The Box Online - New Album - Black Dog There

After a 15-year leave, The Box is back with a 5th album entitled “Black Dog There” released by Komfy-Universal in March 05.

Clearly prog-rock oriented, the “concept” album tells a story through ten songs and draws from different musical genres in accordance with the themes encountered: Techno-hard in “Liftoff” depicts the launch of space shuttle mission 122, a waltz carries “Round and Round” and the never ending dance of parallel universes, “That’s the World” is straightforward Midwest rock given the central character’s birthplace, etc.

“I wrote the album I wanted to do when I was 20,” admits project leader Jean-Marc Pisapia. “That probably explains the surprising enthusiasm I get from kids (25 and under) for this stuff compared to the older material, given it’s free of constraint and non-conformist style.”Non-conformist indeed! The album takes us nonetheless into known territory through avowed influences from Floyd, Giant, Genesis, Yes and other 60s and 70s prog-rock icons.

“I was thirteen and in Naples when Pink Floyd filmed their concert in Pompei. It was the talk of the day and I realized this musical genre was the perfect medium to tell a story and suggest a thousand pictures in people’s minds without even having to use video!”

Lift off

Cool calm collected
And strapped to your seatLift off
Flight this is ground control we are all systems go
This is the moment you’ve been waiting for
Space shuttle flight number 122

Lift off
All engines running

G forces pin your body down against your seat
Your heartbeat shooting up and pounding ever faster
You’re travelling closer to the speed of sound
Outside the windows you can see the sky is getting darker

I never thought I’d live long enough to see
Anything anything so beautiful

And just about the time your were thinkin’ out loud
A warning light comes flashing and then another and another
A series of loud bangs is felt throughout the cabin
Something’s gone wrong
Something’s not right

Don’t touch me
Ok

Flight this is ground control
I think we’ve had a major malfunction

Black dog there

Look around
Can you see
Everything is just the way it use to be
See this child
Yes it’s you
This is back in earth year 1964

You don’t remember just how happy you were
Why?What went wrong?

Go let it come to you
I’ll talk you through this when the going gets rough

Don’t worry, I will take you there

There’s your mom and your dad
These are all the people that you cared for
See that dog, the black dog there
Let him bark in silence he’s a decoy

You don’t remember just how happy you were
Why?What went wrong?

Go let it come to you
I’ll talk you through this when the going gets rough

Don’t you go near that thing
It’ll bite you up the ass

You don’t remember just how happy you were
How happy you were

So beautiful

I guess I’d seen it with my very eyes
What we were told was heaven all along
Words could’nt quite begin to say
What it could do to you
So peaceful
I never thought I’d stick around
Long enough to see anything
Anything so beautiful

So absolutely beautiful
It blew my mind away
Blew my mind away
So absolutely beautiful
It took your breath away
Took your breath away

See?
I knew I could’nt make that up
That was my mom calling me and sister
Such simple words of happyness
Echo through my mind again

I never thought I’d stick around
Long enough to see anything
Anything so beautiful

Some day

I don’t feel any pain at all
I just miss my love
And the children of my life
Will I ever see them again
Some day

I’ve been fighting off in vain
The three headed demons inside all my life
And now I know I’m free
I swear I’ll come back to you all
Some day

Watching over you

This is not like a cemetery
You’re not dead
I’ve come from another century
And I’m not dead
It may seem like time is standing still
Yet millenniae go by just like that
You’re doing just fine
Oh yeah
I’m your guide and we will go together
Where no one’s been before
Outside and on the inside

You’ll be traveling the far reaches of your soul
You’ll be facing a reality you may not like
‘course you’ve met one darker side of you
Remember the black dog? Oh he’ll be back
We’ll walk him through the stars
Oh yeah
You will master the powers you posess
And never knew were there
Outside and on the inside

I’ll be watching over you
I’ve been scared and so will you
Don’t look back there’s nothing to be feared
Not even your own destiny
I give you my word
I’ll be watching over you
Day and night don’t look back
Don’t let your fears invade you
Don’t let them get the best of you
I’ll be watching over you

Round And Round

All that you see
This universe around us
All of this space could be part of a void
Separating an electron from another in an atom
That is part of the eye of a man
Living in another dimension
Dancing like ours
Round and round

Such a dimension and there’s more than a few
Is were you are headed neither dead nor alive
We’ve suspected their existence for a few million years
Simply known as parallele universes
Their destinies would never meet
Dancing in circles
Round and round

We need time

One world one divide
This is the face of your own kind today
East west good and evil
Are an invention of your own

We need time

North south rich and poor
For love of god and love of money
Seen from where I stand
This has been going on forever

We need time

Each side is certain that it holds the truth
In god we trust
Allah o akbar
So close
So close yet so far away

We need time

Hell on Earth

This has been undoubtedly your bloodiest century
Spreading over at least two world wars
And countless other conflicts
You’ve been counting your own dead
By the hundreds of millions
And it does’nt look as if it’s going to get better

That’s hell on Earth
That’s what it is
Just in case you were wondering what it looks like
That’s hell on Earth
That’s what it is
Just an offspring of a bad idea gone worse

So you say that where you come from
In this dimension of yours
People are’nt at all bent upon destroying one another
You don’t understand things like evil hatred or war
This is all so alien to you

That’s hell on Earth
That’s what it is

And you and I
We’re a mistake an abnormality
We have seen into the future
And we know now what we should have known before
And if such is our destiny
Then let it be and let it lead us where it may
Time is on our side we’ve got each other
For all eternity

That’s the world

Do
Do what you say
Say
Say what you mean
Play
Play by the rules
My folks used to say

Not bad for a little farm boy from a little town
But big dreams
Let the people talk
The blue sky is what you want you got it
There ain’nt nothing that a boy can’t do

That’s the world that’s smiling at you
That’s the world that’s talking to you

See that girl walking down the lane coming to you
She don’t know but she’s gonna bring you back
Take it
Take the hand reaching out to you
It’ll take you where you need to go

That’s the world that’s smiling at you
That’s the world that’s talking to you
That’s the world that’s reaching out to you
That’s the world that’s coming to you

Run for it

This is something one can see
In the eyes of the survivor
Something you can sense
In the sheer grace and pride

Of life made so simple
The way sky and earth are simple
Roaming on the Milky Way
I think I’ll make a run for it

I think I’ll make a run for it
And listen to the eyes
Yes I think I’ll make a run for it
I heard you call my name

I’ve seen your face in the dark
You were staring at me
I heard you call out my name
In the far distance
I’ve seen your eyes in a dream
Like a thousand bright lights
I know you’re here
You’re somewhere near
Have you come to take me home

Something is trying to say something
And I can’t quite get it right
Listen to the smiles it says
Listen to the eyes