Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Dewicking as Static Character is now Definition Only.
Deleted line(s) 172,173 (click to see context) :
* StaticCharacter: Touched on in the liner notes story, where the narrator realizes lack of growth leads to LossOfIdentity:
-->The person who doesn't learn and does not act, I thought, disintegrates within. It is the chaos of growth, of taking new forms, that is the shield against those who spend all their time earning, spending and amusing themselves.
-->The person who doesn't learn and does not act, I thought, disintegrates within. It is the chaos of growth, of taking new forms, that is the shield against those who spend all their time earning, spending and amusing themselves.
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None
Changed line(s) 148 (click to see context) from:
-->We'll run to missiles if we’re pushed that far\\
to:
Changed line(s) 151 (click to see context) from:
-->Contortionists are caught up in the camera’s eye\\
to:
Changed line(s) 156 (click to see context) from:
-->Look out your window\\
to:
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Changed line(s) 138 (click to see context) from:
-->The giant was power and power belongs to darkness. It is a Frankenstein monster dwarfing us all. It is, among other things, a mass of communication media which man has constructed to unceasingly persuade us that pursuits like fame, sensual pleasures and money will make life worth living. The giant was and is the power-mad system which possesses a death wish, devouring human beings while seeking its own extinction, devoting its wealth, knowledge and skills to creating the means to blow itself to oblivion.
to:
-->The giant was power and power belongs to darkness. It is a [[FrankensteinsMonster Frankenstein monster monster]] dwarfing us all. It is, among other things, a mass of communication media which man has constructed to unceasingly persuade us that pursuits like fame, sensual pleasures and money will make life worth living. The giant was and is the power-mad system which possesses a death wish, devouring human beings while seeking its own extinction, devoting its wealth, knowledge and skills to creating the means to blow itself to oblivion.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 110 (click to see context) from:
* {{Homage}}: “William Blake” is an extended tribute to him, with several quotes from his poems.
to:
* {{Homage}}: “William Blake” “Creator/WilliamBlake” is an extended tribute to him, with several quotes from his poems.
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None
Changed line(s) 91 (click to see context) from:
-->And I never get comfort in the earth or sky\\
to:
Changed line(s) 96 (click to see context) from:
-->I concluded, and retain this belief even now, that the only ultimate disaster that can befall a man is to feel at home here on earth.
to:
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None
Changed line(s) 60 (click to see context) from:
-->As the world turns, it slaps me hard\\
to:
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
crosswicking
Changed line(s) 166 (click to see context) from:
* PortalDoor: The liner notes story ends with the narrator walking through such a door, to an unknown destination. Just like the ''Music/{{Doppelganger}}'' story ended.
to:
* PortalDoor: The liner notes story ends start with a reference to ''Doppelgänger'''s door, with the narrator walking in a desolate landscape with a [[WorldWreckingWave storm-wave]] bearing down on him. And those notes end with the narrator stepping through such a door, to an unknown destination. Just like the ''Music/{{Doppelganger}}'' story ended.''another'' mysterious door.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 160 (click to see context) from:
* NonIndicativeName: The album title means “voice of the human”, but this is probably the least-human-sounding music in DA’s discography. The irony was definitely intentional.
to:
* NonIndicativeName: NeverTrustATitle: The album title means “voice of the human”, but this is probably the least-human-sounding music in DA’s discography. The irony was definitely intentional.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
* ButtMonkey:
** “As the World Turns”:
-->As the world turns, it slaps me hard\\
As the world turns, it tells me I’m weak\\
As the world turns, I drop my guard\\
As the world turns, I turn the other cheek
** “The Incredible Shrinking Man” describes the many ways that the world conspires to make the character (addressed only as “you”) feel powerless and insignificant.
** “As the World Turns”:
-->As the world turns, it slaps me hard\\
As the world turns, it tells me I’m weak\\
As the world turns, I drop my guard\\
As the world turns, I turn the other cheek
** “The Incredible Shrinking Man” describes the many ways that the world conspires to make the character (addressed only as “you”) feel powerless and insignificant.
