I might have liked Illume if I hadn't been in Manhattan that day, not all that far from Ground Zero. It's just that when I heard the song it didn't speak to me at all. I couldn't relate to it. I understood what Stevie and Lindsey were doing musically, and I think musically it's very effective, but from a lyrical standpoint, it simply left me cold. Perhaps calling it "drivel" was too harsh. Even I don't really believe that. My issue with the song goes back to what I keep complaining about in Stevie's music--lack of editing. Certain words shouldn't be there, but I've said all this before.
As for What's the World Coming To, it's not even as musically interesting as Illume, except that it's catchy in an effortless sort of way. The lyrics are cool, though the "gone to the moon" line makes me cringe a bit. Is it self-indulgent? Perhaps, if indeed it is about the record industry, but there's nothing else about the song that is self-indulgent--no drawn out solos, no weird effects, nothing that I would call indulgent. And if Lindsey hadn't said it's about the industry, it could apply to anything. And in the ears of most listeners, I bet it has nothing to do with the industry.
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