Voice as InstrumentThe Low Anthem - Oh, My God, Charlie Darwin

Earlier in this endeavor I blogged about Bon Iver's For Emma Forever Ago and how singer Justin Vernon uses his voice so much like an instrument that many of the lyrics are indiscernible. Ben Knox, primary vocalist of the band The Low Anthem also uses his voice as an instrument, changing his expression from song to song, though never really distorting the lyrics to the degree of Vernon. On this record the vocals add another dimension of meaning to the existing poesy of the songs, and the variety of sounds Knox can produce vocally becomes even more impressive because it does add/alter so much to the printed lyrics.

"Charlie Darwin"

Set the sails I feel the winds a'stirring
Toward the bright horizon set the way
Cast your wreckless dreams upon our Mayflower
Haven from the world and her decay
And who could heed the words of Charlie Darwin
Fighting for a system built to fail
Spooning water from their broken vessels
As far as I can see there is no land
Oh my god, the waters all around us
Oh my god, it's all around
And who could heed the words of Charlie Darwin
The lords of war just profit from decay
And trade their children's promise for the jingle
The way we trade our hard earned time for pay
Oh my god, the waters cold and shapeless
Oh my god, it's all around
Oh my god, life is cold and formless
Oh my god, it's all around

The first song on the album fluctuates between the perspective of Charles Darwin during his own time, and the present day Everyman. Within the first four lines, Darwin expresses hope and possibility, but that soon gives way to hopelessness and despair.

We start out with an invitation to board "our Mayflower" which will lead us to a new beginning, maybe a "promised land" that is far "from the world and her decay," so essentially escaping the world. There is an optimistic anticipation here - the horizon is "bright" like dawn and the start of something new; and also giddy excitement about the journey - he welcomes the reckless dreamers onto the boat. Soon, though, this hope begins to fade as reality sets in.

The song makes reference to Darwinism as a "system built to fail." At its most basic level, the system did fail and still does in some respects because of religion. But there is more to it than that. What Darwin did was develop systems and theories that would help organize the world, but the inability of certain people/groups to put any real stock in these systems and theories becomes a metaphor for the breakdown of life as we know it - put another way: society. I think what Darwin hoped for was that we had more control - maybe we could evolve ourselves, or at least our society. But this initial hope in the song gives way to sadness, fear, and frustration - "as far as I can see there is no land," no new beginning, no refuge.

One major factor in the breakdown of society is war. Within the song it is only mentioned, almost in passing, with the lines "the lords of war just profit from decay / and trade their children's promise for the jingle." This is something we are all too familiar with even now - propaganda spewed by the media and politicians convinces us that battle is the answer, and politicians project that profit from war or the benefits of the possible "win" are more important than our children's future. Another factor is how we've convinced ourselves that the value of time is measured by how much we accomplished within a given period; as a society "we trade our hard earned time for pay." As a whole, we do not value life or living for its own value, and how can a society truly exist as one thing if the living beings that form the society don't value life? Life then becomes "cold and formless" as the song states, as in it becomes stagnant and unable to be formed/organized as Darwin once hoped.

In this song Knox's voice remains in falsetto evoking the physical setting of Darwin on the bow of his boat about to set sail, looking out over the vast ocean while the winds which bring him such anticipation whistle and howl. However, as the song (and situation) become more hopeless, the vocal expression takes on new meaning. The boat and crew (society) become lost at sea, and suddenly the wind is more hindrance than help. Now the long, drawn out syllables of the howling falsetto vocals express the hopelessness of the men, and metaphorically, the despair and collapse of society.

"Ticket Taker"

Tonight's the night when the waters rise
You're groping in the dark
The ticket takers count the men who can afford the arc
The ticket takers will not board
For the ticket takers are tied
For five and change an hour
They will count the passers by

They say the sky's the limit
But the sky's about to fall
Down come all them record books cradle and all
They say before he bit it
That the boxer felt no pain
But somewhere there's a gamblin' man
With a ticket in the rain

Mary Anne, I know I'm a long shot
But Mary Anne, what else have you got
I am a ticket taker, many tickets have I torn
And I will be your arc, we will float above the storm

Many years have passed in this river town
I've sailed through many traps
I keep a stock of weapons should society collapse
I keep a stock of ammo
One of oil and one of gold
I keep a place for Mary Anne
Soon she will come home

As with "Charlie Darwin," the third song on the record, "Ticket Taker" also has a vocal quality which adds a dimension to the song not necessarily present in the printed lyrics.

At the beginning of this song we learn that there are certain men who can afford to board this "arc," and others (those who take tickets) who can't. The men boarding are wealthy, the powerful businessmen of society, while the ticket takers are everyone else - the poor or even middle class. The wealthy are able to buy their own progress (like the wealthy affording "better" schools leading to "better" jobs), while the not so wealthy remain stuck because they can't afford any sort of progress. The next stanza, though, is no longer frustrated but more tongue-in-cheek at the beginning when it references the old adage "the higher you rise, the farther you fall." The "record books" mentioned make reference to those mysterious things business men do at work that make them so much money. But just like every other part of their success, the poor would like to think, those record books will also fall.

