Romans 13:11-12
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Lyrics
[0:00–0:20 — FIRST PASS / 3:47 A.M. / WAKE UP] Romans thirteen, eleven through twelve. And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. [Open WRONG: no drums, no pretty guitar atmosphere. Cheap phone-mic male tenor over the electrical buzz of an amp, distant road noise and one ugly detuned electric-guitar note. Almost speak “knowing the time.” Let “HIGH TIME TO AWAKE OUT OF SLEEP” suddenly become more rhythmic and aggressive, like somebody just sat upright.] [0:21–0:58 — SECOND PASS / BOOM-BAP HITS LIKE THE CAR DOOR SLAMMED] Romans chapter thirteen, verses eleven through twelve. And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. [DROP the hardest urban groove on the album so far: enormous dusty acoustic kick, cracked boom-bap snare, aggressive bass guitar doubled subtly by sub, dirty muted guitar scratches and a wide distorted alt-rock riff that appears only between vocal lines.] [LEAD] Knowing the time. [ROUGH MALE VOICE] What time? [LEAD — SHARPER] Now it is high time to awake out of sleep. [ROOM FRIEND] Wake up. [Do not repeat it.] For now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. [Let the bass climb underneath “nearer.”] The night— [EVERYTHING CUTS] Is far spent. [One second of dead room tone.] The day is at hand. [HUGE SNARE + GUITAR HIT] [0:59–1:32 — INTERLUDE / CAST IT OFF] Yeah. Ooh. The night is far spent. [Bring back only kick, bass and one filthy palm-muted guitar.] The day is at hand. [ROUGH CREW — ONE CROOKED PUNCH] AT HAND! [Full beat returns.] Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness. [Make “CAST OFF” physically throw the production sideways: guitar feedback whips from left to right while a chopped Rhodes sample reverses underneath it.] [LEAD] Cast off the works of darkness. [ONE LOW VOICE] Cast it off. [ALT-ROCK MICROBURST: 2 seconds of nasty octave guitar riff + live crash cymbal, then instantly back to boom bap.] And let us put on— [MICRO-SILENCE] The armour of light. [ACOUSTIC MICROBURST: one bizarrely clean, bright acoustic strum flashes after “light,” then disappears like passing headlights.] [1:33–2:18 — THIRD PASS / NO MORE SLEEPWALKING] The epistle of Paul the apostle to the Romans, chapter thirteen, verses eleven through twelve. And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. [Come back with the nastiest pocket: late cracked snare, huge kick, bass guitar moving underneath, dusty Rhodes buried deep and distorted guitars answering the lead rather than constantly playing.] [LEAD — COCKY, RHYTHMIC] The night is far spent. [ONE FRIEND] Far spent. The day is at hand. [ANOTHER VOICE] Yeah. Let us therefore— [DRUMS DROP] Cast off the works of darkness. [ROUGH CREW — ONE EXPLOSIVE DOUBLE] CAST OFF THE WORKS OF DARKNESS! [They should sound borderline out of control: one early, one hoarse, one clipping the cheap mic.] [Immediate silence.] [LEAD — CLOSE, CALM] And let us put on the armour of light. [Hold “light” with one short imperfect melodic rise.] [Then the entire band punches back in.] [2:19–2:42 — OUTRO / DRIVE TOWARD DAYLIGHT] Ooh. Yeah. [No more scripture repetition. Let boom bap and alt-rock finally collide: chunky breakbeat, huge bass guitar, dirty octave guitar riff, vinyl grit, amp buzz, shoe taps and rough wordless voices.] [PSYCHEDELIC MICROBURST: tape-slow the entire instrumental for half a second while the snare somehow stays at normal speed, then violently snap everything back.] [One friend laughs.] [Another yells from somewhere away from the mic.] [Let a guitar feedback note rise.] [Hard cut before resolution.] [OVERALL VOCAL DIRECTION] [This is the album’s WAKE-UP track. Architecture: KNOW THE TIME → WAKE UP → SALVATION NEARER → NIGHT ALMOST OVER → CAST OFF DARKNESS → PUT ON LIGHT. Male tenor should be rougher and more rhythmically aggressive than previous tracks, but never become a polished rock vocalist or full rapper. Cheap mic, breath, cracks, attitude, occasional melodic flicks. Boom bap owns the verses; distorted alt-rock guitar attacks the empty spaces. Bass should feel enormous in a car. Rough friends react like dudes packed into a basement at 4 A.M., not background singers. Psychedelia should malfunction violently for fractions of seconds. No trap hats, CCM uplift, pop-punk, metal or arena-rock wall. Urban, nocturnal, dirty, urgent, awake.]