https://colinkellymusicinreview.blogspot.com/2019/12/radical-face-hard-of-hearing.html
In that review I mentioned falling down a rabbit hole listening to music with the shared theme of mental illness, and people like it when you are topical, so let us return to that.
Along with “Hard of Hearing” the song I stumbled across that stuck with me the most was “The New Great Depression” by The Moth and The Flame. I instantly appreciated the reoccurring single line and song title:
“Welcome the new great depression”
That line, the idea, The New Great Depression, is brilliant from a purely artistic angle. We are familiar with the original Great Depression, and perhaps because I took a lot of economics courses in University my mind immediately leaped to pondering what the new Great Depression might be. Economically I was born into a rough generation, already on our third recession, and while dealing with the most recent recession we have not even recovered from the last one. I cannot recall a time in my entire adulthood where the economy was not a source of struggle. Maybe what we are going through is the New Great Depression.
Of course, that is not what “The New Great Depression,” the song, is about. Just a little amusing my mathematically inclined brain first thought of the most literal economic interpretation possible. Before I even got to the halfway point of the song on my first listen, I was already assuming there was another message within. I assumed they were talking about actual depression and the rest of chorus, does seem to relay this:
“I'm fine, don't ask, the truth is,
I'm nightmares underneath, it's useless.
Oh, well, who cares? The proof is,
The monster in my head is ruthless.”
Good stuff. Nothing too complicated. Great choice for a song title. Solid lyrical artist flair. No one needs me to further point out the song’s message, right?
Normally we would move on, but there is more.
Like many song discoveries for me, I listen before I watch, because like many people music is the background of my life. At work, in the gym, out for a run, cooking dinner, cleaning the condo, siting on the balcony reading a book, typically during all those activities I am listening to music. So I listen, probably most songs I like I have never seen the music video for. For The Moth and the Flame’s “The New Great Depression” I did watch the video and I really liked it.
The video has a very charming way of visualizing mental illness. A young boy is haunted by a bipedal, harry monster with two horns coming out of its head, two glowing yellow eyes and no mouth. I found the video to have a very “Where the Wild Things are” ascetic, and I liked that, emphasized the aspect of a child trying to make sense of the world.
In the music video we follow the young boy as he learns to understand and accept his companion monster, and interestingly he is not always a source of fear and distribution, but also a source of comfort. It is possible that the beast represents the inner-self, both the good and the bad, but the mental illness metaphor still works because depending on the mental illness which afflicts someone there can be unique, often intangible, benefits created by the aliments. Furthermore, given the song title and lyrical content, I am rather certain the monster represents a catchall for mental illness.
The final shot of the music video is the boy seeing for the first time a whole group of other people and how they are being friendly with and comforted by their own monsters. This final scene really worked for me, because I believed it showed that everyone is experiencing struggle. To some degree everyone suffers from some sort of emotional struggles which could be identified or related to mental illness in someway, but more then that, everyone struggles with themselves, their inner mind possessing frightening and soothing properties. Discovering this, the young boy in the video looks at his own monster a little differently. It helps when you realize that others share your struggle, and that you can relate to others with similar experiences, if nothing else it assists at eliminating the feeling of being alone.
“The New Great Depression” was released in December 2018, fairly recently, but a lot has happened since then. The third recession I mentioned has really sank into our lives, Coronavirus is further damaging the economy and increasing social isolation, and there is so much bad news right now it sure does not help media’s sensationalizing is creating a powerful aphrodisiac for fear mongering. Maybe, this song by The Moth and The Flame was accidently prophetic. All these disasters going on at once has created a very unhealthy environment for everyone. I have heard the suicide rate has gone way up, and I do not think it is a bold claim that it is related to everything going on. I see no way the song writer(s) behind “The New Great Depression” could have predicted any of these global issues, but this song could easily be our everyday theme song right now.
Are we living through “The New Great Depression” right now?
On a final side note, I scrolled down to the comment section on the youtube video for The Moth and The Flame “The New Great Depression” and apparently this song has recently be included in one of the more recent sessions of “Thirteen Reasons Why,” so I suspect this song is about to get a healthy number of new fans. The only thing I know about “Thirteen Reasons Why” is that it is about a suicide, and presumably the reasons why it happened. Based on that “The New Great Depression” sounds like a reasonable choice of song to include.
Until next month, keep on rocking in the free world.
- King of Braves
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