Music Monday #33: Looking Glass by The Birthday Massacre

In one of the previous posts in this series I said that covers are rarely better than the originals with a few exceptions.  I don't have anything against the idea of doing a cover, I think it can be a good thing but I think it only really works when the artist can capture the meaning of the lyrics and create a new perspective, a new interpretation, or transform the original track into something new and fresh.

The Birthday Massacre released 'Looking Glass' in 2008 but it wasn't until several years later that I discovered the album and subsequently explored their discography.  I stumbled across the album by chance when I was looking up 'I Think We're Alone Now' a song originally recorded by Tommy James and the Shondells in 1967 but most widely know for the 1987 cover of the song by Tiffany.  The Tiffany version was the first that I heard and from the moment I heard it I fell in love with it.  The title alone has served as my status on various social media platforms and instant messengers over the years, back in the glory days of MSN instant messenger it was pretty much the only status I ever used.  The song itself has so much meaning for me, but I adore it in every incarnation and over the years I have sought out covers of it to see who has redone the track and their interpretation.

The Birthday Massacre's cover of 'I Think We're Alone Now' is my favourite version of the track out of all versions that exist right now, including the Tiffany version which comes in second.  From the moment I hit play on the Youtube video lying in bed unable to sleep randomly browsing related videos I was electrified.  The synthesizers, the drums, the electric flavour, the 80s vibes, and the darker undertones that The Birthday Massacre brought to the track made me grin wide with intrigue.  I got up at 3 in the morning out of bed and looked for the album first of all and fell down the rabbit hole.  I played a few tracks and loved it, I bought the album and TBM have now become one of the most played artists in my music library in a short space of time, only a few years now, I don't know what year it was I discovered them. 

Looking Glass is by far my favourite album of theirs but honourable mentions go to 'Under Your Spell', 'Violet', and 'Walking With Strangers' all of which I adore completely.  Looking Glass is once more one of those albums that is perfect to me, every track from start to end and the entire album from start to finish I can listen to without skipping.  I've followed TBM's journey ever since I discovered them, I own every album, I've shared links to their work with anyone who I think would be interested and I am confident they will feature in my music library for many years to come.  Their sound is everything I want and more.

I want to single out one other track in particular, the title track of the album.  The video for this track instantly made me fall in love with it, but the lyrics are exquisite, in particular, "Waiting as I'm wanting to, Speaking as I'm spoken to, Changing to your point of view, Fading as I follow you" speaks of the loss of self and giving in to someone else's vision conforming to their expectations either to impress them or because you feel it's the price to pay for their love, but beyond this, the lyrics, "A boyish notion of false emotion, These words are spoken despite my love, A fool's devotion was set in motion, My eyes are open now" these just speak directly to me, the idea of awakening to truth and seeing through the lies to something pure and raw, and realising just how much of yourself you sacrificed and hoping you woke up in time to save yourself.  The lyrics go further perfectly capturing the nature of toxic love, "It's a glass cage so I can't pretend, You hide beneath the physical, I see it coming but I can't defend, You cut so deep, my belief is gone" laying bare feeling of exposure when realise the physical connection masks the fact there's no depth or true emotion and just how deep that hurts when that realisation is felt.  Then finally letting go, "Tell me what I want to say, Save me for another day, Break me, it's the game you play, Hate me as I turn away" laying bare the realisation that you know what they did and you've had enough.

The Birthday Massacre are unique in that the emotional connection I formed with them has been one that developed much later in life within the last few years, most artists I have this connection with are artists that it has taken decades for that depth to become so rooted in my psyche.  I am grateful that I found their work when I did, I do believe my younger self would have adored them too particularly during the emo phase I went through despite the fact they are not an emo band, they are instead part of goth culture, in particular their style of music fuses gothic rock with new wage the latter of which given its punk rock origins should come as no surprise as being a genre I have since begun to explore and found very appealing.  This discovery and exploration however exemplifies the fact that as you grow there is always more to experience and if you get rooted in what you already know and never venture beyond it then you deny yourself the possibility of new experiences that might blow your mind.  Be open, explore, look beyond what you know because you never know what you might find and how it might change your world for the better.