The second stanza then flows into an analogy of a boxer who dies, which makes no difference to him because it happened with no pain, but which loses the man who bet on him an unspecified amount of money. Both of these men are actually in equal in that neither gets paid unless the boxer wins. The wealthy men in the song are also like the boxer and gambler in that they gamble with money as a career. The poor man narrating the song finds some satisfaction in this because the wealthy men have so much more to lose.

It is not until the third stanza that we realize this song is actually a love song. The speaker sings to Mary Anne, and pleads for her love despite his inability to give her any sort of security. He's a "longshot" but he'll be her "arc," protecting her no matter what. He's saying "I don't have any money because I'm just a lowly ticket taker, but I'll care for you with whatever means I have."

Eventually years pass - Mary Anne still hasn't returned and the speaker remains alone. After all he's seen and experienced, he has collected weapons and ammo "should society collapse." The ticket taker has learned that in the end, the wealthy will not protect or care for the poor, all he can do is protect himself and those he loves. Even after all these years he still keeps a place for Mary Anne and is completely convinced "soon she will come home," though he still doesn't have much more than what he's squirreled away.

The vocals in this song have a completely different feel than "Charlie Darwin." Here Knox isn't really singing at all, more like he's speaking just above a whisper. The voice is also slightly distorted, and upon the last stanza it becomes clear that the speaker has been talking either to Mary Anne or her answering machine over the phone, and through the rest of the song he has been using every strategy and analogy he can muster to convince her to come home. In the final stanza, though he has become more desperate in his survival techniques, he remains convinced she will return.

"The Horizon is a Beltway"

The horizon is a beltway that we may never cross
The tops of buildings tremble like children lorn and lost
The stain runs deep it's deeper than the blood upon the cross.
The horizon is a beltway that we may never cross.

You'll hear that distant love song when the wind blows right
Hear the whistle blowing put a tear into your eye
You hear the distant love song but widows know the lie
The horizon is a beltway, the skyline is on fire.

The skyline is on fire, the skyline is on fire
The horizon is a beltway and the skyline is on fire

You come up from the lowlands to the city on the air
Where pilgrims and commissioners curate Christian fare
From Havisu to Brownsville feel the long unbroken stare
I wonder what it smells like in that city on the air

You'll hear that distant love song when the wind blows right
Just the same blue love song made my grand dad cry
You'll hear the whistle blowing put a tear drop in your eye
The horizon is a beltway, and the skyline is on fire.

The skyline is on fire, the skyline is on fire
You'll hear the distant love song, when the skyline is on fire
The skyline is on fire, the skyline is on fire
The horizon is a beltway and the skyline is on fire

This old house stood empty now for fifteen years or more
Willows falls half way to meet the weeds around the door
Time throws up her curtain and we know not who we are
The horizon is a beltway, the skyline is on fire

You'll hear that distant love song when the wind blows right
Hear the whistle blowing put a tear drop in your eye
Jagged as the jaw bone once the flesh expires
The horizon is a beltway the skyline is on fire

The fourth song on the record, "The Horizon is a Beltway," is one of only a couple of songs on the album that read like songs on the page. Sung out, Knox's voice is gritty and voluminous, and because of the imperfection of voice and repetition, the song sounds more like a bar or shanty song. This repetition is also what makes the written lyrics read like a song on the page.

Compared to the other songs on the record, in particular the two previously mentioned songs, "The Horizon is a Beltway" is a more violent expression of unrest in response to a country and society experiencing extreme dissent because of a war somewhere beyond the horizon. The horizon we can't cross in the first stanza expresses a feeling of being stuck, not necessarily in location, but in current "norms" - there is no sense of coming change. The second line referring to trembling buildings like children refers to how war tears apart physical surroundings and families, having profound effects on children. "The stain" of war in this song also runs "deeper than the blood upon the cross" because it's happening now and effects things now; it is not some distant past that only exists as barely an afterthought.

When I first listened to the song I wasn't quite sure what Knox was trying to say, but what really read "war" to me when I spent more time on the song is the second stanza and then the fifth, which read nearly the same. The "distant love song" is from the people left at home when a soldier goes to war, and he hears that song on the battlefield "when the wind blows right." The whistle referred to is, as in times long ago, the train whistle which indicates that it's time for soldiers to board and be shipped off. When Knox sings "the widows know the lie," it is a vague way of saying that the women told their husbands are missing know they are actually widows because in all likelihood, their husbands are dead. Finally, "the skyline is on fire" ends the stanza; the image harkens to a distant war being waged somewhere beyond the horizon, which again, is why we can never cross it. When these lines repeat in the fifth stanza the third line is replaced with one that reads "Just the same blue love song made my grand dad cry," which refers to when the speaker's grandfather fought in a past war.

The song then ends with a similarly repetitive stanza as the previously mentioned stanzas, replacing the third line with "Jagged as the jawbone once the flesh expires." The simple meaning of "flesh expires" is that we all die and doesn't really matter how or when. The lyrics state that the train whistle is "jagged" because it's leading the men to war (death) where their flesh will expire. It is also jagged because it causes everyone pain who is affected by war. There is a duality here: an expression of pain, but also a nihilistic view of death.

The Low Anthem's Oh, My God, Charlie Darwin is an album which hides much of its meaning in metaphor and narrative, so it requires some picking apart. As with Bright Eyes' I'm Wide Awake It's Morning we meet characters trying to survive and come to terms with living in a country shaken by war, all of which is heightened by the different use of voice throughout the record.