Wax Fang - Serenity Now

Six years ago, the American Dad episode “Lost in Space” aired on television. I am a lukewarm fan of the shot, but I really enjoyed this episode; “Lost is Space” is definitely my favorite episode. There is a moment where the character Jeff has his mind probed so everyone can see what his memories of love are like, and the whole sequence plays like a music video with the Wax Fang song “Majestic.” A song I have sang along with so many times now that I can sing the entire thing from memory at any time, no matter how drunk.

“I thought I was asleep when I met you,
My heart liquified, and I sighed, oh, this must be a dream.
If I forget to set the alarm, and sleep on through the dawn, don’t remind me,
Cause I’d rather be dreaming of you, than sleeping along.” 

I did not look that up, just typed it out, no problem.

Two years ago, I wrote about Wax Fang in this music blog. I mentioned of course that I was introduced to the band by watching American Dad “Lost in Space,” and I talked briefly about how much I like “Majestic” but I try to be unique, because I like to think I am clever, so I instead focused the review on the song “Dawn of the Dead of the Night of the Hunter.”

Here is the link to that Music in Review blog post: https://colinkellymusicinreview.blogspot.com/2017/09/wax-fang-dawn-of-dead-of-night-of-hunter.html

It did not take me long after hearing “Majestic” on American Dad to discovery and learn to appreciate other songs like “Dawn of the Dead of the Night of the Hunter” by Wax Fan; obviously. As time went on, I continued to just fall in love with Wax Fang, there are dozens of their songs I listen to now on the regular. They are probably one of my favorite active bands.

Wax Fang’s fourth studio album “Victory Laps” came out in 2017. The same year I wrote my original Wax Fang review. It is no coincidence that “Victory Laps” made a strong presence in my music listening habits that year. Even now, a few of the songs from that album continue to get plenty of play on my music playlist, both at home and at work.

Two songs from “Victory Laps” in particular have endeared themselves to me “Do the Math” and “Serenity Now.”

I am a CPA and my accounting degree has a minor in mathematics, so I tend appreciate math and others who express an appreciation for the scientific field, so naturally “Do the Math” really speaks to me. Nonetheless, today I would rather discuss “Serenity Now” as I do appreciate that track even more.

Before we go any further, I would remiss if I did not point out the obvious Seinfeld reference, “serenity now.” Who could forget Frank Costanza’s mantra to help calm himself? What a hilarious episode, and the song “Serenity Now,” is a fun homage to the iconic episode from the greatest comedy show of all time. 

Since Seinfeld is clearly an inspiration on this Wax Fang song “Serenity” now, we would rightly assume that there would be a connection in comedy, however I am entirely sure that is the case. The emotional take away for the song “Serenity Now” is not one of humour but of calm. We all have stressful lives, well I guess there are a handful of lucky bastards out there who lead easy lives, but for vast majority of us, life can and does get pretty stressful. There are many possible cures for what ails us, but a great smoothing friend in the battle against anxiety is music, for music holds a secret and to know it can make us whole. That last part is a Triumph lyric, but I thought I would throw it in there for fun.

Wax Fang’s “Serenity Now,” is very uplifting. There is a calling howl in the intro that calls us in, and the flow of the rhythm jumps very rapidly and hooks the listener and takes them on a fine trot through the song. It is a song with a good amount of speed and energy but is very mellowing all the same.

There are three short verses in “Serenity Now” all about being overcome with panic and wanting an escape of some kind, and each time this is a setup for the chorus that greatly proclaims to us to accept simply that we may not know why, or what to do, and to simply let go.

“Under attack,
Now sit back and relax a bit,
Let go, let go.
I'm on a roll,
And now I'm losing control,
I gotta let go, let go.
Have I lost my mind...
Or is it just the sign of the times?”

I like the chorus as lot. I really like how singer Scott Carney bellows out the “let go” part, it does come across to me like a demand but a powerful suggestion, one Carney seems confident you will accept, or at the least, that you should.

Let go, just let go. Let go of all that anxiety and fear. Let is slip through your fingers like the irrelevant grains of sand they are. With enough time passed, no one will care, not even yourself, about the haunting nagging small troubles that plague you in the intermediate. So just let go.

I found this mantra so deeply relaxing. Carney’s goal for “Serenity Now” was surely to share the feeling of calm acceptance, and oh now richly he accomplished this goal. Possibly his best song.

Returning to Seinfeld, the element comedy is not obviously present in the song “Serenity Now” but a literal relation to Frank Costanza’s intention with his mantra is parallel and present. Why does Frank Costanza say “serenity now” to himself? To combat his anger and stress. It is a call to calm, just like Wax Fang’s song. By taking this literal interpretation of this comedy show’s moment, something a of a meta joke is at play. It is like Carney took this joke from Seinfeld and played it straight, which sort of works for humours sake. Nonetheless, I do very much enjoy the powerful relaxing mood of the song and the takeaway message.

Until next month, keep on rocking in the free world.

- King of Braves