Saturday, December 14, 2002
33. "thoughtless," korn
as opposed to a lot of bloggers (and other music geeks/lovers) I know, I think 2002 was a bad year for the traditional guitar-bass-drums rock'n'roll 4x4. by that definition, only three rock tracks made my top 50, by far an all-time low. this is the highest-ranked of those three, and it comes as a bit of a surprise. korn is a band I've always admired more than enjoyed; I understand what they're trying to do, and feel that they're honestly trying to push the parameters of the whole nu-rock school, but that they don't succeed as often as they think. and "thoughtless" certainly isn't some bold musical step forward; it's fairly standard korn - but in this case, the music perfectly pairs up with its lyrics. and where this stands out is lyrically. while the whole nickelback/staind school sit and moan about how shitty their teen years were, korn take a different tack on "thoughtless," coming across almost more (marilyn) manson-like than anything else (think "the fight song"). jonathan davis sounds like he got inside the heads of the columbine shooters: "I will not be drowned by your thoughtless scheming," he sings. and they weren't; sadly, they drowned themselves. when I was a teen, my soundtrack of alienation was the smiths; were I a teen today, it might well be this. more valuable than the entire recorded output of the strokes, this is a total triumph.
as opposed to a lot of bloggers (and other music geeks/lovers) I know, I think 2002 was a bad year for the traditional guitar-bass-drums rock'n'roll 4x4. by that definition, only three rock tracks made my top 50, by far an all-time low. this is the highest-ranked of those three, and it comes as a bit of a surprise. korn is a band I've always admired more than enjoyed; I understand what they're trying to do, and feel that they're honestly trying to push the parameters of the whole nu-rock school, but that they don't succeed as often as they think. and "thoughtless" certainly isn't some bold musical step forward; it's fairly standard korn - but in this case, the music perfectly pairs up with its lyrics. and where this stands out is lyrically. while the whole nickelback/staind school sit and moan about how shitty their teen years were, korn take a different tack on "thoughtless," coming across almost more (marilyn) manson-like than anything else (think "the fight song"). jonathan davis sounds like he got inside the heads of the columbine shooters: "I will not be drowned by your thoughtless scheming," he sings. and they weren't; sadly, they drowned themselves. when I was a teen, my soundtrack of alienation was the smiths; were I a teen today, it might well be this. more valuable than the entire recorded output of the strokes, this is a total triumph.
# posted by Thomas : 1:03 PM
