Line #21 YMMV/GodspeedYouBlackEmperor


1	* AlternateAesopInterpretation: "Blaise Bailey Finnegan III." Fans have reacted in different ways to the eponymous vox-pop interviewee whose rant provides the backbone of the song, and there are differing interpretations of the band's motivation for including it. Generally, it's presumed that they don't agree with all of his opinions, but nonetheless included them as a portrait of the discontent amongst the American working class (perhaps inspired by the words of the anarchist historian Howard Zinn, who wrote, "The cry of the poor may not always be just, but if you don't listen to it, you will never know what justice is").
2	* {{Anvilicious}}: They don't write lyrics, but their music just ''feels'' undeniably political. Sometimes the samples included with the songs are political in nature as well. Taken up to eleven with the liner notes & press releases associated with ''"Luciferian Towers"'', which is likely, at least in part, the band's reaction to the increase in public displays of bigotry and intolerance during recent times (amongst the band's wishes are that "the expert [[PrecisionFStrike fuckers]] who broke the world never get to speak again"), not to mention events such as the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenfell_Tower_fire Grenfell Tower fire]] in London, which killed dozens due to the sheer negligence of the landlords and government.
3	* ArchivePanic: They don't have that much officially released material, but if you want to start going through all the live recordings of them that are available (which is recommended since they tend to début new songs in live performances years before they're given official releases), ''good luck''. This also applies if you want to start exploring the band's side projects. A Silver Mt. Zion alone will more than double the amount of recorded output you'll have to explore, and that's if you merely stick to official releases.
4	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: ''All of it''. However, each album has one or two tracks that stand out even above the band's usual high quality:
5	** ''F♯ A♯ ∞'' - "Providence".
6	** ''Slow Riot for New Zerø Kanada'' - ''Both of them''. There's a good reason this is the highest rated EP on RYM.
7	** ''Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven'' - "Sleep".
8	** ''Yanqui U.X.O.'' - "Motherfucker=Redeemer".
9	** ''[='=]Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!'' - "Mladic".
10	** ''[='=]Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress[='=]'' - "Piss Crowns Are Trebled".
11	** ''"Luciferian Towers"'' - "Anthem for No State".
12	** ''G_d's Pee at State's End!'' - "'Government Came' (9980.0 kHz 3617.1 kHz 4521.0 kHz) / Cliffs Gaze / Cliffs' Gaze at Empty Waters' Rise / Ashes to Sea or Nearer to Thee".
13	** Even the long missing ''All Lights Fucked'' demo has some pretty amazing gems, such as "Diminishing Shine", "Hoarding", and "All Angels Gone".
14	* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The chipmunk vocals at the beginning of "Glencairne 14" come right the hell out of nowhere.
15	* BrokenBase: More or less everything they released after ''Lift Your Skinny Fists'' has caused this to some extent. ''[='=]Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress[='=]'' has it the worst, with some fans calling it one of their better albums and other fans calling it one of their worst.
16	* CreatorWorship: Without a doubt the single most revered band in post-rock.
17	* CrossesTheLineTwice: The opening of "Antennas to Heaven" ("Moya Sings Baby-O").
18	* EpicRiff: "The Dead Flag Blues" motif, repeated at the beginning of "East Hastings" as well.
19	** "Mladic" has an extremely heavy, almost stoner metal-esque guitar riff that gets faster and more intense as the song continues.
20	** The riff that underpins "Dead Metheny" is incredibly catchy (and in 7/4 to boot).
21	** "Motherfucker=Redeemer" has a few examples; a particularly good one is the one that gets the second track of the song going (it's also in 7/4).
22	* FanNickname: Tracks 1 and 3 on ''G__d's Pee at STATE'S END!'' are often referred to as "Glacier" and "Cliff" for brevity's sake. This is also what the songs were known as on live bootlegs before their studio release, named as such due to the projections the band used onstage while performing them.
23	* FanonDiscontinuity: ''All Lights Fucked'', though this is less because of any quality issues and more because it was almost ''impossible'' to find. This was also a case of CanonDiscontinuity, as the band no longer performs songs from it. Following its release in 2022, this opinion may change.
