ticking time is running out

[gorast]

Seriously, While I'm Still Here is the best track on the album. Lyrically, it's gorgeous, the music is the best complement for the subject matter, and it's an incredible album closer all around.

This thread is inclusive of Black Noise as well.

Other thread titles I considered:

ticking time is running out / [foreboding droning]
honk honk honk honk
god forgive me if i cry

[InvitingmeAway]

Not my personal favorite (In Two is my favorite at the moment) but I agree, great closer. Reminds me of The Great Below for some reason...

[Yoshata]

I didn't include it as one of my favorites before, but that is quickly changing. It's been stuck in my head all day. I love its melodies and the lyrics, and the subtle guitar near the end of the final chorus! Yeah, love this one. Black Noise is actually kinda scary to me, so it quickly takes me out of that happier, contemplative place and right back into feeling tense, more than at any other point.

[tw3rbz]

lol @ honk honk honk honk

[Ryan]

lol @ honk honk honk honk

LOL.... "honk honk honk honk, honk-honk..."

[zappy]

Where is the quote taken from? In the remix it is told by a different voice. Sounds like a sample from a film.

[nemesiswontdie]

honk honk honk honk



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOoPDjiSwdo

[seasonsinthesky]

i can't reconcile the funky music with the morose vocals/lyrics. maybe this is the point?

[Matthias Plunkett]

i can't reconcile the funky music with the morose vocals/lyrics. maybe this is the point?

I think that's why Black Noise takes over, it adds the necessary sonic menace that says so much more. Having said that, I thought the Breyer Orridge worked very well as a darker reprise, less funk, more menace.

[fillow]

Is the verse vocal melody here exactly the same as in Find My Way?

[icklekitty]

For some reason "ticking time is running out" reminds me of Bowie. There's a lot of Bowie in this.

[slave2thewage]

Where is the quote taken from? In the remix it is told by a different voice. Sounds like a sample from a film.
"Ticking time is running out"? That's all Trent. Genesis Breyer P-Orridge just repeats it over the original line on the remix.

[Kamelion]

Great song. Love the juxtaposition of beautiful, cosy melody alongside bleak lyrics (which just make me think about being diagnosed with a terminal disease or something - thanks Trent! ;) ). The transition into Black Noise is a piece of subtle genius - so much effect from just a couple of bass notes.

[Fist Fuck]

Contains portions of "Weary Blues From Waiting" by Hank Williams, Sr.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p8CFsfPIS4

Hank Williams Weary Blues From Waiting


The only resemblance I can hear are the two lyrics "watch young lovers as they go strolling by" and "god forgive me if I cry".


I wonder why Trent felt the need to mention this, nobody would have noticed anything, he's not really using anything from the song and the song itself is quite obscure. Any thoughts?

[Leviathant]

The only resemblance I can hear are the two lyrics "watch young lovers as they go strolling by" and "god forgive me if I cry".

"Oh all the things that might have been"


I wonder why Trent felt the need to mention this, nobody would have noticed anything, he's not really using anything from the song and the song itself is quite obscure. Any thoughts?

I don't think the song's particularly obscure - it's Hank Williams, and that song charted at #7 on the country charts according to all-knowing Wikipedia. (I'm also a fan of the NPR show "American Routes") I think it's a deliberate, pronounced nod. It must get a little old getting referenced as 'industrial' in the year 2013. So throw bring Lindsey Buckhingham into the mix, and quote Hank Williams in the final track, and hope they stop wrapping you in the 'industrial' blanket. (Getting Genesis P-Orridge to do a remix admittedly may counteract some of what that theoretically might accomplish)

[Yoshata]

I think having the lyrical nod is really cool. I wouldn't be surprised if TR listens to Hank Williams and just wanted to give a little musical acknowledgement/give proper credit for the two borrowed lines of lyrics.

[Halo Infinity]

If Black Noise was ever used as an opener, I think it would definitely give Pinion or Pinion/The New Flesh some competition. O_O And Black Noise has certainly given me a Suck and Ripe (With Decay) vibe.

[Moebius]

"Oh all the things that might have been"



I don't think the song's particularly obscure - it's Hank Williams, and that song charted at #7 on the country charts according to all-knowing Wikipedia.