Deleted line(s) 64,70 (click to see context) :
* TheChewToy:
** “As the World Turns”:
-->As the world turns, it slaps me hard\\
As the world turns, it tells me I’m weak\\
As the world turns, I drop my guard\\
As the world turns, I turn the other cheek
** “The Incredible Shrinking Man” describes the many ways that the world conspires to make the character (addressed only as “you”) feel powerless and insignificant.
** “As the World Turns”:
-->As the world turns, it slaps me hard\\
As the world turns, it tells me I’m weak\\
As the world turns, I drop my guard\\
As the world turns, I turn the other cheek
** “The Incredible Shrinking Man” describes the many ways that the world conspires to make the character (addressed only as “you”) feel powerless and insignificant.
Changed line(s) 111 (click to see context) from:
* IncredibleShrinkingMan: “Incredible Shrinking Man” uses this as a metaphor for being TheChewToy in 1980s society. And in the liner notes story, the narrator literally shrinks until a tiny rock becomes an impassible mountain.
to:
* IncredibleShrinkingMan: “Incredible Shrinking Man” uses this as a metaphor for being TheChewToy a ButtMonkey in 1980s society. And in the liner notes story, the narrator literally shrinks until a tiny rock becomes an impassible mountain.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 89 (click to see context) from:
* FishOutOfWater
to:
* FishOutOfWaterFishOutOfWater:
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Deleted line(s) 80,90 (click to see context) :
* TheExile:
** “It’s Sick” wonders how African-Americans feel about it:
-->The black man, he knows the score\\
He’s tied to shores so strange and foreign
** “As the World Turns” describes being an outsider in the spiritual sense:
-->And I never get comfort in the earth or sky\\
It’s my belief they’re not my home\\
The world spins one way, but I go another\\
Against the grain, one often stands alone
** In the liner notes story, the narrator realizes:
-->I concluded, and retain this belief even now, that the only ultimate disaster that can befall a man is to feel at home here on earth.
** “It’s Sick” wonders how African-Americans feel about it:
-->The black man, he knows the score\\
He’s tied to shores so strange and foreign
** “As the World Turns” describes being an outsider in the spiritual sense:
-->And I never get comfort in the earth or sky\\
It’s my belief they’re not my home\\
The world spins one way, but I go another\\
Against the grain, one often stands alone
** In the liner notes story, the narrator realizes:
-->I concluded, and retain this belief even now, that the only ultimate disaster that can befall a man is to feel at home here on earth.
Added DiffLines:
* FishOutOfWater
** “As the World Turns” describes being an outsider in the spiritual sense:
-->And I never get comfort in the earth or sky\\
It’s my belief they’re not my home\\
The world spins one way, but I go another\\
Against the grain, one often stands alone
** In the liner notes story, the narrator realizes:
-->I concluded, and retain this belief even now, that the only ultimate disaster that can befall a man is to feel at home here on earth.
** “As the World Turns” describes being an outsider in the spiritual sense:
-->And I never get comfort in the earth or sky\\
It’s my belief they’re not my home\\
The world spins one way, but I go another\\
Against the grain, one often stands alone
** In the liner notes story, the narrator realizes:
-->I concluded, and retain this belief even now, that the only ultimate disaster that can befall a man is to feel at home here on earth.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 46 (click to see context) from:
* AnimeHair: DA’s strangely sculpted hairdos on the cover photo. On the back cover, they lampshade it with a lyric from “Home Permanent”:
to:
* AnimeHair: EightiesHair: DA’s strangely sculpted hairdos on the cover photo. On the back cover, they lampshade it with a lyric from “Home Permanent”:
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/voxfront.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:“My hair points to the sky, the place I’d rather be!”]]
->''It’s history that cannot be\\
felt by tiny souls.\\
Inside this chest beats a plastic heart,\\
and pleasure is its goal.''
-->-- “It’s Sick”
''Vox Humana (The Alarma Chronicles Volume III)'' is Music/DanielAmos’s sixth studio album, released in 1984. It took the NewWaveMusic of their previous two albums in a much more synthesized direction, with many tracks being outright SynthPop. The ravages of TheEighties spared no band, and this album’s production bears witness to that.
