Vagabonds
For those of you who don't know, my favorite band of about two and a half years (that's a long time when one's young enough to only have been an avid listener for three years), The Classic Crime, just put out a new album. For the sake of context, once again, I'll go on a little personal-history tangent explaining the significance of the band to me:
Before I found TCC, I had only a playlist-size bit of music, which I had inherited entirely from a friend of mine. It consisted of four bands: The Hush Sound, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Paramore, and My Chemical Romance. I listened to that playlist-size bit of music more times than I could count in those first few months after I got hooked on Rock music, July - October of 2007. And then I decided it was really lame not to have any of my 'own' music, so to speak. So I decided to go explore. At this point I was thirteen years old and hardly knew what the music scene was, let alone how to find new music in it. I had heard of the band Emery (which I have grown to love since 2007) through the same friend. Though I couldn't stand their music at the time, on the account of what I believed to be excessive screaming, I liked their sound, so I figured I'd go look up other bands on Tooth&Nail, their record label. I spent the entirety of one weekend hunting: I would search each band on Wikipedia's T&N list on YouTube and listen to the first two songs that came up for each one of them. I remember realizing for the first time exactly how much crappy music there was out there, as between bland, average, boring bands, and horrible aggressively-scream-y bands, I found nothing I felt like I could even remotely enjoy. I'd grown progressively more pessimistic about what little I knew of the music scene by the time I plunked "The Classic Crime" into the YouTube search box. The first song I heard was The Fight, which didn't impress me (and got filed into the "bland, average" category). The second was The Coldest Heart. I didn't understand then what exactly I liked about that song, but something stood out... so I listened again. There was a character to the music that made it all fit, something that seemed to call out to me, for lack of a better way of saying it. So I listened a third time, and then to another song, and another, until I'd gone through most every song on their first and only album, Albatross.
For those of you who have tried to hook me on your music, you know that I am normally not a particularly easy audience to please. Though I'd like to think I can see the art within most music, the point is that I look for it, and it's surprising how little there is in most. I make a pretty tough process of selecting the bands I'd consider my 'favorites": I take everything into account that I can. Concerning the music itself: the quality of the songwriting, the quality of its execution, the quality of the production, the project's inspiration, the quality of the band's live performance, and the overall cohesiveness of an album (which is something I particularly enjoy); concerning lyrics: the quality of the poetry, the quality of its content, the motive/intent/inspiration behind their creation; concerning any videos they might have: originality, quality of execution, and their message, the same three things concerning the album artwork; and last but not least, concerning the band members themselves: their dedication, their ability, their personal character, and their interaction with fans. So, after I'd finally found music (referring to the whole package) that appealed to me greatly concerning the music (referring to the sound), the lyrics, and didn't put me off with the video, I decided to start researching the band itself.
I found that they had a philosophy behind their album, they had an identity, they had a very appealing religious outlook (meaning that what they had to say was very compatible with my own beliefs), they were cool people as much as I could tell from the few interviews I was able to get hold of, and, to put the cherry on the top of the cake, they were from Seattle. And all this for a debut album! I couldn't find a single thing about them I disliked (except that first song I listened to, The Fight, which I admit took a long time to grow on me and was never my favorite). So they were the first band I felt like I could 'make my own,' and also happened to become my favorites to follow around. Over the months, I gained more and more respect for them as I got to know their music better, learned of their involvement with organizations like To Write Love On Her Arms and Faceless International, and read all they (Matt MacDonald, the lead singer/songwriter, and lyricist, in particular) wrote online. Now, after two years, I have been a fan long enough to have seen Matt's songwriting improve, the band's ability improve, their live performance grow stronger, their music videos get better, and the people grow as characters, which has truly been a pleasure in and of itself. Three records have come out since the day I found them; they remain the only band I have found to date which has managed to hold both my attention and respect for two consecutive records, let alone for their entire career as a band. Matt started a blog towards the beginning of 2009, which I have been a faithful subscriber to, and have greatly enjoyed reading. I hate to group that thought with the next, because I don't mean to imply that I only love reading things I agree with or that I love the blog only because I do agree with nearly everything he discusses in it, but it is appreciably well-written and intelligent as well. But I digress- my point is that there is a great deal of rationality behind my passionate fan-ship, as well as a strong emotional connection to that something in their music that has always resonated with me.
If this is understood, the foundation has been laid for me to go off on a 5500-word-long analysis-rant on this new album I was talking about, entitled Vagabonds. Or, I should say, a long analysis-rant on how I perceive the album, because unless I specify that I do, I have no external validation for the content of my analysis. Generally speaking, however, I think what I have to say is pretty valid, and because I can simply not contain my excitement for the genius of this record, I will unpack my thoughts here.
By the way, this will probably make little sense, or else be a rather incomplete, uninteresting read if you have not yet listened through Vagabonds. I would wholeheartedly encourage you to buy it here if you haven't yet. (My philosophy on pirating is that bands that deserve the money they earn through the purchase of their music should rightfully be given the due money. I feel guilty not paying bands that deserve their wages. But much of the time I don't bother to pay uber-rich-and-famous bands or bands which I simply feel morally obligated not to support.) It will also be somewhat less complete and/or interesting if you haven't made your way through The Silver Cord, so I wholeheartedly encourage you to purchase this as well. Oh, and TSC is hard to appreciate in its entirety unless you've listened to their first couple albums, so whether for the purpose of context or just for the heck of it, you might as well buy Albatross and Seattle Sessions while you're at it. (I can promise that almost all of it is excellent music, don't worry.)
The album Vagabonds starts with a song entitled A Perfect Voice. (The irony begins in the very first track: even though it's labeled "A Perfect Voice," the lyrics explain the opposite.) It's the first of a group of five songs on the record written in the same mindspace as well as the same month; Matt says in an interview with TVU's Most Wanted, "The first five songs came out in a period of like two weeks, in January of 09, and they're from a headspace that I think I was in- we were in, as a band- where we just accepted where we were, career-wise; accepted that though we may never make a lot of money and we may never reach the people we wanted to reach, our place is a place of value and that it matters. So it's sort of about having joy in poverty, joy in the midst of struggle." As far as organization goes, Vagabonds is put together more or less the same way The Silver Cord is: The Beginning through Salt in the Snow, paralleled to A Perfect Voice through Vagabonds, are the lighter, more pop-ish, more optimistic, individualistic songs on the album. This is followed by a second group, Abracadavers through The Ascent, paralleled to The Happy Nihilist through The Count, which is a decidedly darker, rawer, frank, blatantly honest songs. This is followed by a third group, Sing through The Beginning, which returns to a happier sound and on both records contains one or two of TCC's classic sarcastic love songs. (This idea I found in a post from October 29, 2008 during a conversation on the TCC forum, where Matt said, "I have a fear of the typical cliché love song. Songs that come close (Say The Word, All The Memories, and Everything) always have a hint of guarded sarcasm, or something drastic to make you chuckle. Unfortunately, the pop world has yet to understand the humor.") For a number of months, the band (particularly Matt, who seems to have a substantially larger virtual footprint than the other band members) had been describing Vagabonds as a much brighter, more hopeful album than The Silver Cord. I specifically remember an interview with Effect Radio in November 2009, Matt described the sound as "aggressive Pop" in contrast to the "dark, minor" sound of TSC, and the band went on to compare the new record to a blue laser beam (which they ended up sort of denouncing, but I think describes the sound fairly well). This quote is slightly out of context so it might sound a little weird, but Matt wrote in his blog, The Jet City Filter (once again, I would encourage you all to read the whole thing), on December 2, 2009, "Our band has been through a lot of ups and downs, probably more downs than ups considering our expectations were much higher, but I've come to a point of acceptance with my life. I feel like we've turned a corner, survived the firing squad and will live to see another day. No I didn't kill a T-Rex or take off flying, making everyone who doubted me jealous, but I am completely at peace with that." The binding concept of the album Vagabonds (and in particular the first five songs) certainly reflects this mentality: despite the difficulty of living the way they do, with the amount of insecurity they have to deal with, living as 'Vagabonds,' away from their wives and girlfriends and friends and families and homes for months on end, they have joy, they have hope, they have peace in this difficulty. The band has come to terms with their situation. (No doubt, there are times when it visibly pushes them down. I occasionally stalk their Facebooks, and as you all know, Facebook tells all.)
With that context, the album opens with a very bright, very simple (on their MySpace page, Matt is quoted as saying, "I'm obsessed with simple songs; songs that don't change a lot musically but you can feel the dynamics in the melody and rhythm when you listen," concerning A Perfect Voice, which contains only two chords, G# and D# major) very honest song. In the same blog I quoted earlier, he says, "I've settled with the fact that my minimalist lifestyle is so much more of a blessing than it is a hardship. [...] Of course it would be nice if the mass audience appreciated our musical integrity and decided to become fans of our band, but if they never do there will be no harm done. We already have an audience, a really appreciative one, and for that I am thankful." The lyric "I may not ever see a dime / but I'll be fine / yeah, I'll still get by / all a time a smile upon my face" means a whole lot more, holds a much deeper, more painfully joyful meaning, having spent the past year reading things like this, little pieces of the journey that one can glean from the Internet. It is my belief that a story put to music means more than the music on its own.
