Customer Reviews

Slow Motion (2006 Remastered)

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After the release of their self-titled album exploded, Stephan Jenkins wanted to focus on backing away from the more pop rock styles and into more experimental rock territory for their follow-up album Blue. This was mainly inspired by the catchy pop sensibilities of "Semi-Charmed Life" that were remembered more than the deep subject matter. As a result Blue turned out to be a much darker album and at times not nearly as accessible as their debut. As dark as the album got, though, there was one track that the record executives would not allow to be released in its full version.

"Slow Motion" was originally released in an almost all instrumental form with the refrain, "Slow motion see me let go" appearing as the only lyrics in the song in the original versions of the album and removed in later versions. (In the original demo this line was, "Slow motion in the ghetto.") The lyrics were deemed to be too violent for the album's release date in 1999, particularly in the wake of the Columbine High School shootings of April of that year. I first came across the full track around 2002 since the full version was released internationally allowing it to leak back to the states. In 2006 the full version was officially released stateside as part of the greatest hits compilation A Collection.

The lyrics of the song open with a guy shooting his former teacher's son simply because, "...he owed me money/ With a bullet in the chest you cannot run." The song takes us through the singer doing coke with a girl who OD's, and shooting heroine while his sister (probably mentally handicapped from eating paint chips with lead in the paint) moans in the room next door and his neighbor beats his wife. His description of the neighbor beating his wife is actually one of the more disturbing points in the song: "There's a knock to his fist as it swings/ Oh man, what a beautiful thing." The real point of the song, though, isn't made in the violence and drug abuse though it's made in the line, "Hollywood glamorized my wrath/ I'm a young urban psychopath." The entire song leads to an indictment of Hollywood using real life stories like the one listed in the song and glamorizing it. That's a large part of why this song makes my top 10 list.

Musically, a song like this based on the lyrically content may seem like it may need to be muscular and heavy, but the music actually is more subdued leaning more on blues tinged guitar with a touch of piano and organ adding ambiance to the piece. I really admire the fact that Jenkins resisted any possible urge to add a moment when the rest of the band comes in for a huge musical finish, which would have also cheapened the message of the song. It's one of those rare sparsely written songs that comes out just perfect, but with a message that's fairly unique for this style.

5/5

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