Appropriately enough for an LP that [[UnintentionalPeriodPiece wears the decade on its sleeve so blatantly]], ''Vox Humana'' was a critique of Western society at that time. InAWorld where greed and commercialism were celebrated, where new technology was as likely to distract people from each other as to unite them, and where [[UsefulNotes/ColdWar nuclear annihilation could have come without warning at any time]]--what could one synth-pop band do? For DA, the answer was to pen bouncy, upbeat ditties that highlighted the absurdities of the world around them, and then pair those with somber ballads about reconnecting with God and their fellow humans.
The [[http://www.danielamos.com/articles/alarmac3.html story in the liner notes]] continued where ''Music/{{Doppelganger}}'' left off and paralleled the album’s lyrical themes: Terry Scott Taylor’s AuthorAvatar gets overtaken by a storm-breathing giant, comes to grips with the AwfulTruth about society, and shrinks down to the size of an ant.
It was followed in 1986 by the final chapter of The Alarma Chronicles: ''Music/FearfulSymmetry''.
!!Personnel:
* Terry Scott Taylor: lead vocals, rhythm guitars, occasional keyboards, synthesizers, backing vocals
* Ed [=McTaggart=]: drums, percussion, synthesizers
* Rob Watson: keyboards, synthesizers, percussion, backing vocals
* Tim Chandler: lead guitars, 4 & 12 string bass, synthesizers, backing vocals
!!Tracklist:
[[AC:Side 1:]]
# Travelog (4:25)
# (It’s the Eighties, So Where's Our) Rocket Packs (3:35)
# Home Permanent (3:00)
# It’s Sick (2:18)
# William Blake (4:30)
# Dance Stop (2:43)
[[AC:Side 2:]]
# Live and Let Live (3:40)
# When Worlds Collide (4:20)
# As the World Turns (3:47)
# She’s All Heart (3:00)
# The Incredible Shrinking Man (2:45)
# Sanctuary (5:45)
----
!! Provides examples of:
* AnimeHair: DA’s strangely sculpted hairdos on the cover photo. On the back cover, they lampshade it with a lyric from “Home Permanent”:
-->My hair points to the sky, the place I’d rather be!
* BadMoonRising and TheStarsAreGoingOut: In “Sanctuary”:
-->And should the moon burn red, stars leave the sky,\\
Remember, remember\\
Your sanctuary
* BrokenPedestal: In “The Incredible Shrinking Man”:
-->The clergy dresses you in tights and cape\\
And so the pressure’s on to make no mistake\\
In truth, there is no way that you won't break\\
You’re gonna fall\\
You’re much too small
* BystanderSyndrome: In “Live and Let Live”:
-->Oh no, I’ve got a broken heart\\
(“We’re so sorry but we gotta run”)\\
Oh no, I’m falling apart\\
While you keep on floating\\
Up, and up, and up, and up, and up
* TheChewToy:
** “As the World Turns”:
-->As the world turns, it slaps me hard\\
As the world turns, it tells me I’m weak\\
As the world turns, I drop my guard\\
As the world turns, I turn the other cheek
** “The Incredible Shrinking Man” describes the many ways that the world conspires to make the character (addressed only as “you”) feel powerless and insignificant.
* ContinuityNod: “Travelog”’s bridge includes several vocal samples from TV, including Johnny Jacobs proclaiming, “A new car!”--the same sample that was used throughout “New Car!”, from ''Music/{{Doppelganger}}''.
* CoversAlwaysLie: Keyboardist Rob Watson wasn’t available for the cover photoshoot. DA asked Leo Sorentino, tour manager for Music/TheChoir, to stand in for Watson--even though they didn’t look much alike at all.
* DanceSensation: The liner notes come with instructions for how to dance to “Dance Stop”:
-->You may dance any dance that you desire, but in the course of the song when the word STOP! is shouted and the music stops you must FREEZE in whatever position you are in at that moment. In the song you will then hear the crowd voices escalating. Resume dancing again when you hear the word DANCE shouted and the music resumes. Have fun!!!