I always have, but increasingly so with the release of this latest record, I have a great amount of respect for the simultaneous amusement/sarcasm and respect with which The Classic Crime treats its fans. Simply reading their Facebook page makes me snicker. I've seen it happen three times over now: every time a record comes out, the fans are a smidge apprehensive. (I'll admit that I was among this group the past two CDs... I would imagine that TCC has a crapload of fans like me. They have an extremely loyal fanbase that is always afraid it will lose its favorite band.) Although many are pleased the first time through, many others reluctantly begin to admit that it just isn't working for them and that they were hoping for a lot more. Then a week or two go by and most of the same fans turn back up and rant about how much it's grown on them, how much better they understand it now. TCC knows this very well by now, and it's amusing to read:
Sometimes, the tone reads more or less "whatever..."
And other times, it's that kidding-but-actually-kind-of-serious,-maybe tone:
On April 13, some fan asked how much money they should bring to a show to buy merch, a question to which TCC promptly responded, "Bring at least $1000." The day prior, another fan admitted, "I don't like The new cd... it's only my opinion but i like so much more the others cds including the Acoustic." After another fan had liked the post and commented, "Me too," TCC responded, "It'll grow on you. Some people have slower ears. It's ok." I laughed. I recall expressing my excitement and anticipation to Matt concerning the yet-unreleased Vagabonds after a show once as we talked about the way their other music grows on the listener over time (I don't normally like to just go up and start trying to talk to people I don't know without purpose. I wanted to go ask him about the strings tracks in songs like Headlights and Say the Word. Interesting discussion. But I digress). He just smiled and said, "Yup, it's a grower, this one. It'll grow on you if you don't give up on it." I almost feel foolish, now, for failing to trust this generic advice...
I believe much of the album itself has this character. Coming from a genre which largely finds its success in personal connection with their audience, I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's pretty abnormal to find a lyricist that opens their record with the words, "I may not sing your favorite song / but I don't sing for you / 'cause if I did / I would have been gone long ago." Vagabonds is an absolutely fearless album. They are proud to be doing whatever the heck they are doing in whatever way they are right up until "they die," independent of whatever the heck the world cares to say about them. Though they use their performance as "a way to share their art with people" (as Matt said in an interview with Epoch Magazine on April 5), they aren't controlled by the people they share their art with, as many others seem to be. From a spectator's point of view, this is a pretty powerful, refreshing thing to see. It's the headlight on the bow of a little boat bobbing up and down in the midst of the sea of sellout bands, blatant crowd-pleasers and losers that generally characterizes the modern music scene.
The second track on the album is called Cheap Shots. This was one of three songs they played at a show at The Showbox in Seattle on December 18, 2009. (It was one of the more outstanding of their show's I've seen.) This song confused me, but I liked it even the first time I heard it. The Pop gem shone pretty brightly through the inevitable cacophony of the little Rock show. It was something unusually brilliant for them, something unusually hopeful, and I couldn't wait to hear it. It's true, TCC has never made a song that sounded as mainstream as Cheap Shots (which is to blame for my original confusion), but with that comes incredible songwriting (as well as an incredible text that mark a clear, timeless distinction from Mainstream). The fires started by lips seem to allude to James 3:6, where James warns that "the tongue also is a fire, [which] corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell." Upon hearing the lyric "so go ahead and spit your poison out," I had a flashback to Gravedigging, the third track on TSC, in which a chorus of relatively contrasting sentiment says, "Give me my poison pills 'cause I'm / digging my star-crossed grave tonight." Intentional or not, it draws an interesting point of comparison between the two records, the light and the dark (not like that's a motif or anything. Take a look at the cover). The irony continues as the lyrics muse, "I've never been too proud to sin / why don't you rub my face in it?" As I'm sure you could all figured out by now, something I have always loved and shared with Matt's words is a critical attitude concerning religion (see Just a Man); this is certainly continued through Cheap Shots. What a dichotomy, that one would abstain from sin due to pride! And how common the problem is! Will the [living] water even wash it away? I may be partial, but I happen to think this song does a particularly eloquent job of pointing out the issue, as well. I could try to explain what's so great about the guitar and drums and bass as well, but normally I don't make sense, so I'll try stay away from it. The only issue I have with the song is that at about 2:50, at the end of the bridge into the last chorus, there's a really anticlimactic transition that always leaves me hanging. I've figured out that it's because there's this 8/7/6/5 guitar pattern (which goes well with V chords, like the second chord in the chorus) that gets started one chord too early, while there's a IV chord playing, which ruins about 3 seconds of the song (because the pattern ends one note above the root of the chord being played). This will continue to make me sad for however long I listen to it, but there's so much ingenuity in the album that I've normally forgotten about those three seconds after another three have passed.
The third track is entitled Solar Powered Life. I'll admit it, I did not like this song for a long time before the record came out. To be honest, it scared me. It was one of the three songs they played at the December 18th show: they had a bunch of other guys come up on stage and sing with them awhile. That first time, I remember an itching sense of genuine fear that they maybe have been swallowed by something big and terrible. It's true, it sounds like a Rock anthem from the 1970s. It's got the Classic Rock chord progression. It's barely two minutes long. It's about sunshine, for gosh sake. But then a status somewhere along the lines of this quote from their MySpace popped into my Facebook feed: "[Solar Powered Life] is very tongue-in-cheek, sarcastically explaining seasonal affective disorder." And then I felt terribly plebian for believing that TCC would write a song like that with with any large measure of sincerity.
All jokes aside, I love the song every bit as much as the rest of the album, now. It makes the album a rounder, more complete work of art... I have come to enjoy the tasteful pop in the songwriting, which knits itself into one's mind more with every listen through, and the sarcasm which is now apparent to me, as the chorus sings about the weather for nearly half the song and the fragile, up-and-down nature of the girl being sung about.
The fourth track is Four Chords. The numbering doesn't really seem like coincidence to me, but then little does. This song contains a deal of lyrical wisdom; I continue to snicker at the phrase "All you get is 650,000 hours if you're lucky then you're dead, says the voice inside my head," which I have never seen punctuated by the band. It's a mystery as to whether the lyric intends to communicate "All you get is 650,000 hours, if you're lucky. Then you're dead, says the voice inside my head," or "All you get is 650,000 hours. If you're lucky, then you're dead, says the voice inside my head." Would make a great are-you-a-pessimist-or-an-optimist test...
This track, as the first, makes me cringe. Upbeat as it is, it's like one of those moments where seeing someone take a wronging well stings longer and more fiercely than if they'd reacted badly. I've always been slightly angry that TCC hasn't been as successful as they deserve to be, and it certainly seems like they should be more successful than they are- they seem to have a lot of fans that all believe what I do about their success. Yet at the same time, as the band itself sometimes says, their lack of fame and fortune has done them and their music a deal of good. They've quite evidently learned a lot from the lifestyle they've had to endure, and the way they've waded through it all, playing "the same four chords" just to make a pretty lousy living, and with such excitement ("but we ain't bored"), is inspiring, to say the least. To dampen that note, what bothers me about this song, similar to Cheap Shots, is the way in which they modified the last chorus leaves the song feeling unresolved, as far as I'm concerned. I may still get used to it, but some pieces I can just never bring myself to love (such as the pre-chorus in 5805). And I think it might be better that way.
If you like picking music apart as much as I do, go through the song two times: the first, specifically listen for Matt's breathing technique (which I envy, as a singer, even if he probably isn't intentional about it) and vocal harmonies, which are unison when present until the second verse (where the harmony is actually higher than the melody, which is very typical of TCC but generally unusual), giving the song a nice sense of dynamic and build; the second time listen for the guitar's articulation.
Vagabonds is the fifth track and pinnacle of the album. Its ending is the halfway mark through the CD. It was the third song they played on December 18th, and I enjoyed it, with the same half-understanding of something bigger and brighter than I could understand at a liveshow that I received Cheap Shots with. I head learned the guitar solo by the beginning of March thanks to an acoustic performance that came up on YouTube and eventually fell in love with it, once again, admittedly after about five or six times through. I certainly did not like it the first time. At all. It honestly felt uncomfortable to listen to The Classic Crime be so bright. But it slowly started to fit; I believe the recording they finally put out is a very accurate portrayal of the spirit of the album. Normally I can't stand it when bands name an album after one song, because it turns out as a single with 8 or 9 legs awkwardly sprouted off of it, destroying the whole "cohesive album" vibe I mentioned earlier. On Vagabonds, however, it functioned more as a summary or a climax than it did a distraction, which- again- is refreshing. And as a local, I always have to smile when Matt writes about the "Jet City in the Evergreen State."
