Don’t try to fix me I’m not broken/
Hello I’m the lie living for you so you can hide.

“Hello” by Evanescence is a beautifully haunting song that explores how we can deal with childhood trauma. The author appears to witness a horrifying event-perhaps the death of a loved one at an early age. All of the sudden we hear a new voice introduce herself. This is the artist’s subconscious.

The subconscious tells us she is going to be taking over for a while so that the little girl will be able to handle everything. The subconscious takes over so that she doesn’t break down and die herself. Amy Lee  imagines the subconscious as a guardian angel, an entity that helps her. It is talking to her and telling her things are going to be ok, because she is bringing in the reinforcements.

The song is very touching, and it is a delightful way to imagine how our body works during times of difficulty. Some seek religion, some seek something spiritual within. This song is a slight departure from Evanescense’s other songs: Lee’s voice is more tender. It also has less instrumentation, usually just a piano and strings, though some electric guitar sprinkled throughout.

The unique concept, beautiful piano and lyrics and tender vocals make this a solid contribution to the top 500 songs of all time list.

Hello Lyrics

Playground school bell rings again
Rain clouds come to play again
Has no one told you she’s not breathing?
Hello I’m your mind giving you someone to talk to
Hello

If I smile and don’t believe
Soon I know I’ll wake from this dream
Don’t try to fix me I’m not broken
Hello I’m the lie living for you so you can hide
Don’t cry

Suddenly I know I’m not sleeping
Hello I’m still here
All that’s left of yesterday

Songwriters: Amy Lee / Ben Moody / David Hodges

And now after some thinking, I’d say I’d rather be/
A functioning cog in some great machinery serving something beyond me.

The Fleet Foxes “Helplessness Blues” is a great blues song. It shares more in common with “What’s Up?” by 4 Non-blondes than “Blues Run the Game” by Jackson Frank.

Many middle class millennials and gen Xers were sold The American Dream: life will be better for you than it will be that it was for your parents. They went to college, took on too much debt–perhaps due to a bad understanding of financials, or being told they were better students than they were. They were promised that if they spend a lot on college this will make them special and they will get a great job. Well, that hasn’t happened.

In “Helplessness Blues”, The Fleet Foxes argue that perhaps a return to the simple life is where it is at. Maybe work as a farmer growing your own food is a better alternative than a white-collar job. (If only I could afford my own farm!) The song pushes back against the monetary obsession of past generations and suggests that there is a simpler—perhaps communal—life that is waiting for us that would be better.

The Fleet Foxes do harmonies well; that is their signature sound. Combined with acoustic guitars their harmonies are up their with CSNY, Simon and Garfunkel and The Beach Boys.

Helplessness Blues Lyrics

I was raised up believing I was somehow unique,
Like a snowflake distinct among snowflakes, unique in each way you can see.
And now after some thinking, I’d say I’d rather be,
A functioning cog in some great machinery serving something beyond me.

But I don’t, I don’t know what that will be,
I’ll get back to you someday soon you will see.

What’s my name, what’s my station? Oh, just tell me what I should do,
I don’t need to be kind to the armies of night that would do such injustice to you.
Or bow down and be grateful and say, “Sure, take all that you see”,
To the men who move only in dimly-lit halls and determine my future for me.

And I don’t, I don’t know who to believe,
I’ll get back to you someday soon you will see.

If I know only one thing, it’s that everything that I see
Of the world outside is so inconceivable often I barely can speak.
Yeah I’m tongue-tied and dizzy and I can’t keep it to myself,
What good is it to sing helplessness blues, why should I wait for anyone else?

And I know, I know you will keep me on the shelf,
I’ll come back to you someday soon myself.

If I had an orchard, I’d work ’til I’m raw,
If I had an orchard, I’d work ’til I’m sore.
And you would wait tables and soon run the store.

Gold hair in the sunlight, my light in the dawn,
If I had an orchard, I’d work ’til I’m sore.
If I had an orchard, I’d work ’til I’m sore.
Someday I’ll be like the man on the screen.

Songwriters: Robin Noel Pecknold

Watch as the flowers, thrones and winds spills close as it whispers away/
You get up, you get up, get up.

The lyrics of Patrick Watson’s “Love Song For Robots” are purposefully obscure or obscured. I imagine the imagery (if any) one will have when listening from this song will come from the title and the refrain “you get up, you get up, you get up.” Just like we constantly set our lives to the alarm clock to “get up” to make it to work on time, we feel like robots in this post-industrial society.

The music is a very distinct sound. It sounds electronic, even robotic, yet it is still clearly music and melodic. Check out the outro, specifically to see what I am referring to. The effects on their guitars are unique for this song and give them that mechanical feel. The vocal is solid, but the song is driven by the instrumentation.

Love Song For Robots Lyrics

Breaking down, and days came longer
There’s the other class dragons chasing you around.
Sit around on silver just stream on the smoke
Is rising over your thoughts and your tears.
Watch over you, watch and fall down
You knock a boulder all over the ground.
You get up, get up,
You get up, you get up.

Some things let go.
At least for now all these tears past the problems.
Stop listen to new words from around as you’re ’round
And all the captives you burn, is burning out.
Watch as the flowers, thrones and winds
Spills close as a way, spills away,
Get up, you get up, get up,
You get up.
You get up…

Songwriters: Joseph Baron Grass / Mikhail Stein / Patrick Watson / Robert Andrew Kuster