* DrunkWithPower: “The Incredible Shrinking Man”:
-->From wells of power\\
You take a drink\\
You drown in it\\
It’s bigger than you think
* TheExile:
** “It’s Sick” wonders how African-Americans feel about it:
-->The black man, he knows the score\\
He’s tied to shores so strange and foreign
** “As the World Turns” describes being an outsider in the spiritual sense:
-->And I never get comfort in the earth or sky\\
It’s my belief they’re not my home\\
The world spins one way, but I go another\\
Against the grain, one often stands alone
** In the liner notes story, the narrator realizes:
-->I concluded, and retain this belief even now, that the only ultimate disaster that can befall a man is to feel at home here on earth.
* FirstWorldProblems: After two verses describing genuine oppression, the final verse of “It’s Sick” covers the sort of problems that rich Americans face. Then the lyrics dig a little deeper, pointing out that we’re focused on these trivialities because our real problem--the possibility of nuclear holocaust--is just too big to deal with.
-->Our trial is which car to buy\\
Temptation is that extra dessert\\
In the land of orange juice\\
You’re better off with the right kind of shirt\\
But take away the naïveté\\
Expose the sources of our fears\\
We’ll run to missiles if we’re pushed that far\\
Proceed to blow it all away!
* ForeignLanguageTitle: Vox Humana, Latin for “voice of the human”.
* GiantFootOfStomping: On the back cover, a massive robot foot descends from above to crush DA underneath.
-->...Technology was a storm which materialized into a great foot threatening to crush me and all of mankind...
* GratuitousPanning: The chorus vocals in “Live and Let Live” bounce from one channel to the other.
* GodIsLoveSongs: “When Worlds Collide” is a love song from God to all of humanity.
-->When shadows fall\\
When lovers mourn\\
And you fight your darkest tendencies\\
I promise to hold you close to me when\\
Worlds collide\\
I'm on your side
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: The liner notes mention this happening on a societal scale:
-->Yes, we have created the monster. He is the harvest of our sowing.
* {{Homage}}: “William Blake” is an extended tribute to him, with several quotes from his poems.
* IncredibleShrinkingMan: “Incredible Shrinking Man” uses this as a metaphor for being TheChewToy in 1980s society. And in the liner notes story, the narrator literally shrinks until a tiny rock becomes an impassible mountain.
* InsignificantLittleBluePlanet: “The Incredible Shrinking Man”:
-->A world accountable\\
Among the stars a grain of sand
* IWantMyJetPack: “(It’s the Eighties, So Where’s Our) Rocket Packs” laments that the techno-utopia never happened--partly because sci-fi technologies never materialized, and partly because people didn’t change that much. The items that sci-fi promised and reality never delivered (at least not by 1984) include:
-->[[CasualInterplanetaryTravel I thought by now I'd walk the moon]]\\
[[FlyingCar And ride a car without no tires]]\\
[[RobotMaid And have a robot run the vacuum]]\\
[[{{Robosexual}} And date a girl made out of wires]]\\
[[SpaceStation I thought by now we'd live in space]]\\
[[FoodPills And eat a pill instead of dinner]]\\
[[PostApocalypticGasmask And wear a gas mask on our face]]\\
[[OurPresidentsAreDifferent A President of female gender]]\\
I thought by now [[DomedHometown we'd build a dome]]\\
Around the world, [[WeatherControlMachine control the weather]]\\
[[VideoPhone In every house, a picture phone]]\\
Communicate a little better
* JobStealingRobot: In “The Incredible Shrinking Man”:
-->Machines remind you\\
that you can be replaced
* LackOfEmpathy: “It’s Sick” is about responding to foreign tragedies with complete apathy. The narrator at least has the self-awareness to feel bad that he doesn’t feel bad:
-->It's sick! And I got it on my TV\\
It's sick! When I don't feel a thing\\
It's sick! And I get a little queasy\\
When somebody tells me it's only a game, it’s sick!
* LossOfIdentity: In the liner notes story, the narrator concludes that lack of change is what causes you to lose yourself. (See Static Character, below.)
* LuddWasRight: Sort of: Technology is an extension of man’s collective will. And since HumansAreFlawed...
-->The giant was power and power belongs to darkness. It is a Frankenstein monster dwarfing us all. It is, among other things, a mass of communication media which man has constructed to unceasingly persuade us that pursuits like fame, sensual pleasures and money will make life worth living. The giant was and is the power-mad system which possesses a death wish, devouring human beings while seeking its own extinction, devoting its wealth, knowledge and skills to creating the means to blow itself to oblivion.
