UKLD
Absolutely stunning! Excellent writing, production and amazing vocals and lyrics !! A powerful piece that gets the heart pounding. Congratulations, we can see a great future ahead for TSC!
James McGauran
Every time I've caught a song from TSC I've been blown away by the vocals and production and left wanting more. Some of my favourite synthwave/pop/rockin' tunes going lately. Fantastic stuff!
“Knock Us Down” is the first single from The Sweetest Condition’s second full-length album, “We Defy Oblivion,” which will be released in Fall 2016. It follows the band’s debut release of “Edge of the World” in 2015, which received radio play and positive media attention from alternative magazines and music blogs around the world.
The context of the new album, “We Defy Oblivion,” explores what it feels like when things hit a boiling point. Songs like the single, “Knock Us Down,” question authority, religion and abuse, and answer it with rebellion, retaliation and revolution.
“The world is in crisis,” says vocalist and lyricist Leslie Irene Benson. “Political, economic and societal structures are deteriorating. Those in power have led us astray. We are living on a hotbed of frustration, on the verge of the next revolution. ‘Knock Us Down’ is a song for the people. No matter how bad things get, we’re going to fight for what’s right. If you push us, we won’t fall down. Together, we are strong.”
We’ve always lived inside the lines—
Right wing, Left hook — clouding our minds,
Holding us back, but not this time.
We were raised
on confusion,
products of misinformation.
Never got our
story straight.
This time—
it’s too late.
We’re drowning in our
discontent.
I don’t trust the
government.
It’s a conspiracy.
You only know
what they want you to see!
Knock us down,
but we’re still standing!
Knock us down,
but we’re still standing!
You don’t control us with your fear.
We won’t submit and disappear.
We were raised on
promises.
So I picket the whitewash
fences.
Nothing’s ever
as it seems.
I don’t want
the American Dream.
You surrender
all you are—
only living
from afar.
But I’ll make
my own way.
Forget tomorrow.
Live for today!
Knock us down,
but we’re still standing!
Knock us down,
but we’re still standing!
We were raised on
promises.
So I picket the whitewash
fences.
Nothing’s ever
as it seems.
I don’t want
the American Dream.
You surrender
all you are—
only living
from afar.
But I’ll make
my own way.
Forget tomorrow.
Live for today!
Knock us down,
but we’re still standing!
Knock us down,
but we’re still standing!
ABOUT THE ALBUM:
“We Defy Oblivion” blends The Sweetest Condition’s signature synthpop sound with electrorock and industrial dance music, paired with thought-provoking lyrics based on critical views of society and interpersonal relationships. The album is the follow-up to the duo’s debut self-release, “Edge of the World,” in 2015.
“We wanted our new album to sound different, because every album we release is its own creative project that deserves its own voice,” says Benson. “The songs still sound like us, but we’ve taken things up a notch and explored much more aggressive territory with this release. I finally get a chance to say what’s been on my mind.”
“Some of the new songs are very personal,” Benson continues. “The songs explore deep-seeded topics like hate crimes, war, politics, domestic violence and suicide. There’s no tiptoeing through this album. It’s raw, bitter pill to swallow, but it’s meant to make you think. To make you question what you think you know about the world.”
You may hear some influence on the album from Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, Kidneythieves, Garbage, Five Knives, I:Scintilla, The Birthday Massacre, Collide, Tapping the Vein, The Azoic and Lacuna Coil. But don’t expect to know what comes next.
“I think you’re going to be surprised,” Benson says. “Our music is only getting stranger from here.”
The Sweetest Condition will release an official music video to promote the new single, “Knock Us Down,” in Fall 2016. The track will also be featured on the free “Undead and Open-Minded: Volume 2” compilation album from Germany’s Electrozombies, which will be released in Fall 2016.
Cat Temper is back with another helping of searing synthwave; the song titles may be tongue-in-cheek, but the music is no joke. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 23, 2020
Three new songs and three remixes from Italian darkwavers Ash Code will surely grace goth club speakers once we can go pick cobwebs again. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 9, 2021