Armor for Sleep: What To Do When You're Dead
The second Armor for Sleep album, “What To Do When You’re Dead,� brings the sounds of Ben Jorgensen, Anthony DiLonno, PJ Decrocco, and Nash Breen to our attention, but don’t expect an uplifting message. This is no happily ever after—this is sad, angry and beaten down, but it seems to be intended to…help?
In “Car Underwater,� Jorgensen tells listeners that he is already gone, “in a car underwater with time to kill…I didn’t care that [the other] left and abandoned me. What hurts more is that I would still die for you.� Wow, powerful pledge—but when you’re dead, you’re dead. What is implied but not altogether clear, is that Jorgensen’s character is dead by suicide. He still carries with him anger against the other—possibly family members or a romantic interest. He closes by apologizing for becoming a burden and says that the other should just let him go. The dichotomy that continues throughout the album is one of both blame and apology, as the singer struggles between his own faults and those of the other.
Jorgensen’s character wanders around after his death because heaven makes him miserable without the other there in “The Truth About Heaven,� and apologizes for not listening to the other in “Remember to Feel Real.� Here the band sings of three regrets: not listening when the other was right, not recognizing that the people he associated with were not his friends, and finally that he was living a lie. He fluctuates between telling the other not to waste time on him and asking the other not to give up.
In a ridiculously problematic song, “Awkward Last Words,� Jorgensen sings “I wanna live again. I wanna start everything over again.� He promises to change what is wrong with him and make himself better for the other. But how can he do that when he’s dead? That may be the point that these rockers are making but at this point we’re still not sure…
Armor gets rather vengeful in “Stay on the Ground,� as Jorgensen sings that he’d “sell my soul for the dream you stole� and then flips back to wondering if the other cares that he’s gone in “A Quick Little Flight.� Does the one that he’s angry with relate to the one he misses or are they the same? Either way, his longing for the other he cares for drives him to become a “Basement Ghost Singing�: “You don’t need more noise in your life. I miss you more than you know. But I know time makes you move on.� This self-pitying seems to have taken over the album, as he moves into the ‘basement’ so as to be near her but not too close—holy stalker song, Batman!
Jorgensen’s loneliness drives “Waking At Night, Alone,� as he begs the other to stay with him because he can’s stand being left alone. He believes love drives him to madness but without it, he doesn’t feel alive. With that in mind, he credits death as having brought him closer to the other in “I Have Been Right All Along,� but the closing song reverts to the negativity that he’s discovered in dying and death in “The End of a Fraud.�
Here, on the closing track, Armor recognizes that when you’re dead, you can’t be heard anymore (shocker, right?) “Now I think I believe,� sings Jorgensen. “That I was never alive in the first place. They never heard a sound out of my mouth. Don’t believe that the weather’s perfect the day that you die.� Is this album actually a warning against suicide? The grass isn’t greener there—you’re lonely and tortured? The longer I listen and reflect on the overall content, the more I believe that Armor for Sleep’s intent is to point its listeners toward living fully with the time they have. Along the way, the message is grim and often confusing, but in the long run, Armor for Sleep seems aware that life is meant for living.
In “Car Underwater,� Jorgensen tells listeners that he is already gone, “in a car underwater with time to kill…I didn’t care that [the other] left and abandoned me. What hurts more is that I would still die for you.� Wow, powerful pledge—but when you’re dead, you’re dead. What is implied but not altogether clear, is that Jorgensen’s character is dead by suicide. He still carries with him anger against the other—possibly family members or a romantic interest. He closes by apologizing for becoming a burden and says that the other should just let him go. The dichotomy that continues throughout the album is one of both blame and apology, as the singer struggles between his own faults and those of the other.
Jorgensen’s character wanders around after his death because heaven makes him miserable without the other there in “The Truth About Heaven,� and apologizes for not listening to the other in “Remember to Feel Real.� Here the band sings of three regrets: not listening when the other was right, not recognizing that the people he associated with were not his friends, and finally that he was living a lie. He fluctuates between telling the other not to waste time on him and asking the other not to give up.
In a ridiculously problematic song, “Awkward Last Words,� Jorgensen sings “I wanna live again. I wanna start everything over again.� He promises to change what is wrong with him and make himself better for the other. But how can he do that when he’s dead? That may be the point that these rockers are making but at this point we’re still not sure…
Armor gets rather vengeful in “Stay on the Ground,� as Jorgensen sings that he’d “sell my soul for the dream you stole� and then flips back to wondering if the other cares that he’s gone in “A Quick Little Flight.� Does the one that he’s angry with relate to the one he misses or are they the same? Either way, his longing for the other he cares for drives him to become a “Basement Ghost Singing�: “You don’t need more noise in your life. I miss you more than you know. But I know time makes you move on.� This self-pitying seems to have taken over the album, as he moves into the ‘basement’ so as to be near her but not too close—holy stalker song, Batman!
Jorgensen’s loneliness drives “Waking At Night, Alone,� as he begs the other to stay with him because he can’s stand being left alone. He believes love drives him to madness but without it, he doesn’t feel alive. With that in mind, he credits death as having brought him closer to the other in “I Have Been Right All Along,� but the closing song reverts to the negativity that he’s discovered in dying and death in “The End of a Fraud.�
Here, on the closing track, Armor recognizes that when you’re dead, you can’t be heard anymore (shocker, right?) “Now I think I believe,� sings Jorgensen. “That I was never alive in the first place. They never heard a sound out of my mouth. Don’t believe that the weather’s perfect the day that you die.� Is this album actually a warning against suicide? The grass isn’t greener there—you’re lonely and tortured? The longer I listen and reflect on the overall content, the more I believe that Armor for Sleep’s intent is to point its listeners toward living fully with the time they have. Along the way, the message is grim and often confusing, but in the long run, Armor for Sleep seems aware that life is meant for living.
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