Santa Hates You - It's Alive!

I have a slightly interesting story about how I got to listening to this album and liking it.

(Property of Trisol and Santa Hates You, used under Fair Use for direct, substantial commentary on product)

I'm not going to lie. At first, I was incredibly skeptical. Before I started listening to this album, my only experience with Santa Hates You was watching the "Rocket Heart" music video. In what may be a severe understatement, I did not like the song or the video. To be a little more blunt, it actually turned into a running inside joke that a friend of mine and I shared. I found this bewildering, because Peter Spilles is touted as being a creative genius, and Project Pitchfork is fantastic.

So, a few days ago, I was looking around for some new music to listen to again, and I came across people talking about how great Santa Hates You's It's Alive! was. Needless to say, although I heard glowing reviews, I couldn't help but to still be unconvinced. I looked around for a way to listen to the album before committing any resources to it, because I had no reason to believe I'd enjoy this album, considering my previous experiences. But, in what may be a textbook example of what I talked about in my post about music evaluation, I came across Santa Hates You's official MySpace page and was pleasantly gobsmacked. The entire album is on there for streaming with every song in full. I listened to the whole album a couple of times on there, and I found myself absolutely wanting to buy their album (and doing so).

This album was chock full of substance, and I felt like every song had a fulfilling element to it. Of course, there was still a lot of the "goth-industrial cheese" that I expected, but my experience with this was as far removed from my experience with the "Rocket Heart" video as it could be. My favorite songs from this album were "Independence", "Scum", "How to Create a Monster", and "Skeletal Parade".

"Independence", "Scum", and "How to Create a Monster" feel related to one another with a general theme of fighting against a status quo of evil and despair. "Independence" feels like the anthem, "Scum" is the battle cry, and "How to Create a Monster" is a public service announcement.

In "Independence", Jinxy and Peter pump you up, making a stand in regard to having the right to be free from a world that chooses not to prescribe to a progressive point of view. They don't want to be part of, as they call it, a "killing machine". There aren't tons of lyrics in this song, but the point is clear. The tapping-tapping-tapping-booming percussion methods used in the background really serve to bring about the opening act mood of the song, too. As such, this is a perfect lead-in to "Scum".

"Scum" is the crown jewel of this album. (If you want to see the music video for this song, go here.) This is truly a powerful song that shows just how wonderful of an activist influence musicians can be. "Scum" is certainly not a song for those with sensitive sensibilities, but it gets the point across. The beat is sinister and angry, and the lyrics explain in full that the musicians feel like it's all over for people who want to oppress others, particularly for personal gain and purported religiosity and morality.

"How to Create a Monster" is all about power and how the quest for it creates corruption and evil. There is plenty of imagery of the immorally ambitious person creating justifications to himself or herself about heinous acts and oppression. Meshed with this is the intervention-like tone of the chorus, explaining to this hypothetical power-hungry person that swallowing all this power will turn him or her into a monster. At the end of the song, the idea comes across that no matter what the recklessly ambitious person tends to believe, in the end, the only evil who really needs to be vanquished is that person, himself or herself.

I like "Skeletal Parade" for different reasons than I like the other three. The tune is exceptionally catchy, and it makes a really interesting idea for the afterlife (assuming I'm not way off in regard to my interpretation). When someone dies, he or she goes to the moon and joins a parade of skeletons. It's a little off the wall, but it almost sounds like a dark mix of a children's song. If you didn't pay too much attention to the lyrics, you'd almost think the song was trying to come across the same way as "Bungalow Bill" for The Beatles. This song is oddly fun.

All in all, it's difficult to not enjoy this album. My opinion of Santa Hates You definitely changed after listening to It's Alive!, and I think this is a perfect case for making sure people are adequately informed to make decisions on music purchases. I can safely say that I would have not even considered buying this album had I not been able to hear the full songs, first.