12 - The Shadows On My Wall Don't Sleep

The Concept:  Feature a song a day for every day of the most magnificent season of Autumn.  The songs are ones that capture the thoughts/ideas/images/feelings of the season for me. 

It's my "Autumnal Playlist" if you will.

New music is often a challenge for me to come by.  I'm not complaining.  I won't listen to the radio, Pandora rarely gets pulled up anymore.  And I don't enjoy browsing music stores for samples (do they even do that anymore?)  Occasionally I'll see something on iTunes that catches my attention at the store's home page. 

So it's exciting for me to hear a bit of music I really want to know more of in a trailer for a movie or scene in a TV show.  Today's song is an example...well...sort of.  Back in the Spring I saw a trailer for an upcoming movie titled, The Words, starring Bradley Cooper and Zoe Saldana.  There was a bit of music at the end (that I will probably feature later in this series) that really got my attention.  After seeing the movie, the music choice was great when comparing the lyrics to the plot of the movie.

After seeing the preview I instantly searched for what the song was, and went to iTunes.  The only thing available at the time was an EP.  So I got it.  The full album came out not to long ago, and it's great.  The full album included today's featured song.

Song 12/Day12

"Nothing Left to Say / Rocks," by Imagine Dragons from their debut album, Night Visions.

Overall the album is quite upbeat, even the lyrically "heavier" tracks there is a sense of weight and foreboding, with out desperation or fear.  Nothing Left to Say seems to be one of the heaviest of the album, but it balances it out with the incredibly hopeful and upbeat Rocks addition at the end.  The song seems to be mainly about someone giving up, (no real solid concept of what he is giving up on) and that there is surprisingly, nothing left to say about the issue.

There's nothing left to say now...
I'm giving up, giving up, hey hey, giving up now...

There is some great imagery with the lyrics, like those of the title of this post.  Then after the main song ends and fades out, there is a pause before the upbeat follow up comes in.  It starts off with the light and hopeful question:

Where do we go from here?

And then moves on to a swinging drum beat and and another question:

Why can't I see, what's right in front of me?

Now, the first part of the song is what really feels Autumnal to me.  The opening synth reminds me of the theme from The Neverending Story.  That was a movie I remember seeing in the Fall.  Possibly the first movie I ever watched, "on tape."  It was quite a memorable experience.  I remember being really freaked out by it as I was quite young, and it started to rain about the same time it was raining in the movie.  And the Nothing had me shaking for many nights after.  I don't know if I understood the concept of oblivion or whatever it represented...but trying to think about "nothing" as a state of existence or non-existence as a kid about 5...mind melting.

I loved it.

So, this song brings back all of that and more.  There is, to me, a sense of challenge in vocalist Dan Reynolds' voice.  As if he's saying, "there's nothing left to say now...but maybe you'll think of something I haven't."

There is also a sense of his place and that he doesn't have it all together.  He's not deluded that he's young and got all the answers.  It's refreshing and a bit humbling.  I also really like the line:

I'm drowning in the waters of my soul

It's a great song to blast in your car while you can still have your windows down, even if it brings on a slight chill.

Enjoy Imagine Dragons (and that name is just awesome) and their album Night Visions, featuring "Nothing Left to Say/Rocks."

-Jesse