Joshua Burnside - Into The Depths Of Hell - Lyrical Analysis

Reassurances from a departed love, ancient Irish folk and unabashed anger at Satan himself combine at lightspeed on Joshua Burnside’s sophomore record ‘Into The Depths Of Hell’. Somewhere amidst the melting pot of sounds, Paul Simon-esque African groove can be found mingling with a post-punk atmosphere (And You Evade Him/Born In The Blood). In the darker corners his banjo from embryonic (but still brilliant) releases like Black Dog Sin is heard plucking away diligently, as if recovered from a time-capsule (Nothing For Ye). Elsewhere, metal strikes metal in a Belfast shipyard, while civil war breaks out in the background (I Saw The Night).

Where his NI Music Prize winning debut Ephrata teased moments of greatness, Into The Depths Of Hell spells it out like fireworks on a pitch black night. It shakes, stumbles and mourns alongside the listener, demanding another spin on the record player. To celebrate this landmark record, Taylor Johnson takes a dive into the depths of Joshua Burnside’s brain and 10 times his lyrics hit different.

1. “Nothing is bolder than the jump from the windowsill, into the depths of hell and into the clutches of the devil himself” - Under The Concrete

The opening verses to the Latin shuffle of Under The Concrete see Joshua steal redemption from the jaws of exquisitely orchestrated despair, in roughly the time it takes to light a cigarette on a windswept evening. A dark awakening, it welcomes you into his world with a weary wink, before pulling himself back from the brink , “but nevermind that talk is a little premature, I have many sins worse to commit first.” Wonderful.

2. “I was a liar when I said I am not afraid, I am” - And You Evade Him/Born In The Blood

As unlikely a single as you’ll hear this year, even a song as artistic and soundbite heavy as And You Evade Him… doesn’t miss it’s opportunity to cut right to his subject’s very core. Surrounded by fear, the Comber-born troubadour refuses to shy away from his truest feelings, redefining his vulnerabilities as strengths. It also paints him as one of us. He is human and he needs to be loved, just like everybody else does...

3. “So if there's nowhere for our souls to go then I don't want to be so sober, so” - Whiskey Whiskey

A flight to London. Sickening turbulence. Life suspended somewhere between heaven and the Earth below. Whiskey Whiskey is Burnside’s memento mori, a look into the human mind, staring death in the face. Reason can’t save him now, nor the cabin crew giving nothing away as the aircraft shudders and shakes. One of this record’s most touching moments.

4. “Just to have you to myself again, I would've waged a war on everything” - War On Everything

Some grief is only comparable to the violent swell of the sea, and War On Everything captures that desolation in a single verse. To see his beloved again, he would wage war, nothing could stop him. The lyrics here tap into something primal, making love and despair seem human rather than, as so often in pop music, superheroic.

5. “And Mr. Freud, reveals the void in our hearts, where we thought we knew the light from the dark, but there's only sex and murder in the back of our skulls” - Will You Go or Must I?

Austrian neurologist and weird-sex-guy Sigmund Freud proposed that humans have a life instinct and a death instinct. His theory was based on these drives (sex and aggression) dominating our lives. Here Burnside is toying with this concept of nihilism over a ragtime melody, that wouldn’t sound out of place on Cat Steven’s 1970 classic Tea For The Tillerman.

6. “You shall not take this land from me, for who am I, but where I am? And who I am, with therein, I'll be the night, I’ll be the night” - I Saw The Night

Buried beneath the blood and the borders, Burnside’s misanthropy is rationalised by his refusal to take sides. Peace will be his victory. Haunting electronica, accordion drones and vocoded vocals give a cabin fever closeness to the infinite night he sings about.

7. “Until eventually all of our buried skeletons are gently uncovered by smiling Americans, and all is explained, how we came to such unfortunate endings” - Driving Alone In The City At Night

A conversation with a departed friend, Driving Along In The City At Night should sound a lot more tortured than it actually does. In the context of the song, whilst not exactly cheery, the thought of being discovered in the ground alongside a loved one feels like more of an escape for our author, than a definitive ending.

8. Well, I have nothing for ye my sweet darling, If I had enough money, I'd buy you a ring, for I'm worried someday, you'll run off with a doctor, cause I had nothing for ye, my sweet darling” - Nothing For Ye

Into The Depths... emotional climax, Nothing For Ye encapsulates all that is pure and beautiful about Joshua Burnside as a storyteller. All he can offer are his songs and his heart, will that be enough, my sweet darling? A song sounding like it was written on a battlefield years ago, with bombs and bullets flying above him. Close your eyes and you’re there.

9. “One cannot be here, whilst over there, so you must remain, my kind brother” - Driving Alone In The City At Night

Another heartbreaking lyric from Driving Alone In The City At Night, here Burnside’s attempt to reconcile loss takes a gentler tone. A devastating and comforting truth. Childlike, and yet somehow seismic in its simplicity.

10. “My mother before she died, told me, son if you must be a singer, well you ought to run, down to the dole office, and sign on today, for that's where you'll be, collecting your pay.” - Nothing For Ye

Joshua Burnside’s song about being skint is priceless. Before work commenced on Into The Depths Of Hell, he could often be found nursing a Guinness at the American Bar in Belfast, listening in and occasionally taking part in the Irish-traditional jam sessions that take place behind closed doors. Musicians from across the city would meet to play songs from yesteryear, historical songs about poets and Ireland, their dreams and their families. These traditions have undoubtedly helped shape Burnside’s second record, the mark from these shared moments in every groove of the vinyl. Nothing For Ye is a song born from these times, made to be sung with arms around loved ones, late into a winter night, fire burning in the corner.

Extra reading/Bonus points

“Well, I just can't find peace in my soul, no, I just can't find it” - The Only Thing I Fear

Apparently work commenced on non-album single The Only Thing I Fear when Burnside was just fifteen years old. How can someone so young, write words so sad? With streams just outside the one million mark at time of writing, it’s unfair to call The Only Thing I Fear a lost classic. It is, however, a criminal omission from Into The Depths. Sparse, yet heavy.

Huge, yet minimal. The end and the start of the world.