j3nny3lf's Full Review: Empty by God Lives Underwater
Everybody needs one CD to play specifically because they're ticked off at the universe or utterly, profoundly depressed and wanting to wallow in it. For me, that CD is God Lives Underwater - Empty.
The first time I ever heard this band was when my friend Bill, to whom I was angsting over my relationship with my fiance said, "Jenn, you gotta listen to this song, it sounds just like you." and then he sent me the mp3 of "All Wrong", the third track on the CD. It became a staple of my bad day music listening, and when I ran across a copy of the CD at Tower Records, I happily laid down the cash to hear more of these guys.
I suppose you would classify GLU as umn, speed alternative? Ticked off and singing about it? The friend who first turned me on to them says they are "Industrial Electronic", whatever that means. I don't know what the genre would be. In the late 70s we would have called it punk, but that classification doesn't seem to really exist any more. It's mad music, loud, grating, angry, with a chip on its shoulder the size of Texas. I love it.
The tunes:
Still - The first song on the CD starts in with pounding drums and screaming guitar licks.
Do you lie
To everyone
You don't have to lie to me
Is your sight
Without light
You can't see me in the dark
When will I start working for me
When will I stand tall like the trees
Am I just paying for sin
Still
All Wrong - The first song I ever heard by these guys, and still my favorite, the drums and guitar thrash through until the chorus, where everything suddenly slows down into a sort of dreamy/surreal sound, then back into the pounding anger sound. It is the ultimate 'I am OUT of here, jerk' song.
I hate to
Break it to you
But this convenience ain't convenient anymore
Now I realize I had different eyes
Back when I thought this was a good thing
Here I am my anger and me
Temper makes it hard to see
This situation I'm in again
Everything must come to an end now
Fool - Okay, so it's another 'I am fed up with my relationship, GRRRR' song, but it's pretty stinkin' good.
These days I'm getting older
Before my time
To say I'm getting stronger
Would be a lie
I think you're trying to break me
Seems so unreal
Don't know how to take me
Don't know how I feel
Look around you
Do you see what I see
Other people think you try to
Make a fool of me
Empty - Another two-style song, the verses are have a heavy and loud, but hypnotic feel, then on the chorus it becomes something else so... odd... that I can't even describe it.
So much pain I still ignore
Everyday you want more
My expectations were high in the first place
Were high in the worst way
It leaves me so down
I give up easily
Can't speak so freely
Won't someone release me
Just this time around
Don't Know How To Be - A breakup aftermath song, it begins with some pretty weird synthesizer sounds, followed by GLU's trademark style guitar and drums.
It's all too clear now
Well I been running away
Almost on the hour of mostly every day
Now I see colors
That I never seen
And now reddest of them all so vibrant out of me
Without you
I don't know how to be
No More Love - The lyrics to this one are powerful, but hard to make out because of the heavy echo effects used on the vocal track. Still, a great song, and thank heaven for lyric booklets.
I am high
As one can be
And I hope I don't come down
I hate when I come down
A month ago
I know you lied
Took my life into your hands
You just don't understand
How it feels
To be free
I know the reason that you left me
You had nothing more to give me
23 - Even GLU needs a 'power ballad', and this seems to be theirs. It's an introspective song, with some pretty interesting synth behind it.
I'm breathing the air
The air I always breathe
I don't have a lot
I want someone to share it with me
I really only want a few things
They've all been taken away
What does the next life bring
I just want to feel O.K.
I'm searching forever
For someone or something
I want to be high
And I want someone to love me
We Were Wrong - Another strong, angry, angsty breakup track, this one is almost obsessive in nature, at one point he states that he can't breathe, at another that his dreams are suffocatingly real.
Deep
My misery is now complete
I've been falling under feet
And I'm way too deep
To save myself
Now that you don't know me
And I've been away too long
Have you also been growing
Seen how we were wrong
Weaken - One of the best tracks, Weaken has a haunting, driving feel to it, it's one of those songs that grabs you by the throat and doesn't let go until it's finished with you.
Here I am
Understand
No one sees
How I feel
How's it feel to be free
Why does everything
Come true
The way I don't want it to
Everyone and everything pushing me to weaken
Feel like I am sinking
Wish that I could push this all away
Tortoise - Incredible synth, followed by a heavy drum track and the vocals, make this song a gut-grabber.
I know what it takes to normalize
To slow me down and cut me down to size
I wanna get that feeling
To touch the ceiling
So send me reeling
I wanna know
How can I ease my mind
Scared - This one's acoustic guitars and echoing, haunting lyric line give it an impact that is more powerful than any other song on the CD. All of the rest are electric, loud, headbanging, but this one is sort of Pink Floydish in feel, I guess. Pretty intense stuff. When the electric guitars kick in for just a few seconds close to the end, it's pretty intense and shocks you out of the hypnotic stupor the rest of the song has put you into.
I'm scared of you
There's nothing I can do
No sense in wasting time
I want you out of my mind
You make me feel unhappy
I wish you weren't real
You only make me unhappy
And I can't deal with it
I never wanted you
But I'm afraid it's true
You're gonna catch me by surprise
I hope there's time to realize
Because Epinions doesn't have a selection for 'Great music to listen to while: fighting with your boyfriend/hating the world/feeling like blowing up the World Trade Center', I've put 'exercising' down as my choice, but that somehow doesn't really make it. It also makes a great gift for an ex-lover or a lover who's really really teed you off.
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