* LyricalDissonance: Nearly the entire album. The upbeat songs are the ones about selling your soul to the machine, while the somber songs are the ones about meaningful relationships with others. “Sanctuary” is the most lyrically hopeful song on the album--it’s God’s unconditional promise to be anyone’s sanctuary, in good times and bad--but musically, the moodiest and broodiest.
* TheMoralSubstitute: Parodied in “Home Permanent”.
-->I gave a toy top to my little brother\\
It says to “Spin from sin”, and to my mother\\
I gave a recipe book, it's like no other\\
Now she makes chocolate Bibles--a witness to my unsaved father
* MundaneMadeAwesome: “Travelog” is literally a song about watching TV, but the narrator makes it sound like a grand adventure.
* MutuallyAssuredDestruction: The fear of a nuclear war with the USSR looms in the background--or the foreground--of several songs.
** “It’s Sick”:
-->We'll run to missiles if we’re pushed that far\\
Proceed to blow it all away!
** “Dance Stop” is about crowds who go on dancing even as the bombs explode.
-->Contortionists are caught up in the camera’s eye\\
The music explodes and the bodies fly\\
They're rating it a ten before they drop and die\\
“WELL IT HAD A GOOD BEAT!” was their very last cry
** “The Incredible Shrinking Man”:
-->Look out your window\\
Here comes a bomb\\
The dogs of war\\
Drop it on your lawn
* NonIndicativeName: The album title means “voice of the human”, but this is probably the least-human-sounding music in DA’s discography. The irony was definitely intentional.
* OfficiallyShortenedTitle: The front cover has “DA” in large letters, with “Daniel Amos” written inside those in much smaller text--apparently to ease fans into accepting the shortened name.
* OppositesAttract: “She’s All Heart”. The verses describe a couple whose differing viewpoints lead to disagreements and misunderstandings, but the chorus keeps coming back to the fact that “They are one heart.”
-->She says I complicate things\\
I say she over simplifies everything\\
But either way, I still believe we need each other
* PortalDoor: The liner notes story ends with the narrator walking through such a door, to an unknown destination. Just like the ''Music/{{Doppelganger}}'' story ended.
* RevealShot: The front cover is a photo of the band. [[http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/voxrear.jpg The back cover]] pulls back just far enough to show the GiantFootOfStomping that’s about to crush them.
* SoWhatDoWeDoNow: In “Sanctuary”:
-->And should you find you have the things you need\\
Remember, remember\\
Me
* StaticCharacter: Touched on in the liner notes story, where the narrator realizes lack of growth leads to LossOfIdentity:
-->The person who doesn't learn and does not act, I thought, disintegrates within. It is the chaos of growth, of taking new forms, that is the shield against those who spend all their time earning, spending and amusing themselves.
* StopAndGo: “Dance Stop”.
* VindicatedByHistory: [[invoked]] “William Blake”:
-->You were not mad\\
I know time will tell
* WeatherManipulation: The giant in the liner notes story breathes storm clouds and freezing winds.
* WhileRomeBurns: “Dance Stop” is about the masses falling into hedonism in the face of the impending apocalypse, specifically by dancing as the hydrogen bombs launch.
-->Well, tell me please how love can be\\
With a kick/snare giving you a fantasy\\
“AIN’T NO FUTURE FAR AS I CAN SEE!”\\
If I could dance, I might agree
* WorldWreckingWave: In the liner notes story, the narrator gets overtaken by a black storm-wave-thing.
-->There, rolling down upon me, over what appeared to be a snowy plain, I saw a gigantic black wave. It was miles away, but visibly devouring the earth in its approach, its crest lost in murky clouds.
----
[[caption-width-right:350:“My hair points to the sky, the place I’d rather be!”]]
->''It’s history that cannot be\\
felt by tiny souls.\\
Inside this chest beats a plastic heart,\\
and pleasure is its goal.''
