attics to eden
So today (because i haven't slept yet) is Tuesday and therefore record release day and attics to eden was released!
and it blew my mind, so here's my thoughts on it.
God i need to go to sleep.
Attics to Eden - Madina Lake
May 5, 2009
I don’t normally write CD reviews, but this CD knocked me on my ass and I need to blog about it. Lmafo.
I mean in hindsight, From Them, Through Us, To You wasn’t a *cheerful* album by any means, but more often than not, the songs left you feeling hopeful even if the lyrics didn’t. am I wrong? I know I felt better after listening to that album.
But this album, man…
I’m honestly confused this time. It’s hard to tell what’s just telling the story from the Leone Twins real life. Is it a mix of both? I didn’t think Madina Lake had a place called Chicago River. That whole song - Through the Pain - not a comforting song. That song scares me.
But I’m jumping ahead.
First off, the back of the album says that Adalia discovers a portal in her attic and travels a great distance across scorched earth in hopes of finding Utopia, she descends to the waiting apparitions dancing in the moonlight to welcome her home. The last album was about the Arlene ball and the disappearance of Adalia and introduction of the cast & characters. This is the shit nobody but dorks like me know, but there is a book/story being written [or is already written] as the Cds come out. Part one was released last year.
This cd opens with Never Take Us alive - which ok, actually *might* be more on the doom & gloom side. It’s goddamn catchy though. This whole CD is just stuck in my head. I take it back, the song is really about uniting against the mainstream. Which is one of the reoccurring imagery in the CD. This is also the first (but certainly not last mention of setting fires). “You can’t break/can’t change, can’t take us down, we run this town/ we stand we’ll fight set fires all night, you’ll never take us alive.” “Cuz people they’ll tear you apart if you are not like them/ and we are difference, let the war begin so we say” “When we connect our hearts to our minds there’s no stopping us”
Then comes one of my instant favorites - Let’s Get Outta Here - but I mean, it’s not a happy song. “enemies, they start surrounding me mostly in my head cuz I swear I’ve never been so depressed/ I can’t stand anyone here and I’m thinking let’s just disappear” But seriously, “I wanna go where there’s no one we know, were stars glitter like a 70s disco” BEST LINE EVER. Omfg. He continues the ‘uh did you just say that’ with “I think delusions of grandeur are the only gifts I’ve ever had” ….. What? Reference 2 to the main stream, “Maybe I’m going crazy, the mainstream never made much sense to me always on the o utside looking in but I swear never fitting in”
Legends - This song is damn catchy too. It starts with…” I watch the sun fall down to kill the day, another part of me just went up in flames/ cuz I’m bored and dumb and dying to change”. Here comes the second mention of “let’s burn this town, right to the ground and we’ll go down like every legend before us.”
… it almost comes across as being schitzophrenic/ multiple personality. “then you explode in my head and now you’re all over me/ I come alive with you, you know you set me free” “cuz our lives are going up in flames as we watch like it’s a movie” “you’re just like a drug inside my head” “I open up like a window for you, so come on in and destroy me like you, you come on in after midnight for me, and drag me out while the city falls asleep” …. Seriously, what?!
Criminals - right off the bat there, eh? The title says it all. “So I get real high and head to your window/I watch perfect faces living perfect lives til something snaps inside now everything looks just like a horror cartoon”. “But nobody knows me and nobody cares” “Well you don’t know us at all/ we are criminals, the arsonists, the rapists, save yourself, you put us in cages but you made us.” “Lost inside your american dream we’ll get revenge for the quarantined.” “Revenge has such a glamorous feeling, I’ve been craving for so long” “You don’t mean a thing to a scorched earth” “parasites in paradise our time has come to change your lives / the disenchanted lead revolutions & we’re now at war with our future”
Which ok, I could see Criminals being about the people who live in the scorched earth place they described on the way to Eden, perhaps a purgatory of sorts? Let’s Get Out of Here, could possibly be adalia. Never Take Us alive - the river people? Are they staging a revolution of sorts? I suppose they are with planning the kidnappings. Legends? The school kids Jonathan recognized who joined the River People?
But this song - Through the Pain… I don’t know where this song comes into play. “On the Chicago river after dark we watch the city lights tear the sky apart” <- First line. Not Madina River, but Chicago. “I tell you how / I fell into an old cliché, always on the road, only half way sane/ no hospital can fix what I’ve become/ I’ve trapped myself in a ring of fire. If I say I’m ok I’m also a liar the only way out is through the pain” “I got so low that I’d get high just to sit and watch the miles go by/ now I’m cold and sweaty a nauseous heart I’ve got million addictions weighing me down” “and as I write these words my hands start to shake, withdrawals kicking in not a second too late/ the only way out is through the pain/ tomorrow I’ll start again / and now I’m begging for help I know I can’t get, I’ve got to face this one alone, and if I don’t make it remember that I’ll always be a part of you..”
