A Losing Battle with the Gods? "Snow Globes" by Black Country, New Road song review
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.ค. 2024
- 36 Notes of epic and intimate. Another great song that is unlike and fits with the others. @BCNRband
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Sorry to being out the theory on ya Prof but D and F# are a major third interval.. should sound pretty consonant eh?
In fact the whole sheet you show harmonically is 5ths, minor 3rds, unison and major 3rds
Dang! I’ll pin this comment to help others see my mistake.
(I went to music camp in 4th grade. Hell
on earth. The music theory class was in a cramped wooden room filled with Bees and I totally didn’t focus at all.)
Though, in my defense, I still think the notes feel dissonant.
2/3's of the d major triad also 2/3's of the f# augmented triad
@@SagaAsad all about context I suppose lol
the drummers name is Charlie :)
My interpretation centers around the idea that snow globes are a metaphor for nostalgic memories, and that the battleship of memories is like a fortress of these positive memories used by Henry as a coping mechanism for the experience of being separated, possibly on his own in a new place.
I think the idea of snow globes not shaking on their own represents how when we take solace in a memory, the experience is always artificial because we're accessing the memory and activating it the same way you activate the motion and life in a snow globe by shaking it yourself. The point being that deep down, Henry knows that this coping mechanism of nostalgic memories is not healthy, and that he needs an authentic new experience, to break out of his fortress, leave his battleship, and live his life.
As the singer, that would mean Henry having to seek out new experiences with someone else.
As Henry, that means abandoning the memories, accepting that the past is really over.
The drums for me represent an ocean of emotion, a dark storm of mourning the end of a chapter in your life. They are like an intense need to cry but you try to hold it in, feeling it push against the wall you put up to keep everything down. And when the refrain gives way to the drums, I just feel like that's when the walls come down, and the tears just come, drowning out all rational thought (can't hear the lyrics), losing track of time (hard to find the rhythm). And then suddenly the drums cut out and the production cleans up and warms up, as if the catharsis of that experience of release has helped set our characters free.
They mentioned in an interview with fantano that it feels like a tragic grand adventure, like the odyssey. Right on the nose there professor :)
I think the "doesn't look anything like Jesus" line may be a reference to The Killers' song "When You Were Young", where the chorus is "he doesn't look a thing like Jesus".
They've referenced billie eilish and pheobe bridgers so it wouldnt be out of no where
@@wolfmots6278 When did they reference Phoebe bridgers?
@@maxsilbert in motion sickness theres the line 'why do you sing with an english accent, i guess its too late to change it now' and in athens france theres the line 'why don't you sing with an english accent, i guess its too late to change it now'
@@TheMinionHunters oh that's awesome, thanks for the explanation!
I think it's also a reference to when that woman repainted jesus and made him look like a caveman
wake up babe
Drummer's name is Charlie Wayne, as per requested. Also...
On 2nd Guitar is Luke Mark; Bass is Tyler Hyde; Keyboards is May Kershaw; Violin is Georgia Ellery and Saxophone is Lewis Evans.
Guys he's going to lose his mind when they finally release Basketball Shoes. Makes me kind of wish I'd never heard the live recording so it would be fresh. Kind of.
Well the studio version is quite different. I hope you enjoyed
Not sure if you've heard, but the band announced today that Isaac is leaving the band. He ended his statement with a quote from Futurama. I think you're completely correct about Clamps.
My reading of the song is that Henry's a religious person who is trying to not lose his faith in a time where it seems like that God does not care at all. The Shaken snowglobe represents the earth in it's last hours and henry is stuck in a position where he can't do anything right. If he still believes in God then he needs to accept that to God (or gods) he is insignificant. Henry is reduced to an item, used a few times then forgotten forever.
The other perspective of the song seems to be coming from a non relligous perspective. The line "He doesn't look anything like Jesus at all" is coming from a place of disconnect between the narrator and Henry. The Narrator does not understand how and why Henry can still hold his beliefs while the world is ending.
Henry's answer to this dilemma is just to not think about it, he distracts himself by trying to live his life to the fullest, but his anxieties are keep crawling back into his mind getting louder and louder.
To me the song feels like a connection between two wildly different people unified by a shared fear of the climate crisis, probably a bit shallow reading of the song but it was the first thing that came to my mind.
I love Isaac's lyricsm, Everytime I reread his lyrics I feel like i picked up on something new, while at the same time they never lose their initial magic.