-->-- “It’s Sick”
''Vox Humana (The Alarma Chronicles Volume III)'' is Music/DanielAmos’s sixth studio album, released in 1984. It took the NewWaveMusic of their previous two albums in a much more synthesized direction, with many tracks being outright SynthPop. The ravages of TheEighties spared no band, and this album’s production bears witness to that.
Appropriately enough for an LP that [[UnintentionalPeriodPiece wears the decade on its sleeve so blatantly]], ''Vox Humana'' was a critique of Western society at that time. InAWorld where greed and commercialism were celebrated, where new technology was as likely to distract people from each other as to unite them, and where [[UsefulNotes/ColdWar nuclear annihilation could have come without warning at any time]]--what could one synth-pop band do? For DA, the answer was to pen bouncy, upbeat ditties that highlighted the absurdities of the world around them, and then pair those with somber ballads about reconnecting with God and their fellow humans.
The [[http://www.danielamos.com/articles/alarmac3.html story in the liner notes]] continued where ''Music/{{Doppelganger}}'' left off and paralleled the album’s lyrical themes: Terry Scott Taylor’s AuthorAvatar gets overtaken by a storm-breathing giant, comes to grips with the AwfulTruth about society, and shrinks down to the size of an ant.
It was followed in 1986 by the final chapter of The Alarma Chronicles: ''Music/FearfulSymmetry''.
!!Personnel:
* Terry Scott Taylor: lead vocals, rhythm guitars, occasional keyboards, synthesizers, backing vocals
* Ed [=McTaggart=]: drums, percussion, synthesizers
* Rob Watson: keyboards, synthesizers, percussion, backing vocals
* Tim Chandler: lead guitars, 4 & 12 string bass, synthesizers, backing vocals
!!Tracklist:
[[AC:Side 1:]]
# Travelog (4:25)
# (It’s the Eighties, So Where's Our) Rocket Packs (3:35)
# Home Permanent (3:00)
# It’s Sick (2:18)
# William Blake (4:30)
# Dance Stop (2:43)
[[AC:Side 2:]]
# Live and Let Live (3:40)
# When Worlds Collide (4:20)
# As the World Turns (3:47)
# She’s All Heart (3:00)
# The Incredible Shrinking Man (2:45)
# Sanctuary (5:45)
----
!! Provides examples of:
* AnimeHair: DA’s strangely sculpted hairdos on the cover photo. On the back cover, they lampshade it with a lyric from “Home Permanent”:
-->My hair points to the sky, the place I’d rather be!
* BadMoonRising and TheStarsAreGoingOut: In “Sanctuary”:
-->And should the moon burn red, stars leave the sky,\\
Remember, remember\\
Your sanctuary
* BrokenPedestal: In “The Incredible Shrinking Man”:
-->The clergy dresses you in tights and cape\\
And so the pressure’s on to make no mistake\\
In truth, there is no way that you won't break\\
You’re gonna fall\\
You’re much too small
* BystanderSyndrome: In “Live and Let Live”:
-->Oh no, I’ve got a broken heart\\
(“We’re so sorry but we gotta run”)\\
Oh no, I’m falling apart\\
While you keep on floating\\
Up, and up, and up, and up, and up
* TheChewToy:
** “As the World Turns”:
-->As the world turns, it slaps me hard\\
As the world turns, it tells me I’m weak\\
As the world turns, I drop my guard\\
As the world turns, I turn the other cheek
** “The Incredible Shrinking Man” describes the many ways that the world conspires to make the character (addressed only as “you”) feel powerless and insignificant.
* ContinuityNod: “Travelog”’s bridge includes several vocal samples from TV, including Johnny Jacobs proclaiming, “A new car!”--the same sample that was used throughout “New Car!”, from ''Music/{{Doppelganger}}''.
* CoversAlwaysLie: Keyboardist Rob Watson wasn’t available for the cover photoshoot. DA asked Leo Sorentino, tour manager for Music/TheChoir, to stand in for Watson--even though they didn’t look much alike at all.
* DanceSensation: The liner notes come with instructions for how to dance to “Dance Stop”:
-->You may dance any dance that you desire, but in the course of the song when the word STOP! is shouted and the music stops you must FREEZE in whatever position you are in at that moment. In the song you will then hear the crowd voices escalating. Resume dancing again when you hear the word DANCE shouted and the music resumes. Have fun!!!