There have been a comment or two on TCC's Facebook wall from more attentive fans in awe of the percussive skill in Vagabonds, and I too have to give a 20-lb kudos to Skip (the drummer) for that song. I'm no percussionist, but I can recognize that there are something like 5 or 6 different instruments in this song: shakers and tambourines and cowbells and bongos and a regular drum set... It all seems rather ridiculous until one hears how well it works, how well it compliments the other parts of the song. Once again, tone and rhythmical precision are well-executed in the guitar and the harmonies in the solo make me smile every time. Even the bass, which normally fades in pretty unnoticed, gives the song a very nice contrast, particularly the last 10 or 15 seconds of the song. Vagabonds's last chord always seems to find me feeling happy and tired and kind of knocked out, like that feeling one gets after falling off of an inner tube getting dragged behind a boat at about 50 MPH. But it's the end of the first five songs; that feeling dies promptly with the birth of the next song. (Nice contrast, once again.)
The Happy Nihilist was the one song I liked before I had ever heard a note of it, before I had even heard the sampler. The name all by itself is epic. I mean, one just has to appreciate an Alternative Indie band sarcastically, almost satirically, writing about the flaws behind Nihilism. The idea of hyper-analysis and an overemphasis on rationality expressed through his little clauses about self-taught philosophies and books (which only hurt the pursuer: "The books I read that used to free my mind have made me more blind, but the truth I'll find it) speak to me emotionally, as the irony goes (though I suppose the joyful sentiment from the first group of songs does as well). This has been both the most rational and the happiest year I have experienced in a number of years, coincidence or not. The very creation of this blog is a product of the sudden increase in rationality; my enthusiastic commenting on Matt's more philosophical blogs are the same way. (He once began a response to a comment of mine by saying, "Dang you really chew before you swallow. I like that. :)" which made me laugh. I'm sure plenty friends/family members of mine aren't quite as fond of it...) So I enjoy those themes he writes (music) about extra; art is good at pointing out things within you like that. The music is a great accompaniment for the lyrics, but when you're listening to the song, the lyrics become the accompaniment. I don't have anything new to rant about concerning the music itself, but it's incredible regardless.
From the little bit I heard in Haiti videos and in the sampler, I always loved the song My Name, and caught its significance from the beginning. It's a big ol' Biblical allusion, much of the lyrics pulling from Daniel. The phrases "worshiped the golden statue" and "I will walk through the fire" seem to be from Daniel 3, though the first thing I thought when I heard the former was the golden calf in Exodus 32 and the latter sounds like Isaiah 43:2 ("When you walk through the fire / you will not be burned / the flames will not set you ablaze"). The reference to the "lion's den" is pretty obviously drawn from the famous story of Daniel in the lion's den from Daniel 6. There are quite a few resurrection stories that the phrase "walked in dead man's shoes" could be referencing (Lazarus came to mind). Regardless of implicatory Biblical references I picked up on, the song refers to a more theologically-grounded motivation for their refusal to look to the world to "give them their name." TCC rarely gives elaborate answers to questions about the meanings of songs, because they believe their songs can have more than one significance to people. They do give short, concise answers on occasion, though, as it gives analytical freaks like me the opportunity to overanalyze their music while simultaneously allowing the average 12-year-old to love the tune they hear on the radio. On the 15th, a fan asked what the significance behind the lyrics in the chorus were, and Matt responded, "Your name is your true value. Only God can give it to you. People can't 'name' you in the macro sense. Advice I'm still learning!"
The music itself is excellently done as well; my props to Robbie (lead guitarist) and Skip for excellent articulation, once again, particularly in the second verse. I adore the grand style they took with this song. It was certainly a risk- it could very easily have come off dreadfully corny (though it certainly didn't). I've always loved keyboards and strings, so their simple presence makes me happy.
I did not like Everything & Nothing the first few times through, either. I found it repetitive and uninteresting and slightly cliché. I'm slightly embarrassed to say so now. This song seems as crucial if not more to the solidification of the conceptual theme as Vagabonds. It is a work of pure genius. It explains the album art. It explains the motif of contrast, irony, and paradox. It is the height of TCC's defiant shout out to the sucky world to kick its ass back into shape. And it is musically outstanding. Marie got totally suckered by this dreadfully confusing status that showed up in her Facebook feed a couple months ago:
I hesitate to use this word because it holds a connotation I would use sparingly, but Everything & Nothing is a very bitter song. A strong but raw song with hope behind its honest (implicit) pessimism. It is evidence of a world where TCC stands out. A very rough, unkind world. I know relatively little about life as a professional musician, but from what I've heard, that sounds pretty accurate. This song addresses hypocrisy. It addresses lies. It addresses loneliness. It's a pretty densely packed song.
As in A Perfect Voice, they denounce the assumed desire for "fame and fortune" that is commonly inherited with the title "rock band" within the first few seconds. This song has the same bare-bones meaning, though its bitter tang gives a much deeper, darker sentiment than songs like Four Chords. Lines like "I hope you're done saying 'I told you so' / because I think I'm done telling the world what I know" have an emotion attached that I can think to describe in no other way than completely fed-up, which he continues by describing the lies the world tells (totally black, no matter how small, 'white,' one tries to make them seem). The conceptual desire for absolutes stems from passages like Revelation 3:16, which says, "So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth," and from the Christian virtue of non-conformity. By definition, extremes stand out. It is evident that TCC (at least feels as if it) stands out. The idea is to speak the truth regardless of public opinion, regardless of worldly pressure: the chorus proceeds to cry, "Give me one good reason (a reason, not simply words, which need real-life manifestation to hold any real-life validity) to believe I'm not alone- I will wait for you to answer me (as I've said, the answer has no merit if it isn't supported by reality)." The message is, Please come tell me (show me) I'm not alone, because "I need a hand to hold"- and I will wait for you to answer me. The entirety of the song is a challenge to the world to prove that it's not such a bitch. Which obviously calls for a bit of pessimism, as normally the song followed by a decisive silence...
Once again, my props Justin (the guitarist) and Matt for a freakishly well-written, dynamic, living, breathing, moving song. Props to those two as well as Alan (the bassist), Skip, and Robbie for outstanding blend, articulation, overall build and dynamics. Every single instrument, every single member, every single art, is glorified in and by this song.
Moving on to Track Nine, entitled The Count, I'll say that I also loved this song before I had ever heard it, based off its description on MySpace: "The appropriately named 'The Count' explores three different time signatures. The track mixes complex changes with a very simple three note melody vocal." It certainly lived up to my expectations. I've always had a soft spot for imaginary monsters, and I like the lyrical imagery explored in this song: "My enemies were frenzied for a taste of my flesh [...] / The beasts are closing in, their teeth are dripping with rattlesnake poison." The imagery continues when the poison oozing from between their teeth is revealed to be "insincerity" in the second verse. The beasts' eyes are "hollow and blind," adding to the physical imagery of the beats but also providing a character description of the more literal enemy. Note the increasing intensity and exactitude of the vocal articulation along with the gradually narrowing subdivision in the condensing guitar triads and drums as the second verse picks up speed and emotional charge. I don't suppose the concept is particularly original, but it doesn't need to be, it's universally applicable: it's simply running from a personal monster to God, but once again, I believe it to be freakishly eloquently/poetically/beautifully expressed. It's rare that bands of their genres attempt to take on such progressive time signatures, such a full, round, almost dramatic sound, and pull it off.
With that, the second group is concluded and only the last two songs are left. Track Ten, Different Now, is your average cute-but-sappy love song at first glance. It sounds almost like a rip of Hey There Delilah. But once again, knowing the little bit of (what I believe to be) the story behind the song, it's an altogether more adorable song. Go read The Jet City Filter if you don't know what I'm talking about. Most of this song is relatively self-explanatory and I don't believe there is much deep to read into it because it there is a place and a time for simple, honest love songs; but like all TCC love songs, I believe it has a catch to it (even if the catch is a crutch). Notice that although he does say that the love never breaks and that he wouldn't change a thing, he never says if the "difference" is 'good' or 'bad.' The song ends with the same sweet-but-cliché, Petrarch-esque classic-love-song ending: "The sunset through the blinds reminds me of the time we me / You were like a ray of sunlight penetrating my apartment..." One senses an "awwww" echoing through the audience at the last chord of the song...
But this beautiful sentiment is so rudely interrupted by the beginning of the last track on Vagabonds. Broken Mess is one of the most epic love songs I have heard in a long time. The lighthearted mood left by Different Now and continued with the cute, waltz-y guitar Broken Mess starts out with, is juxtaposed pretty intelligently with the lyrics in its first verse, where the same ray of sunlight light is called a whore. It gives me this gleeful, sinking feeling of absolute disgust in the pit of my stomach. When he says "he keeps thinking about her / behind the locked door of her bedroom," one may never know whether it is she that is locked behind the door of her own bedroom, or he locked behind the door of her bedroom. He then proceeds tell us with a notable deal of vivid emotional description how love hacks up one's heart in the first two choruses, but in the last chorus, Love resurrects that same hacked-up heart. "She" will open you eyes, make your heart feel alive, lift you towards the sunrise, and help you leave all this broken mess behind. The healing power of perfect love. Hmm.
