Some weeks ago I preorderd this album, and the sort of forgot about it. So, when it arrived at my living place on the release date I was thrilled. I remembered that I got the preorder package with a tee shirt, but forgot I got a VIP pass too! Now I feel super cool with my VIP pass hanging by my leather trench coat and fedora...
But, getting back to the album. Normally with a new album I like to introduce myself to it by looking at the liner notes, reading all the lyrics, then listening to it. The album has a very distinctive picture on the front: someone's face, totally enshrouded in bandages except one surprise-widened eye.
Inside were the lyrics to the twelve songs, and I only got as far as reading the second song's lyrics during the day. I didn't have time to finish and actually listen to the album until well after my roommate was asleep, and I was going to sleep too. The songs are:
1. Hero
2. Monster
3. Don't Wake Me
4. Awake and Alive
5. One Day Too Late
6. It's Not Me It's You
7. Should've When You Could've
8. Believe
9. Forgiven
10. Sometimes
11. Never Surrender
12. Lucy
Then, just after the album came out, I got an email that was like “Feeling a little incomplete? Is there something missing from your new Skillet Awake album? Download more songs now!” So I promptly downloaded the three additional songs, which are, in no particular order:
1. Monster (Radio Edit)
2.Dead Inside
3. Would It Matter
In terms of over all sound, Steph said the album sounded like Evanescence and Nickelback. It 's more mellow than I was expecting, hearkening back to
Hey You, I Love Your Soul, rather than the aggression of
Collide or
Alien Youth I was anticipating.
1. Hero
Skillet had this song as pre-release free download thingy. So of course I downloaded it. I have to say, initially I didn't like it much. But, since then it has grown on me. And every now and again I sing it. It is vaguely reminiscent of tfk's “Absolute” or Day of Fire's “Detainer”, with it's harder rock sense of desperation. Thematically, it's about how we need rescuing. But because we aren't super heroes we are unable to save ourselves. It concludes with what I've interpreted as a reference to Christ: “I've got a hero//Living in me...A hero's not afraid to give his life//A hero's gonna save me just in time.” After all, isn't his name Jesus because he will save us?
2. Monster
As soon as I read the lyrics, I thought “This is the song.” But I wasn't ready to make that call before reading the other lyrics, or hearing any of the songs. But, man, the lyrics really hit me:
The secret side of me
I never let you see
I keep it caged but I can't control it
So stay away from me
The beast is ugly
I feel the rage and I just can't hold it
It's scratching on the walls
In the closet, in the halls
It comes awake and I can't control it
Hiding under the bed
In my body, in my head
Why won't somebody come and save me from this?
Make it end
I feel it deep within
Just beneath the skin
I must confess that I feel like a monster
I hate what I've become
The nightmare's just begun
I must confess that I feel like a monster
I feel like a monster
My secret side I keep
Hid under lock and key
I keep it caged but I can't control it
'Cause if I let him out
He'll tear me up, break me down
Why won't somebody come and save me from this?
Make it end
It's hiding in the dark
Its teeth are razor sharp
There's no escape for me
It wants my soul, it wants my heart *
No one can hear me scream
Maybe it's just a dream
Or maybe it's inside of me
Stop this This is where the lyrics in the liner notes end. And I was impressed. So then I was listening to the song as I was in bed. And little did I realize the liner lyrics aren't all. It goes on:
I feel it deep within
Just beneath the skin
I must confess that I feel like a monster
I hate what I've become
The nightmare's just begun
I must confess that I feel like a monster
I feel it deep within
Just beneath the skin
I must confess that I feel like a monster
I'm gonna lose control
It's something radical
I must confess that I feel like a monster
I, I feel like a monster
I, I feel like a monster
I, I feel like a monster
I, I feel like a monsterNow, I was lying there in bed, listening to my new album, and this song took me by storm. See that part I put in bold? Well, he's been melodically singing the [ok, I admit, repetitive] chorus, and at that bold part he switches, and IS A MONSTER. Seriously. I almost sat straight up in bed. It was so spinetingling. {I had trouble falling asleep after that too.}I haven't been that shocked by music since like Switchfoot's super long pause in their live performance of “American Dream”. I <3 distortion.
Wow. “Monster” is right up there with tfk's “Falls Apart”, DH's “Turn Your Back and Run” and “Kill Me, Heal Me”. It's appropriate for those times when you have done something terrible, those times you know the horror you are capable of. In that way it is similar to tfk's “Quicken,” or “Me against Me” by Project 86. You can belt it out with “Cycle Down,” Evanescence's “Tourniquet” or DH's “Fading Away.”
Sorry, tfk, I love you, but Monster is miles more superior than Favorite Disease. “Sometimes I feel like a monster, sometimes I feel like a saint”? No. “It's hiding in the dark//Its teeth are razor sharp//There's no escape for me//It wants my soul, it wants my heart”!!
