Musical Monday (#13)

It's amazing -- even to me -- that I have been doing "Musical Monday" for however-long now, and I am yet to post about this band. I will post about Avril Lavigne and any number of other artists (and yes, she is an "artist", shut up) and yet this band holding the coveted position of my favourite band have so far been ignored.
Perhaps the reason for it is there is no story. There's no memory linked to the first time I heard them, there's no tale to tell about special and personal meanings I have for particular songs. I've never seen them live, and I don't even own all of their albums. This post really is as much about one song as it is about the band.

Superman's Dead is my favourite song by Our Lady Peace, but as I can't tell you when I first heard it, or any special meaning equated to it.

The song starts quietly, and with a simple question; "Do you worry that you're not liked?" -- and it builds from there. I love the band, they remind me of a more-consistent Smashing Pumpkins, with Raine Maida having a voice not unlike Billy Corgan's -- but again, building on it, and improving on it. Parts of the song strike me as a little absurd, and I'll wonder why I like them, especially Raine's "Ow-ooo-ooo" vocals -- but it's not a cognitive thing, it's purely the emotional "Yes!" moment of a fantastic song. When a song speaks to you, not on a deep lyrical level but when it just hits the right places.

I once kept a diary called Superman's Dead, but the point was that the diary was named after the song. I don't like the song more because of it. People later equated deeper significance to it -- that I was saying Superman's dead, don't expect anyone to save you, you're on your own. I don't know and don't care if that's what the song means, it was never a conscious decision on my own part.

Depite all of the above, various lines do speak to me -- most notably parts like "An ordinary boy, an ordinary name, but ordinary's just not good enough today" and "are you worried about your faith? Kneel down and obey". Thinking more about the song, perhaps it is quite nihilist in content, perhaps it is questioning the reality behind people's façades -- and the almost under current of anger or frustration behind it.

I'm hardly a scholar and I wouldn't want to deconstruct the song. It's high in the running for "favourite song ever" (probably slightly behind Stone Temple Pilots), and that's all that really counts.