I adore this song and Black Country New Road. I spent a large amount of time as a teenager dismissing modern music. I have now seen the light. I believe we are living through a revolution. The birth of something special and it makes me so exited. I don't know what the song means. But I know how it makes me feel
ive been waiting to hear your thoughts about this song ever since it came out
Ahhhh i love this series of BCNR song reviews!! Made my day to see this just been uploaded
Glad I'm not alone on thinking of Futurama every time Issac references the clamp
"It was the clamp that was breaking me"
I live 2.5 hours east of you… these reviews are flowing my way like Lake Effect snow. You’ve managed to encompass my general thoughts, and have indeed expanded my understanding… whether I specifically agree with your points or not, your explanation of how you arrived at your ideas, have given me the toolset to analyze my own thoughts. Actually I feel your thought method infecting my brain. Thanks for these, and you’ve earned my subscription.
A genuine thank you for making this video. I had no idea it was so easy. The amount of joy I just got from playing the first guitar section is magnificent
Prof skye don't worry about your videos being long! We are going to need a 2 hour analysis video when the album drops
The goat returns. Tbh I am just as excited for these videos as the music by this point
When I woke up on the day the song was released I listened to it and looked out of the window and suddenly there was the first snow of the year. Little magical moments like this are what makes music so wonderful.
Watching this and reading comments and absolutely bawling coz this song this album feel so deeply relatable connected to me as someone who has had a long distance relationship end abruptly at a transitionary point in my life, much love to everyone
For me the album (so far) Is about a failing long distance relationship
yeah i got that as well. i think its on bread song where he says something about holding someone with her headset. that really made me think about long distance and video calls
Godspeed You! Black Country, New Road Emperor!
How do professors and teachers always find a way to relate anything to Homer’s epics
That aside, great track review, can’t wait for the album
They said in their interview with fantano the new album feels like the odyssey, so he’s pretty on point.
How do you not relate anything to Homer's epics? Three thousand years later and western literature is still drinking from that fountain
The explanation of the notes moving together, then meeting and going past each other feels kinda Pynchonesque in how it's a metaphor for the theme of the tracks so far.
Great video!
Great review. Thanks professor skye! best band in the world!!
THE CLAMPS
Stellar video as always
Honestly my favorite BCNR song so far
Very excited for snow every single day when I get back to campus in roc
As a fan of film, this song seems to me very Tarkovskian as I'm reminded of the scene from Stalker where the girl stares at a glass on a table and it moves, seemingly by itself.
Professor - any chance you will interview Sergio for the channel? Would be amazing to see you and Sergio discuss each of the songs.
Playtime poster! My fav movie of all time :)
Based on Theme From Failure, Pt. 1 (a song by The Guest, Isaac's solo project), I think it's possible that Henry is referring to the lead singer of HMLTD, Henry Spychalski. Of course it's also possible Henry is just a fictional character in this song, but I think that's unlikely.
i find it fascinating that you formatted the music in words and not in sheet music, like it was very legible so nothing wrong there, i just didn't expect that sksksksksk
Reminds me of Paris 1919 by John Cale and The Day Texas Sank to the Bottom of the Sea by Micah P Hinson. These are good things.
hi! i love your videos, love your words about music and art, it's really inspiring so naturally i was wondering if you heard anything from Aurora? her first album is great, her second one, ''infections of a different kind (step 1)'', is i think absolutely mindblowing and Step 2 is likewise. so i would really love to see what you think about her music!
Great👍 The hand of God! Henry’s dream - Nick Cave. Life is an endless cycle. Someone has to shake it up to make changes before we fall into the cycle again…
Speaking of the "god of weather" I was thinking that you can't institutionalize the wind, but then I remembered the weather is just that--weathermen; predictions; lame statements; and ultimately the predictability of it all. The wind, on the other hand, is wild. So the "god of weather" is a tame god, a god of the predictable, not the predicament.
Professor Skye + Black Country, New Road + Futurama, 3 of my favooourite things
Yooo thank you so much for pointing out the repeating 36 note line. It felt like an odd time signature to me, and I counted 9 bars of 4/4 (does that make it 9/4?). Truly gives it this unresolved, ever-cycling feel.
Also you gotta check out this fan recording of BCNR playing Snowglobes, especially the secomd half. There are some really great, subtle additions/improvisations like the brief piano solo th-cam.com/video/AUQY8x-QauQ/w-d-xo.htmlm36s
I'm yet to see them live, but I'm convinced they're at their best when playing to an audience.
it's 32 notes actuall, i think he got his math wrong
Definitely is 36 counts! Feels like a 5-measure phrase (20 counts) followed by 4-measure phrase. 9 bars (36 counts) cycling throughout rather than a usual 8, making it feel a bit off kilter.
ah
When Isaac Wood quit the band, he quoted Futurama, so you may really be onto something with that analogy.
To me, this song is a musical depiction of a life. The song begins with the guitar playing alone just as we are born alone into the world. And gradually one by one the instruments enter the song as the person takes his/her role in the musical family and community. The guitar becomes surrounded and "loved" and supported by the other instruments. And then one by one each of the instruments fades and we're left with the one guitar as the song approaches its end and the song ends as the guitar stops playing. The story, thus, to me is the musical story of a life.
