Yet

“All attempts have failed, all my heads are tails.” What do you do about that? If that’s you, what can you do? Well the easy and bad answer is give up. The hard answer is to start over completely. The last thing you could do is figure out how to use what you’ve got to make it right. Several places in this album (Hello Hurricane), Jon does a good job of describing, much more dramatically than I, this situation and how the solution he chose was the latter.

The second verse basically underlines this theme of everything being backwards, but it’s an interesting array of words. “These days pass me by, I dream with open eyes. Nightmares haunt my days, visions blur my nights.” This most likely is just an awesome way to describe how life can be backwards, but I’d like to suppose, in my wildest imagination, what it could mean. Dreaming with open eyes… dreams are things our minds throw together in a boggle sort of way. Dreaming can also be having dreams or ambitions, and chasing those dreams. Imagine if your life was spent living out your dream, and you could see your dreams take form right before your eyes. I just asked you to imagine something, please do it. Imagine yourself in a dreamy state thinking about your wildest ambitions. Picture them solidifying into reality as you watch. Sounds pretty fantastic. This could have some merit to it, but it’s not exactly in step with the message of the rest of the song. Oh well, one can dream.

The last line in both the first verse adds a bit of “the end is near” to the “everything’s messed up” ideas from the rest of the verses. It goes, “I’m heading for the final precipice”. What better to add to dilemma than urgency? Time is limited, and we all know that bad things happen when we always think there’ll be more time later. I’m not sure what the urgency is, but we can all relate. Chapters in life end, and sometimes these chapters find us in situations that will only exist in this chapter. When we let the pages of life pass us by until the chapter is over, we regret things. “Live life with no regrets” could probably be best explained as try to live life intentionally and do what you want to do as opposed to sitting back and watching life blow by in the breeze.

“I’ll sing until my heart caves in”. This isn’t settling in for retirement, this is fighting for what you believe in until death do you and the world part. “I’m holding on, I’m holding on to you.” I think of all the possible mentions of God in Switchfoot songs, this one’s hard to ignore (especially when you look at it in the full context). Ok you got me, this is from the next song on Hello Hurricane, but it fits wonderfully and I believe it helps to illustrate the meaning of this song. While Jon reveals how all of his life is messed up and crazy, he further shows that it doesn’t matter what’s happening to him, he’s going to hold on to the one thing he knows, and devote his everything to that. With Everything, he will sing.

Bridge time, “If it doesn’t break your heart it isn’t love.” At first, I thought it was silly to think that all love breaks your heart, but then I challenged my own definition of what it means to break a heart. I guess it means what you use it to mean. I don’t think it should be limited to being super sad after a girlfriend or boyfriend dumps you. Now it gets personal… The biggest moment of my life was when I devoted my life to God and to be more like Jesus (literally becoming a Christ-ian). I don’t care if that sounds Christian-machine generated, it’s true. I experienced a love I’d never truly known before. That sent my emotions on a wild stampede with the final destination of awesome. If our hearts represent our state of emotions, or perhaps their structure and how they operate, then to break one’s heart opens up the possibility of reforming it. So maybe what happened to me was that perfect love broke my heart and was able to realign it more properly. In no way is this a bad thing.

So now that it makes sense, how about the specifics of his claim, “If it doesn’t break your heart it isn’t love.” If you asked, I might tell you I love my guitar, but it would be in the same sense that I love ice cream. If it was stolen, I’d be upset and frustrated… after all, I spent my own money on that, and it wasn’t exactly cheap. But in the end, whatever. If my mom died… well I’d be a wreck. I wouldn’t properly function for quite a while. Love is powerful. Real love, when taken away, is a heartbreaker. But it’s worth it, it has to be. If nothing else, it’s a taste of what pure love is, what God’s love is. And He never withdraws His love if you ask for it. So to come full circle, love breaks your heart, whether in a good constructive way or a sad (and hopefully character building) way.

All in all, thanks to Switchfoot for being able to pack so much awesome in so few words. Sorry for sort of ignoring the musical part on this one. Basically, the music does a good job of reading you the lyrics in bold.

Stars

The song opens us to a chaotic and catchy guitar riff. Judging by the words, this represents the chaotic world we live in, the world of “entropy and pain”. The writer goes right into considering himself to blame. The world is messed up, and the writer is open to the idea that he may not be part of the problem… but it’s all guesswork, he doesn’t know. The verses, particularly the first, are filled with maybe’s and wonderings, uncertainties. When the chorus enters, everything seems more certain. I believe Jon’s saying that when he thinks about more than just himself, he actually feels more like himself. This is pretty cool, it’s like stop being selfish and you’ll actually be rewarded. I have definitely found this principle to hold true. I think this sort of parallels the idea that if you give everything to God, you’ll only be rewarded more.

