The meaning of the songs performed by one of the best Scandinavian bands Madrugada is largely explained by the name the followers of alternative rock put forward. On the recommendation of their friend, the famous Norwegian lyricist and musician with the pseudonym Wolf (Øystein Wingaard Wolf), the emo-rockers from Oslo became known as Madrugada, which in translation from Spanish and Portuguese means “dawn”. The period of time from midnight to six in the morning the English poetically call the blue hour – “blue light”. The morning stars, dawn, predawn beauty and anxious silence attract poets and photographers with ghostly colors. The world around us during these hours has mysterious and changeable outlines. Here are the musicians Madrugada, inspired by the dawn, presenting lyrical and dramatic alt-rock.
About the band’s musical style
All four members of the starting line-up listened to the most diverse music and were involved in other projects in parallel with their joint work, and recorded “solo” albums. Their favorites were not only Iggy Pop, John Lee Hooker, Tom Waits, Johnny Cash. Over the years, a variety of genre bands have been involved in shaping Madrugada’s stylistics: Velvet Underground, The Doors, U2, The Stooges, REM. The influence of Nick Cave, Eddie Vedder, Leonardo Cohen. The songs of Madrugada are not just a mixture of different styles of music. The result is a kind of “haunted, feverish rock,” as critics characterize the musical concept of the Norwegian band. It’s a powerful emotional fusion of progressive and alternative rock.
Song from the second album
The studio album titled The Nightly Disease, released two years after the first, has been described by connoisseurs as “stuck on tape depression”. The album differed from the previous works with a darker atmosphere, but the feeling of heaviness and despair was not due to the versatility of the songs. Their imaginative lyrics are written in English, and the solid sound seems dense and energetic.
The record was recorded in 2001 under the Virgin Records label with producer John Agnello. The Nightly Disease marked the Norwegian team’s transition into the third millennium and cemented the band’s status as one of Scandinavia’s best alt-rock bands. In terms of sales the longplay of the second album considerably surpassed the debut Industrial Silence. The promo single titled Hands up, I Love You became a number one hit in Norway in the early 2000s. Fans also liked the rock aesthetes song “Step Into This Room and Dance for Me”.
The meaning of the song Step Into This Room and Dance for Me
Sivert Heim’s mesmerizing voice, accompanied by a slight guitar breakdown, literally whispers the words to some woman. He insistently and invitingly repeats, “step into this room and dance for me”; “I never asked or introduced you”, “close the door and tell me you’ll dance”, “come on, come on, dance for me”. To the accompaniment of the drums, a transparent keyboard flow pours into the song. Calm, mesmerizing music, melancholic-minor mood, deep soulful vocals. It can’t even occur to the listener’s mind that a man wants to see some kind of private dance. An unpretentious test, superimposed on a melody rising to an emotional peak realizes the recipe for “ingenious simplicity” of the song. The output is something incredible – a lyrical and disturbing plea of a man for love.
To describe the atmosphere of Step Into This Room and Dance for Me, as well as the whole second disc, it is a lump of lightly sad and emotionally brightly colored music. The dramatic and tragic style of performance, the bluesy rock and the ballad style are typical for Madrugada in general. Listening to the album “Nocturnal Illness” you literally plunge into the magic of the night, when time seems to stop, no one is around, and you sink into a restless, a little bit angry and slightly painful thoughts. The title and the content of the disc induce you to use other epithets for the “night” music: stylish, deep, intimate. From the men’s lips one can hear strongly and convincingly subtle emotional feelings about lost or unfulfilled love.
In 2011 the album The Nightly Disease was remastered. It was re-released with a bonus disc, which contains a lot of previously unreleased material. Music critics note that the band’s repertoire has undergone many changes over a decade and a half of active work, but the artists have always remained faithful to the dramatic and emotional alt-rock. The popularity of Madrugada in our country can probably be compared with the Ukrainian “Okean Elzy” and the French pop-rock BB Brunes.
