Using images of self-destruction and tribalism, No Time To React paints a bleak landscape.
As a second taste of Diurnal, the following lyrics remain amongst its most blunt. With imagery such as deserted streets, storm-lit skies and glass houses, it was written in 2021. Inspired by the aftermath of Covid-19, it covers how maintaining relationships can become more strained due to personal beliefs.
Written more recently, No Time To React is one of the last things finished for Diurnal. Putting it more firmly in the present, the lyrics compare the world’s current state to where it once was. It’s a difference that underscores the true impact of what’s happened since the pandemic.
Beyond the sampling from Diurnal, I’ve also included two bonus pieces. Such A Waste comes from a similar place and was written during the same sessions. Coming off as a less refined version of No Time To React, it’s from a one-sided vantage point of a marginalized group. It confronts the privileged mentality that people in need should be grateful for what they get, even if it’s inadequate or involves extra obstacles to be considered. In the end, the verse melody was too similar to Only In Our Minds (another piece from Diurnal itself) and this got cut.
As opposed to everything else here, Kitchen is close to two-decades-old. Originally written about a relationship from that time and a dream surrounding it, I’ve worked on this one for years. While the original is too unpolished for any set of lyrics, replicating its overall mood has been impossible. In the music world, that’s called “demoitis,” where a band or musician creates a rough recording of a song as a reference point. When they go to record the song in the studio afterwards, it ends up losing something in the process, usually its original mood or mystique.
Anyway, that’s what happened here. At one point, it looked like Diurnal would be a more adult look at some relationships from my past. In that context, Kitchen fit the grouping a lot better. Once that idea was abandoned however, it quickly fell by the wayside. That’s not to say that Kitchen is bad by any means, it just became the one that got away. With its themes of miscommunication fitting this post though,I decided to include it here.
If you like this sample, please leave a comment and be sure to read Diurnal in full. You won’t regret it!
Lyrics Content
01. No Time To React
02. Such A Waste
03. Kitchen
No Time To React
Claimed a natural disorder
From glass houses we throw stones
Well at least they’re all made bullet proof
Built to isolate alone
As division breeds this sickness
Moved across these quiet streets
Darkness hovers in the storm lit skies
Slowly landing at our feet
No one wants to say it, there’s nobody fighting back
We’ve been picking off our differences with no time to react
Trained and at the ready, each dispute to propagate
It’s far too late, it’s far too late…
We can feel it taking over
Spilling out to save ourselves
There’s no need for such destructiveness
But it suits us all so well
With these arguments to feed on
What’s the sense in our resolve?
Split apart to play the final chords
In this never ending song
No one wants to say it, there’s nobody fighting back
We’ve been picking off our differences with no time to react
Trained and at the ready, each dispute to propagate
It’s far too late, it’s far too late…
From incestuous opinions
Revolving doors we can’t escape
All returned for some intolerance
Born in fear to fuel this hate
Now we struggle with excuses
Lost to truths we’ll never face
We can’t be saved, we can’t be saved
Obscuring what lies forward, over shoulders we look back
Begging for some closure when there’s no time to react
Lined up at the ready, they all watch it propagate
It’s far too late, it’s far too late, it’s far too late…
Such A Waste
Can you spare me for a minute?
I’ve been trying to sort this out
You can’t bite the hand that feeds you
If you never shut your mouth
Now I’m racing through these pages
Come apart from what you’ve read
There’s no method to this madness
Turning phrases in my head
What you can’t see, it just can’t be
I know it’s hard, you won’t believe
Slow your pace, now check your brains
Our thoughts restrained, it’s always such a waste
While you only meant to help me
By reciting what went wrong
It was paved in good intentions
When these roads go on and on
Now it’s hard to comprehend this
Born in shoes for someone else
Though I’m thankful for the effort
No one listens very well
What you can’t see, it just can’t be
I know it’s hard, you won’t believe
Slow your pace, now check your brains
Our thoughts restrained, it’s always such a waste
Why can’t this be simple?
When it isn’t hard for you
I’m not that fond of spotlights
With dissections to work through
You speak and they all listen
Power lies in privileged hands
For me it’s not an option
If it isn’t in their plans
What you can’t see, it just can’t be
I know it’s hard, you won’t believe
Slow your pace, now check your brains
Our thoughts restrained, it’s always such a waste
It’s always such a waste
It’s always such a waste
Kitchen
Last night I had a dream
It was the strangest dream of you
Sheltered in slumber, made to sleep unencumbered
Pushed away with such abuse
But the thing about this dream
Is that it simply couldn’t be
With our fallacy met, another tragic regret
It was not reality
As this empty living room slowly fell into ruin
You’d ventured off to cry in the kitchen
Apart in your heart, always sitting alone
When the answer lied in trying to listen
So I struggled to my feet
Finally made it down the hall
Projecting deflection, never paying attention
But I think I heard you call
I think I heard you call
As this empty living room slowly fell into ruin
You’d ventured off to cry in the kitchen
Apart in your heart, always sitting alone
When the answer lied in trying to listen
It’s all in the truth we could never command
While no one denies that it slipped through our hands
We laughed and we laughed as the past was replaced
Couldn’t find understanding, ain’t it all such a waste?
Couldn’t find understanding, ain’t it all such a waste?
Now there’s nothing left to see
You look so dead behind the eyes
Repressing such anger, coming back like a stranger
But it wasn’t a surprise
No it wasn’t a surprise
As this empty living room slowly fell into ruin
You’d ventured off to cry in the kitchen
Apart in your heart, always sitting alone
When the answer lied in trying to listen
The answer lied in trying to listen