STEVEN WILSON "PERSONAL SHOPPER" | A Sick Consumerism

 

Foto de Andrea Piacquadio no Pexels

“Buy now, buy now, have a better life.
Close out transactions without remorse.”

            There are conventional artists and there is Steven Wilson. This fine dude is into everything that is related to music, being as producer or active participant. Although his career started in the 80s, the media highlight throws us back to the 90s with his former band, Porcupine Tree which, even though the fans keep on insisting in their return, we don’t have any signal of this happening anytime soon. There were some re-issues of older albums in 2020, however the last with new songs was in 2009. By the way, from this album there is a reflection about the song “Time Flies” here in the blog (in Portuguese).

            By 2008 Steven Wilson released his first solo album, Insurgents, trying to stray a little from Porcupine Tree’s purpose, nevertheless, since Porcupine Tree’s creative mind was Steven himself, the compositions were remarkably similar to his former band in the beginning. This didn’t stop him from evolving and it’s clearer in each album released from that moment and on. The apex of his evolution and composition is with the song “PERSONAL SHOPPER”, first released as a single last year. In this very same song, we even have Elton John’s participation in an excerpt! Just like many songs he’s composed, as “Fear of a Blank Planet” (this one also has a reflection here in the blog), there is always some acid criticism. “PERSONAL SHOPPER” was no exception.   

“Buy now, buy now, have a better life.
Close out transactions without remorse.”

            I wouldn’t believe if someone told me that they don’t like to buy some treat for themselves. It’s so good gifting yourself with something that you really want: a mobile phone, a new car, a speaker box, headphones, automate coffee machine… it’s normal to “massage the ego”, but the problem happens when this becomes rampant.

            It becomes even worse when the responsible for marketing knows about this need keeps on pushing ads that nurture the desire of buying more and more, promising a better life if we acquire this certain product. And many of easy manipulation, believing in these fake promises, spend their lives, literally, buying these products.

            Even though I’m an Android user, I really like the Apple system, but I question myself if it’s really needed to spend, according to Brazilian prices, approximately €1570/U$1870 in a recent release model that doesn’t even have a charger in the box. There are, though, some advantages in components, but mine, inferior, which I paid less than €308/U$374, execute the very functionalities and efficiently. The video I made for this text, for example, was recorded with it. This only shows me that, yes, there is possibility in possessing good-quality items without investing a lot of money. It’s all about knowing the difference between necessity and luxury.

“Buy the s**t you never knew you lacked.
Buy the update to compete.”

            I really like this song’s video clip because it shows how people get sick in desiring to buy more and more. Many times, silly and useless things however, the compulsion makes these people lose their lives.

            Losing their lives can be figurative or even real. In this need of conquering something, only for a social status, people get in debts with loan-sharks who, many times, physically punish their borrowers; or banks with high interest taxes, not permitting you to do something different. Everything in life must be balanced.

“Just keep on spending, never compromise. Rack up more debt and fill that hole.”

            I’m not here to condemn the acquisition of anything. It’s only a call to attention for a different perspective in which there is a way to have comfort without spending a lot of money. There isn’t necessity in spending much money in something because it’s beautiful, “branded”, and that will give you social status. This is unrestrained consumption and waste.

            Know how to waste your money wisely, fulfilling your needs and permitting, certainly, from time to time, a luxury thing to “massage your ego”. But don’t let it turn into compulsion and, because of this, your life perishes away.

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Remember to watch this text's video on YouTube. Although spoken in Portuguese, there are English subtitles! I also had some help in translating this song to Portuguese with the help of my two reviewers, Eber and Vini.

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And, until our next text, keep on building your memories.

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Lyrics: https://genius.com/Steven-wilson-personal-shopper-lyrics

Listen to this song on:

Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com.br/albums/B0865MQJSL?trackAsin=B0865L23LM
Deezer: https://www.deezer.com/br/track/1217596292
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/3DnsGubynjnIFshrAeyhk8?si=AX4AmCjtTbeVGgqoCZ8vNQ
YouTube (vídeo): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sX22dFMSNcg
YouTube (áudio): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rl6Dy430eo
YouTube Music: https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=5rl6Dy430eo

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SLIPKNOT “UNSAINTED” | The Fight For the Mind's Survival

 

“I’ll never kill myself to save my soul.”

