This week, we bring to a close the music of Poor Old Lu with a track off of their last CD, The Waiting Room. Released just six years after what was suppose to be their final album, The Waiting Room easily contains some of the best Lu songs to be recorded and released. What is interesting is not that the songs are well written (they are) but the overall sound and feel of the record shows a band that moved out of their early twenties and was pushing thirty. Do not mistake this as something that is a bad thing. You can really hear that the band and the musicians involved have grown up. The sound is tighter, more coherent, as well as linear. The record has an overall consistent sound to it that really shines through.

The song I want to focus on, is the opening track titled, “Revolve” because I feel that it is one of the best openers the band has ever used. Sure, “Rail” for the Eighth Wonder album is an awesome opener with how it comes in and builds and plays out through out. But “Revolve” starts out with the nice palm muted chunks that really bring you right into the song, grabbing your attention almost immediately and refusing to let go for the entire three minutes and forty-seven seconds of the song.

The song content focuses on sin, and the power it can have in one’s life. This is established early on in the song with the closing line of the first verse “Has the light gone dim, in light of this sin…” so you know right away he is focusing on the issue of sin and how it can bring you down and not even realize it until it is too late. The chorus though, “I’m pushing this out and pulling You in” while obvious is quite simply awesome but when it is followed up later with “I’m throwing this out and hoping in” it totally ties the whole song together. Yes, sin can get you down, and it can drag you through the mud for its own enjoyment but there is hope all you need to do is see that hope.

Overall, it is a great song, it opens the album extremely well, and it shows that the guys in Poor Old Lu did not lose anything in their time apart but instead grew from it and brought it all back to the table to show us something new but familiar because that “Lu sound” is definitely there in the song as well as the album.

Next week, we begin looking at Aaron Sprinkle’s (Poor Old Lu’s guitarist) solo work.

You know where the lyrics are…

Revolve
by Poor Old Lu
From the Album: The Waiting Room

It promises much
It promises you’ll never be cold
The words are such
As to turn you until you are sold
And walk in this rut
And run in the ground where we know
Have the lights gone dim
In the light of this sin?
Am I breathing right?
Am I breathing right?

I’m pushing this out and pulling You in
I’ve been living in doubt and walking on pins
I’m throwing this out and hoping in
(Where joy and peace begin)
I’m sick of the drought and walking on

The current is strong
To move me and push me aside
And where I belong
Is it lost in the move of the tide
And when I am wrong
And when I am drowning inside
Has the sea rushed in
In the weight of this sin?
Am I breathing right?
Am I breathing right?

I’m pushing this out and pulling You in
(Where joy and peace begin)
I’ve been living in doubt and walking on pins
I’m throwing this out and hoping in
(Where joy and peace begin)
I’m sick of the drought and walking on

Pick up your feet and pick up your head
(I’m as tired as I can be)
Lift up your voice and sing till the end
(Lord, I need Your strength in me)

I’m pushing this out and pulling You in
(Where joy and peace begin)
I’ve been living in doubt and walking on pins
I’m throwing this out and hoping in
(Where joy and peace begin)
I’m sick of the drought and walking on