Here's the idea: Broken Mess continues with the concept of Pride (which is specifically dealt with in The Happy Nihilist). The entire song seems to be a twisted parody of the human desire to play God. This is seen in particular in the sense of disappointment with the wife in the first verse and "if it were me" in the bridge... but in his very own judgment, he condemns his own pride. Man is God's rebellious bride, since man cheats on God with sin (Pride); when considering the situation from the position of the one being cheated on, he says that "the monster [her lover] would probably die" if he had the power to "bleed him dry." This means that if he were to take his own advice, he would lose his pride, because he rightfully believes the thing the bride uses to cheat on the husband with should be "bled dry." He can no longer play God because his desire to do so IS the "monster" he cheats on God with. This whole situation is particularly ironic because to stop sinning requires a good measure of "self control," which he doesn't have, evidenced through the differentiation between the way God ("a credit to his self control") and he (if it were me, that monster would probably die) would react to being wronged. Now that he is in 'God's situation,' he understands what self control it takes to rein one's righteous anger in response to such an atrocity. God is in command of all virtues, including self control, though man lacks it: this is the reason it is so difficult for man to let go of his sin ("to leave this broken mess behind").
To solidify the theme of Pride, 1:14-1:17 is almost unmistakably reminiscent to the musical theme from Just a Man. (Disclaimer: this song is the bit of theorizing I feel particularly uncomfortable asserting analytical authority on, because I have no support for my theories whatsoever. Especially because there are quotes like this one, from April 16, responding to an analysis very similar to the one I just gave: "It's about a specific human relationship. But you can take it however you want." We're left in the deep end on our own, unfortunately. I cannot listen through that song and believe that the Bride of Christ idea was not played upon intentionally. Besides, the idea of referring to the Holy Spirit, or Love [1 John 4:8], as "she" isn't new to The Classic Crime- I regret being unable to find the source, but I remember reading online about a year ago that when in The Beginning (A Simple Seed) he says, "every time I'm close to the Holy Ghost, I always seem to let her go," the undefined article refers both to the "Holy Ghost" and "his girl.") It's this simple intricacy that makes me love The Classic Crime.
I hope that all made some measure of sense. I hope I haven't completely jumped off of the deep end. For those of you who don't know them, aren't sold on them, or dislike them, hope I might have helped you see the ingenuity of this album, this band, and why I'm so fanatic about them (I only am because, if only for the sake of their music, they're worth keeping an eye on). For those of you who love them already, I sincerely hope I've either explained something in such a way that you will enjoy the music more or given you the association of my laughable idiocy to chuckle at every time you listen through the album. In any case, thanks for reading.
Before I found TCC, I had only a playlist-size bit of music, which I had inherited entirely from a friend of mine. It consisted of four bands: The Hush Sound, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Paramore, and My Chemical Romance. I listened to that playlist-size bit of music more times than I could count in those first few months after I got hooked on Rock music, July - October of 2007. And then I decided it was really lame not to have any of my 'own' music, so to speak. So I decided to go explore. At this point I was thirteen years old and hardly knew what the music scene was, let alone how to find new music in it. I had heard of the band Emery (which I have grown to love since 2007) through the same friend. Though I couldn't stand their music at the time, on the account of what I believed to be excessive screaming, I liked their sound, so I figured I'd go look up other bands on Tooth&Nail, their record label. I spent the entirety of one weekend hunting: I would search each band on Wikipedia's T&N list on YouTube and listen to the first two songs that came up for each one of them. I remember realizing for the first time exactly how much crappy music there was out there, as between bland, average, boring bands, and horrible aggressively-scream-y bands, I found nothing I felt like I could even remotely enjoy. I'd grown progressively more pessimistic about what little I knew of the music scene by the time I plunked "The Classic Crime" into the YouTube search box. The first song I heard was The Fight, which didn't impress me (and got filed into the "bland, average" category). The second was The Coldest Heart. I didn't understand then what exactly I liked about that song, but something stood out... so I listened again. There was a character to the music that made it all fit, something that seemed to call out to me, for lack of a better way of saying it. So I listened a third time, and then to another song, and another, until I'd gone through most every song on their first and only album, Albatross.
For those of you who have tried to hook me on your music, you know that I am normally not a particularly easy audience to please. Though I'd like to think I can see the art within most music, the point is that I look for it, and it's surprising how little there is in most. I make a pretty tough process of selecting the bands I'd consider my 'favorites": I take everything into account that I can. Concerning the music itself: the quality of the songwriting, the quality of its execution, the quality of the production, the project's inspiration, the quality of the band's live performance, and the overall cohesiveness of an album (which is something I particularly enjoy); concerning lyrics: the quality of the poetry, the quality of its content, the motive/intent/inspiration behind their creation; concerning any videos they might have: originality, quality of execution, and their message, the same three things concerning the album artwork; and last but not least, concerning the band members themselves: their dedication, their ability, their personal character, and their interaction with fans. So, after I'd finally found music (referring to the whole package) that appealed to me greatly concerning the music (referring to the sound), the lyrics, and didn't put me off with the video, I decided to start researching the band itself.
I found that they had a philosophy behind their album, they had an identity, they had a very appealing religious outlook (meaning that what they had to say was very compatible with my own beliefs), they were cool people as much as I could tell from the few interviews I was able to get hold of, and, to put the cherry on the top of the cake, they were from Seattle. And all this for a debut album! I couldn't find a single thing about them I disliked (except that first song I listened to, The Fight, which I admit took a long time to grow on me and was never my favorite). So they were the first band I felt like I could 'make my own,' and also happened to become my favorites to follow around. Over the months, I gained more and more respect for them as I got to know their music better, learned of their involvement with organizations like To Write Love On Her Arms and Faceless International, and read all they (Matt MacDonald, the lead singer/songwriter, and lyricist, in particular) wrote online. Now, after two years, I have been a fan long enough to have seen Matt's songwriting improve, the band's ability improve, their live performance grow stronger, their music videos get better, and the people grow as characters, which has truly been a pleasure in and of itself. Three records have come out since the day I found them; they remain the only band I have found to date which has managed to hold both my attention and respect for two consecutive records, let alone for their entire career as a band. Matt started a blog towards the beginning of 2009, which I have been a faithful subscriber to, and have greatly enjoyed reading. I hate to group that thought with the next, because I don't mean to imply that I only love reading things I agree with or that I love the blog only because I do agree with nearly everything he discusses in it, but it is appreciably well-written and intelligent as well. But I digress- my point is that there is a great deal of rationality behind my passionate fan-ship, as well as a strong emotional connection to that something in their music that has always resonated with me.
If this is understood, the foundation has been laid for me to go off on a 5500-word-long analysis-rant on this new album I was talking about, entitled Vagabonds. Or, I should say, a long analysis-rant on how I perceive the album, because unless I specify that I do, I have no external validation for the content of my analysis. Generally speaking, however, I think what I have to say is pretty valid, and because I can simply not contain my excitement for the genius of this record, I will unpack my thoughts here.
By the way, this will probably make little sense, or else be a rather incomplete, uninteresting read if you have not yet listened through Vagabonds. I would wholeheartedly encourage you to buy it here if you haven't yet. (My philosophy on pirating is that bands that deserve the money they earn through the purchase of their music should rightfully be given the due money. I feel guilty not paying bands that deserve their wages. But much of the time I don't bother to pay uber-rich-and-famous bands or bands which I simply feel morally obligated not to support.) It will also be somewhat less complete and/or interesting if you haven't made your way through The Silver Cord, so I wholeheartedly encourage you to purchase this as well. Oh, and TSC is hard to appreciate in its entirety unless you've listened to their first couple albums, so whether for the purpose of context or just for the heck of it, you might as well buy Albatross and Seattle Sessions while you're at it. (I can promise that almost all of it is excellent music, don't worry.)
The album Vagabonds starts with a song entitled A Perfect Voice. (The irony begins in the very first track: even though it's labeled "A Perfect Voice," the lyrics explain the opposite.) It's the first of a group of five songs on the record written in the same mindspace as well as the same month; Matt says in an interview with TVU's Most Wanted, "The first five songs came out in a period of like two weeks, in January of 09, and they're from a headspace that I think I was in- we were in, as a band- where we just accepted where we were, career-wise; accepted that though we may never make a lot of money and we may never reach the people we wanted to reach, our place is a place of value and that it matters. So it's sort of about having joy in poverty, joy in the midst of struggle." As far as organization goes, Vagabonds is put together more or less the same way The Silver Cord is: The Beginning through Salt in the Snow, paralleled to A Perfect Voice through Vagabonds, are the lighter, more pop-ish, more optimistic, individualistic songs on the album. This is followed by a second group, Abracadavers through The Ascent, paralleled to The Happy Nihilist through The Count, which is a decidedly darker, rawer, frank, blatantly honest songs. This is followed by a third group, Sing through The Beginning, which returns to a happier sound and on both records contains one or two of TCC's classic sarcastic love songs. (This idea I found in a post from October 29, 2008 during a conversation on the TCC forum, where Matt said, "I have a fear of the typical cliché love song. Songs that come close (Say The Word, All The Memories, and Everything) always have a hint of guarded sarcasm, or something drastic to make you chuckle. Unfortunately, the pop world has yet to understand the humor.") For a number of months, the band (particularly Matt, who seems to have a substantially larger virtual footprint than the other band members) had been describing Vagabonds as a much brighter, more hopeful album than The Silver Cord. I specifically remember an interview with Effect Radio in November 2009, Matt described the sound as "aggressive Pop" in contrast to the "dark, minor" sound of TSC, and the band went on to compare the new record to a blue laser beam (which they ended up sort of denouncing, but I think describes the sound fairly well). This quote is slightly out of context so it might sound a little weird, but Matt wrote in his blog, The Jet City Filter (once again, I would encourage you all to read the whole thing), on December 2, 2009, "Our band has been through a lot of ups and downs, probably more downs than ups considering our expectations were much higher, but I've come to a point of acceptance with my life. I feel like we've turned a corner, survived the firing squad and will live to see another day. No I didn't kill a T-Rex or take off flying, making everyone who doubted me jealous, but I am completely at peace with that." The binding concept of the album Vagabonds (and in particular the first five songs) certainly reflects this mentality: despite the difficulty of living the way they do, with the amount of insecurity they have to deal with, living as 'Vagabonds,' away from their wives and girlfriends and friends and families and homes for months on end, they have joy, they have hope, they have peace in this difficulty. The band has come to terms with their situation. (No doubt, there are times when it visibly pushes them down. I occasionally stalk their Facebooks, and as you all know, Facebook tells all.)
