Jane Doe, a lyrical masterpiece
I have read it said that there are two types of Converge fans. Firstly, there are those who were there in the beginning, who dig 1998's When Forever Comes Crashing and what came before it, and those of us hooked by and on 2001's seminal Jane Doe and everything that's followed. It is certainly not true that the early material only has merit purely for historical reasons (in the same way a visual artist's rough sketches and student drawings become interesting), but one year into the new millenium, the Salem, Massachussets five-piece (as they were then)'s fourth studio album showed the world just how intelligent really heavy music could be. Converge pushed themselves kicking and screaming above their peers and have remained out on top ever since. Often imitated but never bettered, indeed.This is hardly news. The band still opens its shows with the one-two sucker punch of Concubine/Fault and Fracture, the shirts in the crowd still mostly feature the gaunt looking woman who first adorned the album cover, and as the best-of lists stretch out over the years, Jane Doe remains while others fade away. There is little to add about the quality and variety of musicianship and song-crafting on display, the distinctive sound-world that remains unique no matter how hard others try to match it, the iconic artwork, the rich and necessary catharthis found within and throughout. Converge could've stopped there leaving most people none-the-wiser (many bands will have of course stopped long before), but as all Jacob Bannon fans know, there is one more piece to the puzzle of why this particular record, the jewel in the band's consistently impressive discography, achieved something I can only describe as near perfection.
"The album's lyrical themes were born out of a dissolving relationship and the emotional fallout from that experience." - Jacob Bannon, talking to Revolver magazine in June 2008.
To say we could probably have worked that out for ourselves is no criticism. Cedric Bixler-Zavala aside, what is the point in poetry so obscure that it leaves the audience with nothing, not a glimmer of resonance or relation? At the other end of the spectrum, where is the art in expressing oneself too plainly? Thankfully for us, Mr Bannon is an artist.
There is a certain irony, which it would be remiss not to mention, in that the vocals are nigh-on completely indescipherable, and that we know what is being said thanks partly to the album liner notes and partly to gaps filled in on numerous websites (presumably with an original source by Bannon himself). This is not always the case, as "Coral Blue, Grows in You, Coral Blue, Tells the Truth" (clearly driven first and foremost by the amount of syllables needed in the phrase, which is a shame) from 2012's All We Love We Leave Behind, readily points out. But given the unceasing passion and power in Bannon's delivery, and the devotion of the fans at the front (or wherever Bannon has waded out to) who never seem to miss the cue when proffered the microphone, to gloss over the lyrics would be gross and grave folly. Hopefully the mic never comes to me, as I have visions of shouting the wrong thing and the whole show being stopped as everyone walks out in disgust and shame.
Where were we? Oh yes, the demise of a relationship and its emotional fallout. Not an original topic, but the poetry that runs through Jane Doe is notable for its absence of generalistion and misogyny which can creep into such musing. (Don't get me wrong, Glassjaw's Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Silence has got me though many a lonely Valentine's Day, but I woud not hold up Daryl Palumbo's lyrics on that record as an example of a man talking through his problems with articulate and measured calm.) Back to Jane Doe, please also note the complete absence of swearing. Although its presence does not necessarily detract from wit and expression, and personally I don't mind it, it is nevertheless telling when someone can express themselves so honestly and passionately without resorting to it. (As an interesting aside, there is a lot of swearing on Slipknot's Iowa and Tool's Aenima but a complete absence of it in each band's follow-up (Volume 3: The Subliminal Verses and Lateralus, respectively) - I have read that Corey Taylor did this deliberatly but I don't know about Maynard James Keenan.)
So what was Bannon trying to tell us? Well I think it's all one big metaphor for death. Not about wanting to die, but rather about the death of (the) love. The album's title is an obvious but succinct metaphor for this, with the woman on the cover (not based on a model, incidentally) complementing it nicely. This is as opposed to, say, a title of "My ex-girlfriend is a bitch and I feel like shit" and the album cover being a picture of her. Although overall the lyrics are bleak, and convey sadness beyond all doubt, where there might have been hate there is hope. There is mention of the good times and it is made clear, perhaps crucially, that there was a deep love before it all fell part. And there is little blame.
1. Concubine
Dear, I'll stay gold just to keep these pasts at bay
To keep the loneliest of nights from claiming you
and to keep these longest of days from waking you
For I felt the greatest of winters coming
and I saw you as seasons shifting from blue to grey
That's where the coldest of these days await me
and distance lays her heavy head beside me
There I'll stay gold, forever gold
This appears to refer to a time while the relationship is still going on but clearly the end is in sight. She is affectionately referred to as Dear, and the borrowing of Spandau Ballet's gold metaphor conveys trying to be good to her and making an effort for the relationship. Worryingly, however, a "Concubine" is a woman of lower status than a man's wife or wives. I assume its use as a title is an unkind dig at her rather than an admission of polygamy.
2. Fault And Fracture
You were most beautiful as the damage and the trauma
Pounding hard with battered wings of destiny
You were my last great war
You were my heaven ablaze
Riddled with faults and fractures
And I spent my last of days burning my oldest of bridges
And I spent my last of nights killing the best of friends
In the company of thieves, liars, beggers and whores
I'll lay waiting, just waiting for my time to come
The first half seems to suggest she was troubled and he did his best to help her, at least up until the end, and after it did end here are some immediate ways in which he tried to start getting over it. Notable for being one of the few songs on the record where the title appears in the lyrics.
