ALL YOUR LIFE
Stepping back a couple of posts: I was on a Blur marathon, having dumped their entire singles box set—and then some—to my MP3 player. I think it was 136 tracks. A lot of music.
But listening to the “The Universal,” I was struck by the simplicity of its underlying message—and hence the power. Yes, the overall song is a bit obtuse, and actually carries meanings of Big Brother invading our home and technology alienating us—but in the chorus, there is a universal feeling--The Great Escape. “It really, really, really could happen/when the days seem to fall through you, just let them go.” It’s not the most complicated of sentiments, yet it gets to the heart of the matter. Walking down the street with it on headphones, my thoughts went to the video for that Green Day song, “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” and the way the camera would descend on people and freeze them in a pensive moment. Life on pause. And that’s what a pop song can do to you when the emotion is pure. “The Universal” stops the world and tells you it will all be okay and that you will survive, tapping into a zeitgeist that plagues us all at one time or another. And it does so without lyrical puffery.
(On the subject of that Green Day track, just what the hell was that song about anyway? It was picked up as this anthem for moving on, yet the title says something else, a little more confused. It seems very conflicted. Fuck you, but I hope you have a good day. Like Billy Joe couldn’t give up being a punk, scared of the success through blandness that was just around the corner. Good-bye all you punks, stay young and stay high; hand me my checkbook as I crawl off to die. It’s all the same in the end, isn’t it? Not that I ever gave much of a shit for Green Day.)
Tonight I spent another hour or so on a chapter of Ai Yori Aoshi. I am about halfway through volume 3. The best part about it is the varied cast. I'm having fun.
Current Soundtrack: Missy Elliot, "Drop The Bomb," Britta Phillips & Dean Wareham, Sonic Souvenirs
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