'age Of Innocence'
This song is very polarizing to me.
The lyrics are a matter of taste. Lines like "And all the politicians and their hollow promises" are a bit simplistic to me.
While I agree with what this particular line is trying to say, it is just a phrase that has been said too often for my taste. It has become a standart phrase, as hollow and meaningless as what it's trying to criticize.
There are a few phrases like that, and I sometimes get the feeling that the lyrics are just very shallow and superficial- like the political talk of bar regulars around their table. Very disappointing to me, because I am used to deep, thoughtful and meaningful lyrics from today's Maiden.
The hopeful in me wishes to think that this is all ironic- that Steve is going down to this kind of talk to show why he is criticizing it.
I also hate the rap part. Sorry- I just don't like rap, and I don't like it being combined with Metal either. Everybody has the right to try and combine, test and experiment, but I don't have to like it. And I don't. It's up to Maiden what they're gonna do in future, but I really wish there will be no more rap.
On the other hand, the rest of the song is 'kin brilliant. There are some good lyrics in the song too, like these:
I can't be compromising in my throughts no more
I can't prevent the times my anger fills my heart
I can't be sympathising with a new lost cause
I feel I've lost my patience with the world and all
These are simple, but they express what I am feeling too. And I am nineteen, while 'Arry is 48!
Steve is doing something untypical of his age in this song. He actually stands up and states his opinion, bluntly and frankly, and does so for all to hear. What I've come to experience, also with my parents, is the fact that the older people get, the lesser they really stand behind their political opinions, and the lesser they are ready to defend them. They like to argue about them when they know they're on the safe side -like with a kid who is still shaping his views. But they are all too often just compromising, for the sake of peace. How else is it possible that an all-out socialist party like the PDS would enter a coalition with the nowadays more conservative SPD in areas like Berlin and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern? Idealists would never do that. Likewise, the conservative CDU/CSU is ready to enter coalitions with the leftist Greens. These are examples from Germany, but I'm sure that your country has examples like that too (except maybe the US, but I only know of federal issues there). The politicians have all aged and are ready to compromise, taking the betrayals of the ideals they supposedly stand for into account, just for the sake of keeping power. And with the politicians, a country can age too. Wasn't there a phrase directly after the Second World War saying "No More War" explaining the future course of German foreign policy? Where is it now? I can tell you where: The political principle has exploded and vanished like the bombs German aeroplanes dropped over Serbia in 1999.
The last example is also pretty relevant to the song, I think. It really depends on your personal opinion, but I think the term "war crime" sounds like "dead corpse" or "wet water". War is a crime, and this song is about crime and how it is being more or less tolerated by the judicial system. Steve probably wrote this song with the UK in mind mostly, perhaps thinking that it would be pretty much the same elsewhere where the record would be bought. Of course it is, but being a German, there is more meaning in these phrases to me than internal crimes. War is a crime, and the country that is supposed to have learned from its mistakes in the past -namely kicking off two world wars and causing tens of millions of deaths- is now happily waging war again, fifty years later. They system of military is supposed to be reformed, the army and military system is supposed to be restructured for international 'peacekeeping' missions. Of course, only the government decides what 'peacekeeping' is and what not and oil pipelines are always more valuable than human beings. Germany is again posing as a big power in the world and it is only a matter of time until it is ready to use war as political means again: There still hasn't been a Third World War yet, has there?
Sorry, I got a bit off the line here, but I just wanted to explain the meaning the song has to me considering my background. So, despite the bad comments written in the first part of this post, I still think this is a great song, both musically and lyrically, and it deserves the four stars I gave it.
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