Audioslave: Out of Exile
Having no background on Soundgarden or Rage Against the Machine, I talked my second Audioslave album in one week at the encouragement of a friend. With fresh thoughts from the self-titled album, I found Out of Exile to rock with purpose as well. Jumping to the title track, I found a man locked in secure solitude who was led by a woman out of his loneliness into wholeness. Saved from the darkness, his territory grows and he find that “the blessings on my table/multiply and divide.� Without discounting the opportunity for romantic love (it has its own saving elements), the wisdom element came to mind: locked in isolation, lonely, and depressed, we can be saved by community and the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. God does move in mysterious ways!
The chorus of “Be yourself� exhorts the listener “to be yourself is all that you can do� because “someone finds salvation in everyone/another only pain.� The salvation from our isolation may look different for different people but that relationship with God results when we embrace who we are in God as individuals, not clones! Audioslave seems anti-religion, but pro-faith, and Chris Cornell continues to look for something that “Doesn’t remind me.� Putting aside the standard symbols (crosses, gospel music), he remembers “the things that I’ve loved, the things that I’ve lost/the things I’ve held sacred that I’ve dropped/I won’t lie no more you can bet/I don’t want to learn what I’ll need to forget.� This can be anti-creed, anti-legalism, anti-whatever, but there still seems to be more to love and faith in Audioslave’s growing body of work to make them anti-spiritual.
“Drown me slowly� exerts Cornell’s will, as he sings that he “can’t walk on water, yet won’t even try,� seeking out a better world by his actions on it. It’s a mixed bag—his own self-doubt is completely human, but how can you know you can’t walk if you’ve never tried? If we are called to do all the things Jesus did than we could, but who has? Our faith is weak, and Audioslave knows this, but that doesn’t let the listener off the hook—“leave a better world than you’ve found.�
A love song rises out of “Heaven’s dead,� the redeeming factor being that Cornell promises to take on anything that could hurt this other person/woman to take on the hurt himself. This devotion is also reflected in “Man or animal� and “Dandelion.� The salvation themes are more evident in “The Worm,� where Cornell imparts advice to someone with less experience, turning from the devil on one shoulder to finally embrace the advice of the angel on the other. Having been reborn, Cornell says that it is “never too late with my..halo.� This new life is expressed in “Yesterday or tomorrow,� where all things (man/machine, luck, fiction, religion) are subjugated to coming alive in ‘real’ living and loving.
The final words to Audioslave’s tale of salvation (at least this chapter) is “The curse.� Here, Cornell sings that he will never be a curse, even when the ‘other’ won’t respond in the same way, because he always has their best interest at heart. Even when struggling himself, he promises to provide his best for the other. Just as Christ died on the cross, Audioslave sees the worst moment taken on someone else’s behalf as benefiting them, in fact becoming their best moment. At the heart of Christianity, this notion resides, loving God and loving people, constantly providing that sacrificial love for others who cannot love themselves.
The chorus of “Be yourself� exhorts the listener “to be yourself is all that you can do� because “someone finds salvation in everyone/another only pain.� The salvation from our isolation may look different for different people but that relationship with God results when we embrace who we are in God as individuals, not clones! Audioslave seems anti-religion, but pro-faith, and Chris Cornell continues to look for something that “Doesn’t remind me.� Putting aside the standard symbols (crosses, gospel music), he remembers “the things that I’ve loved, the things that I’ve lost/the things I’ve held sacred that I’ve dropped/I won’t lie no more you can bet/I don’t want to learn what I’ll need to forget.� This can be anti-creed, anti-legalism, anti-whatever, but there still seems to be more to love and faith in Audioslave’s growing body of work to make them anti-spiritual.
“Drown me slowly� exerts Cornell’s will, as he sings that he “can’t walk on water, yet won’t even try,� seeking out a better world by his actions on it. It’s a mixed bag—his own self-doubt is completely human, but how can you know you can’t walk if you’ve never tried? If we are called to do all the things Jesus did than we could, but who has? Our faith is weak, and Audioslave knows this, but that doesn’t let the listener off the hook—“leave a better world than you’ve found.�
A love song rises out of “Heaven’s dead,� the redeeming factor being that Cornell promises to take on anything that could hurt this other person/woman to take on the hurt himself. This devotion is also reflected in “Man or animal� and “Dandelion.� The salvation themes are more evident in “The Worm,� where Cornell imparts advice to someone with less experience, turning from the devil on one shoulder to finally embrace the advice of the angel on the other. Having been reborn, Cornell says that it is “never too late with my..halo.� This new life is expressed in “Yesterday or tomorrow,� where all things (man/machine, luck, fiction, religion) are subjugated to coming alive in ‘real’ living and loving.
The final words to Audioslave’s tale of salvation (at least this chapter) is “The curse.� Here, Cornell sings that he will never be a curse, even when the ‘other’ won’t respond in the same way, because he always has their best interest at heart. Even when struggling himself, he promises to provide his best for the other. Just as Christ died on the cross, Audioslave sees the worst moment taken on someone else’s behalf as benefiting them, in fact becoming their best moment. At the heart of Christianity, this notion resides, loving God and loving people, constantly providing that sacrificial love for others who cannot love themselves.
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