New song "We Are All Cowards Now", August 14, 2020

[bronxapostle]

This new one is quite opaque - hoping it's a grower. A lot of words thrown at it, the scansion is deliberately ignored sometimes. Hard to get a handle on. The mood is soooooo dark and despairing. Loved the Nero and Caligula gags.

After one listen, i am still grasping at the one older song it is reminding me about. I'll get it after another listen. I like it.

Okay, after listen number 2....is it a distant cousin to MY DARK LIFE going into the "chorus?"
I do like it quite a bit. And i can definitely hear the full band LIVE version. Oh how wonderful an idea to actually see them play before year's end!!!

[jardine]

pills and soap? also, right at the beginning, first listen, i thought it was a strange gospel choir

[Top balcony]

Here's the lyrics cut and pasted from Youtube :

Time has taught us
That they’re sending out their sons
To take away our guns and our daughters
We are all cowards now

Rivers rising
Darkness fell upon
People blotting out the sun
Disguising how
We are all cowards now

At least the Emperor Nero had an ear for music
But that’s history
Caligula said “God’s speed, my steed”
But that’s his story

They’re coming for our Peacemakers
Our Winchesters and Colts
The rattle of our Gatling Guns
Our best cowboy revolts and threats and insults
We are all cowards now

The emptiness of arms
The openness of thighs
The pornography of bullets
The promises and prizes can’t disguise
We are all cowards now

They're draping stones with colours
And a roll of stolen names
Except those we never cared about

And those we need to blame
We’ll extinguish that flame, just the same
We are all cowards now

Arms are empty
The pornography of plenty
Count commands from one to ten
Number sins from ten to twenty

There’s an illusion we believe in
There is honour in their need
Pretty confetti, chemical debt
And a necessity to bleed

My fears too fleet to scupper
My prayers too thin to scream
On my lover's back a zipper
On her limb a straightened seam

So, close the windows tightly
Lower lamps and shades
On the screen, silent rehearsals
For tomorrow's parades
For tomorrow's parades
For tomorrow's parades
We are all cowards now

I am reminded of "Tripwire", in a good way.

[Hawksmoor]

I am reminded of "Tripwire", in a good way.

Me too, and I regard Tripwire as one of his best (and most overlooked) songs of the last decade. It's an obvious thing to say on this website but seriously, which other singer/songwriter of his age (and his massive back catalogue) is getting anywhere near this in terms of lyrical and musical invention? Ball easily knocked out of park, and I'm so fired up for the LP.

[Neil.]

I've had a third listen. God, it's a downer. I think the fact it fades out with little variation for the last few stanzas, and with no sculpted climax, and with that image of the withering flower: it gives a vibe of hopelessness and despair that really drags me down. That's fine, that's the intention, but it makes it a hard listen.

Also, Elvis seems to be happy to leave 'froggy' vocal takes in the mix for these three new songs - he's getting older and his voice plays unwelcome tricks sometimes, but clearly he doesn't mind the authenticity of that, or he didn't have time to do retakes in the session.

So there are quite a few croaky, cracky bits. Might be suitable to this very dark song, though - mortality and time running out are very much the vibe, I reckon.

I hope some of the new album has the joyous songs he says he was writing early in lockdown - anyone know what these songs might be?

[bronxapostle]

great estimation Neil.....i guess we just wait for something cheerier. i wonder if this record or the next...going on titles alone, looking mighty morbid; very 2020!!! :cry

[verbal gymnastics]

Okay, after listen number 2....is it a distant cousin to MY DARK LIFE going into the "chorus?"

It struck me as sounding like My Dark Life from the beginning of the song.

I’m not hearing Tripwire though.

[Top balcony]

I’m not hearing Tripwire...

It's more the Tripwire 'vibe' than than the 'sound'.So you might feel it if you don't hear it.

Or you may not......

[Hawksmoor]

Elvis seems to be happy to leave 'froggy' vocal takes in the mix for these three new songs - he's getting older and his voice plays unwelcome tricks sometimes, but clearly he doesn't mind the authenticity of that, or he didn't have time to do retakes in the session. So there are quite a few croaky, cracky bits. Might be suitable to this very dark song, though - mortality and time running out are very much the vibe, I reckon.

Wouldn't argue with any of that, but actually I'm quite attracted to the idea. Giving in to the croakiness/crackiness and embracing that as an intimation of mortality feels more authentic than McCartney still aiming for the high notes in 'All My Loving' (and missing them) or Springsteen talking his way through 'Badlands' (which he used to actually sing).

Croaky talking as an alternative to singing - I really like it. But then, I spend a lot of time listening to Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits!

[Neil.]

I spend a lot of time listening to Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits!

Oh Lord, I know I'm going to be unpopular for saying this, but I've never, ever managed to get into Tom Waits. A friend of mine recently said he'd tried listening to Rain Dogs, and he said it was like listening to the Cookie Monster's break-up album. LOL, I agree with him.

I'll also probably be frog-marched out of here when I admit that I am immune to the doomy charms of Nick Cave. I just don't get it! It's like being sung at by Morbius from the Marvel comics.

[Hawksmoor]

Oh Lord, I know I'm going to be unpopular for saying this, but I've never, ever managed to get into Tom Waits. A friend of mine recently said he'd tried listening to Rain Dogs, and he said it was like listening to the Cookie Monster's break-up album. LOL, I agree with him.

Nah, you're fine, don't worry about it. I've got a list of artists as long as your arm who are hugely popular and critically well thought-of, but where I just...don't get it.

Tom Waits, though...totally, for me. Student in the 1980s when Swordfishtrombones/Rain Dogs came out and therefore bought them on cassette. At that point I was unaware of his previous life as a bluesy/sentimental piano-and-gravelly-voice balladeer. I thought Swordfishtrombones/Rain Dogs was the kind of stuff he'd always been doing! Retrospectively (and having listened to some of his 70s stuff) I can see that it was an experimental leap in the dark, and I love it. Not everyone's cup of tea, I'm sure. But you have to at least enjoy the image of his record company executives listening, stony-faced, and thinking 'WTF is this now?!'