Episode 3 - "Radio Up" by Letter Kills

In my experience, the 2004 video game "Burnout 3" had the best video game soundtrack ever--but I suck at video games, and as such have seen a smaller number of them than most people. In the spring of 7th grade, I had a bit of a mental breakdown--the fine details aren't important, but suffice it to say that it was caused by something embarrassing and still resonates to this day (I told you I had issues)--and my way of getting my mind off of it was to just pop this game in and crash people. And then I started hearing the background music. I had never really previously been into music, and this not only opened me up, but it helped me chill out from the thoughts I wanted out of my head. It was my medicine. To this day, a song from that soundtrack--Rise Against's "Paper Wings"--remains my favorite, and between that and the incidental fact that it was released in this country on my 10th birthday (don't tell Blogger I lied about my age, too), I feel a weird, special connection with the game, which is almost as weird as the thoughts that drove me to play it obsessively in the first place. The soundtrack has something like 52 songs on it, and most of them, while obscure, were pretty awesome--again, just my opinion.

This one song today was the black sheep. It would come on and I would have to put extra concentration into driving to avoid totalling, because ever since I had made the mistake of listening to the words, this one bugged me.

Letter Kills didn't last long as a thing. From what I can gather--a fancy-ass way of saying I looked at Wikipedia--, they're a bunch of Christian dudes forming a screamo act, but apparently they aren't so much a "Christian screamo band" as they are a "screamo band that happens to be made of Christians." Now, there was hope in this. There have been bands (and other acts in different genres I'm sure, but I have no real knowledge of them) that are composed of devout Jesus freaks who can and did market their music to non-Christian and secular audiences inoffensively (like Switchfoot, Thrice, MxPx, Underoath (I think)) and others that are remarkably preachy (P.O.D. and Skillet). And, to clarify, I'm not ripping on Christians and their music, but I'm stating that when Christian acts shop their stuff as regular music, they have to play by the rules and make a point to have ambiguous messages and not preach... at least most of the time, so an occasional obvious praise-the-LORD song can be accepted (Switchfoot's breakthrough "Meant to Live," cough cough).

Damn, that's a big tangent! But, long story short(ish), I tried, I really did, to forget about Letter Kills's deep relationship with Buddy Christ while trying to interpret the lyrics. It didn't work.
Oh, and whoever uploaded the lyrics to the site I use wasn't keen on... being proper... you'll see what I mean.

Enough beating around the bush. Let's get this over with.

turn the radio up and we'll sing
a song to bring you back...yeah

Um... the thing about the verb "sing" is that it only applies to one or two nouns, and anyone who sings a conversation usually isn't talking much in the first place. Singing songs is your only feasable option. This may sound like a major nit-pick, but trust me, it'll make sense later.

turn the radio up and we'll sing
A SOOOONGG!

NOT MY EMPHASIS! A fan, consciously or not, acknowledged the over-the-top emphasis on these two words. And while I know screamo bands, well, scream, "a song" is the only pair of words they ever straight-up yell in this song.

turn the radio up and we'll sing
a song to bring you back...yeah
turn the radio up and we'll sing
a song...A SOOOOOONG

Oh, really? I thought you would sing an interpretive dance... AN INTERPRETIVE DAAAAAANCE!

you could never be

Be what?
just making sure that you can see

What? See what?

something's right

CLARIFY, DAMN YOU!
something's better off
without you

Oh... I see how it is. You aren't telling 'cos you hate me... for... some... reason... What did I do to you? See, jury? I have vindication that this band started the hostility, and my ripping it a new one is purely self-defense! HA!

check the volume of your heartbeat
make sure it's loud as your last

Uhm, yyyy--yeah, it is. Your point, gentlemen?
couldn't you just hold our setbacks

...I don' get it.
you're you're....

...an asshole? I know that's what you're thinking of me, jerk, so just spit it out.

never could believe

...oh...
just making sure that you can see

I told you it was hard to forget they're super-Christians! This is really, really starting to sound like they're... they're... dear God, they're berating non-believers! HOSTILITY, JUDGE, HOSTILITY!

something's right
something's better off
without you

Assholes.

something's right
something's better off
without you

Wait, I just realized something. Weren't they just trying to bring us back... um... through the power of song? Now they want us gone? Jesus Christ. I hate songs that change perspectives so radically.

we could be better now
we could be better now
we could be better
now you could believe

So they want to either "bring us back" spiritually...
we could be better
now you're gone

...or they just want us to fuck off. I will concede that these people are not picky, and that is admirable. Marginally, but still, I'll let them have it. Contrary to what they say, I am not evil.
we could be better
now you could believe
we could be better
now you're gone
we could be better
now you could believe
we could be better
now you could

something's right
something's better off
without you

something's right
something's better off
without you

They're also quite consistent.

turn the radio up and we'll sing
a song to bring you back...yeah

MAKE UP YOU'RE FUCKING MIND!

turn the radio up and we'll sing
a song...a song

turn the radio up and we'll sing
a song to bring to you back...yeah

turn the radio up and we'll sing
a song...a song

turn the radio up and we'll sing
a song to bring you back....yeah

turn the radio up and we'll sing
A SONG!

Oh, boy, yay.

 

~Letter Kills

~"Radio Up"

~The Bridge

~2004, Island

~http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858491107/

~http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXnxfix54u0

 

Sorry you all had to sit through that.

 

So... atheists? That's... that's the best I can come up with. It's a song telling atheists to GTFO. I guess. I'm not them and I'm not going to tell them what they were thinking; that would make me an asshole. So I will never take a definitive stance on what this is about, but I will maintain that it comes across as preachy. The fact that I saw a linked music video for a song of theirs called "Don't Believe" (as in "you ~, you asshole," I'm sure) as I was retrieving the YouTube link just reinforced this. I don't hate Christians or atheists; I have friends in both groups (and am myself often confused for being in either one), and I would not care to offend them. All I ask is both groups don't act so extreme, and that they, if not accept, tolerate one another. And if my gatherings from this are correct--and don't quote me as saying I am sure they are--then this is crossing the line.

 

Now, let's say that I'm misinterpreting this, and that the band whose name comes from an obscure Bible quote doesn't start a religious argument in every song they've ever put out. What's wrong with this song now? It's just tweaking lyrically. In the entirety of the words, they're either telling us that they're bringing us back (through the magic of song, no less!) or telling us to collectively crawl in a hole and die... and there aren't that many words.

 

Alright guys, I'm burned out.

 

Later.

-Wilson A.