On the road? Touring? I’m pretty this song isn’t about adalia at all and that is not reassuring.
Moving on to the jarring next song
Never Walk alone - contradicts nicely to the song before, doesn’t it?
“Just imagine what it’s like to love yourself from the inside out/ imagine, instead of dread again, you wake up now you feel alive cuz you don’t have to walk alone, you’re not alone right now” anybody else spin a 180? “You know it’s all in your mind, it’s how you see the world behind your eyes/ just imagine what it’s like to sleep at night with nothing on your mind/ imagine, don’t regret again, everything you’ve done just turned out fine.” “and when you think you’ve had enough, when you think the skies are falling down, just brevthe, open up your heart to it, let the sun cover up the flies in your mind/this is now who you are. Push it out, crush it, burn it down scatter it on the ocean floor, let the earth clean it out just breathe….”
Seriously. Mind cannot comprehend.
Now we move on to Not For This World - another positive - “You’re not for this world, this world is for you and now is the time (there’s no tomorrow)/ so make the most of every day while you’re alive (stand for something)” “Don’t let your life hide from your heart, your heart gives you the best advice, believe, believe” Optimism out of nowhere, man. The imagery in this song though is incredible, the ghost coming out of the trees that’s actually you? Awesome.
Welcome to Oblivion - this song may be about adalia - but seriously, “but in this crowded room I believe that I’m seconds away from insanity/ cuz their eyes just rip me all apart and my temperamental mind/ decides that I’m the enemy/ welcome to oblivion where panic starts to settle in/ welcome to oblivion/ oh I think I’m losing it/ so many voices I can’t even sleep typical late night company/ they ask questions about my life, where is it going? Who am I? and those voices rip me all apart. I need medicine to quiet and survive this/” “Oh I lost my head again” “I can’t stand who I am oh I think I’m losing it” “then I met you, you were standing all alone/ because you felt it too, the world has broken you down/ you and me are gonna make it through/ because now we know there’s other people like us/ as I fall apart inside, all of my thoughts collide/ and there’s no way to live a life, I think I’m losing it. … “I gotta get off the medicine coz I can’t stand who I am, I think I’m losing it.” Saddest part, this song is going to be awesome live. Nathan’s voice just stuns me sometimes, this song did that. But still, I’m not sure who/what/ this references and it’s weeeeird.
Silent Voices Kill - “they say the darkest hour’s just before the dawn/ well I’ve been up all night just desperate for the sun/ cuz I’ve got a voice or two that can’t seem to forget you/ they keep me up all night no matter what I do/ all these images surroudning me/ of you in my head as I lay still but the silent voices kill they won’t shut up there’s so much noise inside my head/ they won’t give up I can’t get away from myself/ I don’t want to meet someone new I just want to be over you.” … again with the voices. O.O Metaphorical? Is the metaphor going too far? Mateo’s got a killer solo on this though : D
Statistics - sooo catchy. Here’s where the wolves come in. I was wondering why there were wolves in Eden. “I’ve been wrong so many times, let’s be realistic, I’m only a statistic to you/ and it hurts so deep inside, maybe I’m sadistic, I love when you inflict on me”. I’m surprised he found a way to rhyme statistic - twice! ‘I just caught you like v disease it’s terminal and I’m going down/ but you’re a fate that’s worse than death and I gotta get out of this mess, you’re a wolf you are” addicted to you.
Forrest? Sheldon? Someone else?
Friends & Lovers - this song is fucking sad. But this one is clearly about the Leone twins (or maybe just Nathan) again, “I’m bound to cry/ destined to fly I’m guaranteed to die/ but till the end I’ve got your face and I keep on moving/ I lost my mom when I was only twelve/ I was robbed with a gun when I was twenty one / I crashed my car when I was drunk again and now I got no friends, got no money, but I keep on learning/ you can build a life and have it broken down/ you can choose a path and get turned around/ you can hate yourself and fall in love again/ as for me I’ve love friends lost lovers but I still got my soul” “on a journey through my head/ I stumble on a mess/ where bad things from my past are buried not dead/ they haunt me like ghosts begging me to let ‘em go/ but they make me who I am and I wouldn’t change anything “
But I still got my soul…I can pass now.
Then it goes into Lila, The Divine Game which is an instrumental piece.
…………My head. I guess I should just take it at face value and stop trying to guess but it makes me think, so I’m thinking outloud because I think I’ll come back and laugh when it is revealed. : )
Anyway if you’re somehow still reading, thanks, go buy the damn cd, cos it’s totally worth it. Go see them on Warped!!! .
and it blew my mind, so here's my thoughts on it.
