Last week I was fooling around on YouTube & in the process stumbled across a few songs off the latest album from the Floridian rock band A Day to Remember.  ADTR is a band I’d heard about for years but had never really listened to until last week.  Once I heard songs like Bullfight, Paranoia, & Naivety, I knew this was a band I definitely needed to add to my musical library.  After a quick Google search I realized the band had just released a brand new album at the beginning of this month (which includes all of the aforementioned songs).  Cue a trip to Best Buy where the album was on sale for $9.99!

One of the reasons this album has continued to remain on almost constant replay for me for a week now is because of the great variety of musical styles the band employs on the record.  Songs like Naivety are considerably more punk whereas songs like Bad Vibrations & Exposed are much harder & remind me a lot of Parkway Drive (which is a great compliment since their 2015 album Ire is definitely a favorite of mine).  

Like all great albums, this one just gets better with repeated listens.  One of the gems I’ve discovered the more I’ve listened to the album is the tenth song Turn Off the Radio.  With all of the distracting & divisive messages that confront us every time we log on to social media or watch/read the news (be it newspaper, radio, TV, or the internet), this song could not be more relevant right now.  At the same time, as with any truly great song, the message is timeless.  There’s never been a time in history when greater genuine conversation & connection between human beings hasn’t been needed.  But in today’s modern world of social media, texting, online dating, etc, the need for this message has only been amplified.  (Just to be clear, I don’t think any of these technologies are bad.  We just need to learn to use them in a wise, productive manner, & we shouldn’t allow them to take us away from real person to person interaction.)  

I for one know I struggle to not be an ostrich with my head in the sand but also not be overwhelmed with all of the negativity in the world today.  But this song is a great reminder to me that so much of what the media feeds us is just junk, whether it be crappy pop music or divisive politics or any other number of media diversions.

Take a moment to check out the lyrics below.  And of course give the song a listen.  And remember, as Aristotle once said,“it is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”  So turn off the radio & have a real conversation with someone, even if they disagree with you.  You never know what you might learn.