The Golden Age - Review II

A few of the tracks on The Golden Age deserve a bit more of a detailed look than I gave them in my main review, so in the next couple of posts I intend to put that right.

The Dance
If ever there was a song that deserved a Tarrantino directed video then it is this one. A woman (possibly a hooker) meets a cop and it is love at first sight. They start dancing around the room together, the cop holding her in one hand and his gun in the other. All is lovely, "he is pulling out all his best moves, he is cool like Wonderbread" until his finger slips and "paints her face all red". The final verse implies that he manages to save his career. I don't know if this is based on any true stories?

All The Lost Souls ...
If you ask me, this should have been the first single. It is upbeat, catchy and all those things you want from a pop song. Alright, they are not a band renowned for upbeatbut it wouldn't hurt once in a while. Lyrically its one of those songs about San Francisco and its residents, "the lost souls". The town it seems that was "built on fire trucks" and "saints who are only holy when they sin" and "people are humming a Love Supreme". Marty who supposedly owns several of the bars on 22nd St (including the Make Out Room) is called upon to cheer him up and keep him happy. He spends his time at a bar "trying to keep the good times rolling, as they are almost gone".

The Decibels and Little Pills
Some people would call that a good night out, taking some drugs and going to "the big rock show", and I guess that is what this song is about. While in the past Mark would have been in the centre trying to lose himself, now he is writing about it from a distance. "He was sweet and so was she, and you needed love to fill the dark" describes his old partying mood but hilights the reason now. He admits that wearing a cowboy hat means that "you are tonights casualty" and sees the crowds of people whose eyes say "I don't want to know". The chorus goes "No one here is gonna save you" as if to say everyone else is here for the same reason as you, so don't go looking to them for answers.