Trash/Thrash Tuesday: Murder by Death – “Dream in Red”

Hey friends.

How’s tricks, this week? I’m on my reading break from school so technically I should be getting a lot of stuff done this week, so please keep watch for that.  I’m here with another Trash/Thrash Tuesday column, and even though I did a Murder by Death track this past January, I wanted to feature them again.  Murder by Death has been one of those bands that I’ve listened to for years, and they just released their new album a couple weeks ago, called Big Dark Love.  What endeared me to Murder by Death was their very unique sense of music, especially on albums like Red of Tooth and Claw and Good Morning, Magpie with a very satanic cowboy goth country folk type of feel to them.  Adam Turla is a small dude with one heck of a good voice and I can’t even explain how often his lyrics can offer chills to me.  I have to say however, that their unique sound is being lost on this new album, and I have been disappointed with the musical direction of Big Dark Love.

I selected Dream in Red as a Thrash track this week, but only because it’s the only track on Big Dark Love that sounds even remotely like their past spooky albums.

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Lyrically, I really like this song and it has some interesting musical accompaniment, but its far from perfect. What do you guys think? This reeks to me like a bit of mainstreaming happening, which is really sad because that goth country thing really seemed to work for Murder by Death, and one of their stronger aspects was the really morbid lyrics that played in a tongue and cheek manner.

I saw you walking down by the river
down by the water
dragging a heavy load
what I saw
I don’t know

if I believe it
does it make it so

I saw you walking down by the river
down by the water
I wish i had never gone

what I saw
left me cold

if I believe it does it make it so
if i asked you would you tell me no

down by the river’s ditch, its where I die
my body was broken, my wrists were tied
floating in the reeds and tangled in the reeds
thats where this lies

where i was walking down by the river
down by the water
dragging a heavy load
what i saw, i don’t know
I dreamed of a red river
I dreamed in red

I dunno.  I’m interested to hear what some other folks think.  I’m all ears.

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