Track 1: Closer - fine, but boring, slow start to album, grew on me by the second listen Track 2: Crawl - forgettable, pretty generic Track 3: Sex on fire - overplayed but great stadium song Track 4: Use somebody - ^ Track 5: Manhattan - again, grew on me on second listen but sounds like all the early tracks of this album, i like the baseline Track 6: Revelry - slightly stronger, more vulnerable Track 7: 17 - boring, not many opinions on this track Track 8: Notion - Track 9: I want you - slightly different to the other tracks, breaks it up a bit Track 10: Be somebody - starts picking up the tempo Track 11: Cold desert - fairly boring, very lyrically simple, weak end to an album Not very lyrically impressive, fairly solid album, most of the tracks are super similar, hard to comment on each track as they sound so similar. although 'Sex on fire' and 'use somebody' break it up, good stadium songs. Album starts picking up at the end slightly in tempo with 'I want you' and 'Be somebody' gave up commenting on each song halfway through as they all end up merging into one. would describe this album as safe and accessible. Quite hard to decide on a stand out track from this album, obviously Tracks 3 and 4 have been massive hits, Favourite song: 'Revelry' or 'I want you' After 2 listens, would rate 4.5/10 Album cover: more of a fan of the fractured green/owl cover than the red and back ink spot version. Both covers very evocative of 2008.

Track 1: Bombtrack - references to political struggle of Peruvian revolutionaries against US backed government in music video. 'I warm my hands upon the flames of the flag'. Track2: Killing in the name - protests police brutality and systemic oppression. Written six months following the Rodney King beating in 1991 which resulted in LA riots. Lyrics reference the system being complicit in the upholding of white supremacy in the US ('some of those that work forces are the same that burn crosses'). Track 3: Take the power back - serves as a message to reclaim power from the government and return it to the people. Power comes from self-education, not what is being taught in education system 'in the right light, study becomes insight, but the system that dissed us, teaches us to read and write'. Track 4: Settle for nothing - written in the point of view of a frustrated youth in poverty 'a jail cell is freedom from the pain in my home'. Track 5: Bullet in the head - refers to band's belief the government uses media to control the population, drawing comparisons between typical residences and Alcatraz. Lyrics draw comparisons that symbols in support of the US military to that of the nazis 'a yellow ribbon instead of a swastika'. comments that news cycles and images people are being shown are used as weapons to control peoples perceptions and maintain control of them. Track 6: Know your enemy - contains anti-war and anti-authoritarian lyrics, contrasting notions of the American dream against the reality. Uses literary references (A room with a view, which discusses repression of women in England). Speaks of police brutality. 'The finger to the land of the chains. What? The 'land of the free'? Whoever told you that is your enemy'. 'I've got no patience now, so sick of complacence'. Lyrics reference that the oppression of thought begins in the classroom, the government aims to indoctrinate people into the 'American dream' by educating them against their own will to believe differently. Track 7: Wake up - critique of racism within the US government, FBI memo is sampled in the song (J. Edgar Hoover suggests a need to suppress black national movement) and references Hoover in the lyrics. Closing lines reference Martin Luther King Jr. speech. Reference to 1966 and the founding of the Black Panthers. 'fist in the air in the land of hypocrisy'. Lyrics liken words being as powerful as fighting and liken to an Ali fight. Track 8: Fistful of steel - about how being silent and complicit is bad ('silence can be violent'), references to Orwell's animal farm, sheeps and conformity. Track 9: Township rebellion - speaks to global white supremacy, references apartheid in South Africa ('Townships' were the designated areas non-white people were forced to live in) and compares it to police brutality against minority populations in South Central. Track 10: Freedom - references native American activist Leonard Peltier who was condemned to two life sentences for the deaths of two FBI agents (questions have been raised since his trial about prosecution's misconduct and fabricated evidence and falsified testimonies). Lyrics reference the genocide of native American people and consequent tactics to assimilate native people into the culture of European settlers. Album was released same day as the 1992 presidential election. Favourite Track: Wake up, Know your enemy Album cover: 1963 photo of a monk burning himself to death protesting the persecution of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese government

