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Even in Lindsey's not so spectacular songs, I find something I like, the way he sings, a certain guitar part, a cool line, whatever. No, Empire State is no ISA or GYOW, but the plink plink makes it fun for me to listen to. LOL
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I know what you mean, Christy. I do the same.
Song discussions are interesting. This Is The Time...
I suppose I look at this song as a declaration of the dawning of a new day or something like that. I think he's looking at his past (distant and immediate) in the verses and musing about the things that made certain events memorable/rough and shaped his somewhat dark outlook at this point.
Then in the chorus, I think he's saying "this is the time" to start a new chapter in his life. Probably some of my impression about the meaning of this song comes in the context of the whole album, which I think was all about that theme in various ways. Cradle is totally a theme album about overcoming and starting over.
Sanity
We long to see you
Keep our ears down to the track
Honesty
Did we desert you?
Is the truth ever coming back?
I sorta see the verses as quick snatches of images about how he was feeling at various points in the past (probably most especially during the ending of his Mac years) - on some shaky ground, losing confidence, struggling with personal and artistic integrity, etc. He's wondering if he'll regain the happiness, confidence, integrity...
When he uses "we" throughout this song, I've always thought of it as him just referring to himself (and all of the voices inside his head
).
Slightly episodic
Always on the run
Ever so neurotic
Still we have our fun
This strikes me as either being a comment on how unsettled he was feeling, or even about the Mac. "Still we have our fun" might have been a nod to the band's "chemistry" despite all of the other drama between them - "episodic," "neurotic," etc.
Revenge and fear
How can we heal you
With our heads down on the block?
Family
There is no curfew
In the town they call the rock
Is it just my imagination or is San Francisco sometimes referred to as "The Rock" as a nickname? I had that notion in my head from the first time I heard it, but I don't actually know where that idea came from. It could be based on something totally eroneous, butI I kind of assumed this was a comment about growing up in the Bay Area, especially as he precedes that line with "Family". He's made references in other songs or interviews about feeling like just being around his family healed him of some of his worries, so perhaps he's answering the question he posed in the first part of that verse with the second part of that verse.
Ever so hypnotic
Underneath the gun
A little too erotic
How do we get things done?
Pressure, fame, relationship troubles inside and outside of the band. How
did they get things done?
This is the time of the new sign
This is the sign of the new line
Time, this is the time
Time, this is the time
Like I said, I sort of think this is like a "carpe diem" type statement. The pieces of his past that shaped his feelings of "revenge and fear" are the things he'd now like to shake in this "time of the new sign...time of the new line." By "new sign" I sort of think of maybe a new mantra that he wants to live by. By "new line" I think of "Please toe the line" from "Walk a Thin Line" on Tusk. He's got his own line to toe now.
What happened in the past is in the past and this is the time for him to seize the day and make his new beginning. The closing guitar solo has a lot of force behind it. An indication of his determination?