I picked up the Smallville Soundtrack the day it came out.. I've been listening to the songs and been noticing something. Secular music is indeed honest about how the world is. Sometimes we get used to our Christian circles where we seem to emphasize the good but we need to remember the condition of the world we are called to reach.

But I have noticed the evolution of songs. The first rock song it is believed by some was "Earth Angel" and we have gone from the 50's hit of "Standing on the Corner Watching All The Girls Go By" to going to Nelly's "Hot in Here" where he speaks in vulgar terms of wanting to be sexually active with a girl and telling her it's getting hot so she ought to take off all her clothes to which she responds that she wants to. (If you don't believe me,  just check the lyrics sometime.)

The music started with emphasizing the perfect girl. This was partly a result of the romantic period in history where we learned to think with our emotions more than our heads. When the sexual revolution came along,  it left confusion on love entirely so much so that in the early 80's Foreigner sings "I Wanna Know What Love Is."

Without love though, one cannot know God. Without God, life will have no meaning. Independence Day played at the beginning of it a song by R.E.M. which said "It's the End of the World as We Know It And I Feel Fine." The meaninglessness continues where Smallville's own theme has Remy Zero singing "Somebody save me. I don't care how you do it just save me."

Save me from what? I would guess the meaninglessness of life which is one reason I love that song so much. It always reminds me when I hear it that people are looking for a savior and when I sing the chorus personally to myself it reminds me that I need Jesus still always. I can't save myself in anyway. Is it any wonder it's played as the theme to a show about Superman who is a Christ figure?

Enter on the soundtrack "Nuclear" by Ryan Adams. The song starts off with an uplifting tune as if one was on Hawaii and hearing a ukelele being played and I believe that's appropriate because the singer soon confronts what he believes is the meaninglessness of life. I will go through the lyrics piece by piece here as this song also moves me deeply and reminds me what the culture is looking for.

This is where the summer ends.

In a flash of pure destruction, no one wins.

Go nuclear, nuclear.     

Adams seems to be speaking of a heyday. We've lived in a glorious world of Summer a long time but sometime, someone is going to surprise us. A nuclear holocaust will take place at one time and destroy everything.

The violets in my eyelids goin' red

Sentimental geek.

Shut up and go to sleep.           

Woe to the person who feels sentiment about this. (Sentimentality was a big thing in the shift from Romanticism to Naturalism.) Shut up and be quiet. Go to sleep. Your voice doesn't matter. Go on and die. One wants to tell Adams the truth. It's clear he's searching.

Oh ohhhhhh.

The calm, the beach and the remains.

Of the bathing suits and Porsches all in flames.

Go nuclear, nuclear.     

The world might remain for Adams but all will be gone. All people at least. All of them eradicated. The world is still calm but mankind has been destroyed. A nuclear holocaust has hit.

When I saw her and the Yankees lost to the Braves.

Sentimental geek.

Shut up and go to sleep.

And here we see pleasure and meaninglessness. Seeing her I believe refers to being intimate with a lady of his dreams. The Yankees losing to the Braves I believe is a reference to something unthinkable in Adams's world. (Although I am not a Sports fan I can enjoy Braves baseball so I know somewhat about that.) Now that the thrill has come and been left unsatisfying and the unthinkable in his personal entertainment has happened, life is meaningless. It's time to just die.

Give me an answer.............     

Adams's closes with a request and we should congratulate him for his honesty. He wants an answer. Is this life really meaningless? Is it all just going to end in a nuclear holocaust? The good news is, we have the answer. The bad news is, for some reason, someone hasn't demonstrated it yet to Adams and many others.

Is there a Ryan Adams in your area? Does someone need to be given the answer by you?