When I first listened to the new CD from Our Lady Peace called Healthy in Paranoid Times, I loved the music, but hated the lyrics.
However, after having looked up the lyrics for Healthy on the Internet, I feel the need to qualify my opinion of them.
There are some good, thoughtful lyrics on Healthy. In fact, the good outnumber the bad. Others of their songs quite frankly sound as if the lyricist didn’t put any thought into them at all – I pictured him standing in front of the microphone and singing the words as they came to him.
Take the second track, “Will the Future Blame Us?” where is no focus or substance whatsoever to that song.
The point seems to be that the world is going down the tubes, but the singer can’t focus on one thing in particular that’s wrong with it: “And is it getting better/Can we live forever I/And I’m not sure what the hell we’re fighting for/ And does the money make us?/And will the future blame us I/ Oh I don’t wanna know.”
Is he asking whether our improved medical care has really improved society, or is he protesting against the war in Iraq, or is he complaining about the rampant consumerism in our culture? We don’t know.
At least we can be sure what the fifth track, “Wipe that Smile Off Your Face,” is about – hatred – but there isn’t much substance to that song, either.
The singer keeps telling this unnamed person – or possibly group of people – how much he hates them, but we never find out why.
However, as I said, the good lyrics on this CD outnumber the bad. “Picture” has a nice metaphor of the act of taking a person’s photograph down from the wall representing erasing that person from one’s life.
“Don’t Stop” could be interpreted as being either about someone’s relationship with God or about their relationship with a lover whom he sees as being almost god-like. On one hand there’s the line “And only you can save me tonight,” which implies a sexual relationship, but then there’s the line “I’ve said all my prayers for tonight.”
“Walking in Circles,” the penultimate track, is clearly about ambition – the lines “Ambition is killing me/And the new trends and the money/Oh, I feel so cheap” make it clear that the ambitions that the singer once cherished are no longer fulfilling for him.
All in all, Healthy in Paranoid Times is a great CD, both musically and lyrically – with the exception of a few songs.

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