Friday, January 16, 2009

War On Music Part 3 - Fear Of A Blank Planet

I am not particularly a fan of love songs, I find them boring. I've always been more interested in lyrics that deal with what I call "the real world."

The real world is not the always positive, everything turns out good in the end, disney world that a lot of pop music and pop culture concerns itself with.

The British Progressive Rock band Porcupine Tree is a band I've heard of for years, but only started seriously listening to within the last year. I think they are on the forefront of what I call Free-Thinking Rock Music. Their music is more darker and edgier and reminds me of a mix of Tool and Muse. Their lyrics are great, and they tend to deal with the negative aspects of society. They write about loneliness, prescription drug abuse, depression, violence, inequality, negative effects of technology, and conformity. So they fit right up my philosophical alley.

Their latest album is called "Fear Of A Blank Planet" and it's about the desensitization and dehumanization of mainstream western society. I think the lyrics to the title track sums up typical close-minded conformist America, which is quite large.

Below is the lyrics to the song, which I think are fantastic and the video which is an edited version of the song because Porcupine Tree is on Atlantic Records and they're not going to make a video for a 7 minute long song.

Fear Of A Blank Planet

Sunlight coming through the haze
No gaps in the blinds
To let it inside
The bed is unmade,
Some music still plays

TV, yeah it's always on
The flicker on the screen
A movie actress screams
I'm basking the shit flowing out of it

I'm stoned in the mall again
Terminally bored
Shuffling round the stores
And shoplifting is getting so last year's thing

X-Box is a god to me
A finger on the switch
My mother is a bitch
My father gave up ever trying to talk to me

Don't try engaging me
The vaguest of shrugs
The prescription drugs
You'll never find a person inside

My face is Mogadon
Curiosity has given up on me
I'm tuning out desires
The pills are on the rise

How can I be sure I'm here?
The pills that I've been taking confuse me
I need to know that someone sees that
There's nothing left, I simply am not here

I'm through with pornography
The acting is lame
The action is tame
Explicitly dull
Arousal annulled

Your mouth should be boarded up
Talking all day with nothing to say
Your shallow proclamations
All misinformation

My friend says he wants to die
He's in a band, they sound like Pearl Jam
Their clothes are all black
The music is crap

In school I don't concentrate
And sex is kinda fun, but just another one
Of all the empty ways of using up the day

How can I be sure I'm here?
The pills that I've been taking confuse me
I need to know that someone sees that
There's nothing left, I simply am not here

Bipolar disorder
Can't deal with this boredom
Bipolar disorder
Can't deal with this boredom

You don't try to be liked
You don't mind
You feel no sun
You steal a gun
To kill time

You're somewhere
You're nowhere
You don't care
You catch the breeze
You still the leaves
So now where?

No comments: