Slow Fade

Album: The Altar and the Door (2007)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Frontman Mark Hall said on his record label's website that a slow fade marks the regression that happens when Christians aren't living intentionally. He explained: "People don't crumble in a day. You don't fall, you fade. In your mind, there's that pride that says 'I'd never do that'… but you don't just do it, it's a slow, series of compromises, little ones that go there eventually, until you're sitting in a place you'd never go, doing something you'd' never do… and yet the way you're living totally makes sense to you somehow because you're so numb."
  • The scriptural footing for this song and the rest of the The Altar and The Door album can be traced back to Psalm 1, which reads: "Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on this law he meditates day and night." Hall explained: "The whole album funnels from this passage. Imagine the man in this verse totally breaking down, but just a little at a time. First he's walking, then standing, and eventually sitting, just slowly shutting down. He doesn't crash suddenly-there's no sudden crash in the Christian life. The 'crash' is just the fruit of a slow fade."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Penny Ford of Snap!

Penny Ford of Snap!Songwriter Interviews

The original voice of Snap! this story is filled with angry drag queens, video impersonators and Chaka Khan.

Part of Their World: The Stories and Songs of 13 Disney Princesses

Part of Their World: The Stories and Songs of 13 Disney PrincessesSong Writing

From "Some Day My Prince Will Come" to "Let It Go" - how Disney princess songs (and the women who sing them) have evolved.

They Might Be Giants

They Might Be GiantsSongwriter Interviews

Who writes a song about a name they found in a phone book? That's just one of the everyday things these guys find to sing about. Anything in their field of vision or general scope of knowledge is fair game. If you cross paths with them, so are you.

Charlotte Caffey of The Go-Go's

Charlotte Caffey of The Go-Go'sSongwriter Interviews

Charlotte was established in the LA punk scene when a freaky girl named Belinda approached her wearing a garbage bag.

Elton John

Elton JohnFact or Fiction

Does he have beef with Gaga? Is he Sean Lennon's godfather? See if you can tell fact from fiction in the Elton John edition.

Vanessa Carlton

Vanessa CarltonSongwriter Interviews

The "A Thousand Miles" singer on what she thinks of her song being used in White Chicks and how she captured a song from a dream.