The Full Story
About It's Raining in Greenland
MESSAGING THE BOSS:
You're Killing it All, Why are We so Ashamed?
YOU'RE KILLING IT ALL begins with a jazzy, Simon Phillips drum and bass intro that slides into a piano backed ballad sung from the perspective of concerned, cautioning friend of an unknowingly self-destructive object. This friend has decided that the truth should finally be told.
WHY ARE WE SO ASHAMED begins with an electronic drone, a jazz drum, an upright bass and a jingling triangle under a telephone type voice over commenting on gossip about a political leader's corruption. Then suddenly changes gear radically and becomes a Noel Coward style piano and comic ballad, ridiculing the same corrupt political leader.
REVOLUTIONARY STUFF:
Slam on the Engine, The Rumour
SLAM ON THE ENGINE brings the mood up a bit with some strong rock guitar riffs, a song about the vital need to bring about democratic change in a revolutionary way to save the world. S.O.S. world.
THE RUMOUR is a slow, steady ballad, announcing a 'rumour' of a revolutionary change in the making. The song introduces the violins in the dark VST which would become a trademark instrument for both Madadkin and Paul Adkin's later evolution into the experimental artist Sherwin https://madadkinmusic.wixsite.com/sherwin.
ECOLOGICAL:
It's Raining in Greenland, In The End,
IT'S RAINING IN GREENLAND: The title track uses a theme by the romantic composer Robert Schumann. The narrative focuses on the reports that it was raining in Greenland, in places where it never rains, melting the snow and ice, speeding up the decline of glaciers and generally showing that climate change was already here.
IN THE END pursues the jazzy, avant garde style of Kicking Lacan of The Rapture album. It is another sonoric collage with chops of voices that include H.G. Wells and Leonardo Dicaprio.
SAD SONGS:
Yesterday in a Dream, Stripped, Please Mr Sandman, Money Aint Free, The Pit and the Pyramid
YESTERDAY IN A DREAM was first released as a single in April 2022, and this one is sung by Ariadna. Her voice a deeply moving, melancholy feel in this ballad concerned with the deaths caused by Covid.
STRIPPED is a continuation of the sad mood of Yesterday, contemplating the dismal human condition that we found ourselves in after the pandemic, but with a determined final message that we have to find good reasons to go on.
PLEASE MR SANDMAN reverses the idea of the Sandman (the one who drops sand into our eyes and puts us to sleep), with a plea to that Sandman to wake us all up and make the nightmare go away. A rock guitar based number.
MONEY AINT FREE is a droning piece of Madadkin psychedelia, relating the effects of money to those of other lethal drugs like heroin or fentanyl.
THE PIT AND THE PYRAMID: This is Madadkin collage at its best. The title comes from a book by Derrida on Hegel's semiology, and some of the text was snatched randomly from there. The female vocal chops are of Sylvia Plath reading her own poem The Disquieting Muses, interspersed with Adkin's own philosophies. The music running underneath slowly builds giving pace and form to the collage, turning it into a song ... almost. "What if I told you that I was ashamed, of the world?"
ANTI-WAR:
War Machine
WAR MACHINE came along with the invasion of the Ukraine by Putin's Russia. Technically it was a return to the bluesy/folky songs of the first album with a slow strumming acoustic guitar, a haunting, gravelly voice and the tragic feel harbouring on biblical allegory of the struggle against an evil monster.