| Category | Rating |
|---|---|
| Track Structure | 9 |
| Interest | 9 |
| Melody | 9 |
| Performance | 10 |
| Lyrics | 10 |
| Enjoyment | 9 |
| Recording Quality | 10 |
| Commercial Appeal | 8 |
| Overall | 9.3 |
I think it is important before launching into this review to be completely clear about my own ethical stance. This is a song about God and I am an atheist. Does it matter? Probably not (as I hope the review will make clear) but it does mean that, however hard I try, I am reviewing from my own perspective and it is only fair that you, my reader, understand what that perspective is.
Ok. Now anyone who has ever read one of my reviews will know that I am fascinated with the scientific world and, on joining the site, was immediately drawn to Atom Tha Immortal’s name given that, in a scientific sense, it is literally true.
According to current thinking, every atom in the universe was created at the moment of the “Big Bang” (or by whatever other mechanism the universe was brought into being).
We’ve managed to rip a few of them apart since then (think
Now this has some pretty far reaching consequences. It means that, quite literally, every member of MP3Unsigned is (or rather was) a star. Every atom in your body was once part of a star somewhere in the universe and, as likely as not, the sum total of atoms in your body was once spread far and wide across the night sky as we see it today.
I don’t know about you but I find that a pretty awesome thought.
John Keats once wrote (In Lamia):
Do not all charms fly
At the mere touch of cold philosophy?
There was an awful rainbow once in heaven:
We know her woof, her texture; she is given
In the dull catalogue of common things.
Philosophy will clip an Angel’s wings,
Conquer all mysteries by rule and line,
Empty the haunted air, and gnomed mine—
Unweave a rainbow, as it erewhile made
The tender-person’d
Keats felt that by “unweaving” the rainbow (that is, explaining how a rainbow is made) we somehow “lose” the essence of what a rainbow is. Richard Dawkins took up this challenge in his book “Unweaving the Rainbow” in order to try and refute this hypothesis.
One of the effects of the advancement of the “scientific method” has been to energise those in the religious community to fight back against the sciences of physics and biology (creation and evolution) and try and reclaim the ground that has been “lost” in recent years.
This has seen a new approach, with religious communities putting forward the theory of “intelligent design” and “specified complexity” with some degree of effectiveness, particularly in the
Now it is no part of my review to attempt to defend or attack either side in this particular debate (although I suspect that Atom and I could while away many a pleasant and thought provoking hour in such a discussion). I do believe however that music (particularly music which is driven by a strongly held set of beliefs) needs context and that is what I have tried to do here.
And so to the music. The first thing you will glean from even a cursory reading of the lyrics is that we are dealing with a very intelligent young man. Atom himself knows this (not in an egotistical way, you understand) and in fact refers to the intellectual construction of his lyrics in the first verse:
You need Rosetta Stones to unlock my poem’s message
You may recall that the Rosetta stone (currently housed in the
Again, later in the track we find the line:
We strike the modern man like Gregor Mendel, meddling with his alleles
How many of us remember from our (in my case, dim and distant) schooldays, learning about the poor monk Mendel (now hailed as the father of modern genetics) and his experiments with pea plants?
And again:
Darwinian speculation is useless
To explain emergence
Of cellular mechanisms below the surface
Seeing Specified Complexity points to a purpose
Of a system of integrated parts
This is cutting edge stuff from someone who is not afraid to use his intelligence and learning to promote his point of view. And that brings me to my comment at the start of this review.
It doesn’t matter that Atom and I have different beliefs. I would much rather deal with a man who holds a passionate belief about something than a man who believes in nothing. Some of the greatest artistic achievements known to man have been borne out of that sense of belief. You only need to look at the Sistine Chapel or listen to Hector Berlioz’ Requiem Mass to realise that belief is a powerful motivator of creativity.
And besides, if the answer to the question about whether there is a God or not was clear cut, we would all either believe or not as the case may be. It is the tension between the believers and non-believers that spawns the creativity. If we all believed there would be no need.
The fact that I am writing this review from one standpoint, about a piece of music which takes a diametrically opposing standpoint means that the argument has still to be won and it would take a brave man to state, categorically, that they were right on one side or the other (and I’m not that brave). What is important is the manner in which the debate is conducted.
And so I applaud the passion, intelligence and conviction with which this piece is delivered. It is mesmerising from start to finish and demonstrates only too clearly the quote, attributed to Voltaire, which reads:
I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
To listen to the track Click Here