"All of This and Nothing" is a series of weekly posts, each about one song I really love, by an artist I haven't featured in the previous This Year, Portions For Foxes, or Better Things series. It alternates between Obscure and Famous songs; feel free to argue either way if you're so inclined. See the introduction for more.
Some songs you love because they say things you want to believe. They put into words ideas that might be in your head already, saying it more clearly and precisely than you managed to do yourself. The best of those songs give you an image to hold up, maybe a vision of your best self, of the person you want to be or could be, if you tried.
Divisionary (Do the Right Thing) is the last song on Ages and Ages's 2014 record of the same name. And it's very much one of those songs, as the subtitle implies.
Do the right thing, do the right thing
Do it all the time, do it all the time
Make yourself right, never mind them
Don't you know you're not the only one suffering
That's how it starts, like a meditation or an affirmation - like the singer telling himself as much as he's telling us.
He doesn't give us specifics: this is not about a particular situation, or at least he's not going to tell us here. There may be something specific in his mind. This is a song about how to engage with the world: how to work with people, I think, who claim to be open to change and compromise but will only drag you down.
Cuz they ain't moving, they're just moving around
So if you love yourself, you better get out
get out, get out, get out
now
This song has lived in my head since 2014. I hope it can live in yours as well.
Do the right thing. Do it all the time. Make yourself right.
Don't you know you're not the only one suffering?
No comments:
Post a Comment