* DrunkWithPower: “The Incredible Shrinking Man”:
-->From wells of power\\
You take a drink\\
You drown in it\\
It’s bigger than you think
* TheExile:
** “It’s Sick” wonders how African-Americans feel about it:
-->The black man, he knows the score\\
He’s tied to shores so strange and foreign
** “As the World Turns” describes being an outsider in the spiritual sense:
-->And I never get comfort in the earth or sky\\
It’s my belief they’re not my home\\
The world spins one way, but I go another\\
Against the grain, one often stands alone
** In the liner notes story, the narrator realizes:
-->I concluded, and retain this belief even now, that the only ultimate disaster that can befall a man is to feel at home here on earth.
* FirstWorldProblems: After two verses describing genuine oppression, the final verse of “It’s Sick” covers the sort of problems that rich Americans face. Then the lyrics dig a little deeper, pointing out that we’re focused on these trivialities because our real problem--the possibility of nuclear holocaust--is just too big to deal with.
-->Our trial is which car to buy\\
Temptation is that extra dessert\\
In the land of orange juice\\
You’re better off with the right kind of shirt\\
But take away the naïveté\\
Expose the sources of our fears\\
We’ll run to missiles if we’re pushed that far\\
Proceed to blow it all away!
* ForeignLanguageTitle: Vox Humana, Latin for “voice of the human”.
* GiantFootOfStomping: On the back cover, a massive robot foot descends from above to crush DA underneath.
-->...Technology was a storm which materialized into a great foot threatening to crush me and all of mankind...
* GratuitousPanning: The chorus vocals in “Live and Let Live” bounce from one channel to the other.
* GodIsLoveSongs: “When Worlds Collide” is a love song from God to all of humanity.
-->When shadows fall\\
When lovers mourn\\
And you fight your darkest tendencies\\
I promise to hold you close to me when\\
Worlds collide\\
I'm on your side
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: The liner notes mention this happening on a societal scale:
-->Yes, we have created the monster. He is the harvest of our sowing.
* {{Homage}}: “William Blake” is an extended tribute to him, with several quotes from his poems.
* IncredibleShrinkingMan: “Incredible Shrinking Man” uses this as a metaphor for being TheChewToy in 1980s society. And in the liner notes story, the narrator literally shrinks until a tiny rock becomes an impassible mountain.
* InsignificantLittleBluePlanet: “The Incredible Shrinking Man”:
-->A world accountable\\
Among the stars a grain of sand
* IWantMyJetPack: “(It’s the Eighties, So Where’s Our) Rocket Packs” laments that the techno-utopia never happened--partly because sci-fi technologies never materialized, and partly because people didn’t change that much. The items that sci-fi promised and reality never delivered (at least not by 1984) include:
-->[[CasualInterplanetaryTravel I thought by now I'd walk the moon]]\\
[[FlyingCar And ride a car without no tires]]\\
[[RobotMaid And have a robot run the vacuum]]\\
[[{{Robosexual}} And date a girl made out of wires]]\\
[[SpaceStation I thought by now we'd live in space]]\\
[[FoodPills And eat a pill instead of dinner]]\\
[[PostApocalypticGasmask And wear a gas mask on our face]]\\
[[OurPresidentsAreDifferent A President of female gender]]\\
I thought by now [[DomedHometown we'd build a dome]]\\
Around the world, [[WeatherControlMachine control the weather]]\\
[[VideoPhone In every house, a picture phone]]\\
Communicate a little better
* JobStealingRobot: In “The Incredible Shrinking Man”:
-->Machines remind you\\
that you can be replaced
* LackOfEmpathy: “It’s Sick” is about responding to foreign tragedies with complete apathy. The narrator at least has the self-awareness to feel bad that he doesn’t feel bad:
-->It's sick! And I got it on my TV\\
It's sick! When I don't feel a thing\\
It's sick! And I get a little queasy\\
When somebody tells me it's only a game, it’s sick!
* LossOfIdentity: In the liner notes story, the narrator concludes that lack of change is what causes you to lose yourself. (See Static Character, below.)