* I thought the line was "It was my soul it was my heart" which is kind of a different take on the monster inside thing. =D
3. Don't Wake Me
Now, this is stylistically and thematically this is soft Skillet all the way. It's about wishing you were with someone. It's as if they mixed the sleep metaphors of “Comatose” with the separation themes of “The Older I Get” and “Say Goodbye”. Compare “I hope that you're always happy like we were” from “Say Goodbye” to Don't Wake Me's “Don't wake me 'cause we're happy like we used to be.” I don't know. Bleh. It also makes me think of Day of Fire's “Wake Me,” which could be purely title based.
4. Awake and Alive
This track starts of with the full violin-y sound reminiscent of “Comatose,” or even “The Thirst is Taking Over.” It's about running out of energy, and needing to be reinstilled with life. It brings to mind tfk's “Breathe You In.” It seems kind of Evanescence-y too, perhaps like a cross between “Going Under” and “Bring Me to Life.” But it also has this stubborn “I'll do what I want 'cause this is my life” and that made me kind of go What?
5. One Day Too Late
Sounds almost exactly like “Last Night,” although it's about a completely different topic. It is about how we have to spend each moment purposefully because time keeps on slipping by, and if we put things off it might be too late. Overall, a pleasant song I guess.
6.
Title give it away much? “Let's get this story straight//You were a poison//You flooded through my veins//You left me broken.” I think most of us, if not all of us know someone like that. Someone that has just jerked you around so much. It's like “Backstabber” by Disciple: “Coldhearted, you hater//Love me now, so you leave me later//Deceiver, so clever//Jezebel couldn’t do much better...Everything I knew is dead//I won't let you in again.”
While Monster talks about the darkness within ourselves, It's Not Me It's You reminds us that other people have responsibilities too, and we don't have to put up with them mistreating us.
7. Should've When You Could've
This is a pretty bitter song too. Its about some girl, who perhaps cheated on him? Or else just not loving him well.
I done wondering where you've been
All night long when you're out with your friends
All you say, that the matter's over
But now that chapter's over
I'm done trusting you it's ended
Even after I catch you red handed
You could've been my only one
But now your chance is gone8. Believe
This song is about admitting our mistakes. When in the heat of an argument we say something harsh like “I'd be better off without you” this song is about taking that back. He says “I know that I've said things that I didn't mean//...If you believed//When I said I'd be better off without you//Then you never really knew me at all.” It's a kind of ambling song, like something off Invincible.
9. Forgiven
This is a crisp and powerful song, musically full, with clear lyrics. It seems like a lament, a confession, and a plead for forgiveness all in one. “Now I'm in our secret place//Where all my wrongs will be erased
10. Sometimes
Another dirty, distorted, angst laden sound, somewhere between “Falls Apart” and Evanescence. Om nom nom! Overall I like the sound of it. =D The lyrics seem to be able the struggle we feel, when we want to revel in our sin. “I want someone to hurt// Like the way I hurt // It's sick but it makes me feel better.”
[Ooh look, it even has the line “I'm sometimes sinner sometimes saint.” Please, overused much, yes?]
But it has this real pain expressed in it, because the narrator feels alone in his pain. He finds it hard to believe anyone feels the way he does. Song = I like.
11. Never Surrender
From the title I thought this song would be something like Pillar's “Frontline.” It's way softer than that, and isn't militant like I was expecting. Thematically it follows from the miserable feelings presented in “Sometimes.” He's realised he feels bad, and “Never Surrender” is a plead to “Feel better” cause he “doesn't wanna feel like this tomorrow” or “live like this today”. It touches on the idea of “being your worst enemy,” as explored in “My Worst Enemy” by tfk and “Me against Me” by Project 86.
12. Lucy
In this song the narrator visits Lucy's grave, and discusses how he has trouble living with the choices he's made. I'm unclear as to whether it is his child or his lover, or someone else entirely. It reminds me of “From December” by Project 86. It's a soft ballad lament. I think it will grow on me.
Bonus songs1. Monster (Radio Edit)
NO. Okay, you heard me talk about how much I loved Monster. But the Radio Edit. Fails. They CUT OUT the best part. There is no monster. It's just bleh. Don't get it. NO. BAD.
2.Dead Inside
I mean, I find this song interesting, but it's almost exactly like “Bring Me to Life” or Jars of Clay's “Dead Man (Carry Me). I do like how it begins a little more electric, and is robust, even if the lyrics are kinda trite. It's like a year or so late for that theme to get me excited.
3. Would It Matter
This is a kind of generic, I-am-miserable-would-you-notice-if-I-was-g
one kind of song. It sounds nice, but pretty generic.
OverallAll in all, the album was worth it just for Monster. So good. Later on I might like the rest of it more, but right now it all seems pretty fluff generic, apart from Hero, Monster, It's Not Me It's You, and Sometimes. Forgiven is a pretty powerful song too.
Mmmmmm MONSTER!
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