4/29/14

"There is only tonight and the light that bleeds from your heart,
Makes me want to try and start again."

Everyone in the #emorevival scene seems real excited Mineral is reunited - I had heard the name but not the music, so I checked them out and instantly grew attached, grateful to find so much to love. I hear so much of "my kind" of emo scene in here, but I also hear the late-90s, in grunge-like moments of morose chords, pounded out bass lines and shouted vocals. The yearning of minor key melodies is interrupted by outbreaks of loud, soaring progressions, accompanying the weathered and world-weary narratives that so clearly inspired bands of the early 2000s that meant so much to me.

I've listened to "The Power of Failing" a few times through now, and there's so many biting, honest moments, the kind of reveal I generally require of my favorite artists, and here it was,alive and well in 1997. Here's the kind of breakdowns, bridges, and cymbal crashes that captivated me so when I got into modern music as a kid, the kind that still can. Here's the kind of pain-on-the-page lyrics that tapped into my own when songs became the only way to process, when the words of someone else were the only way I could hope to find my own. There is longing here, there is passion deferred and hopelessness of the most desperate declared fashion.

Grateful to come across this, even if I'm late to the party. Glad to trace the roots of the kind of music, both its sounds and stories, that speaks to me, and recognize where it all came from. Inspired to see that artists can come back years down the line and spark the hearts of listeners old and new.

"I wouldn't mind if you took me in my sleep tonight
I wouldn't even put up a fight
I wouldn't care if you took it all away today
I'm sure I wouldn't even miss the pain

But I know I've got to live my life
And roll around on the ground and feel the strife
And realize along the way that I'm nothing more
Than a grain of salt in the salt of the eart
And everything is grace

So come on with the darkness
Come on with the fear
Cause I've got to start somewhere
And it might as well be here

When I'm finally naked and standing in the sunlight
I'll look back at all of this selfishness and foolish pride
And laugh at myself."

~Parking Lot
Mineral, The Power of Failing