A City by the Light Divided

A City By The Light Divided is the fourth studio album by Thursday. It was released on May 2 2006 through Island Records (see 2006 in music). The first single taken from the album is "Counting 5-4-3-2-1" which is available for streaming on the band's website, This single is about a childhood friend of Geoff Rickly who died at a young age before being able to explore the world. According to the lyrics of "Counting 5-4-3-2-1", his friend died in a train accident. A stream of the album in its entirety was available on their MySpace, from April 17th 2006 to May 2nd 2006. The UK release of the album contains the bonus track "Even The Sand Is Made Of Seashells". The song, "Running From The Rain" is in a recent commercial for Saturn cars. "At This Velocity" has been announced as the second single from the album to be released in America, it is currently unclear if it will get a worldwide release.

Track listing

All music written by Thursday
All lyrics written by Geoff Rickly

"The Other Side Of The Crash/Over And Out (Of Control)" – 4:41
"Counting 5-4-3-2-1" – 3:19
"Sugar In The Sacrament" – 5:12
"At This Velocity" – 2:58
"We Will Overcome" – 3:39
"Arc-Lamps, Signal Flares, A Shower Of White (The Light)" – 2:32
"Running From The Rain" – 4:00
"Telegraph Avenue Kiss" – 3:35
"The Lovesong Writer" – 5:18
"Into The Blinding Light" – 3:48
"Autumn Leaves Revisited" – 6:54
"Even The Sand Is Made Of Seashells" – 4:10 (UK and i-tunes bonus track)

Song Meanings

"The Other Side of the Crash / Over And Out (Of Control)" - This song is a continuation of "Understanding in a Car Crash". It's the people who survive the crash and what happens afterward.

"Counting 5-4-3-2-1"- "The song is about a friend of mine that died while we were in high school. He was my partner in French class and we had a few things in common. Aside from being terrible at French and loving the same girl two seats ahead of us, we both hated living in a small suburban neighborhood where everyone dressed the same, looked the same and liked the same types of food. Both of us would talk for hours about where we were going to go when we got out of school and went off on our own. Unfortunately, he was hit by a train that runs behind the bleachers on the football field. When I finally finished school and moved away from that town, all I could think of was the fact that he would never have the chance to leave. Now, years later, I think of how many of my friends have been swallowed up by places that they'll never leave and it keeps me determined to follow my heart. I hope if any of you ever get the chance to leave a place that you can't stand, you play this song as you drive away. That would do my heart some good. thanks and love, Geoff."

"Sugar in the Sacrament"- This song is about losing all your faith you once had in your God. Something happened to your friend or a loved one, and now was the time when you wish you really still had faith in Him.

"At This Velocity"- A plane on the verge of crashing, and thoughts that go through people's mind during the flight, on crashing. At some live shows, Geoff will explain that while the band was on tour in Australia, their plane almost crashed, the song is about that experience.

"We Will Overcome"- About hardships that we go through day by day (and about war)and, eventually, "we will overcome" them. Also, it is a "love song" to our country.

"Running From the Rain"- goes back the story of "Counting 5-4-3-2-1," where a boy is hit by a train. This song is about those who survived the accident coping with the death of a friend. Running from the rain refers to escaping trials together.

This is an alternate explanation, but most of it is based to loosely on the real lyrics (many of the lyrics featured below are incorrect) of the song, and is thus not very credible. Explained in parts.

"There was a sound Split all the heavens apart In on the northern view Out on the southern spark"

3rd person, describing the scene unfolding. The sound refers to the death of a person, or persons in this case, on the world below. The heavens opened up at that moment to take them in. The next two lines describe the location as Geoff Rickly sees fit.

"Oh I'll be with you running from the rain When it reaches the end of the line See myself reflected on the broken glass As the gates come crashing down There is blood on the tracks tonight And rust inside our veins We will make it in time before the storm Running behind me"

1st person, Geoff Rickly speaking as God. The rain/storm refers to either Hell, or our fear of Death, which in some respects could equate to the same thing. He is speaking to the people who are going to die. He is reassuring that He will be there, running with them, until they can go no further. He is telling them God there with them, they can see God in the crashing of the vehicles with their bodies. He personifies himself within them as well, saying there is rust inside “our” veins. He then goes to say the storm is running behind him, which makes me believe it is Hell we are referring to, that God is always in front of Hell, and He will take these people before they go to Hell.

"There were some younger kids who followed the tracks that day It was a passing afternoon that came and took them away So we forgot our names lying in the tall grass under the billboard dreams"

Once again, back to 3rd person. Unfolding the scene again, since this story is disjointed in its delivery. The cause of their deaths is a collision with a train and a car. The final line is once again describing the scene as Rickly sees it, though there is a presence of his God narrative, and having us understand God was with him at that point, where we become nameless and formless in the transient world, as evidenced by the “billboard dreams” which is taken to be false dominions of Hope in our world. Basically, the last line means the standards by which we exist in the world is by names, which we lose in Death, though as this song dictates, it is ephemeral.

"It's running on. It's running out. It's running on. It's running out Away, away, away. Running from the rain. Away, away, away. Running from the rain."

Unobjective 3rd or 1st person, take it as it is. The demons of Death are following, but they are losing steam to the pace of God in taking the souls of those doomed on the tracks. The second repeat goes to describe the kids, trying to escape Death as we know it, seeing it as an end, a metaphorical grammatical period, with nothing beyond.

"I need to get them out It's the right time to crash, is it not? You were all counting down, running on Running from the rain On the rearview mirror can you take it away? You got that car you brought on me Keep running knowing that you were coming back Running from the rain"

Finally, back to Rickly’s 1st person God narrative. He is saying He has to take the kids, Death has caught them, and the unfortunate, by worldly standards, event of a crash involving Death must occur in order for God to save the kids. Then, in an instant, the narrative is now spoken to the recently dead kids, explaining their circumstances. Counting down the days to live, yet running on, trying to escape their own deaths. He explains that they look back, trying to figure out ways they could have prevented it, but God is telling them Fate brought them there, they actually had reached that place, where train met car, with God waiting. And lastly, he tells them they were running from Death only to, inevitably, meet Death.

This song could be about our understanding of Death as we know it. An ending, one to be avoiding at all costs. But this is an attempt to show that our Death was carefully designed by God, to reach us at a time when the entire dimension of Hell has caught up to a person, and that God must take the person then, in order to keep them under the peaceful rule of Good, rather than Evil.

"Autumn Leaves Revisited"- This is a song about death and how people react when someone they know dies. The lyrics-"We walk along the wire tied between horizons, you close your eyes like it's nothing at all..." refer to how close we are to death all the time, and how we don't realize it most of the time.

Another alternate explanation is how this song expresses how the war affects so many more people than just the soldier...it also comes across like Geoff is against war, just by the fact he inserts moral strife. The guy closes his eyes like it's nothing at all... because it is something... people shouldn't be killing people."

The Lovesong Writer is about the writers behind all the emotionless pop songs that pollute our airwaves. How every single song on the radio seems to talk about love and relationships which are truly fictional.

Personnel

Geoff Rickly - vocals
Tom Keeley - guitar, vocals
Steve Pedulla - guitar, vocals
Tim Payne - bass guitar
Tucker Rule - drums
Andrew Everding - keyboards, synthesizers
Dave Fridmann - production, recording, mixing, engineering
Tom Coyne - mastering
Tim Gilles - preproduction
Melissa Cross - vocal coach
Amanda Tannen - additional vocals on We Will Overcome
Mary Fridmann - additional vocals on We Will Overcome
Louis Marino - art direction, illustration, design
Ken Schless - photography