Lyrical Craft

After their blip on the North American radar a couple of years ago thanks to Chasing Cars being featured on Grey's Anatomy, I briefly got into Snow Patrol's music. Chasing Cars was a great song, heartfelt and melodic. At some point last year, I heard the single "Take Back the City" from their cd "A Hundred Million Suns", which is a great tune. It was only recently though that I gave the entire cd a start-to-finish complete listen. In fact I probably listened to it 10-15 times in a row as I muddled through paperwork.

As a musician and overall fan of music, I get excited by people that care about their music and show some form of sincere passion in its creation. I watched a concert clip/interview with frontman/lyricist Gary Lightbody and he described how overwhelming it was to see thousands of people singing their hearts out to a song he wrote by himself in the dark, and that it was all he could do to not cry. In fact, his eyes watered as he spoke about it. This is a person who cares about his craft, and it's coming from a place other than money. The album "A Hundred Million Suns" is a real cohesive piece of work from the first track to the 3-part closer. And while I find the music to be dynamic and interesting, it's Lightbody's ability to express things in such a powerful and refreshing way, that has me really hooked on the band, and cd in high-rotation.

*nb. Peter Guy, please refrain from any and all references to previous musical claims I have made. I was young/naieve.

"The Space Age"

I was just watching a few minutes of a tv show where they show how things are made, appropriately titled "How It's Made". This episode was showing the construction of hearses, fun I know. Anyway, the voice-over woman said the side panels were constructed from carbon fiber and "space age" materials. This left me to wonder, what exactly, makes this material "space age". Is the term being used a little too loosely? Unless hearses are getting their parts from Nasa, I hardly think it's appropriate to call special order parts from Canadian Tire, "space age". Unless it's really advanced stuff that makes the hearse invisible, travel through time, and/or survive re-entry after zipping around the galaxy, I hardly see the need. If two guys in some wood shed are bolting it on, it's probably not cutting edge.

Haven't we been in the "space age" for a couple of decades at least? Couldn't I call anything "space age" if that's the case? "I love my new car! I opted for the 6 cd changer and the space age ipod charger, and the space age heated seats. It costs a little more, but I'm worth it."