I'm Clifford Stumme, and I use literary analysis and research to explain the deeper meanings of pop songs. Feel free to leave a comment or to email me at clifford@popsongprofessor.com with questions or ideas!
All in song lyrics blog post
Over the past month, Of Monsters and Men has been putting out singles from their upcoming Beneath the Skin, which will be released on June 9th. The album has 13 tracks, and the third is “Hunger” a powerful anti-ballad about what sounds like a suffocating relationship that needs to be ended. Four singles (“Empire,” “Crystals,” “Hunger,” and “I of the Storm”) have already been released.
When Twenty One Pilots released Blurryface, they designed their album cover to be very symbolic and very cryptic just as Tyler Joseph promised. In an interview with Alternative Press, he says, "There are so many layers-both literally and in the meaning of the album cover-that are so important to Josh & I. We've worked very hard on it. We can't wait for you guys to discover it once you get your hands on it. But every element was very thought-through, and very intentional."
Ready for a summer of beaches and sunshine? Any pool-side party's going to need a soundtrack, and the music industry's going crazy trying to figure out exactly what it's going to be. Many (including Billboard.com) are putting their money down on OMI's single "Cheerleader" as the future sound of summer 2015. Considering its driving reggae beat and recent EDM remix, there's not much to stand in its way.
Owl City's coming out with a new album-Mobile Orchestra-on July 10th, and the first song (the only one released so far) is "Verge" which features Aloe Blacc, the memorable voice in Avicii's "Wake Me Up." There's a lyric video out (just below), and a Vevo behind-the-scenes video has already dropped in anticipation of a full-on music video that will use graduation imagery to support the song's main idea of being "[o]ut on the verge of the rest of our lives."
After the small victory celebrated in "Not Today," it would seem that Twenty One Pilots frontman Tyler Joseph's Blurryface has come back. This last song on the band's new album Blurryface is a prayer to God. Tyler needs ultimately powerful help to rid himself of darkness and depression, and he's seeking it from a supernatural source.
Only two songs left on Twenty One Pilots' Blurryface, and this one's "Not Today." The song is clever and quick and engaging. Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun are forecasting the end of their album with a climactic fight against Tyler's alter-ego Blurryface, the darker part of him. The song is a powerful tell-off to a tendency that tries to compel him to recede into himself and to stay dark.
Twenty One Pilots released its album Blurryface a little early. They told everyone they planned to let it out on the 19th, but the Skeleton Clique woke up to Blurryfacefor sale this morning. The album had already been leaked last week, so some fans had it, but now everyone's purchasing and listening to it like mad. And for good reason. Blurryface is a strong album with an underlying theme threading its way through the entire thing, connecting song to song, developing conflicts and resolutions. One of the notable resolution songs is "Hometown."
Apparently, now it's time for Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun of Twenty-One Pilots to take on the entire music industry. In "Lane Boy," the two attempt to explain a musical style that seems to change with every Blurryface single that they release. The songs are intense and interesting, and this one, musically especially, is supercharged, a good match for the aggressive lyrics. The song describes the band's break from the direction of the music industry as well as a commitment to an entrepreneurship that doesn't focus on money.
"Message Man" has a hint of a reggae beat to it, but most of the song is full of intense bass drum and organ focused on Tyler's chanting and rapping verses and choruses that warn audiences that "[t]hese lyrics aren't for everyone" and that "these are just triplets"; "[y]ou don't know my brain / The way you know my name." Whatever Tyler truly hopes the audience to get out of "Message Man," he wants them to recognize the differences between song, artist, and meaning as well as the difference between understanding lyrics and just hearing them.
It's wonderful when a singer says exactly what you've been thinking, and I experienced that twice while listening to "We Don't Believe What's on T.V." Tyler Joseph has a real talent for being "in tune" with other members of his generation, and Twenty One Pilots' tenth song on Blurryface is a fun, ukulele driven example of that.