God i need to go to sleep.
Attics to Eden - Madina Lake
May 5, 2009
I don’t normally write CD reviews, but this CD knocked me on my ass and I need to blog about it. Lmafo.
I mean in hindsight, From Them, Through Us, To You wasn’t a *cheerful* album by any means, but more often than not, the songs left you feeling hopeful even if the lyrics didn’t. am I wrong? I know I felt better after listening to that album.
But this album, man…
I’m honestly confused this time. It’s hard to tell what’s just telling the story from the Leone Twins real life. Is it a mix of both? I didn’t think Madina Lake had a place called Chicago River. That whole song - Through the Pain - not a comforting song. That song scares me.
But I’m jumping ahead.
First off, the back of the album says that Adalia discovers a portal in her attic and travels a great distance across scorched earth in hopes of finding Utopia, she descends to the waiting apparitions dancing in the moonlight to welcome her home. The last album was about the Arlene ball and the disappearance of Adalia and introduction of the cast & characters. This is the shit nobody but dorks like me know, but there is a book/story being written [or is already written] as the Cds come out. Part one was released last year.
This cd opens with Never Take Us alive - which ok, actually *might* be more on the doom & gloom side. It’s goddamn catchy though. This whole CD is just stuck in my head. I take it back, the song is really about uniting against the mainstream. Which is one of the reoccurring imagery in the CD. This is also the first (but certainly not last mention of setting fires). “You can’t break/can’t change, can’t take us down, we run this town/ we stand we’ll fight set fires all night, you’ll never take us alive.” “Cuz people they’ll tear you apart if you are not like them/ and we are difference, let the war begin so we say” “When we connect our hearts to our minds there’s no stopping us”
Then comes one of my instant favorites - Let’s Get Outta Here - but I mean, it’s not a happy song. “enemies, they start surrounding me mostly in my head cuz I swear I’ve never been so depressed/ I can’t stand anyone here and I’m thinking let’s just disappear” But seriously, “I wanna go where there’s no one we know, were stars glitter like a 70s disco” BEST LINE EVER. Omfg. He continues the ‘uh did you just say that’ with “I think delusions of grandeur are the only gifts I’ve ever had” ….. What? Reference 2 to the main stream, “Maybe I’m going crazy, the mainstream never made much sense to me always on the o utside looking in but I swear never fitting in”
Legends - This song is damn catchy too. It starts with…” I watch the sun fall down to kill the day, another part of me just went up in flames/ cuz I’m bored and dumb and dying to change”. Here comes the second mention of “let’s burn this town, right to the ground and we’ll go down like every legend before us.”
… it almost comes across as being schitzophrenic/ multiple personality. “then you explode in my head and now you’re all over me/ I come alive with you, you know you set me free” “cuz our lives are going up in flames as we watch like it’s a movie” “you’re just like a drug inside my head” “I open up like a window for you, so come on in and destroy me like you, you come on in after midnight for me, and drag me out while the city falls asleep” …. Seriously, what?!
Criminals - right off the bat there, eh? The title says it all. “So I get real high and head to your window/I watch perfect faces living perfect lives til something snaps inside now everything looks just like a horror cartoon”. “But nobody knows me and nobody cares” “Well you don’t know us at all/ we are criminals, the arsonists, the rapists, save yourself, you put us in cages but you made us.” “Lost inside your american dream we’ll get revenge for the quarantined.” “Revenge has such a glamorous feeling, I’ve been craving for so long” “You don’t mean a thing to a scorched earth” “parasites in paradise our time has come to change your lives / the disenchanted lead revolutions & we’re now at war with our future”
Which ok, I could see Criminals being about the people who live in the scorched earth place they described on the way to Eden, perhaps a purgatory of sorts? Let’s Get Out of Here, could possibly be adalia. Never Take Us alive - the river people? Are they staging a revolution of sorts? I suppose they are with planning the kidnappings. Legends? The school kids Jonathan recognized who joined the River People?
But this song - Through the Pain… I don’t know where this song comes into play. “On the Chicago river after dark we watch the city lights tear the sky apart” <- First line. Not Madina River, but Chicago. “I tell you how / I fell into an old cliché, always on the road, only half way sane/ no hospital can fix what I’ve become/ I’ve trapped myself in a ring of fire. If I say I’m ok I’m also a liar the only way out is through the pain” “I got so low that I’d get high just to sit and watch the miles go by/ now I’m cold and sweaty a nauseous heart I’ve got million addictions weighing me down” “and as I write these words my hands start to shake, withdrawals kicking in not a second too late/ the only way out is through the pain/ tomorrow I’ll start again / and now I’m begging for help I know I can’t get, I’ve got to face this one alone, and if I don’t make it remember that I’ll always be a part of you..”