Well that was easy… that’s what Stars is all about. Sure, and the point of college is to learn, but there’s more to it than just that. This is where writing about the meaning of lyrics becomes writing about interpretations of lyrics. Everything else I’ve left to say is based on thoughts provoked by the song.

Ever look into a night sky filled with beautiful stars? Isn’t it frustrating when you look up into the night and don’t see any more than like 3 stars? Stupid pollution … light and otherwise. Why are stars beautiful? If I took black construction paper, cut a few holes in it, and shined some white LEDs through it would that be beautiful? Not at all. I think they’re beautiful because of what they are and what they represent. They are huge, innumerable, and incredibly far away. If we struggle to imagine the size of planet Earth, how much more a star that is thousands of Earth’s away (and that’s just the closest star, any other one would be at least billions of Earth’s away). I think they’re so captivating because they’re so unimaginable and yet we can see so many in one view.

If you look at a building, say the student union at RPI, you’re looking at the comprehendible works of man. You’re looking at something that represents all sorts of student activities/clubs, food, jobs, etc. The union isn’t beautiful. What the sight represents can have a lot to do with how cool it is to look at. Stars represent something bigger than ourselves, something so vast we can’t even begin to wrap our minds around it all. Sooo much money and effort is spent into making things look cool. Think about a rock concert or the movie Avatar. All this stuff is cool and all, but does it really compare? I was dazzled by the crazy, colorful environment of some fake planet in the movie Avatar, but if I saw it over and over it just wouldn’t be as cool. It’s fake. Ever look at a mural of stars and thing, “eh, whatever”? It’s like temporary pleasures of this world, they’re tempting and enjoyable, but they just don’t compare in the long run to what God has to offer.

Like stars, there exists some one not fully comprehendible and some one infinitely beautiful…

“When I look at the stars I see someone else.”

This Is Your Life

            This is one of those songs. I like just about everything Switchfoot has done, but if you’ve never heard this one, listen to it. If for nothing I’m about to talk about, for the creativity throughout the entire song. All the wonderful noises are so darn cool and work together well to give the mindset(s) I’m about to ramble on about.

            The way I look at this song is that it’s the mindset(s) of a person. The words are just the thoughts going through his head; maybe something someone else said to them, or just a thought. The first mindset is a very abstract, pensive mindset. The song opens with this. All those cool, ambient, spacey noises going on scream surreal. Looking at the words alone is a tough thing to do. It’s a very simple, powerful message. Are you who you want to be? If you thought yes, you’re living a fantastic, inspiring life, or you have a bad idea of what your life should be (or you’re lying). It’s really tough realizing you aren’t who you want to be because if you aren’t, it’s on your shoulders. This feeling that the instruments and crazy sounds bring out in this mindset look to the past. Think about the verses. They are thoughts of what has been, of what took place. They are thoughts that take form in a person who is dwelling in the past. History can teach us a lot, but how could we ever move on if we can’t let go of something that went wrong in the past. “Don’t close your eyes. This is your life, and today is all you’ve got now.” This is where the person starts getting it. The music still suggests a thoughtful place, but the words lead into the transition into the next mindset.

            This next canvas is painted with simplicity and power. The chorus is very simple musically and lyrically, yet it’s just too cool. I believe this is sort of the awakening moment, the realization, the revelation, the taking of an idea and realizing what that actually means. I can know all I want that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, but I just don’t think I could bring myself to fully believe that if I ran at a lake I’d go right over it. This is an extreme example, but if ever in my life I can fully convince myself that I can run on water, there will have been a transition moment from knowing to knowing and believing. In the chorus, this hypothetical person seems to have hit that moment. He’s not just thinking anymore, he’s thinking the right thing and living it.

            From learning the rockin bass part to this song, I discovered that the bass part to the 1^st chorus is different from the rest of them. My theory is that the person sort of loses sight again (hence the second verse) and comes back stronger in the second chorus. The only difference (that I notice) between chorus 1 and 2 is the bass line. It makes the second chorus like 8 times awesomer. I think this guy got 8 times awesomer at living out the idea that we should be living for who we want to be and not settling for less… ever.

            Then there’s the bridge. This could just be a cool bit of music tossed into an awesome song. For the sake of trusting in Switchfoot’s awesomeness, I’m gunna make it work and hope it’s how they intended it. This is in the first mindset, but I get a different vibe from the whole thing. It seems more like reflection that dwelling on the past. My thought is that it’s a final stepping-stone to making this difficult and important idea posed by this song into a permanent reality. Notice the fantastic build up to the exciting final chorus. This one is a little different vocally, and to me it’s along the same idea as when the bass line upgraded. The vocals are just a bit cooler. Then the song fades out with that cool, catchy bass riff that the song began with. This song for me embodies the musical transition Switchfoot had from their previous album (Learning to Breathe) to this one (Beautiful Letdown). It’s when they started exploring more than just guitar, words, bass, and drums. They did add a 4^th member for this album who plays like everything, but whatever the case, this song for me was the beginning of something I have come to love.