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Im studying how they got by, how they got out.
Morality is changing rapidly; hope is sputtering.
Music is an excellent coping mechanism.
Empathetic songwriters make this their express business.
Stevie Wonder urged our parents and grandparents to strive to reach higher ground.
Kendrick Lamar and Ariana Grande knew that we needed to hear that were gonna be all right.
The message ofThe Now Nowwas spelled out in kind earlier this year during Albarnsadmittedly drunken Brit Awards speech.
Weve got a real spirit and a real soul, he said.
See the state Im in now?
Im not gonna cry, the crestfallen Kansas resolves.
Ive got more time to give.
The vastness and versatility of the countryside come through in the songs about cities, states, and clubs.
Hollywood is all gloss and West Coast hip-hop attitude.
Florence and the MachinesHigh As Hopeis a travelogue of sorts as well, but not of tour stops.
South London Forever laments Welchs youthful dependence on alcohol for courage in social situations.
Later, Sky Full of Song dramatizes the disorienting comedown after the rousing uplift of a good gig.
(Lordewarnedabout what happens when you cross a writer.)
Love is too strong to waste on the selfish and the careless.
That makesHigh As Hopean ending as well as a new beginning.
Normally, Id stop here, wryly, and say, Ifthere are that many years to come.
But the Eeyore act is misspent energy.
Fightings how we win the future; brayings how we dont.