3. Distance And Meaning
And like that heart that got in the way
I'll become the lost cause
The child of burden and rage
Like the distance in your touch
Like the years we burned down
I heard that phone call
The hesitation, the awkward silence
I felt everything in those seconds
Splinters of sentence and heartless advice
Nothing's changed but these days entwined
I don't believe the distance here is physical, rather how it feels at the moment time is called. The heartless advice may refer to either hers or that of his friends in the aftermath. I have borrowed these lyrics recently to instead be about having feelings for someone outside of an established romantic relationship. The person finds themself unable to think and act rationally, hence "child", carries these feelings (the burden) around with them all day long, and feels rage at the apparent unfairness of the lack of requitement. Ironic since love is supposed to be positive. The heart got in the way.
4. Hell To Pay
Cheap lips, soft eyes, lost in the most blinding lights
As cold as those first nights alone
As the second best he'll become
Sleep deep, girl, dream well
That night, I think he cried himself to sleep
Just maybe, he felt more than we could ever know
And I think he pulled that trigger to empty that memory
I think he cut the weight to end the floods of you
Let him soar, let him ride as budding gravestones do
Just sleep, girl, just dream well
Alternating between affection and despair, the hell to pay is not a punishment for her, but rather a grieving process for him. Sleeping alone and apart, he wishes her well while he himself feels cold, second best (perhaps to a new lover of hers?) and inevitably entertains thoughts of death, if only to stop hurting for a few seconds.
5. Homewrecker
I have bled and I have given
the longest of rivers and the longest of ropes
And you're not grasping and my light is sinking on the horizon
Knee deep among your wreckage and uncertainty
with anguish my crown and heartbreak my throne
I lay claim to this day - No love, no hope
I've lost count of the second chances
I lay claim to this day - No love, no hope
This looks to be about feeling resentful for all he did for her that came to nothing, for the toll the relationship took on him and how she didn't take his offers of help. That the title refers to her is I think unavoidable.
6. The Broken Vow
Those nights we had and the trust we lost
The sleep that fled me and the heart I lost
It all reminds me
Just how callous and heartless the true cowards are
And I write this for the loveless
And for the risks we take
I'll take my love to the grave
As tired and worn it is
I'l take my love to the grave
More venom, but not really directed at her. The second half seems to suggest he has become one of the loveless, who because of this experience will not let himself love again. As before, this could be appropriated to feeling unable to approach a person in the first place because of the risk of rejection, exposure and vulnerability. Definitely something sleep has been lost over.
7. Bitter And The Some
Death to cowards, traitors, and empty words
To those adorned with the touch of rose petals
And the blessed gift of forgetfulness
For these are your years and days to outshine
Push on and soar higher
This is your memory
Your everything and the inbetween
Push on and soar higher
There appears to be light at the end of the tunnel. The blessed gift of forgetfulness is particularly welcome.
8. Heaven In Her Arms
Death was just a simple glance across a dim lit room
And those eyes did it
Those three words did it
Those three words killed him
And I surrender to it all
Between you and me, I surrender to you
Forgive me for the sadness
And the bringing of you down
I just needed a lover and I needed a friend
And there you were
Running from forever like all the rest
Three simple words bled me dry
Three simple word bled us dry, bled us dry
I love you
Or maybe not. Seemingly both a lament at falling in love in the first place and an acknowledgement of / plea for forgiveness for his part in the break-up. The "I love you" is all the more sweet for its explicitness and simplicity. Ultimately though, I find the title is enough to describe how you feel about someone.
9. Phoenix In Flight
And I write this to you my dear
For your eyes alone
I'm out of heart and these tanks are low
So cast your days to flame
And set your phoenix to flight
Let her turn to ash
Among those flourescent lights
Let your love drift deeper
Let her wings catch the sky
Just remember my name, girl
And remember what died
10. Phoenix In Flames
She burns as bright as the sun
and she falls darker than night
She shines as light as these days
And she fades faster than time
Phoenix in flames
Interestingly, I think there is hope in what is not mentioned here, namely the resurrection of the Phoenix. The flight and flames might refer to her own grieving process (the presence and importance of which can often be forgotten by the person who feels the end wasn't their decision). Nevertheless, he would like her to remember him.
11. Thaw
In the want, the need, and this desperation
You'll find me as the time-bomb
As the last great stand in this history
When all our roads have been travelled
And all have come to a most bitter end
Today I thaw
Being at a most bitter end might seem at odds with thawing out, but I'm going to take them as sequential rather than concurrent. There is nothing left to deal with so now he can begin to feel better.
12. Jane Doe
These floods of you are unforgiving
Pushing past me spilling through the banks
And I fall
Faster than light and faster than time
That's how memory works
At least in the dark where I'm searching for meaning
When I'm just searching for something
I want out
Out of every awkward day
Out of every tongue tied loss
I want out
Out of the burdening nightsweats
Out of the rising seas of blood
Lost in you like saturday nights
Searching the streets with bedroom eyes
Just dying to be saved
Run on girl, run on
I never said the album was chronological, lyrically, but if so this feels out of sequence. Either that or the thaw was premature. In either case, he's fed up and wants to move on (which in the last line he suggests she does too).
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Doe_%28album%29
http://www.darklyrics.com/lyrics/converge/janedoe.html
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