THE CITIZEN ON MARS

I rarely blog about music nowadays even though I am a very avid music lover. But one day about a month ago, I was browsing BillBoard’s Top 100 to find new music that I may add up to my listening menu. I had been revolving mostly around regular faves like U2’s unforgettable Rattle and Hum double album, Bob Dylan’s old masterpieces, Bruce Springsteen “best of” album (listening to The River over and over again), and about a couple of nights ago, I thought of putting on Billy Holiday on the DVD player slash VCD player slash CD player slash karaoke system ( most entertainment electronic device nowadays are such) after renoticing an old CD of hers I kept from view inside a dusty rectangular box where I usually store cassetes and cd’s not within my regular listening list.

And high on the list of the charts is a band named The Fray which I thought has a very cool and nifty name for a musical group and wondered why nobody thought of that before. I immediately listened to the sample audio clip of it’s hit “How To Live A Life” and was easily endeared by it although not in a big way, like I did for example upon hearing for the first time U2’s “Where The Streets Have No Name” or Gun’s N Roses’ “Welcome To The Jungle” —songs that had somehow became landmarks of my early adulthood.

But….but I have downloaded a full copy of The Fray’s “How To Live A Life”, including some of the band’s other songs and played them over and over again on lazy afternoons and that beginning part of that song (How To Save A Life) that goes “Step one you say we need to talk…” keeps ringing over and over again in my head, even until the moment of sleep, that I find myself humming its melodies often. It must be that I liked the song so thoroughly that’s why I kept thinking about it and I suddenly realize that It has been for a long time now that I had last became so excited about a song or a band. The last time perhaps was when I first got to hear about Red Hot Chili Pepper’s “Scar Tissue” and that was really a very long, long time ago—like 5 years ago.

“How To Save A Life” is such a good modern rock song—so good in fact that I kept humming it while I am driving along spalted downtown streets. This is one exciting band that knows its music and knows what radio-friendly means while being lyrically relevant. Rarely you see this in a band nowadays. They can be huge like Gin Blossoms when they were at the top of their years. Mystical like Stone Roses with very original melodies. Or possibly become legendary like REM for their meaningful messages.

The song ask a question and we wonder what answer does it demand. How does one really save a life? Within its lyrics is deep emotions. The songs laments on how to “…lose a friend last night” and then on “…how to save a life”; it’s a song about longing and lost, that despite it’s ear-candy melodies, it is a lonely song that spoke of lament and endearment—of discovery and then of separation. It’s one of the featured song in the hit medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy” that it is so apt to a show that presents characters in scenes where lives are either lost or saved, destroyed or rebuilt, found or lost.

Listen to “How To SAve A Life” here.

See full lyrics here.