With that context, the album opens with a very bright, very simple (on their MySpace page, Matt is quoted as saying, "I'm obsessed with simple songs; songs that don't change a lot musically but you can feel the dynamics in the melody and rhythm when you listen," concerning A Perfect Voice, which contains only two chords, G# and D# major) very honest song. In the same blog I quoted earlier, he says, "I've settled with the fact that my minimalist lifestyle is so much more of a blessing than it is a hardship. [...] Of course it would be nice if the mass audience appreciated our musical integrity and decided to become fans of our band, but if they never do there will be no harm done. We already have an audience, a really appreciative one, and for that I am thankful." The lyric "I may not ever see a dime / but I'll be fine / yeah, I'll still get by / all a time a smile upon my face" means a whole lot more, holds a much deeper, more painfully joyful meaning, having spent the past year reading things like this, little pieces of the journey that one can glean from the Internet. It is my belief that a story put to music means more than the music on its own.
I always have, but increasingly so with the release of this latest record, I have a great amount of respect for the simultaneous amusement/sarcasm and respect with which The Classic Crime treats its fans. Simply reading their Facebook page makes me snicker. I've seen it happen three times over now: every time a record comes out, the fans are a smidge apprehensive. (I'll admit that I was among this group the past two CDs... I would imagine that TCC has a crapload of fans like me. They have an extremely loyal fanbase that is always afraid it will lose its favorite band.) Although many are pleased the first time through, many others reluctantly begin to admit that it just isn't working for them and that they were hoping for a lot more. Then a week or two go by and most of the same fans turn back up and rant about how much it's grown on them, how much better they understand it now. TCC knows this very well by now, and it's amusing to read:
Sometimes, the tone reads more or less "whatever..."
The Classic Crime
From what I've heard 9/10 fans love Vagabonds. Thank you for your comments! 1/10 are pulling the whole "Not what I expected," and "I like their old stuff better," routine. We've heard that every record, and as frustrating as it is, we know from experience that when our next record comes out the same people will initially say, "Its good, but It's no Vagabonds..." Groundhog Day! -M
April 15 at 2:29pm via Facebook for iPhone
And other times, it's that kidding-but-actually-kind-of-serious,-maybe tone:
The Classic Crime
Hey our FACEBASE is over 18k! If every one of you purchased http://tiny.URL/vagabondsdeluxe right now, then we'd actually have a future as a band! Guilt guilt guilt! Love you, Matt
April 13 at 9:20am via Facebook for iPhone
On April 13, some fan asked how much money they should bring to a show to buy merch, a question to which TCC promptly responded, "Bring at least $1000." The day prior, another fan admitted, "I don't like The new cd... it's only my opinion but i like so much more the others cds including the Acoustic." After another fan had liked the post and commented, "Me too," TCC responded, "It'll grow on you. Some people have slower ears. It's ok." I laughed. I recall expressing my excitement and anticipation to Matt concerning the yet-unreleased Vagabonds after a show once as we talked about the way their other music grows on the listener over time (I don't normally like to just go up and start trying to talk to people I don't know without purpose. I wanted to go ask him about the strings tracks in songs like Headlights and Say the Word. Interesting discussion. But I digress). He just smiled and said, "Yup, it's a grower, this one. It'll grow on you if you don't give up on it." I almost feel foolish, now, for failing to trust this generic advice...
I believe much of the album itself has this character. Coming from a genre which largely finds its success in personal connection with their audience, I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's pretty abnormal to find a lyricist that opens their record with the words, "I may not sing your favorite song / but I don't sing for you / 'cause if I did / I would have been gone long ago." Vagabonds is an absolutely fearless album. They are proud to be doing whatever the heck they are doing in whatever way they are right up until "they die," independent of whatever the heck the world cares to say about them. Though they use their performance as "a way to share their art with people" (as Matt said in an interview with Epoch Magazine on April 5), they aren't controlled by the people they share their art with, as many others seem to be. From a spectator's point of view, this is a pretty powerful, refreshing thing to see. It's the headlight on the bow of a little boat bobbing up and down in the midst of the sea of sellout bands, blatant crowd-pleasers and losers that generally characterizes the modern music scene.
The second track on the album is called Cheap Shots. This was one of three songs they played at a show at The Showbox in Seattle on December 18, 2009. (It was one of the more outstanding of their show's I've seen.) This song confused me, but I liked it even the first time I heard it. The Pop gem shone pretty brightly through the inevitable cacophony of the little Rock show. It was something unusually brilliant for them, something unusually hopeful, and I couldn't wait to hear it. It's true, TCC has never made a song that sounded as mainstream as Cheap Shots (which is to blame for my original confusion), but with that comes incredible songwriting (as well as an incredible text that mark a clear, timeless distinction from Mainstream). The fires started by lips seem to allude to James 3:6, where James warns that "the tongue also is a fire, [which] corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell." Upon hearing the lyric "so go ahead and spit your poison out," I had a flashback to Gravedigging, the third track on TSC, in which a chorus of relatively contrasting sentiment says, "Give me my poison pills 'cause I'm / digging my star-crossed grave tonight." Intentional or not, it draws an interesting point of comparison between the two records, the light and the dark (not like that's a motif or anything. Take a look at the cover). The irony continues as the lyrics muse, "I've never been too proud to sin / why don't you rub my face in it?" As I'm sure you could all figured out by now, something I have always loved and shared with Matt's words is a critical attitude concerning religion (see Just a Man); this is certainly continued through Cheap Shots. What a dichotomy, that one would abstain from sin due to pride! And how common the problem is! Will the [living] water even wash it away? I may be partial, but I happen to think this song does a particularly eloquent job of pointing out the issue, as well. I could try to explain what's so great about the guitar and drums and bass as well, but normally I don't make sense, so I'll try stay away from it. The only issue I have with the song is that at about 2:50, at the end of the bridge into the last chorus, there's a really anticlimactic transition that always leaves me hanging. I've figured out that it's because there's this 8/7/6/5 guitar pattern (which goes well with V chords, like the second chord in the chorus) that gets started one chord too early, while there's a IV chord playing, which ruins about 3 seconds of the song (because the pattern ends one note above the root of the chord being played). This will continue to make me sad for however long I listen to it, but there's so much ingenuity in the album that I've normally forgotten about those three seconds after another three have passed.
The third track is entitled Solar Powered Life. I'll admit it, I did not like this song for a long time before the record came out. To be honest, it scared me. It was one of the three songs they played at the December 18th show: they had a bunch of other guys come up on stage and sing with them awhile. That first time, I remember an itching sense of genuine fear that they maybe have been swallowed by something big and terrible. It's true, it sounds like a Rock anthem from the 1970s. It's got the Classic Rock chord progression. It's barely two minutes long. It's about sunshine, for gosh sake. But then a status somewhere along the lines of this quote from their MySpace popped into my Facebook feed: "[Solar Powered Life] is very tongue-in-cheek, sarcastically explaining seasonal affective disorder." And then I felt terribly plebian for believing that TCC would write a song like that with with any large measure of sincerity.
All jokes aside, I love the song every bit as much as the rest of the album, now. It makes the album a rounder, more complete work of art... I have come to enjoy the tasteful pop in the songwriting, which knits itself into one's mind more with every listen through, and the sarcasm which is now apparent to me, as the chorus sings about the weather for nearly half the song and the fragile, up-and-down nature of the girl being sung about.
The fourth track is Four Chords. The numbering doesn't really seem like coincidence to me, but then little does. This song contains a deal of lyrical wisdom; I continue to snicker at the phrase "All you get is 650,000 hours if you're lucky then you're dead, says the voice inside my head," which I have never seen punctuated by the band. It's a mystery as to whether the lyric intends to communicate "All you get is 650,000 hours, if you're lucky. Then you're dead, says the voice inside my head," or "All you get is 650,000 hours. If you're lucky, then you're dead, says the voice inside my head." Would make a great are-you-a-pessimist-or-an-optimist test...
