The band HURT quickly became one of my favorite new artists when they released Vol. I, and have only matured and grown as a band since then. Their latest work, Goodbye to the Machine, to me is a little less of a personal story than Vols. I & II, a little more worldly. But it still HURT. There are songs that are even darker and heavier than previous work, and songs that are even more beautifully melodic as well. Lyrically, many songs are open to multiple translations, and tackle various deeply rooted topics, which I will attempt to give my own ideas on. Overall, I’d say this is a very solid, dark and artistic rock album, and definitely worth a listen.
“Got Jealous” - One of the album’s heaviest and darkest tunes, a song that is not simply about jealousy but tells a story of murderous rage.
“Pandora” - There’s a term a friend of mine would use for the type of girl this song describes, light-sucker. Describes getting drawn in to someone, to a very dark place, and by the time you realize what’s happened, it’s too late to break free.
“Wars” - I think that if I wanted to express my feelings on war, I would simply point to this song. He sings praise to the heroes who fight and die for the rest of us, while maintaining his view that war itself is an evil thing.
“World Ain’t Right” - A duet with Shaun Morgan of Seether. A song about the world, and the wrongs he sees in it.
“Sweet Delilah” - A very sad song about falling in love with someone when he knows that he shouldn’t.
“1331” - Just to throw things off a bit, a positive song about following your dreams and the people who believe and inspire you to do so.
“Role Martyr X” - A very angry song aimed at the attention-seekers. People who bitch and moan just for the sake of bitching and moaning, people whose only happiness is making sure everyone else knows how miserable their lives are.
“Well” - It starts with a failed suicide attempt, and grows into a very introspective look at how he’s gotten to such a point in his life.
“Pills” - A song about addiction, particularly the type of psychological addiction that occurs when someone relies on drugs to make themselves feel better.
“Dreams Away” - A very sad song, I see it as someone who gets stuck in a very bad situation to the point where they feel that escape is impossible and can do nothing but dream of a better place.
“Fighting Tao” - The song I’ve posted here, I view it as a song about fate. Whatever he does, however hard he fights to change, he’s always brought back to the same place. You can try to fight and deny it all you want, he says, but I know where this river ends, and I’ll see you there.
“That (Such a Thing)” - To be as vague as the song itself, it’s about a feeling inside that can’t be explained. It might be love, it might be pain, whatever it is it’s deeply personal. It’s life.
