “This is a BMTH song”. With vocal styles that sound like Oli Sykes during his peak in Sempiternal. However these moments are just too far apart as I was somewhat enjoying “sugar honey ice & tea” and thought maybe the album was turning a corner its followed by a song like “why you gotta kick me when i’m down” which sounds like the unoriginal mainstream kinda stuff I hear all too frequently on Radio 1 and my sisters playlist which I am heavily in distaste of. 

Ok so here’s a shot piece on how I think “Trench” will pan out. So it’s obvious from the two singles they’ve released that the sound will vary across the album which is arguably one of the best characteristics on all their current albums.

I feel like ‘Jumpsuit’ and ‘Nico and the Niners’ are arguably linked (as I have not done my lyrical breakdowns yet this may not be the case upon another look) and so it’s possible that this whole album could be one huge rock opera with Nico being a character leading a faction called ‘The Niners”. Of course this is hugely speculative and so there is a large chance this isn’t the case but I really like it and it’s possible soooooo fuck off and give me a break😂.

The shorthand for this song is that there are two people one has been hurt and damaged by past relationships while the narrator loves them and wants to help them, ultimately it doesn’t work out but I still consider this a fairly happy song. 

The first thing I’d like to mention is the lyrical basis being very unstructured with no clear verses or chorus which could possibly resemble how the character that is damaged feels. Their life is a mess and their not quite sure what to do with it. 

The song starts fast as if the narrator is angry at the person that abused the other character they love. The idea of this person being no good is apparent from the lines “The promise that he made//left broken on the floor” showing that he couldn't deliver and hence they broke up. The character who is damaged is hurt as shown by reference to a bruise on their heart yet they don't want to end the relationship as she is “begging for more” and this is the repeated. 

The next verse is full of emotion with the first line containing some very raw vocals in which the narrator sarcastically thanks the girl and says how she made him feel worthless which could possibly be a nod to how he thinks she felt and maybe even guilts her into trying things out with him which he is desperate for as the second line directly shows. He intentions are clear in that he wants to marry her as he makes reference to wedding dresses.

Cut to the following verse and the lyrical structure is exactly the same except this time it is happy. He makes reference to it being the best day of his life which is commonly a wedding day and this is confirmed by the reference to wedding dresses again and how it’s his only light.

It is now that the relationship goes bad and they begin to admit that maybe this isn’t the best idea with the lyrics “And in the mess of all we’ve see//I am open to everything” the second line shows that he wants more than anything for it to work despite the first line showing that in reality it was a bad decision. 

The next two lines are whispered which represents the narrator eventually comes to the realisation that they may have to divorce and it is a painful idea followed an interlude that both confirms the idea of them splitting up and shows the passing of time. 

After time apart she moves back towards her old, toxic relationship which she feels will be better; as it is said that time will drown us in its wake and old habits die hard it eventually goes toxic again. However the narrator is still faithful and wants to help her survive the relationship as he says that he will clearly stay. and wipe the blood from her wedding dress showing the abuse is still prevalent. 

So this is a song about love and emotions and right from the off I think its fair to say that the idea of colour hear represents emotion and so by calling himself colourblind the narrator is hinting at the idea of being emotionally numb.

We join the story during a deep discussion with the narrators character and their partner which is shown by the lines “Breath in” and “...breath out” which sandwich a series of lines that I think relate to self harm with reference to scarred skin. However the narrator does anything but justify this and clearly is against by calling themselves a hypocrite. 

The second half of this verse gives us more context, the narrator’s partner is clearly concerned and saying that the narrator is not putting in the effort, “About how I’ve been distant lately” a statement that obviously hurts the narrator shown by the lyric “...they [the words said by their partner] probably sting”. Finally we see that the narrator clearly is struggling with something and are by some means lost as even when the supposed love of their life is talking they aren’t listening which the narrator self confesses. 

The chorus is fairly simple and the first two lines indicate the narrator feeling hopeless by saying they are “...not worth the time” and that “This failure is built deep into my design” and these thoughts of mine are solidified by the line “Is there something wrong with me?” indicating it is in fact a mental health problem. Their annoyance at this is also displayed with the vocals being very raw and screamed. The final line of the chorus goes as follows, “Cause you were gold but I’m colorblind” the idea of their partner being gold comes from gold traditionally being one of the best things ever and this person was obviously very special but being colourblind meant the narrator didn't notice. 

