JC
One Step Closer make real ART. We should definitely spend some time diving into the band’s lyrics. So poetic and so powerful!!
- MUSIC FOCUS: One Step Closer.
- ACTIVITY FOCUS: Argument-driven analysis.
ACTIVITY 1
Read the question below and then look closely at our model answer.
QUESTION:
Pitchfork wrote that: “One Step Closer’s music overflows with emotion.”
To what extent do you agree?
MODEL ANSWER:
It’s undeniable that One Step Closer’s music drips with emotion.
When, on ‘I Feel So’, Ryan Savitski sings: “As this earth spins so does the clock that takes us away,” the distress he’s experiencing is evident. That verb “spins” represents the unrelenting motion of time – and the metaphorical “clock” reminds us that our own time, as humans on this planet, is limited. The focus on our own mortality ensures the track hits hard. The emotional impact is magnified even further by the next line: “Why can’t the future be bright like all those stories say?” The morbid reality encapsulated in that “clock” image juxtaposes so extremely with the brightness One Step Closer were hoping for, and it’s the size of the gap between those expectations and the grim reality that ensures they feel more emotionally bereft than they might if they’d never really had that bright vision in the first place. When Savitski writes: “With the wind you fly,” the listener’s emotional response only intensfies. The metaphor highlights how little control we have over our own destinies. We are in the hands of a power much greater than ourselves. This is an overwhelming thought.
The emotional heft of One Step Closer’s music is notable throughout the band’s catalogue. On ‘Lead To Gray’. When Savitski sings that: “Now my time has slipped,” that line feels all the more emotional given that, on ‘I Feel So’, the band have already made note of how precious time is. When they: “Feel it ripping apart from the seams,” we can sense their overflowing emotion. Because, on ‘I Feel So’, they have already underlined the fact that time is so valuable, we understand the significance of seeing it tear. The “ripping” verb suggests something coming apart with a force that’s difficult to stop. The upset at having time yanked away in this fashion must be intense. Things get even more severe in the lyric: “Only shadows leave this life with me.” Shadows are impossible to hold, they have no real depth and so the metaphor (in combination with that “only” adverb) underlines how little we are able to hold onto in death. The relationships we’ve built, the things we’ve collected – not to mention the light (symbolising goodness, hope, positivity etc.) in which our “shadows” have been cast in the first place – all these things have to be left behind. The sense of loss is profound.
ACTIVITY 2
Write another paragraph supporting the above argument that: “One Step Closer’s music overflows with emotion.”
Pick from the songs below and revolve your paragraph around the 3 lyrics from that song. (Of course, feel free to write more than one paragraph – write about as many songs as you like!).
Use the style modelled in the first two paragraphs above. The colour-coding should prompt you to:
- Connect quotes
- Identify techniques
- Link explanations to question
One Step Closer songs & lyrics:
- Dark Blue
- “The months go by and the blue jays fly to the apple trees tonight”
- “Me, like a falling leaf”
- “Am I lost this time?”
- “The trees crash hard on me”
Leap Years - “Did you go and make a lie to see me broken? To leave so full of promises, you left me nothing”
- “I heard your name and it’s nothing but a dream again”
Turn to Me - “Watch the sun set on the train bridge where I used to spend my days”
- “These white coated walls make me mad”
- “This place that we know, we’ve watched and we’ve grown. All I’ve asked is to know that you’ll stay with me”
Giant’s Despair - “When did I mess this up?”
- “Face to face with love; help me find this once”
- “I’ve been walking around / Remember talks but found out / Who are you outside of town / Did I fail the life I’ve been through now?”
Pringle Street - “These clouded thoughts have hung in me like a thousand knives”
- “Why does it feel like no-one cares?”
- “Alone I’ll sit tonight and wonder if I sleep, will this all just go away? If I sleep will this all just go away?”
Chrysanthemum - “We rip out so much of ourselves to be cured of things faster than we should that we go bankrupt by the age of thirty and have less to offer each time we start with someone new. But to feel nothing so as not to feel anything – what a waste!” (Intro quote taken from ‘Call Me By Your Name’)
- “I’ve been thrown away”
- “It’s weighing me down”
The Reach - “I left myself to blame; I couldn’t carry the weight”
- “These hallow walls become so thin and I’m reaching out to find what hides within”
- “Can’t escape my mind to hide from this nightmare”
Orange Leaf - “Bring life to me as my colours bleed, when I wait too long after months of rain”
- “We missed the trees glow gold”
- “Cloud covered skies in the valley”