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Welcome Back, Blindside! | Posted June 21, 2011
After four long years of anticipation, Blindside has released what is said to be their best album to date, With Shivering Hearts We Wait. Some fans even wondered if the band was still together, but after breaking from more than a decade of touring to spend time with family and re-energize, the Swedish natives are back at it.
“We just needed to break away from music for a bit because it starts to define who you are when you should be finding it in a higher purpose,” says frontman Christian Lindskog. It appears that break has done them and their music well.
The first track on the album, “There Must Be Something In The Water,” grabs your attention right away with dueling drums and guitars. This song, like several others on the album, showcases strings as an added element within the driving beats normally associated with rock albums. Songs like “My Heart Escapes” have poetic lyrics from which listeners are able to derive their own meanings, whereas “Monster On The Radio,” is pretty clear in its message. Christian shouts the chorus, “I’ll give everything I have and more to be a monster on the radio,” referring to the band’s temptation to put fame and popularity above the original purpose for their music. The electronic beats add a cool and unexpected sound to the song.
The first single released from the album--and one of my favorites--“Our Love Saves Us,” already has hit radio stations and is making waves. The song starts out with echoing electronic elements and then goes straight into driving drums, giving it a mysterious and haunting vibe. With lyrics like, “We won’t be forsaken, cuz’ we know what we’ve found, our love saves us, the river runs deep, but our spirits grow tall,” listeners are reminded that though life may drag us down, God is still holding onto us.
The title of the album is derived from the bridge of that song where Christian sings, “With shivering hearts we wait, we watch the sky, we hesitate, with shivering hearts we wait, I’m still holding on.” Though the music is haunting, the lyrics and message are extremely hopeful.
One of the hardest rock songs on the album is “Bring Out Your Dead,” which talks about letting go of the sin and evil we hide inside that keeps us from God. With grinding guitars, Christian sings, “To carry the smell of death is harder than it sounds… scared if I let it all out, you will know what I’m all about,” confessing that the fear of what others will think of us often overpowers our desire to be free. On the other hand, “Withering” professes the realization that God already knows our secrets and loves us anyway. Not confessing to Him is like “hide and seek with no point whatsoever.”
Closing Thoughts
The use of contrast by combining guitars, drums, strings, piano, and electronic elements creates impressive variety and depth of sound throughout the entire album. Each song is different and grabs your attention, preventing listeners from skipping over tracks. In keeping with the theme of contrast, Christian Lindskog’s voice is uniquely Blindside and effortlessly goes from singing to screaming in a way that no one else can. The tone of his voice is somber, yet hopeful at the same time, which echoes the reoccurring message of the album. Though the world may be against us, it doesn’t matter because God is for us. We may push Him away and resist His leading like the first track of the album implies. However, the final song on the record, “There Must Be Something In The Wind,“ concludes that in the end, we’re much better off if we give God control and stop fighting Him. Trusting God is the only way to get through life’s struggles.
Being a newer fan of Blindside, I’m not entirely sure how this album compares to the last five, but after having listened to it, I am definitely a fan for life. Welcome back, Blindside!
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