Track 1: Like a rolling stone - many people believe the song to be about Warhol muse Edie Sedgewick but the similarities seem to be coincidental. Tells a story of a girl's fall from grace. Track 2: Tombstone blues - song details an absurd version of America in the midst of an escalating Vietnam war. Reference to Paul Revere ('hero of the American revolution), Belle Starr (female outlaw), Jezebel (a biblical character whose name has become associated with false prophets and used as a synonym for promiscuous or controlling women), Jack the ripper who in the lyrics sits at the chamber of commerce (characterisation of 'blood thirsty' politics), John the baptist (described as torturing a thief which would be uncharacteristic, could be comment on contradictions within the church or reference to soldiers forced to use waterboarding torture 'baptism'), the 'commander in chief' referenced during this time was Lyndon B. Johnson (he is described as 'chasing a fly' which could be a comment on his carelessness or the fear of communism), the king of the Philistines (reference to biblical hero Samson who claimed to have killed a thousand Philistine with the jawbone of a donkey, reference to putting rifles on the graves of soldiers (the thing that they were killed by)), the pied piper (referenced in prison to suggest that anyone who speaks out against the war being put in prison), Gypsy Davey (a character from Anglo-American folk songs, burning camps like the American soldiers did to the Vietnamese) Pedro (a character from Jewish folklore, a comment on how African Americans were treated at the time), Delilah (Samson's lover in the bible and ultimate betrayer who cuts his hair to get rid of his superhuman strength), brother Bill (could be Billy Graham, a christian evangelist and a vocal opponent to the anti-war protests), Cecil B. DeMille (a famous film director who made biblical films including one about Samson and Delilah, lyrics reference how Samson martyred himself by pulling out a pillar of a temple and killing everyone inside), Ma Rainey ('mother of the blues' mentioned along with Beethoven, suggests art has declined from these greats to patriotic tuba players during war). Referencing the Vietnam war, lyrics comment that the country has enough money to send young boys to fight in a foreign country for a war they might not believe in when there are a lot of problems in the US. Track 3: It takes a lot to laugh, it takes a train to cry - Recorded the same day as 'Positively 4th street' and 'Tombstone blues'. The train described in the song is a metaphor for life. Track 4: From a Buick 6 - Guitar part is patterned after old blues riffs by Robert Johnson, Charlie Patton and Big Joe Williams. A lot of the lyrics reference classic blues songs and is partially based on Sleepy John Estes' 1930 song 'Milk Cow Blues'. The song is about a troubled man who navigates life between two distinct women, 'graveyard woman' who is responsible and cares for his home and children, and a 'soulful mama' who provides excitement and escapism. Track 5: Ballad of a thin man - Rhythmic piano part was inspired by Ry Charles' 1961 song 'I believe to my soul'. Dylan used to say in his concerts that 'this is a song about people asking me questions'. Mr Jones is portrayed as potentially a journalist (asks a lot of questions), a man hidden in his suit, analysing the world instead of participating in it. References people misinterpreting his words and actions. Mr Jones is out of touch with the present reality and societal changes, could represent conservative mainstream society. The critic is looking for someone to break down the new culture but is confused when people don't explain to him what's going on and instead mess with him. He discusses a lot but understands very little about the things he talks about, knows the theory of life but has little experience of it. Reference in lyrics to poet John Berryman's '77 Dream Songs'. Track 6: Queen Jane approximately - A critical look at fake life of a mysterious queen, warning her of an imminent fall from grace. Track 7: Highway 61 revisited - Written for the highway that runs from Dylan's home state of Minnesota to New Orleans. Georgia Sam was an alias used by Blind Willie McTell. Describes things as allusions to capitalism, the fact that these things can be dumped on highway 61 that it is a place where the pointless aspects of American culture are ignored and thrown away. 'The Roving Gambler' is a traditional American folk song. The highway is a metaphorical journey through American life and it's connection to blues music. Track 8: Just like Tom Thumb's blues - A tale of one man's surreal misadventures in the tropics, he encounters poverty, sickness, despair, indifferent authorities, alcohol and drugs. References to Hank William's 1954 song 'Howlin at the moon', and Jack Kerouac. The protagonist realises he enjoys writing about his misadventures in Juarez and descent into 'harder stuff', after many awful happenings, decides to return to where he came to New York city. Track 9: Desolation row - Final track sums up every topic discussed in the album. Song's title is thought to have been inspired by Kerouac's novel 'desolation angels'. There have been many ideas to what desolation row is, the closest interpretation is thought that it is a state of mind. The song explores themes of societal emptiness, alienation and a looming sense of apocalypse, contrasting the horrors of civilisation with a seemingly positive musical arrangement. The song creates a surreal world where famous characters and mythical figures live, representing a place for the disenfranchised, away from the pressures of mainstream society and its destructive path. Favourite Track: Ballad of a Thin Man, Desolation Row

Track 1: Tom Sawyer - Lyrics are a portrait of a modern day rebel, striding through the world with purpose. Tom Sawyer was a character in Mark Twain's 1876 novel 'The adventures of Tom Sawyer' about a mischievous young boy living in a town along the Mississippi river, the cahracter is based on a real person who was described as a hero for rescuing 90 passengers after a shipwreck. One of the themes of the novel is that Tom was much more moral than the rules of the society he lives in. Track 2: Red Barchetta - Lyrics tell a story set in a future where many types of vehicles have been banned by a 'motor law'. The narrators uncle has kept one of these now illegal cars and has been hiding it for about 50 years at his secret country home which was a farm before these laws were put in place. Every Sunday, the narrator sneaks out to go for a drive in the car. During one of these drives, he encounters the equivalent of the police 'gleaming alloy car', which culminates to a car chase until he drives down a one lane bridge, too narrow for the air cars and returns safely to his uncle's farm. Song inspired by short story 'A nice mourning drive' by Richard Foster in 1973. Track 3: YYZ - instrumental interlude, named for Toronto's Pearson International airport, represented by the code YYZ. Band has described it as a song 'about coming home'. Track 4: Limelight - Expresses discomfort with Rush's success and attention from the public. Paraphrases Shakespeare's 'all the world's a stage' from the play 'as you like it' in the opening lines. Track 5: The camera eye - Uses the 'camera eye' to talk about observation of the cities of New York (first verse) and London (second verse). Inspired by the 'USA Trilogy' novels of John Dos Passos. The sound effects are used to evoke essence of vibrant city. Track 6: Witch hunt - Recorded the same nigh John Lennon was shot. The first of four songs in whats been called the band's 'fear' series - 'The weapon' (from Signals, 1982), 'The enemy' (from Grace under pressure, 1984) and 'Freeze' (from Vapor trials, 2002). Lyrics describe a vigilante mob gathering under torchlight, feeding on xenophobia and bigotry. The song is a call against ignorance and prejudice. Track 7: Vital signs - Uses electronic and reggae influences to explore themes of individuality and the pressure to conform. Drew inspiration from the language of computers to parallel the function of humans. Favourite Track: Limelight Album Cover: Depicts movers who are carrying paintings (moving pictures), photographed outside the Ontario Legislative Building. The pictures that are being moved are the band's starman logo - which was featured on the back cover of their 1976 album '2112', a picture of dogs playing poker - titled 'a friend in need', and a painting that shows Joan of Arc being burned at the stake.