wendyswing13: Enter Shikari - Common Dreads I will now attempt to explain the one of the most political albums I have ever heard, Common Dreads. These boys have really matured from their first album, and are much more outspoken than before. I do not think I can write well enough to give this amazing album a good review but I will certainly try. Take into consideration this is the first time I try to review an album. My review will not do this album justice, so you have to go hear it for yourself. Going track by track here: 1. Common Dreads This is the first song of the album, starting off like the end of “Closing”, the last song on their previous album, as if they are picking up where they left off. 2. Solidarity This a type of continuation of Common Dreads, saying people must unite for a common cause. There’s only so much people can take before they unite against an enemy. 3. Step Up “You know what? Sometimes I do wish apples were our currency so the hoarded millions rot in their vaults. And that’d teach you to lay off the assault that you’re barraging on the lands of the poor…” This track is one of the best. They are telling their government to take responsibility for fucking up and destroying parts of the world. Their ignorance will destroy them. It also speaks directly to the listener, urging them to step up, that they can be ones to change. “If our own lives aren’t directly affected, then it don’t need to be corrected. How fucking cute is our ignorance?”4. Juggernauts This track address corporate power and their share in destroying small business, and how people should want to have some part in building this world. An extremely catchy song, and with an honest message. 5. Wall “I’m gonna paste you up, cover you in wallpaper, screw shelves into you and call you a wall. That’s all you are to me, trying to keep people inside, inside your sordid little house…” This track is about the need to look into the past if you do not want to make the same mistakes all over again. It is one of the most metaphorical of all the songs on Common Dreads, and is based on a “Big Brother” type of ordeal happening in governments, saying people can only be penned up and away from the rest of the world before they see the view from the window and want to get out. 6. Zzzonked “These wars are directly out of order mate. You get me? They’re past their sell-by date seriously, I don’t think you fucking get me. Listen!” One of the craziest songs on this album, it speaks of how the government seems to do some things without thinking.7. Havoc A “The lions are at the door. We ain’t taking orders from snakes no more. Knock, knock…” The lions are the people,the door is a metaphorical door of authority, and the snakes are the corrupted world leaders. The rest is self explanatory. 8. No Sleep Tonight This track is about scientist, and how they are paid off by big companies to lie about things like climate changes and effects on the environment for the benefit of those companies. They are basically telling the scientists that they don’t understand how the scientists could sleep at night knowing what they are doing.9. Gap In The Fence The first half of this song is the slowest point in the album. Its a bit of a breath of fresh air. It is an uplifting song about not settling for less.10. Havoc B The second interlude in the album. It acts as Havoc A does, but ends with a protest of war. “All this killing is obscene, shut down the war machine.”11. Antwerpen “Go forth and re-colonize. It appears the foundations of all our great nations are lies and indoctrinations. So if Silvius Brabo collects the hands of giants, will you join him?” The song is about a legend where Silvius Brabo defeated a giant guarding the river Schledt. The giant cut people’s hands if they didn’t pay a fee to cross the river. This song seems to be an analogy for how governments seem to be helping us, but they also can do wrong, and we should acknowledge that. (“Will you join him?”) We should go to our past if we do not want to make the same mistakes. “…now it feels like Silvius Brabo has sliced my hand off and thrown it in the river! Man, I was just doing my job, my feet sinking into the bed of the Scheldt…All will be revealed if we travel back in time.” One of the best songs in this entire album.12. The Jester Slightly less political. Although it is the weirdest track, it has its own political moments, bashing a particular world leader and refusing to believe the lies they have tried to feed us too many times before. 13. Halcyon An interlude, as a soft introduction to Hectic.14. Hectic “Oh, if I could kidnap that feeling, the one that melts all fears from your mind, I’d make no demands, no ransom, ‘Cause I’d never set it free. Oh, those halcyon days and halcyon nights, before we began to realize that things aren’t right.” This track is about being a child, and wanting those moments back, the moments when you lived with no worries, before you realized the world isn’t perfect and things need to change. With a big beat and a strong chorus, this is a catchy song almost everyone can relate to.15. Fanfare For The Conscience Man This track is the album’s final cry of frustration against all the hypocrisy in politics. A great way to end the album. I understand that this came out as more of an album interpretation than an album review. But I hope that my thoughts on theses songs get you interested in hearing it, and giving it a chance even though it might not be your type of music. My favorite songs from this album are Fanfare For The Conscience Man & Hectic :D

wendyswing13:

Enter Shikari - Common Dreads

I will now attempt to explain the one of the most political albums I have ever heard, Common Dreads. These boys have really matured from their first album, and are much more outspoken than before. I do not think I can write well enough to give this amazing album a good review but I will certainly try. Take into consideration this is the first time I try to review an album. My review will not do this album justice, so you have to go hear it for yourself.

