Five For Fighting – Two Lights
Five for Fighting's new album has a chilled out feel and really makes you think says InSITE editor Naomi Allaway
This is the third album from Five for Fighting, an American band that includes John Ondrasik (singer/songwriter), Curt Schneider (bass, guitars) and Andrew Williams (guitars).
The album was inspired by John’s conversations with ordinary Americans leading to an album that is riskier than the two previous ones.
A lot of the songs in this album are very person to John, including The Riddle, which he wrote for his children. Also there is I Just Love You, inspired by a late night phone call from his daughter and Road to Heaven which his son was wondering about on the way to his grandmother’s funeral.
Two Lights, the title track on the album, came from a dinner when John talked to young soldier, bound for Iraq, and the soldier's father, a Vietnam veteran. The father son bond is poignant in this song and you feel the sadness of being away at war. The song talks about how for the father and son the only way for a man to be a man is to become a soldier and although the father is proud of his son, he fears what war will do to him.
Taking inspiration from real life events has meant that that band has come up with songs like California Justice, all about manslaughter; and Policeman’s Xmas Party, which have a darkly comic edge.
The songs on this album are very easy to listen to and have a calming influence in times of stress. John Ondrasik has a distinctive voice that draws you in to his music, what ever the subject matter. The personal songs really define the album making you think about what life is really all about.
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