            We are living sombre times. Times when discussions are polarised and biased. Among all this fight, a malicious and silent being starts to emerge in the innermost and, as any animal, gets fed by negative feelings and/or adverse events along the day. This small perversity, as said in many magazines and news, is considered the evil of our century: the depression.

            Depression is a silent disease which sometimes is disguised in a smiley person, that when found on its own, lives horrid feelings and thoughts. A sad example of someone who lived this illness and took his own life trying “to save his soul” from this great sadness was the excellent actor and comedian Robin Williams.

            This song’s composer and Slipknot’s main singer, Corey Taylor, for many years was always open-hearted about these questions and said in many interviews about the difficulties in his life, being this silent disease one of them. Before writing this song, he got divorced after an 8-year-marriage and watched one of his former colleagues, Chris Fehn, get fired from Slipknot because of a disagreement on money and legal actions against the band. These reasons weighed his feelings.

“Pick a lord and pray to it. You’re so demanding when you want the truth, but your stories don’t read for me.”

            There are many means of fighting depression and, unfortunately, oftentimes miracles are sold to make the disease go away. Churches rise proclaiming they have a “god” who heals, and that depression is a demonic thing. I feel so sad knowing these people do not know the Bible as it meant to be and about the many heroes of faith.

             One of the greatest preachers in the Christianism, Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892), fought against this spirit disease and, in one of his sermons, stated intensely about this feeling:

"I could say with Job, 'My soul chooseth strangling rather than life.' (Job 7:15) I could readily enough have laid violent hands upon myself, to escape from my misery of spirit."

            For whom is called as “prince of the preachers”, this sentence pronounced in a pulpit shows that there is not a secret formula which takes down the bad feelings. Many temples which follow the “prosperity gospel” make the use of lies in order to convince people. They scramble with the emotional, with what is exactly convenient for them instead of what is their real need.

“You gotta lie if you wanna believe, but your bibles don’t work on me.”

            Oh, Corey… the Bible isn’t a grimoire (a book of spells) which you put your hand over it, recite some words and everything is solved. The Bible has got teachings from diverse brands.  There are the good and the bad examples since the mistakes also bring learning.

            It is curious to think that the Bible is a book written many years ago by people from different ethnicities, with different jobs and who lived in distinct eras, but in the end, the content gets connected wonderfully. In it, we can observe many other characters who suffered from depression such as Jeremiah, Elijah, Job, Jonah, Paul… even Jesus!

            Being a Christian doesn’t absolve anyone from diseases or problems. The Bible itself says that, for loving and following God, we would face difficulties. The difference in all of this is that by knowing and feeling God’s love holding you every instant, facing the problem gets lighter, although it still hurts. It is like a child who is hurt and seeks for his mum or dad to hold them. It is hurting, but they know that it is safe in the arms of who cares for them.

“I didn’t come this far to sink so low. I’m finally holding on to letting go.”

            Depression is a daily fight. It is always knocking at your door desiring to drag you down. We cannot let our guards down and permit it to take up who we are. There are helping channels, professionals who mind this area and are ready to take you out of this pit of sadness.

            I’m glad Corey is seeking for and fighting, somehow, this disease. I would be even more glad if he also had some spiritual assessment, even though he made it clear he doesn’t like Christianity and this, unfortunately, was on the bad examples he had in the course of his life.

            And you, who are reading this text, if you face any kind of feeling like this, understand that someone is looking after you and desires to walk along with you. God, through Jesus, wants to connect with us. He doesn’t promise a life free of trouble or problems, but He promises to bring peace to the heart even when everything is hard, just like the hurt child along with their guardians’ example I mentioned before.

