Lights Out For Darker Skies

Album: Do You Like Rock Music? (2008)
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Songfacts®:

  • "Lights Out For Darker Skies" appears on the surface to be a protest song in favor of the campaign to reduce light pollution so we can see more stars at night. Frontman Yan, though, told the Independent newspaper January 6, 2008 that he had a different intention: "Originally, I wanted to write about the story of light from cavemen's fires to all the electric light we have today, but as I was researching this I came across the campaign for dark skies. The other thing is that I wanted to put some present-day things in this album. I got fed up with people getting the wrong idea about us. They think because of the way we dress we want to live in some bygone age, but that's not true. In years to come, I want people to listen to this album and know exactly when it was written. So I put in things you would read in the newspaper or talk about with friends, as a backdrop. There's a lot of strange things going on nowadays, so you don't need to look for another time - wars, religious fanaticism, impending doom. In this song I'm really writing about a relationship, which is something bands have done for years, so you have to find a way of doing it differently."
  • This was recorded at a water tower in the English county of Suffolk. Some pigeons who lived at the top of the tower can be heard on this track.
  • Guitarist Noble explained to Mojo magazine January 2008 about the album: "The title is a very serious question. The album is Rock music with the theme of good versus evil, or rock music versus non-Rock music. Pavement, Aretha Franklin and Oskar Schindler are Rock music. U2, Hitler and Tim Henman are non-rock music. The album is what The Who would sound like if they were as much interested in Tommy The Buzzard as Tommy."
  • Yan explained to The Sunday Times January 6, 2008 about the album title: "People who've followed us wouldn't expect that as an album name. We've always emphasized the intellectual side of things in our titles. People who don't really know us, however, get confused by that, so we wanted to approach the other element. It is a bit stupid, but that's to put across the fundamental, Stooges-like quality of rock music, which shakes your bones when you hear it, and you get excited, and lose touch with your job or your girlfriend."

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