This track, as the first, makes me cringe. Upbeat as it is, it's like one of those moments where seeing someone take a wronging well stings longer and more fiercely than if they'd reacted badly. I've always been slightly angry that TCC hasn't been as successful as they deserve to be, and it certainly seems like they should be more successful than they are- they seem to have a lot of fans that all believe what I do about their success. Yet at the same time, as the band itself sometimes says, their lack of fame and fortune has done them and their music a deal of good. They've quite evidently learned a lot from the lifestyle they've had to endure, and the way they've waded through it all, playing "the same four chords" just to make a pretty lousy living, and with such excitement ("but we ain't bored"), is inspiring, to say the least. To dampen that note, what bothers me about this song, similar to Cheap Shots, is the way in which they modified the last chorus leaves the song feeling unresolved, as far as I'm concerned. I may still get used to it, but some pieces I can just never bring myself to love (such as the pre-chorus in 5805). And I think it might be better that way.
If you like picking music apart as much as I do, go through the song two times: the first, specifically listen for Matt's breathing technique (which I envy, as a singer, even if he probably isn't intentional about it) and vocal harmonies, which are unison when present until the second verse (where the harmony is actually higher than the melody, which is very typical of TCC but generally unusual), giving the song a nice sense of dynamic and build; the second time listen for the guitar's articulation.
Vagabonds is the fifth track and pinnacle of the album. Its ending is the halfway mark through the CD. It was the third song they played on December 18th, and I enjoyed it, with the same half-understanding of something bigger and brighter than I could understand at a liveshow that I received Cheap Shots with. I head learned the guitar solo by the beginning of March thanks to an acoustic performance that came up on YouTube and eventually fell in love with it, once again, admittedly after about five or six times through. I certainly did not like it the first time. At all. It honestly felt uncomfortable to listen to The Classic Crime be so bright. But it slowly started to fit; I believe the recording they finally put out is a very accurate portrayal of the spirit of the album. Normally I can't stand it when bands name an album after one song, because it turns out as a single with 8 or 9 legs awkwardly sprouted off of it, destroying the whole "cohesive album" vibe I mentioned earlier. On Vagabonds, however, it functioned more as a summary or a climax than it did a distraction, which- again- is refreshing. And as a local, I always have to smile when Matt writes about the "Jet City in the Evergreen State."
There have been a comment or two on TCC's Facebook wall from more attentive fans in awe of the percussive skill in Vagabonds, and I too have to give a 20-lb kudos to Skip (the drummer) for that song. I'm no percussionist, but I can recognize that there are something like 5 or 6 different instruments in this song: shakers and tambourines and cowbells and bongos and a regular drum set... It all seems rather ridiculous until one hears how well it works, how well it compliments the other parts of the song. Once again, tone and rhythmical precision are well-executed in the guitar and the harmonies in the solo make me smile every time. Even the bass, which normally fades in pretty unnoticed, gives the song a very nice contrast, particularly the last 10 or 15 seconds of the song. Vagabonds's last chord always seems to find me feeling happy and tired and kind of knocked out, like that feeling one gets after falling off of an inner tube getting dragged behind a boat at about 50 MPH. But it's the end of the first five songs; that feeling dies promptly with the birth of the next song. (Nice contrast, once again.)
The Happy Nihilist was the one song I liked before I had ever heard a note of it, before I had even heard the sampler. The name all by itself is epic. I mean, one just has to appreciate an Alternative Indie band sarcastically, almost satirically, writing about the flaws behind Nihilism. The idea of hyper-analysis and an overemphasis on rationality expressed through his little clauses about self-taught philosophies and books (which only hurt the pursuer: "The books I read that used to free my mind have made me more blind, but the truth I'll find it) speak to me emotionally, as the irony goes (though I suppose the joyful sentiment from the first group of songs does as well). This has been both the most rational and the happiest year I have experienced in a number of years, coincidence or not. The very creation of this blog is a product of the sudden increase in rationality; my enthusiastic commenting on Matt's more philosophical blogs are the same way. (He once began a response to a comment of mine by saying, "Dang you really chew before you swallow. I like that. :)" which made me laugh. I'm sure plenty friends/family members of mine aren't quite as fond of it...) So I enjoy those themes he writes (music) about extra; art is good at pointing out things within you like that. The music is a great accompaniment for the lyrics, but when you're listening to the song, the lyrics become the accompaniment. I don't have anything new to rant about concerning the music itself, but it's incredible regardless.
From the little bit I heard in Haiti videos and in the sampler, I always loved the song My Name, and caught its significance from the beginning. It's a big ol' Biblical allusion, much of the lyrics pulling from Daniel. The phrases "worshiped the golden statue" and "I will walk through the fire" seem to be from Daniel 3, though the first thing I thought when I heard the former was the golden calf in Exodus 32 and the latter sounds like Isaiah 43:2 ("When you walk through the fire / you will not be burned / the flames will not set you ablaze"). The reference to the "lion's den" is pretty obviously drawn from the famous story of Daniel in the lion's den from Daniel 6. There are quite a few resurrection stories that the phrase "walked in dead man's shoes" could be referencing (Lazarus came to mind). Regardless of implicatory Biblical references I picked up on, the song refers to a more theologically-grounded motivation for their refusal to look to the world to "give them their name." TCC rarely gives elaborate answers to questions about the meanings of songs, because they believe their songs can have more than one significance to people. They do give short, concise answers on occasion, though, as it gives analytical freaks like me the opportunity to overanalyze their music while simultaneously allowing the average 12-year-old to love the tune they hear on the radio. On the 15th, a fan asked what the significance behind the lyrics in the chorus were, and Matt responded, "Your name is your true value. Only God can give it to you. People can't 'name' you in the macro sense. Advice I'm still learning!"
The music itself is excellently done as well; my props to Robbie (lead guitarist) and Skip for excellent articulation, once again, particularly in the second verse. I adore the grand style they took with this song. It was certainly a risk- it could very easily have come off dreadfully corny (though it certainly didn't). I've always loved keyboards and strings, so their simple presence makes me happy.
I did not like Everything & Nothing the first few times through, either. I found it repetitive and uninteresting and slightly cliché. I'm slightly embarrassed to say so now. This song seems as crucial if not more to the solidification of the conceptual theme as Vagabonds. It is a work of pure genius. It explains the album art. It explains the motif of contrast, irony, and paradox. It is the height of TCC's defiant shout out to the sucky world to kick its ass back into shape. And it is musically outstanding. Marie got totally suckered by this dreadfully confusing status that showed up in her Facebook feed a couple months ago:
The Classic CrimeShe was so confused, poor thing. Until it turned out legitimately two-dimensional and got explained: "I am everything and nothing, I am black and white, I am wrong and right."
One of the major themes of "Vagabonds" is a sense of indifference towards the trivial, two-dimensional ambitions our society forces on us. Like money, fame, and album art.
-Matt
February 19 at 5:50pm via Facebook for iPhone
I hesitate to use this word because it holds a connotation I would use sparingly, but Everything & Nothing is a very bitter song. A strong but raw song with hope behind its honest (implicit) pessimism. It is evidence of a world where TCC stands out. A very rough, unkind world. I know relatively little about life as a professional musician, but from what I've heard, that sounds pretty accurate. This song addresses hypocrisy. It addresses lies. It addresses loneliness. It's a pretty densely packed song.
As in A Perfect Voice, they denounce the assumed desire for "fame and fortune" that is commonly inherited with the title "rock band" within the first few seconds. This song has the same bare-bones meaning, though its bitter tang gives a much deeper, darker sentiment than songs like Four Chords. Lines like "I hope you're done saying 'I told you so' / because I think I'm done telling the world what I know" have an emotion attached that I can think to describe in no other way than completely fed-up, which he continues by describing the lies the world tells (totally black, no matter how small, 'white,' one tries to make them seem). The conceptual desire for absolutes stems from passages like Revelation 3:16, which says, "So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth," and from the Christian virtue of non-conformity. By definition, extremes stand out. It is evident that TCC (at least feels as if it) stands out. The idea is to speak the truth regardless of public opinion, regardless of worldly pressure: the chorus proceeds to cry, "Give me one good reason (a reason, not simply words, which need real-life manifestation to hold any real-life validity) to believe I'm not alone- I will wait for you to answer me (as I've said, the answer has no merit if it isn't supported by reality)." The message is, Please come tell me (show me) I'm not alone, because "I need a hand to hold"- and I will wait for you to answer me. The entirety of the song is a challenge to the world to prove that it's not such a bitch. Which obviously calls for a bit of pessimism, as normally the song followed by a decisive silence...
Once again, my props Justin (the guitarist) and Matt for a freakishly well-written, dynamic, living, breathing, moving song. Props to those two as well as Alan (the bassist), Skip, and Robbie for outstanding blend, articulation, overall build and dynamics. Every single instrument, every single member, every single art, is glorified in and by this song.