Verse two is initially about the narrator trying to justify this apparent change in their character and I personally get the vibe that he has fallen out of love with this person but doesn’t know why. The clear desperation is shown right from the off with the lyric “Find a reason” after which he lists several possible factors even suggesting that love just isn’t for them which gives the idea of them giving up on the relationship. This was prefixed by the line “Maybe its just a colour I can’t see” which plays into the idea of not being able to feel it. Later on in this verse they call it “an artificial enemy”. In my head the idea of it being artificial implies that it is forced and maybe they don’t see the point in it but get pushed into it.

Once again the chorus comes and has the same message as before and is then followed by the bridge which is as follows: “And this complacency just seems to get the best of me// As I wander aimlessly back to everything I left behind// A new face, a different story, the same mess of me// And I never learn my lesson ‘cause I’m blind”. This whole bridge is sung in the same raw voice as the second half of the chorus once again showing the raw emotion and sadness. The first line indicates that they end up breaking up and he feels it was through his own fault. After this he walks back to his life before his now ex-partner. Not long passes before he finds a new lover and while not the same story he is still the same as before indicated by the phrase “...the same mess of me”. The final line of the bridge indicates that this is a repeating cycle from which they don’t learn and so the pain continues. 

The song ends with the chorus again which could hold the same message but aimed at a different partner as they and their old one are now obviously broken up and the bridge indicates that this is a cyclic manner. 

This is a rushed post as I’ve not had time yet to fully put together something like yesterday. However I decided to take this opportunity to just point out that normally an LP will take a year minimum, normally closer to two to fully produce from start of writing to distribution. This means that the music that is coming out this summer will likely by based around the huge political upheavals that have taken place with Brexit and the fact that trump is president, least we forget that a year ago we were the closest to nuclear war since the Cold War and so these factors are going to start being fed to us. While not a garuntee I think it worth pointing out that music coming out now may be based around this and so it may be worth looking at some of these LPs especially from politically charged bands and just see if there is a link as to better understand what is going on.

So I'm done with exams and I now have more free time so hopefully I can keep this running more regularly. I’ve decided to come back and discuss one of my favourite songs by Boston Manor who are part of a local(ish) scene from Blackpool who I have seen perform live twice. 

Henry Cox says this song “Is about how two people’s lives can begin so similarly but the choices they make take them in totally opposite directions.” This is a very real concept for me as it heavily applies to me and my twin sister and so this song does hit home. 

In my opinion this song is like a discussion between two people. One of them is leading a normal life who is represented in the chorus and bridge, the other is represented in the two main verses who has made the wrong decision. 

So the song starts slow and clearly shows the two people have not been keeping in touch with the opening two lines stating how its been a long time, this is shown by the fact he notes how their voice sounds deeper. This implies to me that they are old school friends possibly parting ways before college/sixth form. The use of the phrase “I’ve been moving around a lot lately” implies that this person is making mistakes and running from them once again amplified by the following line “I’ve got all the pieces but not the order they’re in” which in my head means that their life is a mess at that point.

Cut to the chorus and the character whose life IS together clearly shows empathy but feels like the mistakes are holding them back undeservedly. This is represented by the concept of the character swimming against the current which I would argue is symbolic of the ongoing battle of fighting your way from rock bottom. The lead feet they are said to be swimming with is the added challenge of doing it with the baggage the person has acquired which in this case is the mistakes that follow them.

Back into the second verse and I think it shows that the character who made mistakes has been to prison and regrets it, “Forgive me father for I have sinned”. The idea of them going to prison is shown by “Left me here for over two years//I counted every day”. 

The first two lines of this chorus are the same as before but the next two show another insight into the choices made by the main character. Clearly with an alcoholic and violent history with reference to a “bottle of rage”. 

The bridge comes next and once again showing the emotions of the character who hasn’t made the mistakes and they appear to be breaking down, in the actual song you can hear Henry Cox cracking up while he repeatedly screams, “There’s no words”. Once again this is followed by the chorus which maintains the same message as before possibly showing how this story is affecting them and he cannot think straight. 

After the lyrics the song ends with 40 seconds of pure instrumental, half of this time is just an epic build which then slowly fades to a soft guitar riff for the remaining 20 seconds. I like to think of this as a representation of the mind of the character who hasn’t made mistakes, as shown by the bridge their mind is a mess of thoughts and it builds until eventually thinking of it just makes them numb about how it could have been them that went down that route but also how this old friend they were so similar to and close to fell down from such great heights.