Review Summary: Life in a car-ride
Have you ever gotten into your car and just decided to turn on the music and drive? Nowhere to go to, just you, your thoughts, and the music playing in the background. It doesn’t matter what’s going on in your life, you just need to be in your car and drive around
Your Neighborhood. Your happiness, sadness, anger, grief, and any other fill-in-the-blank emotion is sitting with you in the car, and you just need to process. Perhaps you float in and out as you drive, one moment contemplating the chaos of your life and the next catching glimpses of whatever a radio host is saying about the next song. Sometimes it’s exactly what you need. But sometimes, resolve rears its head in the way you least expect it.
Meet Adam. Just like you, he has gotten into his car, clearly carrying a heavy burden with him. He flips through the channels and finds 102.3 WKCD, starting their midnight show – and the story begins. What exactly is going on with Adam? We don’t exactly know where he’s come from, but as he starts to drive he enters his dreamstate, no longer listening to the radio, but letting his mind run wild. “Beatrice” suddenly finds her way into his mind, his ex that left him behind for her musical dreams. Her free nature and wild aspirations seem almost reminiscent to a fast-paced rock song filled with energetic drumming, driving guitar and bass interplay, and powerful vocals that exude the emotion of him saying “goodbye” to his lover. Adam truly misses her –
And suddenly thunder brings him back to reality. A train is passing up ahead, the horn blending into the night’s storm. Seems like a long train passing by, so he begins to fall back into his thoughts as he looks around at his neighborhood. When you think about “Your Neighborhood,” there is often a sense of nostalgia, bringing you back to your childhood days, your thoughts floating by like a subtle acoustic ballad, hinted by an orchestra that highlights the positive memories of your younger years. Adam misses it. The urgency of the train seeps through into his mind, heightening his emotions of pain and desperation, wanting that feeling of that neighborhood back, no longer happy with where he is now. Where did the time go? Why have we lost the joy of our neighborhood? Why am I –
102.3 WKCD startles him as the songs change. The train is gone — how long has he been sitting here? Oh, well, he gets back to driving. Something the host says sticks with him,
When I’m busy and slammed, that’s when I get in the most trouble, you know?... chaos! He’s right, Adam reflects on what one of his co-workers said as a joke one day, “Get Creative! Or Get Radicalized!” Though he’s not a fan of this one guy, there was a lot of truth here: we are told to stick to the status quo and never go beyond what we are given… or else we cause destruction. But maybe sometimes, being so busy with the status quo is just as destructive to Adam. The words of society almost feel dancy, like a sing-along track that just ebbs and flows between atmospheric guitarwork and swing-like drum grooves and intense piano chords giving a vibrant tone. But that’s what’s frustrating! Their words don’t feel like how they sound! It leaves Adam hopeless as society leaves him empty and frustrated with everything they tell him to have: a job, a credit card, a better life.
It’s just not worth it; he saw exactly how that life turns out. Adam misses his father, what a man he was. As the thunder continues to roll, he feels like he is “Sleep Talking” in his car as he recalls the moments with his father. The radio plays a beautiful track full of soft guitar passages and emotional vocals filled with grief; he’s not sure what the vocalist is saying over the sound of the rain, but he feels like the music was made for his own words.
”I am here because of you, tell me what to do.” The car ride has been quiet aside from the music and the world around him, and it was surprising to hear his own voice shine through. But he truly meant it. He misses his father, and he wishes he were there now to tell him what to do next – he feels lost without him. He takes a glance at the clock as he approaches a stoplight.
It’s already 12:58? How has the hour already passed? Not sure who the artist is, but some band is playing a song about “AWESOME HEAD”... whatever that’s about. He needs to start making his way back home already, it’s way too late. The light turns green and he presses on, but out of the corner of his eye he sees headlights coming right toward his door –
When I die, reincarnate me as a bear on an “Apple TV” screensaver – where did that thought come from? Time has slowed down, and nothing really makes sense right now as Adam stares ahead through the intersection, moving slower than ever with the annoying light peering into his window. He’s not sure where that thought of death even came from, but now he can’t get it out of his head. The radio seems to be playing a song… but it’s jumping from a soft midwestern emo-type style to a grungy rocker with Alice in Chain-esque vocal melodies… and now it’s a jam rock song with an awesome guitar solo over some groovy bass lines… no, this has to be in his head – then it shuts off.
There’s a ringing in his head, as the WKCD host’s voice rattles in his mind, repeating they’ll be back in a short bit. The clock still shows 12:58. The light is glowing ever so brighter on the left side of the car, and an angelic crescendo plays in his mind… is this the end?
Everything runs through Adam’s mind. He’s spent his whole life searching for something to save him. After Beatrice left, he’s been looking for something to fill that space he’s been missing… wait a minute, this song sounds like something she wrote before. He doesn’t wanna “DIE! DIE! DIE!” He wants to hear this lovely song that Beatrice wrote before it’s too late. Was this something she wrote? He loves it… it reminds him of his favorite band Incubus, with its funky rhythms and bravado melodies that just make you want to dance. Beatrice never wrote this, but it really doesn’t matter to him now does it?
12:58
Maybe he should’ve found something to save him. He looks to his right, and Satan is sitting right beside him. Satan turns up the radio as “Satan’s Little Hell Song” begins blaring through. Satan really does love his energetic, bouncy rhythms with a bit of a punk influence doesn’t he? Especially a nice touch with the distorted guitars, bass and cacophony of brass breakdown to end off the song. Maybe this really is the end, and there is no saving him. I mean, Satan is right beside him, highlighted by the glow of the headlights coming from behind Adam’s figure. And it’s “Cruel, All the Way Down.” Satan lays out his plan, and Adam realizes just how bad it is for him. Even the catchy progressive rocker coming through the radio – is that radio even working anymore – doesn’t alleviate the fears that Adam has. He remembers everything at once. He entered the car with all of his emotions, and all of his emotions are coming through right now. He’s caught behind the wheel, and there’s no going back now…
12:58
Suddenly it’s tranquil, like the soft plucks of an acoustic guitar in a dreamscape. It’s warm and comforting. He looks to his right again, and his father “Johnny” is in the passenger seat with him now. Satan is no longer there, suddenly Adam is at peace. His father’s voice passes over him in a beautiful melody full of harmony, like the angel’s singing with him from above.
But I am on your side. This is the reminder Adam needed, his father is always with him. Even in the late hours of the night with all of his emotion his father is right ther–
12:59 …
CRASH
Reality creeps back in as Adam sits in his car, glass surrounding him, spun out on the intersection. He’s alive, and he’s not sure how. But he is. “AWESOME HEAD” is somehow still playing on the radio… but the show comes to an end. He catches the last thing the host says:
Whatever you’re doing, wherever you’re going, you know what you need to do. So do it.
As he walks away miraculously unscathed, he contemplates what “The Right Thing” is. Though he struggles with that idea of religion and asks what God has ever done for him, he contemplates over the family and friends that he has had in his life. Maybe he’s not sure of what he believes, but he has hope and love, and he’ll let the rest remain a mystery. He’ll continue to believe in what his father told him, and that’s all he needs, as he looks around at the hometown he will never leave.
