* This song contains explicit language in the second verse.
Not only will we die one day, we also carry within us cells that are both dying and dead. For those who consider the body nothing but an agglomeration of cells, this means that we carry the vestige of a dead person with us everywhere we go. This is more all-encompassing than you think. From the dissolution of dead matter, new cells and new life is created. In other words, our bodies are generated from dead things. Dust, as it were. We carry the dead within us.
To me, this song deals with the experience of walking with the remnants of one’s former beliefs, personality and way of thinking. ‘I die daily’ Paul the Apostle famously proclaimed in his spiritual pursuit to become more like Christ. Yet a vestige of his former self remained. There were painful limits to his self-transformation. Perhaps time not only plays a part in biological processes, but spiritual formation as well.
But this song begs the question, how far can we get away from the dead man within us? The singer Rose Gold has gotten so far removed from this dead person, that she considers its odour different from her own. The rapper Nick Grant even offers an anticipatory toast to the new him. Yet over time, this very same person will become part of the vestige. Perhaps more principled, more aromatic, but no less dead.
Terrace Martin captures the slowness of death within the tempo of the song and the organ’s notes, almost like the beat is a zombie stalking the musicians. Consider Grant’s rapping speed which is so different from the underlying tempo. Yet death catches up with the musicians in the song, just as it does for all of us.
What happens after death can seem to be a spiritual and philosophical free-for-all. As for me, I would like to experience the promise of there being no more death. That is a pretty remarkable proposition if you ask me.
poetic reverb 