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Don't you get it??!?!, April 22, 2005
Reviewer: M. Hill "mikerhill" (Farmington Hills, MI, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
After reading many, many reviews of this album, I feel compelled to write my first review in several years. So many reviewers, and obviously listeners, have missed it.
This is the story of mankind, y'all. As such, it is a moving soundtrack that compliments life in biblical richness and strength.
Track One - Politik
This song is the creation of the earth. In its tumult and violence, you can "hear" the earth forming. Man first explores his relationship with his creator and other men.
Politik, the discernment of other men's intent. Their politics.
Track Two - In My Place
The difficulty of crossing the lines of authority. Moses and others, always looking for God's direction. In the face of tremendous adversity, pressing on, lost, but not without hope.
Track Three - God Put a Smile Upon My Face
God provides the answer - the path to the promised land. Again we begin to "draw the line", determining how to define sin in the new land (the Law). But guessing is still the best we can do.
Track Four - The Scientist
Man turns to science for answers and succeeds only in becoming more in awe of God's vastness and power and beauty and glory.
"Come up to meet ya tell you I'm sorry /You don't know how lovely you are". He has found no answers in man's laws or science, and aches for the intimacy of a relationship with God.
In the end, "Take me back to the start." But this hope is futile. (Note the return of the Politik guitar licks at the end of the track.) Back to the start, but how?
Track Five - Clocks
"Tides too strong to swim against", pleading for God to reveal himself as the great I AM ("You are, you are!"). "Nothing else compares, nothing else compares" These strains of most sincere praise continue through the song. Yet, how can he return home. "Home, HOME, where I wanted to go..."
Track Six - Daylight
Daylight/Delight. "I saw Son rise, I saw Sunlight." Jesus comes. He is..."it".
God will draw us closer to him only after sending his Son to clean us up forever.
Track Seven - Green Eyes
You are a rock upon which I stand." You are the sea upon which I float." "How could anybody deny YOU. I came here with a load, and it seems much lighter, now I met you. / I could never go on without you." Could it be more obvious? Who is "Green Eyes"? You get three guesses, first 2 don't count.
Track Eight - Warning Sign
The most moving track on the album.
God, you always send something to get my attention - warning signs. I don't care, until life gets to be too much for me to handle.
And I never learn. But each time, without fail, when I call to you, you are always there, always willing to hold me, comfort me, embrace me, welcome me back. "...and I crawl back into your open arms."
Track Nine - A Whisper
Lured by worship of himself, man sees his mortality. Yet he hears the whisper. But he is about to meet his strongest enemy face-to-face.
Track Ten - A Rush of Blood to the Head
Satan sings... YOU are the house he buys and buries. Maximize suffering, doubt, and the feeling of solitude. Show us the emptiness of our heart's desires. He watches. We sing...
"See me crumble and fall on my face. I know mistakes that I've made". (for which I can see no forgiveness or escape).
Satan is set to destroy us by our own conviction.
Blame it all upon a rush of blood to the head: EMOTION, Reaction, Pride.
Track Eleven - Amsterdam
Amsterdam, the modern day Nineva, Gomorrah. Man finds himself destitute, morally and spiritually, and beaten. He is dying but not yet dead. He walks to the ledge. "My star is fading / I swerve out-of-control"
Satan comforts: "Time is on your side. Not pushin you down and all around / it's no cause for concern"
But just before Man looses his soul, he calls out to the only one who can forgive everything. Then, "You came along and you cut me loose", three times. An appropriate finish.
Praise and thanks to Cold Play for not just attempting such a work, but for pulling it off. This is a great album both from complexity and simplicity. I have given away over 20 copies to family and friends. Hope you buy one too. It's moving and easier to understand than the Bible for many, but touches on the same themes. Cool stuff.
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― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Saturday, 16 July 2005 17:53 (twenty years ago)