Thank you, I was about to post this... Hank Williams, obscure? Kids these days ;)

[orestes]

My favorite part of the song is the electronic bit that's picked up by the saxophone at the end.

[KarenLeslie]

For some reason I keep imagining Trent and Mariqueen singing this together as a duet. Seems like it might give the song a whole new dimension.

[katara]

I don't get why Black Noise is a separate track from WISH. It's just a coda with a couple of new sounds. Even the drums are exactly the same. Honestly, it seems to me like the laziest thing Trent's ever done.
On TDS, it would be like having the sample from the start of Mr Self Destruct or the final chord of Hurt be separate songs. Absolutely pointless.

That said, I do like the music. I just don't understand why it's not the end of WISH.

[WorzelG]

^^could it have been to mirror the 14 tracks on The Downward Spiral?

[katara]

^^could it have been to mirror the 14 tracks on The Downward Spiral?
Sure. But when the final track is just a slight extension of the previous track with a different name, you have to wonder why. I'm sure TR had a reason for it, but it's eluded me thus far.

I'm aware of Please + Appendage, but in that case, the Appendage section is different enough from Please to make it worthy of being its own track. It's also not labelled as a separate track entirely but as an 'Appendage' to Please. Black Noise is just the drum beat from WISH with some ambient textures underneath which distort a little bit. It doesn't really evolve or go anywhere. I feel the same way about The Eater Of Dreams; a cool concept that just isn't given enough time to develop into an idea.

[PhoenixML]

The song is ok. I don't believe, personally, that it's a great closure. It feels like Zero-Sums, not like Hurt or The Great Below (if it counts).

Nothing is really going on in the song, I find it a little boring. Find My Way could have been a better closing song.

On a side note, I feel cheated by Black Noise. I thought we were going to have 13 songs with an intro. I don't believe Black Noise should have been a stand alone track. I doesn't make sense to listen to While I'm Still Here and Black Noise separately. It's not like The Frail and The Wretched.

[m15a]

we discussed it some on the main HM thread. some effects of splitting the track are
- it makes WISH loopable, with the start and end matching perfectly. you can play WISH on repeat and thus play it forever. some (myself included) interpret that a highlighting WISH as a "waiting to die" sort of stage.
- it makes WISH end with the saxophone solo.
- it makes Black Noise it's own entity.


Black Noise is just the drum beat from WISH with some ambient textures underneath which distort a little bit. It doesn't really evolve or go anywhere. I feel the same way about The Eater Of Dreams; a cool concept that just isn't given enough time to develop into an idea.

your consideration of Black Noise as being unworthy of being it's own track or being lazy are based on how you value the those "ambient textures underneath which distort a little bit". you can think whatever you want about the track, but i bet some people, trent included, place a higher value on it.


On a side note, I feel cheated by Black Noise. I thought we were going to have 13 songs with an intro. I don't believe Black Noise should have been a stand alone track. I doesn't make sense to listen to While I'm Still Here and Black Noise separately. It's not like The Frail and The Wretched.

weren't the lengths of the tracks released well before the release of the album? and there were plenty of reviews prior to the release of the album that described black noise. and the whole album was streaming online.

there are many cases where listening to a single track off an album is not the intended way of listening. often, classical music albums are released with separate tracks for separate movements although the expectation is that one would listen to the entire work at once. there are plenty of examples on popular music, too, like, the intro tracks on some of NIN's albums.

[Moebius]

Personally I wish Black Noise (and Eater of Dreams) were another 2-3 minutes longer. Such a tease...

[Sutekh]

Breyer porridge remix is superior imo... I interpret the lyrics as anxiety over growing older and wondering if you've lived a decent life. Tr and gbpo have very different stories and given what's happened to the latter, it does add an extra degree of poignancy

[DaNiN]

The song is ok. I don't belseve, personally, that it's a great closure. It feels like Zero-Sums, not like Hurt or The Great Below (if it counts).

Nothing is really going on in the song, I find it a little boring. Find My Way could have been a better closing song.

