Filter – Take A Picture

There are some times when songs just work. When there is nothing to be said or done and so, in the cliched brilliance of the moment, you turn to someone else, some other collection of individuals who themselves might have experienced that same speechless, actionless void but instead of shrinking from it, were determined enough to chronicle it, to write it down, give it melody and record it. The sheer level of saturation at which music is piped through our lives, made to soundtrack every journey from the most literal to the most cathartic makes relying on songs to do the talking, to do the doing for you a hazardous prospect. That in this postmodern world beautiful things happening to the choreographed beauty of a cd, an MP3 player or a radio station are things to be embarrassed about is a sad situation. Simply because moments are so ‘movie-like’ in their setup with all the right words said, all the right gazes executed and underscored by just the right track doesn’t therefore make them any less genuine. It is music’s ability to render real life cinematic which is one of its most potent qualities.

The 90s were a brilliant time for music. When the economy was still something worthy of such a title, political schisms were a thing of folly not of fear and the prospect of significant wars was a distinct unlikelihood, the ability to really engage in filmic sentiments, to explore emotions (and thus grunge, the beginnings of emo, a resurgent punk, RnB in the mainstream) and to make music for an audience that might still purchase it, invest in it, spurred on a slew of first-rate songs. It might be simply that nostalgia has rose-tinted our retrospect but beyond the decade representing the halcyon days of our childhood, the 90s legitimately provided myriad notable songs – notable for more than simply their 90′s-hood. Carefree or not (and I, in late single digits certainly was), there is little doubting the veracity of the sentiment that helped engender some of the best songs in recent memory.

Filter’s ‘Take A Picture’ is one of those songs. Not only does it stand out as a highlight of the era but it grows stronger with time, taking on added gravity and offering itself up, at every opportunity, to play backing track to your newest heartbreak, triumph, fight, beginning, goodbye. Exactly what the quality is that makes ‘Take A Picture’ such a loveable track – it is, after all, essentially depressing oscillating only slightly to all-out tantrum-style yelling around four and a half minutes in – is less immediately apparent than the hold that those distorted vocals, earthy drumming and diving guitars have on your psyche. The opening bars are warmly familiar and instigate the same sort of reminiscence as goes along with much of the Best Of The 90s catalogue but ‘Take A Picture’ takes it further still, reminding you why it claimed its spot in the pantheon in the first place. On a blog where words have served us well over the years, sometimes pictures really say it all. In a life cluttered with niceties, conversational inanities and grandiose declarations motivated entirely by pop culture, sometimes you just need a song to do the talking.

Filter – Take A Picture