2020
RUN THE JEWELS
A FEW WORDS FOR THE FIRING SQUAD (RADIATION)
From the first bars…
“I woke up early once again that’s four days straight
I didn’t wake you baby, I just watched you lay
In the radiation of the city sun
I am in love with you, it is my only grace
You know how everything can seem a little out of place?”
In the radiation of the city sun
I am in love with you, it is my only grace
You know how everything can seem a little out of place?”
To the final lines…
“This is for the do-gooders that the no-gooders used and then abused
For the truth tellers tied to the
Whippin’ post, left beaten, battered, bruised
For the ones whose body hung from a tree like a piece of strange fruit
Go hard, last words to the firing squad was, ‘fuck you too’.”
… This is 2020 in an anthem. I returned to this song over and over this year.
Its fist-in-the-air message in the face of racial inequality, personal loss, and a shaken bottle of stress is RIGHT on time. Musically, it offers a perfect companion to those messages, both edgy and epic, building to a crashing crescendo. In all, it answers the question, “How much can you take?” with the question “How much have you got?”
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