Hannah Busse (feat. Coliér McNair) – Fight to Live Another Day
Hannah Busse, with help from Coliér McNair, does the most dangerous thing that you can when it comes to a modern song – they tell the truth about things we like to deceive ourselves. Sure, the vocals are friendly and the playing’s well executed. But this is a perilous position to take, one that not even punk or metal bands dare embrace.
War ain’t tantalising! Ain’t going to fight; it doesn’t make you a hero! It makes you a victim, and sadly, that’s true regardless of the nature of the war. The fact that some conflicts are started because of the evil of certain governments and their leaders doesn’t make the violence that follows it any more terrible. There’s no consolation for the widow, for the children, or for the conflict-abused soldiers.
“Fight to Live Another Day” is a song about the conflict that follows veterans everywhere. Like “Johnny I Hardly Knew You,” but even more direct, the stories tell the story of a mutilated soldier having to return home and find out that hardships just as big as on the front await him now. But this is not delivered in a patronising tone. The wars will go on, sadly! Tragically, people will continue to be hurt! The least we can do is tell the story as it is.
Superunknown – You Are Never Alone
In fairness, the tactic adopted by the majority of songwriters for alternative-rock bands was to build off enough inner tension that the words and music which sprang out, inevitably, were steeped in it.
Audiences recognised something resembling their own troubles, and tension in that kind of technique. Superunknown’s grunge-rock of “You Are Never Alone” is a song that both uses mental fatigue as a tool and reflects on its long-term impact.
It is, if you think about it, a responsible gesture and something that goes some way towards healing whatever damage the original grunge bands did. In fairness, some of the best and darkest alt-rock songs of the ’90s merely presented the problems, but never offered a potential solution.
You’ll recognise and embrace the sound of Superunknown’s “You Are Never Alone” if you are, indeed, a fan of Seattle-based hard rock. The dissonance of the guitar lines and the vocal grit and control are all there. But you may also, for once, feel something akin to a pat on the back. Things can get pretty hairy in this messed-up world! But with the right support in your corner, things can also improve beyond imagination.
