Word: somber
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...This heaviness prevents the album from achieving the range of highs and lows that made “Funeral” so compelling. “Neon Bible” can be hard to listen to twice in a row, in part because it’s so determinedly somber. That one can get through repeated listens at all—especially with lyrics as bleak as “I’m standing on a stage / Of fear and self-doubt / It’s a hollow play / But they’ll clap anyway...
...petite, hunched figure in the somber black dress appears everywhere in Paris on billboards and cinema marquees. Her thin, outstretched arms seem to beckon onlookers closer. She bears no name nor reveals even a glimpse of her face. But no clues are needed: this iconic silhouette can belong only to Edith Piaf...
...Where Is My Love?” again reflects the recent sorrow of Williams’ life. Her grainy, Southern voice breaks at times, becoming scratchy and torn in a cry of despair, only made more powerful by violins wailing in the background. However, despite Williams’ somber subject matter and the melancholy melodies that permeate the album, she doesn’t leave the listener entirely hopeless, though it may take several listens to find the music’s uplifting aspects. The final song, “West,” ultimately looks away from her pain...
Imam Ali Hussein died 1327 years ago, but for the Shi'ite Muslim faithful in Kabul - and everywhere else - it might as well have been yesterday. There is a vivid intensity to their mourning of the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad with black banners, dirges, funereal marches and somber sermons in mosques - and also by ritual bloodletting and physical mortification. Every year, during the festival of Ashura, Shi'ites symbolically punish themselves for their failure to rally to their imam at the Battle of Karbala and save him from his enemies in a conflict that marked the beginning...
Back then when the U.S. got into trouble and Truman or Ike or Kennedy asked for help, Russell would gather up his 6-ft. frame, stick a forefinger into his somber vest and amble down those dim corridors to see if he could help his country. Everybody watching felt better when he arrived. There is something like that happening now to Senator Nunn. He trails a sense of reason and equilibrium on his journeys through the old Capitol's halls...