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This text was a request by my friend Pedro Todero, and it was a hard request to think about, but in the end, I was able to take out of the paper, learn something from it and bring it to the light of the day. 

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Also, remember to watch this text’s video version on YouTube (English subtitles enabled) and to subscribe to the channel.

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Listen to this song on:

 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com.br/albums/B07RV4NJ2H

Deezer: https://www.deezer.com/us/track/727923492

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/5mpUKTdskZea0gStWzeHUZ?si=hDUw4hRLSNKHo5OymfFkbQ

YouTube (videoclip): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpATBBRajP8

YouTube Music: https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=XYZue7_NQew

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Sources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTX_MAADFJQ

https://www.songmeaningsandfacts.com/slipknots-unsainted-lyrics-meaning/

https://www.songfacts.com/facts/slipknot/unsainted

https://genius.com/Slipknot-unsainted-lyrics#about

https://slipknot.fandom.com/wiki/Unsainted

https://www.crossway.org/articles/did-you-know-that-charles-spurgeon-struggled-with-depression/

https://www.who.int/health-topics/depression

THE REIGN OF KINDO “RHYTHM, CHORD AND MELODY” | Listening To New Things Makes You Rebirth Musically

 

Since I was a small child, I’ve been listening to rock music under my older brother’s influence. With him I was presented to bands like Tourniquet, Whitecross and Galactic Cowboys. Some time later, circa 2006, also under his influence, even though unintentionally, I went to a more extreme side of music with Demon Hunter and Antestor. From these two, I started looking for and listening to similar bands like Slechtvalk, Vaakevandring, Vardøger, Crimsom Moonlight and even some Grindcore bands (there’s an old post in the Portuguese blog about this).

One oy my main researching sources was a forum that unfortunately ended back in 2010, even though there was a failed try to resurrect it in 2012, the Christian Metal Freak, or CM Freak for short. Curiously enough they had the name “Christian”, the members also chatted about non-Christian songs which had positive messages or some of the band crew were Christian. In one of these conversations, they were talking about the band The Reign of Kindo and their most recent release, the album “Rhythm, Chord and Melody”, from 2008, which was labelled as jazz/rock/pop, going astray from the name METAL the forum pointed to. It was the beginning of a musical renaissance.

Everything starts with some piano chords. Only the piano. These chords awakened me to a different side in music and showed that there is a beautiful world outside the metal bubble, even though I know the origins in Blues and Classical music. It was, then, I delightedly listened nonstop to this album. I wanted more from the band, looking for all releases and what would be released in the future.

The band The Reign of Kindo has a musicianship which, for me, is different from everything I’ve ever heard in my life. Sequence of notes, vocal melody, instrumental arrangements, official merchandise (albums covers and promotional flyers). These details made me rebirth musically and notice I CAN enjoy other musical genres. Also, do not expect frantic or fast songs. You may find something a little bit lively here or there, but in a whole concept, softness and serenity are predominant.

This album’s lyrics talk about, mainly, on the human being feelings: joy, delusion, anger, hope... even the carpe diem (cry/seize the day), creating a contrast between happy and gloom. These combinations combine and intensify what the album’s title proposes: rhythm, chord, and melody.

The five songs which captivate me the most as they are played along, although I love every song in this album, are:

• Moments In Between
• Breathe Again
• Nice To Meet
• Rhythm, Chord And Melody
• The Mystery Of Our Day
  

Let the beauty of The Reign of Kindo take you to another world and make you feel rebirthed musically, just like me in 2008.

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I invite you to watch and share this text’s video on YouTube (English subtitles enabled).

Listen to the full album on: 

Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com.br/albums/B001DX4WRU
Deezer: https://www.deezer.com/us/album/126958
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/5qng5oqwYDifaM96oDwD00?si=m0oRznTJQEGeM_FTVDzuDA
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lnzUEQ63cSrneV8q3B44oGrQpPZg42ZnU
YouTube Music: https://music.youtube.com/browse/MPREb_eA00C8zYkLD

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