* LuddWasRight: Sort of: Technology is an extension of man’s collective will. And since HumansAreFlawed...
-->The giant was power and power belongs to darkness. It is a Frankenstein monster dwarfing us all. It is, among other things, a mass of communication media which man has constructed to unceasingly persuade us that pursuits like fame, sensual pleasures and money will make life worth living. The giant was and is the power-mad system which possesses a death wish, devouring human beings while seeking its own extinction, devoting its wealth, knowledge and skills to creating the means to blow itself to oblivion.
* LyricalDissonance: Nearly the entire album. The upbeat songs are the ones about selling your soul to the machine, while the somber songs are the ones about meaningful relationships with others. “Sanctuary” is the most lyrically hopeful song on the album--it’s God’s unconditional promise to be anyone’s sanctuary, in good times and bad--but musically, the moodiest and broodiest.
* TheMoralSubstitute: Parodied in “Home Permanent”.
-->I gave a toy top to my little brother\\
It says to “Spin from sin”, and to my mother\\
I gave a recipe book, it's like no other\\
Now she makes chocolate Bibles--a witness to my unsaved father
* MundaneMadeAwesome: “Travelog” is literally a song about watching TV, but the narrator makes it sound like a grand adventure.
* MutuallyAssuredDestruction: The fear of a nuclear war with the USSR looms in the background--or the foreground--of several songs.
** “It’s Sick”:
-->We'll run to missiles if we’re pushed that far\\
Proceed to blow it all away!
** “Dance Stop” is about crowds who go on dancing even as the bombs explode.
-->Contortionists are caught up in the camera’s eye\\
The music explodes and the bodies fly\\
They're rating it a ten before they drop and die\\
“WELL IT HAD A GOOD BEAT!” was their very last cry
** “The Incredible Shrinking Man”:
-->Look out your window\\
Here comes a bomb\\
The dogs of war\\
Drop it on your lawn
* NonIndicativeName: The album title means “voice of the human”, but this is probably the least-human-sounding music in DA’s discography. The irony was definitely intentional.
* OfficiallyShortenedTitle: The front cover has “DA” in large letters, with “Daniel Amos” written inside those in much smaller text--apparently to ease fans into accepting the shortened name.
* OppositesAttract: “She’s All Heart”. The verses describe a couple whose differing viewpoints lead to disagreements and misunderstandings, but the chorus keeps coming back to the fact that “They are one heart.”
-->She says I complicate things\\
I say she over simplifies everything\\
But either way, I still believe we need each other
* PortalDoor: The liner notes story ends with the narrator walking through such a door, to an unknown destination. Just like the ''Music/{{Doppelganger}}'' story ended.
* RevealShot: The front cover is a photo of the band. [[http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/voxrear.jpg The back cover]] pulls back just far enough to show the GiantFootOfStomping that’s about to crush them.
* SoWhatDoWeDoNow: In “Sanctuary”:
-->And should you find you have the things you need\\
Remember, remember\\
Me
* StaticCharacter: Touched on in the liner notes story, where the narrator realizes lack of growth leads to LossOfIdentity:
-->The person who doesn't learn and does not act, I thought, disintegrates within. It is the chaos of growth, of taking new forms, that is the shield against those who spend all their time earning, spending and amusing themselves.
* StopAndGo: “Dance Stop”.
* VindicatedByHistory: [[invoked]] “William Blake”:
-->You were not mad\\
I know time will tell
* WeatherManipulation: The giant in the liner notes story breathes storm clouds and freezing winds.
* WhileRomeBurns: “Dance Stop” is about the masses falling into hedonism in the face of the impending apocalypse, specifically by dancing as the hydrogen bombs launch.
-->Well, tell me please how love can be\\
With a kick/snare giving you a fantasy\\
“AIN’T NO FUTURE FAR AS I CAN SEE!”\\
If I could dance, I might agree
* WorldWreckingWave: In the liner notes story, the narrator gets overtaken by a black storm-wave-thing.
-->There, rolling down upon me, over what appeared to be a snowy plain, I saw a gigantic black wave. It was miles away, but visibly devouring the earth in its approach, its crest lost in murky clouds.
----
