07.02.2009

OUR LADY PEACE'S ALL YOU DID WAS SAVE MY LIFE

by Karlo Jose R. Pineda

It's not by coincidence that I find myself burning minutes listening to the song a night after watching a couple of episodes of Grey’s Anatomy for the first time.* And I presume its likeness with the ditty by The Fray (How To Save A Life) used in the Ellen Pompeo-headlined medical drama—which doesn't reside only on the theme portrayed by the songs’ titles but strangely also in some hallucinatory points in their melodies, the latter being a slower alter-ego of the former—isn't of direct concurrence as well.

True to its title, the latest single from Our Lady Peace, a cut from the band’s seventh studio album dubbed Burn Burn, is replete with vitality. With vocalist Raine Maida’s inimitable voice providing fervent articulation, All You Did Was Save My Life can't be mistaken as your usual Our Lady Peace oeuvre. Nevertheless, there is security in such sureness, which is the same hard-hitting alternative rock sureness that spawned hits like Superman’s Dead, One Man Army, and Somewhere Out There.

But then compared to other counterparts like Automatic Flowers and Naveed, All You Did Was Save My Life is a bit brighter, poppier, if you may.

OLP last came out with a studio album in August 2005 (Healthy in Paranoid Times), making the release of Burn Burn much anticipated. According to the facts, the album’s release will mark the longest gap so far between OLP studio albums. As such, the Canadian rockers have a tendency to break free from the long-drawn-out hiatus with much gusto—and this is clearly evident in All You Did Was Save My Life.

The simple innuendos (“Somehow I knew these wings were stolen”/“I’m not for sale but I’ve been sold”), vivid images (“Like the Red Sea, you split me open”/“Like a singer that sings the blues, you saw hope in the hopeless”), and direct yet arresting declarations (“I’m not dying”/“And I can finally breathe”) in the lyrics make the song discerningly relatable to listeners.

Despite being easy on the recall, its singability shuns its inclination of being hackneyed. Instead, it justifies, if ever he does, Maida balling his hand to a fist and beating it on his chest as he croons it all to the OLP legions. And no, people, that isn't a Backstreet Boys gesture.

Meanwhile, the song’s racing progression, which sets off in Pavlovian explosion upon reaching the chorus, gives post-grunge babies a rush similar to what they feel while listening to ear candies the likes of Switchfoot’s Stars. And note how drummer Jeremy Taggart frequently assaults us with armalite-like fills in the song, which brilliantly come to an orgasmic high at the 02:46-02:50 mark. Truly pulls us out of that flatline!

All You Did Was Save My Life (released on May 25 and June 9 in Canada and the US, respectively) is the opening salvo of OLP’s return to a kind of music which Maida describes as “stripped down, full of raw energy,” eventually calling their most recent effort as a “proper rock album.” If that's the case, we can expect something more from Burn Burn when it hits the shelves this July.

The music video for the song, which was leaked to Canadian viewers through MSN’s website on May 22, was shot in a woodland near Ancaster, Canada and features 90210 star Shenae Grimes. Watch it here.

*And, to date (July 2009), I haven’t watched a single installment of One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl, or even Heroes. I’m an indifferent dinosaur that way.

TAGS: Our Lady Peace All You Did Was Save My Life

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• 2009
  • AUGUST

    • SONG TITLE	ARTIST	RATING
      THIRD EYE BLIND'S DON'T BELIEVE A WORD		6