On a side note, I feel cheated by Black Noise. I thought we were going to have 13 songs with an intro. I don't believe Black Noise should have been a stand alone track. I doesn't make sense to listen to While I'm Still Here and Black Noise separately. It's not like The Frail and The Wretched.


I don't agree with you.in fact i love that they are seperate tracks,a great way to end the album,trent outdid himself with the ending of HM,one of his best works for sure.

[Bluebird]

That said, I do like the music. I just don't understand why it's not the end of WISH.

Because the two tracks have a completely different feel to them. If While I'm Still Here is about contemplating death from a distance, (somewhat) peacefully, Black Noise is when the awareness of impending doom is at its most acute, or maybe even a glimpse forward into your own death...somebody on here described Black Noise as what they imagine dying to be like. I like that. Slowly being sucked away from concrete reality, pulled ever downward, into nothing. A pretty horrific idea of the act of dying, but cool nonetheless in the context of the song(s).

They needed separate titles despite the shared sounds because they're descriptive of different perspectives of the same thing. That's how I've been thinking of it, anyway. Super satisfying for me.

[katara]

- it makes WISH loopable, with the start and end matching perfectly. you can play WISH on repeat and thus play it forever. some (myself included) interpret that a highlighting WISH as a "waiting to die" sort of stage.

your consideration of Black Noise as being unworthy of being it's own track or being lazy are based on how you value the those "ambient textures underneath which distort a little bit". you can think whatever you want about the track, but i bet some people, trent included, place a higher value on it.
I listen to and appreciate ambient and noise music. Hell, I've even made an album consisting of three 20-minute evolving drones. Of course I value those sounds. Sonically, Black Noise is beautiful. But to essentially take the end of a song and just snip it off seems pointless. Why would anyone ever want to loop WISH forever? As I said before, this is just laziness. Don't get me wrong, it's a great way to end the album, but it's a lazy way to bump the album up to 14 tracks so it'll mirror The Downward Spiral. Now, if WISH+Black Noise had been one song, and 'Black Noise' had been a 6-minute long ambient track, that would have been worthy of a new song title.

I stand by my opinion.

[m15a]

Hell, I've even made an album consisting of three 20-minute evolving drones.

okay. you're free to your opinion. but you should have really edited those 20-minute drone pieces down to 4-minute pieces. it's just lazy that you skipped that editing stage just to fill up a full CD with only 3 tracks.

:rolleyes:

[p_rez17]

I think having the lyrical nod is really cool. I wouldn't be surprised if TR listens to Hank Williams and just wanted to give a little musical acknowledgement/give proper credit for the two borrowed lines of lyrics.

Trent actually has actually had "Weary Blues From Waitin'" on his Current driving music playlist on Spotify since August of 2011. As an avid country fan, I was thrilled when he included it on his playlist and ecstatic when I read it in the liner notes for "While I'm Still Here."

[EndlessLoveless]

The song is ok. I don't believe, personally, that it's a great closure. It feels like Zero-Sums, not like Hurt or The Great Below (if it counts).

Nothing is really going on in the song, I find it a little boring. Find My Way could have been a better closing song.

On a side note, I feel cheated by Black Noise. I thought we were going to have 13 songs with an intro. I don't believe Black Noise should have been a stand alone track. I doesn't make sense to listen to While I'm Still Here and Black Noise separately. It's not like The Frail and The Wretched.

Having black noise be a stand alone track also makes it, in case you dont like while im still here, you can take it off the album, and in two still flows perfectly into black noise. It happened by accident on my ipod and i noticed this.

[Yoshata]

Trent actually has actually had "Weary Blues From Waitin'" on his Current driving music playlist on Spotify since August of 2011. As an avid country fan, I was thrilled when he included it on his playlist and ecstatic when I read it in the liner notes for "While I'm Still Here."

I remember seeing that! :) I love country too (haven't listened to a lot of Hank Williams, but I don't think it'd take me long to get into his music).

I just love this kind of stuff where it seems like most musicians have some kind of connection to each other, whether it's through people, influences, songs, or whatever.

[Halo Infinity]

I thought Black Noise was the way it is to sort of close the album with in a slightly similar length of time that Hesitation Marks opened up with on The Eater Of Dreams, with Black Noise being longer by 36 seconds.