Moving on to Track Nine, entitled The Count, I'll say that I also loved this song before I had ever heard it, based off its description on MySpace: "The appropriately named 'The Count' explores three different time signatures. The track mixes complex changes with a very simple three note melody vocal." It certainly lived up to my expectations. I've always had a soft spot for imaginary monsters, and I like the lyrical imagery explored in this song: "My enemies were frenzied for a taste of my flesh [...] / The beasts are closing in, their teeth are dripping with rattlesnake poison." The imagery continues when the poison oozing from between their teeth is revealed to be "insincerity" in the second verse. The beasts' eyes are "hollow and blind," adding to the physical imagery of the beats but also providing a character description of the more literal enemy. Note the increasing intensity and exactitude of the vocal articulation along with the gradually narrowing subdivision in the condensing guitar triads and drums as the second verse picks up speed and emotional charge. I don't suppose the concept is particularly original, but it doesn't need to be, it's universally applicable: it's simply running from a personal monster to God, but once again, I believe it to be freakishly eloquently/poetically/beautifully expressed. It's rare that bands of their genres attempt to take on such progressive time signatures, such a full, round, almost dramatic sound, and pull it off.
With that, the second group is concluded and only the last two songs are left. Track Ten, Different Now, is your average cute-but-sappy love song at first glance. It sounds almost like a rip of Hey There Delilah. But once again, knowing the little bit of (what I believe to be) the story behind the song, it's an altogether more adorable song. Go read The Jet City Filter if you don't know what I'm talking about. Most of this song is relatively self-explanatory and I don't believe there is much deep to read into it because it there is a place and a time for simple, honest love songs; but like all TCC love songs, I believe it has a catch to it (even if the catch is a crutch). Notice that although he does say that the love never breaks and that he wouldn't change a thing, he never says if the "difference" is 'good' or 'bad.' The song ends with the same sweet-but-cliché, Petrarch-esque classic-love-song ending: "The sunset through the blinds reminds me of the time we me / You were like a ray of sunlight penetrating my apartment..." One senses an "awwww" echoing through the audience at the last chord of the song...
But this beautiful sentiment is so rudely interrupted by the beginning of the last track on Vagabonds. Broken Mess is one of the most epic love songs I have heard in a long time. The lighthearted mood left by Different Now and continued with the cute, waltz-y guitar Broken Mess starts out with, is juxtaposed pretty intelligently with the lyrics in its first verse, where the same ray of sunlight light is called a whore. It gives me this gleeful, sinking feeling of absolute disgust in the pit of my stomach. When he says "he keeps thinking about her / behind the locked door of her bedroom," one may never know whether it is she that is locked behind the door of her own bedroom, or he locked behind the door of her bedroom. He then proceeds tell us with a notable deal of vivid emotional description how love hacks up one's heart in the first two choruses, but in the last chorus, Love resurrects that same hacked-up heart. "She" will open you eyes, make your heart feel alive, lift you towards the sunrise, and help you leave all this broken mess behind. The healing power of perfect love. Hmm.
Here's the idea: Broken Mess continues with the concept of Pride (which is specifically dealt with in The Happy Nihilist). The entire song seems to be a twisted parody of the human desire to play God. This is seen in particular in the sense of disappointment with the wife in the first verse and "if it were me" in the bridge... but in his very own judgment, he condemns his own pride. Man is God's rebellious bride, since man cheats on God with sin (Pride); when considering the situation from the position of the one being cheated on, he says that "the monster [her lover] would probably die" if he had the power to "bleed him dry." This means that if he were to take his own advice, he would lose his pride, because he rightfully believes the thing the bride uses to cheat on the husband with should be "bled dry." He can no longer play God because his desire to do so IS the "monster" he cheats on God with. This whole situation is particularly ironic because to stop sinning requires a good measure of "self control," which he doesn't have, evidenced through the differentiation between the way God ("a credit to his self control") and he (if it were me, that monster would probably die) would react to being wronged. Now that he is in 'God's situation,' he understands what self control it takes to rein one's righteous anger in response to such an atrocity. God is in command of all virtues, including self control, though man lacks it: this is the reason it is so difficult for man to let go of his sin ("to leave this broken mess behind").
To solidify the theme of Pride, 1:14-1:17 is almost unmistakably reminiscent to the musical theme from Just a Man. (Disclaimer: this song is the bit of theorizing I feel particularly uncomfortable asserting analytical authority on, because I have no support for my theories whatsoever. Especially because there are quotes like this one, from April 16, responding to an analysis very similar to the one I just gave: "It's about a specific human relationship. But you can take it however you want." We're left in the deep end on our own, unfortunately. I cannot listen through that song and believe that the Bride of Christ idea was not played upon intentionally. Besides, the idea of referring to the Holy Spirit, or Love [1 John 4:8], as "she" isn't new to The Classic Crime- I regret being unable to find the source, but I remember reading online about a year ago that when in The Beginning (A Simple Seed) he says, "every time I'm close to the Holy Ghost, I always seem to let her go," the undefined article refers both to the "Holy Ghost" and "his girl.") It's this simple intricacy that makes me love The Classic Crime.
I hope that all made some measure of sense. I hope I haven't completely jumped off of the deep end. For those of you who don't know them, aren't sold on them, or dislike them, hope I might have helped you see the ingenuity of this album, this band, and why I'm so fanatic about them (I only am because, if only for the sake of their music, they're worth keeping an eye on). For those of you who love them already, I sincerely hope I've either explained something in such a way that you will enjoy the music more or given you the association of my laughable idiocy to chuckle at every time you listen through the album. In any case, thanks for reading.
Wow. Best review EVER. Thanks!
ReplyDeletethanks for writing!
ReplyDeleteKUDOS, kid~! *holds up thumb*
ReplyDeleteSo enjoyable and totally worth the read. <3 You seem so cool. :) I want to meet you. xD
ReplyDeleteThis is interesting, but I don't agree with some of your stuff. I actually personally know matt and Robbie so I know a bit more of the stories behind the songs
ReplyDelete. Anyways, keep on keepin on.
^Care to share some insight, then? I loved the review, it definitely gave me some new ideas to consider when listening to the album - thanks for taking the time to write it all up! =)
ReplyDeleteThis review is awesome. I'm not talented musically, so a lot of those intricacies are lost on me. But damn, if one band knows how to compose an album, it's The Classic Crime. Thanks for the insight!
ReplyDeleteAmazing!!!!! I am speechless. This interview is so real and true to what the band is about! I have appreciated the quality of the music of The Classic Crime! I just cannot understand why people waste their money on inferior and mediocre bands signed by big labels when this band has so much to offer. If The Classic Crime had a better connected manager and a more commited label, they would be huge!
ReplyDeleteThis is amazing. *repeats part about Maire being an amazing writer*
ReplyDeleteI read up to (not "through", to) the Vagabonds bit while actually listening to the songs in question - which was very cool. But then I realized I was tired and not processing things correctly haha. So I'll finish doing that tomorrow. And I now love Vagabonds even more. Thank you.
Random comments on the songs off the top of my head:
-A Perfect Voice makes me think of Jen saying "it doesn't matter if you mess up; just have fun singing”.
-The beginning of Four Chords kind of fascinates and scares me, because I don't think I was ever "much too young to think of danger" except when I was too young to remember (and even then I know I had some really...traumatic, for a baby...stuff going on). But then again, I don't know how innocent anyone REALLY is as a child...or is that just an illusion of innocence that all the older people have?
And my stubborn optimism says it's "hours, if you're lucky. Then you're dead", but sometimes I hear it the other way.
-The Happy Nihilist first of all makes me grin because I think of history. But beyond the little "Patricia is a history nerd studying for AP exams" bit, it was perhaps the easiest song for me to hear the first time I was listening to Vagabonds (hear literally...I understood/heard the most detail) - don't ask me why. My ears work in weird ways. And the "but it still hurts like hell to trust nobody else but me" makes me think of what I was like at a younger age.
-I also loved My Name. It reminds me of this Cuban poet who was in jail for his anti-Fidel-Castro ideas, who wrote that "me lo han quitado todo/ - bueno, casi todo -/ porque me quedan la sonrisa/ el orgullo de sentirme un hombre libre/y en el alma un jardin/de eternas florecitas." (He wrote these poems in blood, with a wood chip, while he was in jail. Somebody sneaked them out for him.)
Also, "I will walk through the fire; I will not be afraid" makes me think, again, of myself as a child (and now I suppose). What it's like to face something absolutely terrifying (which will always kind of make me feel guilty; how can I be terrified about something like surgery that there are people who would do anything for that chance?) and go through it. I have a feeling that I'll be listening to this one before surgery - actually, a lot of TCC will probably get listened to…..
And "they can't give me my name" again makes me smile, because I am reminded of my own stubborn insistence that I won't fit into the statistics (an insistence that I am quite indebted to, along with Tati and you and Monica and TWLOHA and music and....I'll just stop there).
-Everything & Nothing references contrasts, which I like, having realized how much of my life is based around literal polar opposites.
...and I'll just stop there. Because
1) this is getting ridiculously long (haaaa....I just typed "song" instead of long...brilliant). Never give Patrice a way to explain every reason she likes a song or all the meanings she's attached to it (I was thinking about that with Lovestory yesterday; there are a LOT of random meanings attached to that song right now haha).
and 2) I'm tired, I'm waking up at 7 tomorrow, and I just wrote this instead of studying for history.