Best track on the album for me
To me, this song gives an account of the failings and how "people worship" comes about. The lyrics are deeply cosmological, and I think that the answer to that is in the Snow Globe. The Snow Globe represents the power someone or something has to "shake up" your life drastically. From a religious angle, this shaker is God, and it reminds me a lot of St Thomas Aquinas's Cosmological Arguments for the Existence of God:
1. Nothing can move itself. (Snow Globes don’t shake on their own!)
2. If every object in motion had a mover, then the first object in motion needed a mover.
3. Movement cannot go on for infinity.
4. This first mover is the Unmoved Mover, called God. (God is the Shaker!)
Henry worships God and builds shrines out of fear and insecurity, knowing he is helpless without God. He who has the Snow Globe has Henry. (Side note: If this is true, a Snow Globe might also represent God has Henry by the balls, given the spherical shape of a Snow Globe. Sexual overtones are certainly not foreign to BC;NR’s music.)
Most of my analysis of the lyrics to this album so far have led me to the hypothesis that "Ants" is going to be a concept album about a toxic and one-sided relationship Isaac might have gone through. Given that Concorde is a recurring motif in the album’s lyrics and on the album cover, I’d say that is safe to say Concorde symbolizes the aforementioned ex. If this is the case, then God symbolizes Concorde, his ex, and this holds up. The album is called “Ants From Up There.” Well, who is up there? Who do we look up to? God and Planes. The idiom is a perfect metaphor for how small you must seem when you’re in a one-sided relationship. When you build up your partner as bigger than they are, it makes you seem like an ant in comparison.
Also, if I’m right about God being Concorde and Concorde being some uninterested ex, then maybe Henry is the main character of this album and is the narrator of Chaos Space Marine, Bread Song, and Concorde! But that would mean Snow Globes has a secondary narrator.
To get back to Snow Globes, though, the song, to me, represents how the little things Isaac did in his old relationship was like praying to Gods to keep away bad weather (the shaking of the snow globe). The lyrics are the final moments in that kind of relationship when the rituals no longer work to please God. They capture Henry’s final feeling of helplessness and show the futility in his attempt to try and sway fate, but he never had a choice. The violent drums represent the shaking of the snow globe: an action that, to God, is an act of boredom devastates Henry’s entire world, possibly they’re breaking up.
God symbolizing the Concorde makes so many lyrics have such a different meaning and make more sense. Especially the song Concorde. The line "I was made to love you, cant you tell" seems very obvious now. The idea religious belief that we were made to worship and love God. Him being going up every mountain to see Concorde's light. A reference to the countless Biblical stories of People going up mountains to talk to God.
@@olivervedast8153 I’m realizing now after hearing the entire album that Concorde can be many different things, such as God or a lover, etc. I think in the abstract, Concorde symbolizes the fruit of a fruitless endeavor. It is investing time & energy into something that will never produce the results you want.
Concorde can symbolize a one-sided romantic relationship, but it could also represent God, an artist you like, Your Crippling Interest. I do think that the God comparison still helps at contextualizing the title of the album a lot too
@@schmalanko Yeah i definitely agree that Concorde is probably multiple things, i had just never thought of it as a symbol for God. I think "the fruit of a fruitless endeavor" is a great thematic umbrella for the various things Concorde could represent.
Wait until you hear “Basketball Shoes” its stunning
purposefully not listening to it until the album
I’ve seen it live 3 times. There’s no way I’m not going to be let down by the studio version. I’m prepared to deal with the disappointment
Coolest teacher ever
Coming back here to be sad about Isaac leaving the group :(
Learned of this from your comment. Will definitely address it on my next review.
This is not _the_ interpretation or anything. But the mantra conjures this image in my mind:
I see Henry looking at his snow globe, wishing that it would snow on its own. Henry is the god of weather (as in: "let me introduce you to the God of Weather, Henry"). I really like the image of a despondent god.
I also see that Henry might be having some kind of crisis of faith (tying in with "doesn't look like jesus"). I imagine him trying to rationalise the need for a God, to convince himself like: "If snow globes don't shake on their own, why would our world (universe etc.) move on its own?". He is to the snow globe as God is to his own world.
No way do you work at University of Rochester? My friend is going to take French there
No, not at U of R, though I know several people in that department and they are great.
haven't read comment on any of your videos so i'm assuming this is 90% of what you get, but here it is anyways: i wish you'd been my teacher.
I think the chorus "snow globes don't shake on their own" is more about guilty, the singer realizing that it's needed someone to shake the snow globe. It's someone's fault that it is snowing (maybe the god of weather?).