My first strategy to discover "Polarize's" meaning was to find a source that explained polarization. A lot of people wear polarized sunglasses, and they're advertised as something special, but do any of us know what "polarize" actually means? Of course, then I realized that reading the lyrics first would have been more helpful. The lead singer, Tyler Joseph, defines the word in one of the verses, so I needn't have wasted the time. But my search was worth it, and the information learned will come in handy later as we explore the meaning of Twenty One Pilots' ninth song on Blurryface, "Polarize."
It may be suggestive of what this song is about that I almost titled it "What does 'Doubt' by Blurryface mean?" "Doubt" by Twenty One Pilots seems as though it actually could have written by Tyler Joseph's alter-ego Blurryface as it recounts several of his fears and begs God to not "forget about me." The song is slow and methodical and iconic of the fears and anxieties that Tyler is dealing with in this album.
Since even Tyler Joseph doesn't know exactly what "The Judge" is about, explaining it may be more difficult than usual. He sings, "I don't know if this song / Is a surrender or a revel / I don't know if this one / Is about me or the devil." While that seems like something he should have sorted out by now, with a little help from the rest of the song, listeners will be able to forge their own way through what is actually a very beautiful seventh song on Twenty One Pilots' new album Blurryface.
Blurryface was leaked on May 11th when Tyler Joseph's alter ego, Blurryface, tweeted, "drip drip drip"; Twitter-intensity ensued with thousands of tweets coming from thousands of Twenty One Pilots followers asking thousands of questions. Where'd it leak? Who leaked it? How can I get a copy? Personally, I spent hours looking, but could only find spam and personal information farms. The album had been leaked through Ghost Tunes, but when I visited, it was locked up tight-only the singles were for sale.
Of Monsters and Men is really good at being cryptic and symbolic, leaving listeners to puzzle songs out on their own. Luckily, in their most recent single "Crystals" from their upcoming album, Beneath the Skin, they give readers a few clues that make the difficult meaning not impossible to decipher.
The fifth Twenty One Pilots single, "Ride," is out, and it's full of thoughts on death, life, and living. It's somewhat cryptic, and the music is reminiscent of "Isle of Flightless Birds" but (as with any song on Blurryface) certainly different enough to defy styles and trends. "Ride" is the third track on the album and just one more way that Twenty One Pilots, as promised in "Lane Boy," is going to keep doing their own thing.
"Hot Gates" is, by far, the most pointed and purposeful song on Mumford & Sons's Wilder Mind album. It's a sharp and clear cry that begs a friend considering suicide to choose to keep fighting on. The music is mostly soft and quiet, though it contains the powerful swells that have been a signature of the style on Wilder Mind. The song, itself, lyrics and music together, is a powerful, complicated plea for life.
In "Only Love," Mumford returns to the spiritual questions about faith that he began asking in "Believe." Musically, gentle piano and mere hints of electric guitar make up most of this song until 2:51 when the drums and guitar kick in. The song is a mix of gentleness and power and, as always for Mumford & Sons, vulnerability.
Any song on Wilder Mind that's upbeat is a surprise. In the case of "Ditmas," it's certainly a pleasant one. The song nearly lilts as it rushes through the story of yet another love that isn't working out, this time through the fault of a woman who accuses Mumford of having changed even while she leaves him behind for a "[a] life lived much too fast." The song is sad, but it's not mournful; Mumford argues deftly and powerfully-he won't let the blame for the end of this relationship fall on him.
"Cold Arms"is a song of pain and sorrow, which isn't anything new to Wilder Mind but this song asks a tough question and shows what may be the difficult-to-live-with wrong answer.Marcus Mumford and the band play this song slowly and mournfully, a strummed electric guitar ringing out just enough melody to highlight the sadness of what is being said. "Cold Arms" goes beyond the other songs on the album in its attempt to be truly honest and vulnerable with its audience.An interesting aspect of "Cold Arms" is the ease with which one can sing along with it, and doing so, oddly enough, feels confessional and cleansing. The lyrics are about a man who told a woman he loved her without meaning it. His words have brought them together, but the words were empty, so the two end the song together in a bad situation, not really loving each other and simply keeping up a ruse they both know is false.
