Replace Them With Our Own Words

Quite often I am struck by songwriting - a certain lyric or turn of phrase just catches me, and I start to listen to the song on repeat. Drilling it into my skull. It's like discovering your favourite poem, but set to music.

There's a lot of bands that tend to do this, and a lot of singular moments of wonderful lyricism in songs I wouldn't expect to contain them.

One band in particular that repeats this trick over and again is Rise Against.

If you're not familiar with their ouvre, you will be the moment you hear a song. Tim McIlrath's voice isn't one you forget, and their musical style is very distinctive.

What gets me, though? ...what gets me is the lyrics.

Below are several of my favourite Rise Against lyrics, with links to the songs they are taken from, and names of the albums.

"Is this the life that you lead, or the life that's led for you?
Will you take the road that's been laid out before you?"
     - Paper Wings (Siren Song Of The Counter Culture)

"A lesson to learn at a crucial point in time:
What's mine was always yours, and yours is mine."
     - Chamber The Cartridge (The Sufferer And The Witness)

"There will be a time to crack another smile
Maybe not today, or for a while
But we're holding out to laugh again someday."
     - Tragedy + Time (The Black Market)

"We're all okay - until the day we're not
The surface shines, while the inside rots."
     - Audience Of One (Appeal To Reason)

"Do you still believe in all the things that you stood by before?
Are you out there on the front lines, or at home keeping score?"
     - Architects (Endgame)

"And there, amidst the waves and the cloudless skies
That blanket the year before - I watch my life wash ashore."
     - Everchanging (The Unraveling)

"And still we give ourselves to this
We can't spend our lives waiting to live."
     - The Dirt Whispered (Appeal To Reason)

"Because I found God in the sound
Of your factories burning down
Now I sleep so sound."
     - The Eco-Terrorist In Me (The Black Market)

"Somewhere between happy, and total fucking wreck
Feet sometimes on solid ground, sometimes at the edge."
     - Survive (The Sufferer And The Witness)

"I'll show you mine if you show me yours first
Let's compare scars, I'll tell you whose is worse."
     - Swing Life Away (Siren Song Of The Counter Culture)

"Lipstick track marks bleeding wet
Like Montagues and Capulets
For us, child - the stars refuse to shine."
     - Methadone (The Black Market)

"My bones all resonate a burning lullaby
You can't take that from me - just go ahead and try."
     - Help Is On The Way (Endgame)


"All because of you I believe in angels.
Not the kind with wings, no, not the kind with halos
The kind that bring you home when home becomes a strange place.
I'll follow your voice - all you have to do is shout it out."
     - The Good Left Undone (Appeal To Reason)


"'Cause when we're all just ghosts and the madness overtakes us
We will look at the ashes and say: People lived here."
     - People Live Here (The Black Market) 

...and that's why I love this band.

Check them out if you don't know them. If you do - give them another look.