Do you know what's best for me?

It's fair to say that the event's over the past few nights have left me stunned, the video footage of the nihilistic mob mindlessly looting London's boroughs has left me feeling uneasy and slightly sick. I'm not going to open a debate about what the causes of such event are, I'll only end up with insomnia.

Instead I'm going to share with you a song by Liars called Here Comes All The People, which I think perfectly encapsulates whats been happening over the last three nights.

I hope any of my readers / listeners in London are all safe this evening.

  

 Lyrics -

(We should start a fire)
Numbers falling into piles
Watching all the ones drip
Into the divide

All the even numbers falling into piles
Watching all the ones drip
Into the divide

What's the color? What's the time?
What's the number? What'd you find?
Every yellow object sorted into piles
Do you know what's best for me?
You do when we see
The moon eclipse the morning sun
You have a life to see
A way to be known

Fire, you should start a fire
We should start a fire
We should start a fire
You should start it first
Life possession could be fun
Counting victims one by one
Life possession could be fun
Counting victims one by one
We can count them one through eight
Skipping two, four, six and ten
Lose your conscience or your mind
Though we're not afraid to die
Make our fortune sailing seas
Be the breath blowing the breeze
Life possession could be fun
Counting victims one by one
Counting victims one by one

Liars - Scarecrows On A Killer Slant

Over the last couple of days my mind has been preoccupied by worry of what a newly elected Conservative government (albeit with as a coalition) might mean for our country. The thought of this political party in charge has me fearful, especially when I look back at their sustained record of social inequity and intolerance.

Those two issues are at the forefront of Liars “Scarecrows on a Killer Slant”. Taken from the bands new album Sisterworld the track is powered by its creepy tone and metronomic rhetoric that makes this listener feel ill at ease.

The song leads off with the band asking “Why’d you pass the bum on the street?” and “Why’d shoot the man with the gun?” The answers to both are returned as an emphatic “Cos he bothered you” it’s disconcerting and uncomfortable to think that more parts our society could digress into this territory.

Then the band strikes with the songs Coup de grâce. Starting as a whisper and ending as a scream they utter “We should take the creeps out at night, Drag them incomplete by their ears, We should nail their thoughts to the wall, Stand them in the street with a gun, AND THEN KILL THEM ALL!” like the inner mantra of a government who’d like nothing more than for everyone to agree with their views.

The song then begins to tick along to its conclusion, but not before it musters one last question that I'm sure rattles around the heads of those now in government.

“How can they be saved from the way they live every day?”

Maybe those with the power in Westminster should ask it of themselves.

Scarecrows on a Killer Slant.mp3