This was AMAZING, again, Maire. <3
I'd have to say that while I didn't discover TCC until a month or two before TSC came out, I share that sentiment about finding my own music. I listened to predominantly country until I was 15 (also 2007) when I started listening more to mainstream stuff, but as far as depth in the music there wasn't much of it. Then that slowly got me more into bands like Daughtry, a decent band in their own right but not exactly ground-breakingly original. I knew Switchfoot and Anberlin but didn't listen to them a lot. I don't even remember much of what I listened to, but one day around April or May 2008 I stumbled across TCC on YouTube, also The Fight. I as well found it somewhat bland but kept listening until I heard Say The Word. I kept getting more into it and they quickly became a favorite of mine. Then they started streaming TSC on their MySpace a couple months later and I loved it from the first listen.
ReplyDeleteSo, yeah, they easily were my favorite band for about a year and a half and are still probably second on my list. But they truly started my search into more meaningful music and looking into the lyrics. I actually loved Vagabonds on the first listen, I was one of those people. TCC is just one of those bands that after the first few initial listens I've loved everything they do. And the songs that I don't immediately love I end up enjoying more down the road. Copeland is another of those bands: a song I don't listen to much or particularly enjoy becomes one of my favorites eventually.
But anyway, without posting so much as to create my own sub-entry to a blog post, I'll probably end this. I have read that Broken Mess is actually about his brother, though I see it fitting your theory as well. You've gotta love lyrics that can apply to so many situations. That's really the best part about them.
I also enjoyed your indepth looks into the songs, despite the bleeding eyes after reading all that aqua on purple text. :p
Patrice dear, I would encourage you to start your own blog, if only for the purpose of publishing your comments in response to mine.
ReplyDeleteI would be very curious/grateful to hear from the aquaintance/friend of Robbie and Matt that posted at 9:45 what you disagree about, because I have certainly not talked with them about these ideas; as I mentioned in the blog itself, these are, for the most part, my own educated guesses. I imagine that, as a musician, it would be incredibly annoying to have some fanatic kid constantly peppering you with questions concerning the specific personal meanings behind your music. Gosh, it's annoying to *me,* and I've hardly even recorded my own music.
As for everyone else: I cannot express my gladness that so many people have enjoyed what I've written. Thank you.
Excellent review Johnny. I have been picking apart these songs with my roommate. She will have her glory moments reading this review tomorrow... I am sure.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing. And, indeed, TCC is a unique band, especially in the Christian genre. Their lyrics will continue to reveal treasures that I am sure I cannot see just yet. I am glad you have found those so soon after its release.
-Jolene
*sigh* And here I was, refusing to buy the album until I got another pack of iTunes cards. MY VISA BILLS ARE YOUR FAULT. <3
ReplyDeleteGreat review. Vagabonds has been the hardest album for me to reconcile with, for want of a better phrase. I was never terribly fearful that it would be a complete letdown. I was, however, petrified that I'd feel a slight niggling of such letdown and inadvertently become a part of that 1/10 that's always looking back to previous records. It kind of made me sad that it seemed to be lacking the fragments of lyrics that I would always find in TCC's songs that I'd be really drawn to and would store away in some part of my mind cause they would align so completely and inextricably with a belief or feeling of my own. Anyway I guess Vagabonds was never meant to be about the fragments. In fact the answer to the uncertainties I was feeling for the album was staring me right in the face. It was so selfish of me to expect a harvest of one liners from any of their albums - they don't sing for me.
ReplyDeleteI asked my mother in January and she said no. I asked again in April and she said no. I'm planning on asking AFTER the school year is over (my mother is an intelligent person; she does not want to distract me from the all-important AP exams and finals and Bio SAT II), because I have very good bargaining powers this summer.
ReplyDeleteI think I will learn to appreciate this album better after reading this. Thanks for posting.
ReplyDeletewow, and I thought I wrote long reviews for albums I like... but then again this is The Classic Crime we're talking about here :) anyways, some great insight, and a deserved "well done!" from a fellow friend and fanatic
ReplyDeleteThis is an amazing review, I'm glad to be your 'friend,' Marie...
ReplyDeleteWhy'd you spell your name with an --apostrophe--Oh. nevermind.
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ReplyDeleteI can't find a reason to say why you shouldn't listen to TCC because I can't criticize it for any of the big reasons by which you fell in love with this band. You feel a personal connection with their message and the philosophy behind them. I admire this aspect. But I will refuse to label these songs as TRUE music. Let me explain...
ReplyDeleteWe've reached an era in musical history where it is no longer the primary concern of a virtuoso to properly phrase, take time in appropriate places, focus on the perfect crescendo and diminuendo, or at all care about the tones/voices of the instruments. Things that have long bore beauty in music.
The maestro of our time (if they can be called as such any longer) seem to neglect trying to tell a story through music. Rather they speak through words of philosophy, poetry, or sometimes through pictures and videos. Only allowing music to play as a supporting role.
Music is a medium of communications by which the words of no man could ever fully communicate. I'm not coming up with this stuff, it's been around.
Ludwig Van Beethoven:"I despise a world which does not feel that music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy."
The state of our musical world right now is exactly what Beethoven had feared. Though he does go too far in showing so much hatred. Because it is evident by TCC, that it's something that can achieve beauty of its own, just not one that is musical.
I love you Marie, so it really pains me to say this, but you have not fallen in love with true music.
So in conclusion, I challenge you, Marie, and to all of you who seem to love TCC so much, to look for the type of music that I have just defined for you. Go explore into what Allegri, Bach, Teleman, Mozart,Haydn, Beethoven, Chopin, and Ceaicovsky fell in love with. It's a completely different world. And keep listening to TCC.
I laugh at you, Michael Chang. Just because this is my favorite music, just because I like your idea of music WITH the philosophy, poetry, visual medium etc ADDED, doesn't mean I haven't fallen in love with what you call "real music." Not only do you have absolutely no right to judge that, you should know better, we've discussed this over and over and over... why do you think I would have written an 8-minute-long INSTRUMENTAL TRACK if I hadn't fallen in love with music (they way you use the word)? I have been in love with music for as long as I remember, I didn't even like rock until I was 13. I love (most of) the stuff you listen to, I myself listen to it occasionally, but I believe that music is BIGGER than just the notes and dynamics and such. You always say I am missing out, but I think it's YOU that's mising out, because what you don't see is so wonderful.
ReplyDeleteBesides that, there is a beauty in simplicity. We have discussed this as well, and you agreed the last time: the notes are not necessarily always supposed to be difficult to play, because there are other things that are difficult about slow and/or simple pieces of music. Since we are all human and no one can play perfectly, there is a threashold that a musician may reach when they are skilled enough to play all the notes they care to in the way they want to skillfully and are free to focus on the message they intend to convey through those notes. I believe TCC has reached that point, even though they continue to improve as musicians. They play their music the way they do because they want to... and it's not a supporting act for the lyrics etc, as you seem to think it is.
But the music within TCC is immeasurable to a lot better music out there (ex/ Requerdos de la Alhambra). It conveys emotion much better than the TCC. You're the one who's missing out on true music. It's not right to praise the TCC for their musical contributions as they are very small if not non-existent.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm just throwing this out there, but maybe you don't know how to listen to some of the true elements of music? I've never suggested this before as I doubt this is the case but over time, I'm beginning to consider that as a possibility. I don't think that's the case, but I can no longer say that definitely.
1. ReCuerdos. Memories. From the verb "Recordar," to remember. The reason it sounds like it has a Q is because it has a stem change.
ReplyDelete2. Whether or not something conveys emotion well or not is completely subjective. Your opinion is *not* objective truth, as I have often reminded you...
3. As I have also said before, I am not missing out on true music because I listen to some of the same classical music you do and love it.
4. The concepts of small and large contributions are also subjective, as well as totally relative to one's perception.
5. I would certainly deny that. I have a deal more ethos than you, anyways, so I almost feel like I have the right to deny it: I've been submersed in music, learning how to think about it deeply and critically since I was two and have been playing music myself since I was 4.
I've read some of your postings, and I just want to tell you that for as young as you are, I find you absolutely brilliant! Your thoughts are deep, intellegent and well written, and your ideas in general are very thought provoking.
ReplyDeleteWell, thank you very much! Though I may not know you are, the compliment means a lot.
ReplyDeleteYou are very welcome. I too am a dreamer, creator, writer and musician. Some of the people that intrigue me the most are my musical inspirations that I've never met, such as Alanis Morissette, the Counting Crows, Jennifer Knapp and Brandi Carlisle. Obviously, this is just a few. Alanis may lack in mental stability, but I love her word combinations. I find her ideas and word choices intellectually stimulating in some songs, though I think she only made 2 good albums. I love the Counting Crows for their raw emotions and vulnerability, in addition to their beautifully simple music. I'm a big fan of keeping the composition simple. Knapp I love for spiritual reasons, and Brandie is a Maple Valley artist who made it big recently. She's got a great folk rock sound. And lastly, Sarah McLaughlin....she's a genius in my book, all around. If you have too much time on your hands, google these singer-songwriters. They are my recommendations, if you'd like to discover some great, older music. Alanis-first album, and "Hands Clean", Counting Crows, "Round Here", and the whole "August and Everything After" album.
ReplyDelete