24	* FridgeLogic: In the midst of his interview, Blaise Bailey Finnegan III repeats a story in which he apparently said "I don't repeat myself for nobody" to a judge. Come again?
25	* SugarWiki/FunnyMoments: The opening of "Antennas to Heaven" ("Moya Sings Baby-O").
26	* GeniusBonus: "Military Alphabet (Five Eyes All Blind)" is probably a reference to the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Eyes Five Eyes alliance]], a coalition of the intelligence agencies of the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand that has oft been criticized for spying on their respective nations' citizens, using their supranational status to ignore their own laws, and pressuring neutral countries to support the invasion of Iraq.
27	* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments: Has [[Heartwarming/GodspeedYouBlackEmperor its own page]].
28	* MainstreamObscurity: Godspeed You! Black Emperor are the darlings of critics everywhere, but very few outside the fanbase have ever heard of them, much less heard their music. (The film ''Film/TwentyEightDaysLater'' did feature the song "East Hastings", at least.)
29	** PopCultureIsolation: They're monstrously influential in the world of post-rock (and on post-metal and post-rock[=/=]BlackMetal bands), but again, almost no one outside that community even knows they exist.
30	* MemeticMutation: Multiple instances, primarily relating to the samples the band use.
31	** "The car's on fire, and there's no driver at the wheel..."[[labelnote:Explanation]]The opening words of "The Dead Flag Blues", frequently quoted whenever talking about anything dystopian or apocalyptic. The spoken word section of the song has almost become a copypasta in its own right[[/labelnote]]
32	** "They don't sleep anymore on the beach."[[labelnote:Explanation]]Similar to "The Dead Flag Blues", Murray Ostril's reminiscence in the intro to "Sleep" is oft-quoted for its poignancy[[/labelnote]]
33	** ''Everything'' Blaise Bailey Finnegan III says. The guy obviously has a screw loose but his anti-government rambling is both highly quotable and relatable to many listeners.
34	** Photoshopping ANYTHING into the cover of ''Lift Your Skinny Fists'' for some.
35	** Prior to its eventual discovery in 2022, "[[Series/TheXFiles I WANT TO BELIEVE]]" was essentially a motto by fans who wished to one day hear ''All Lights Fucked on the Hairy Amp Drooling''.
36	** Editing the band's music together with videos of people ranting on the internet, such as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7I0GfLh4SGU Glenn Beck]] or [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfUFrgr1jCA Bagel Boss Guy]]. "Blaise Bailey Finnegan III" is especially useful for this purpose.
37	* SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome: Blaise Bailey Finnegan III's rant at a judge is this for many fans: "You think you're God because you have a robe, and you can put people up the goddamn river for twenty years? Well, you're not!" Of course, for others it may verge into {{Narm}}.
38	** The issue of the man's "poem" actually being mostly lyrics [[OlderThanTheyThink ripped off from the band]] Music/IronMaiden is also a bit divisive, since it makes one question whether this story is even true.
39	* NightmareFuel: Has [[NightmareFuel/GodspeedYouBlackEmperor its own page]].
40	* SignatureSong: "The Dead Flag Blues" is their most famous song by a fair margin, but "East Hastings" and "Sleep" could also qualify. However, "Storm" has the most plays on several streaming websites these days, which might just be because it's the first song on their most famous album.
41	* TearJerker: Has [[TearJerker/GodspeedYouBlackEmperor its own page]].
42	* ViewerGenderConfusion: The speaker in "Chart #3" is actually a woman (specifically, a Pentecostal preacher named Helene "Spring" [=DeBoe=]), but some listeners find it difficult to tell because her voice has been pitch-shifted down by about 17%. Godspeed most likely took the sample from a radio broadcast she made in the mid-'90s. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPn7FxSOLHI This video (mostly) isolates the audio and pitch-shifts her voice back upwards]], which also makes her words much easier to understand.
43	* VindicatedByHistory: ''Yanqui UXO'' was somewhat coolly received when it first came out for doing away with the field recordings as well as its perceived lack of ambition and direction in comparison to ''Lift Your Skinny Fists'', but has seen increased appreciation in later years as a gorgeous album in its own right.

Context YMMV / GodspeedYouBlackEmperor