Going track by track here:

1. Common Dreads

This is the first song of the album, starting off like the end of “Closing”, the last song on their previous album, as if they are picking up where they left off.

2. Solidarity

This a type of continuation of Common Dreads, saying people must unite for a common cause. There’s only so much people can take before they unite against an enemy.

3. Step Up

“You know what? Sometimes I do wish apples were our currency so the hoarded millions rot in their vaults. And that’d teach you to lay off the assault that you’re barraging on the lands of the poor…”

This track is one of the best. They are telling their government to take responsibility for fucking up and destroying parts of the world. Their ignorance will destroy them. It also speaks directly to the listener, urging them to step up, that they can be ones to change.

“If our own lives aren’t directly affected, then it don’t need to be corrected.
How fucking cute is our ignorance?”

4. Juggernauts

This track address corporate power and their share in destroying small business, and how people should want to have some part in building this world. An extremely catchy song, and with an honest message.

5. Wall

“I’m gonna paste you up, cover you in wallpaper, screw shelves into you and call you a wall. That’s all you are to me, trying to keep people inside, inside your sordid little house…”

This track is about the need to look into the past if you do not want to make the same mistakes all over again. It is one of the most metaphorical of all the songs on Common Dreads, and is based on a “Big Brother” type of ordeal happening in governments, saying people can only be penned up and away from the rest of the world before they see the view from the window and want to get out.

6. Zzzonked

“These wars are directly out of order mate. You get me? They’re past their sell-by date seriously, I don’t think you fucking get me. Listen!”

One of the craziest songs on this album, it speaks of how the government seems to do some things without thinking.

7. Havoc A

“The lions are at the door. We ain’t taking orders from snakes no more. Knock, knock…”

The lions are the people,the door is a metaphorical door of authority, and the snakes are the corrupted world leaders. The rest is self explanatory.

8. No Sleep Tonight

This track is about scientist, and how they are paid off by big companies to lie about things like climate changes and effects on the environment for the benefit of those companies. They are basically telling the scientists that they don’t understand how the scientists could sleep at night knowing what they are doing.

9. Gap In The Fence

The first half of this song is the slowest point in the album. Its a bit of a breath of fresh air. It is an uplifting song about not settling for less.

10. Havoc B

The second interlude in the album. It acts as Havoc A does, but ends with a protest of war.

“All this killing is obscene, shut down the war machine.”

11. Antwerpen

“Go forth and re-colonize. It appears the foundations of all our great nations are lies and indoctrinations. So if Silvius Brabo collects the hands of giants, will you join him?”

The song is about a legend where Silvius Brabo defeated a giant guarding the river Schledt. The giant cut people’s hands if they didn’t pay a fee to cross the river. This song seems to be an analogy for how governments seem to be helping us, but they also can do wrong, and we should acknowledge that. (“Will you join him?”) We should go to our past if we do not want to make the same mistakes.

“…now it feels like Silvius Brabo has sliced my hand off and thrown it in the river! Man, I was just doing my job, my feet sinking into the bed of the Scheldt…All will be revealed if we travel back in time.”

One of the best songs in this entire album.

12. The Jester

Slightly less political. Although it is the weirdest track, it has its own political moments, bashing a particular world leader and refusing to believe the lies they have tried to feed us too many times before.

13. Halcyon

An interlude, as a soft introduction to Hectic.

14. Hectic

“Oh, if I could kidnap that feeling, the one that melts all fears from your mind, I’d make no demands, no ransom, ‘Cause I’d never set it free. Oh, those halcyon days and halcyon nights, before we began to realize that things aren’t right.”

This track is about being a child, and wanting those moments back, the moments when you lived with no worries, before you realized the world isn’t perfect and things need to change. With a big beat and a strong chorus, this is a catchy song almost everyone can relate to.

15. Fanfare For The Conscience Man

This track is the album’s final cry of frustration against all the hypocrisy in politics. A great way to end the album.

I understand that this came out as more of an album interpretation than an album review. But I hope that my thoughts on theses songs get you interested in hearing it, and giving it a chance even though it might not be your type of music.

My favorite songs from this album are Fanfare For The Conscience Man & Hectic

:D

posted 2 years ago