On the road? Touring? I’m pretty this song isn’t about adalia at all and that is not reassuring.
Moving on to the jarring next song
Never Walk alone - contradicts nicely to the song before, doesn’t it?
“Just imagine what it’s like to love yourself from the inside out/ imagine, instead of dread again, you wake up now you feel alive cuz you don’t have to walk alone, you’re not alone right now” anybody else spin a 180? “You know it’s all in your mind, it’s how you see the world behind your eyes/ just imagine what it’s like to sleep at night with nothing on your mind/ imagine, don’t regret again, everything you’ve done just turned out fine.” “and when you think you’ve had enough, when you think the skies are falling down, just brevthe, open up your heart to it, let the sun cover up the flies in your mind/this is now who you are. Push it out, crush it, burn it down scatter it on the ocean floor, let the earth clean it out just breathe….”
Seriously. Mind cannot comprehend.
Now we move on to Not For This World - another positive - “You’re not for this world, this world is for you and now is the time (there’s no tomorrow)/ so make the most of every day while you’re alive (stand for something)” “Don’t let your life hide from your heart, your heart gives you the best advice, believe, believe” Optimism out of nowhere, man. The imagery in this song though is incredible, the ghost coming out of the trees that’s actually you? Awesome.
Welcome to Oblivion - this song may be about adalia - but seriously, “but in this crowded room I believe that I’m seconds away from insanity/ cuz their eyes just rip me all apart and my temperamental mind/ decides that I’m the enemy/ welcome to oblivion where panic starts to settle in/ welcome to oblivion/ oh I think I’m losing it/ so many voices I can’t even sleep typical late night company/ they ask questions about my life, where is it going? Who am I? and those voices rip me all apart. I need medicine to quiet and survive this/” “Oh I lost my head again” “I can’t stand who I am oh I think I’m losing it” “then I met you, you were standing all alone/ because you felt it too, the world has broken you down/ you and me are gonna make it through/ because now we know there’s other people like us/ as I fall apart inside, all of my thoughts collide/ and there’s no way to live a life, I think I’m losing it. … “I gotta get off the medicine coz I can’t stand who I am, I think I’m losing it.” Saddest part, this song is going to be awesome live. Nathan’s voice just stuns me sometimes, this song did that. But still, I’m not sure who/what/ this references and it’s weeeeird.
Silent Voices Kill - “they say the darkest hour’s just before the dawn/ well I’ve been up all night just desperate for the sun/ cuz I’ve got a voice or two that can’t seem to forget you/ they keep me up all night no matter what I do/ all these images surroudning me/ of you in my head as I lay still but the silent voices kill they won’t shut up there’s so much noise inside my head/ they won’t give up I can’t get away from myself/ I don’t want to meet someone new I just want to be over you.” … again with the voices. O.O Metaphorical? Is the metaphor going too far? Mateo’s got a killer solo on this though : D
Statistics - sooo catchy. Here’s where the wolves come in. I was wondering why there were wolves in Eden. “I’ve been wrong so many times, let’s be realistic, I’m only a statistic to you/ and it hurts so deep inside, maybe I’m sadistic, I love when you inflict on me”. I’m surprised he found a way to rhyme statistic - twice! ‘I just caught you like v disease it’s terminal and I’m going down/ but you’re a fate that’s worse than death and I gotta get out of this mess, you’re a wolf you are” addicted to you.
Forrest? Sheldon? Someone else?
Friends & Lovers - this song is fucking sad. But this one is clearly about the Leone twins (or maybe just Nathan) again, “I’m bound to cry/ destined to fly I’m guaranteed to die/ but till the end I’ve got your face and I keep on moving/ I lost my mom when I was only twelve/ I was robbed with a gun when I was twenty one / I crashed my car when I was drunk again and now I got no friends, got no money, but I keep on learning/ you can build a life and have it broken down/ you can choose a path and get turned around/ you can hate yourself and fall in love again/ as for me I’ve love friends lost lovers but I still got my soul” “on a journey through my head/ I stumble on a mess/ where bad things from my past are buried not dead/ they haunt me like ghosts begging me to let ‘em go/ but they make me who I am and I wouldn’t change anything “
But I still got my soul…I can pass now.
Then it goes into Lila, The Divine Game which is an instrumental piece.
…………My head. I guess I should just take it at face value and stop trying to guess but it makes me think, so I’m thinking outloud because I think I’ll come back and laugh when it is revealed. : )
Anyway if you’re somehow still reading, thanks, go buy the damn cd, cos it’s totally worth it. Go see them on Warped!!! .