"Irresistible Force" is the second
single
Single may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Single (music), a song release
Songs
* "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004
* "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008
* "Single" (William Wei song), 2016
* "Single", by ...
from American
alternative rock
Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...
band
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction is an American rock band from Los Angeles, formed in 1985. The band consists of vocalist Perry Farrell, guitarist Dave Navarro, drummer Stephen Perkins and bassist Eric Avery. Jane's Addiction was one of the first bands from t ...
's fourth studio album, ''
The Great Escape Artist
''The Great Escape Artist'' is the fourth studio album by American alternative rock band Jane's Addiction, released October 18, 2011 on Capitol Records. The album was the band's first since its 2003 release '' Strays'' and features TV on the Radio ...
''. The song was released on August 3, 2011.
Musical style and lyrics
The song features
TV on the Radio
TV on the Radio (TVOTR) is an American rock band from Brooklyn, New York, formed in 2001. The band consists of Tunde Adebimpe (vocals, loops), David Andrew Sitek (guitars, keyboards, loops), Kyp Malone (vocals, guitars, bass, loops), and Jale ...
member and
multi-instrumentalist
A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays two or more musical instruments at a professional level of proficiency.
Also known as doubling, the practice allows greater ensemble flexibility and more efficient employment of musicians, where ...
Dave Sitek
David Andrew Sitek (born September 6, 1972) is an American musician and record producer, known for his work with his band TV on the Radio. He has also worked with bands such as Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Liars, Foals, Celebration, Little Dragon, Beady ...
on guitar and bass guitar. It is less
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
-laden than the previous Jane's Addiction single, "
End to the Lies", and focuses more on
synth
A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and f ...
-aided textures and atmospheric
soundscape
A soundscape is the acoustic environment as perceived by humans, in context. The term was originally coined by Michael Southworth, and popularised by R. Murray Schafer. There is a varied history of the use of soundscape depending on discipline, r ...
s.
The song starts with a
spoken word
Spoken word refers to an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a late 20th century continuation of an ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetics of ...
intro and continues on
verse-chorus form, which is accompanied by a guitar solo by Dave Navarro.
The verses, which were built around "
droning funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...
" and "the rubbery basslines" were also noted.
Lyrically, the song contains references to the
irresistible force paradox
The irresistible force paradox (also unstoppable force paradox or shield and spear paradox), is a classic paradox formulated as "What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?" The immovable object and the unstoppable force are ...
.
In an interview with
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...
, the lyricist
Perry Farrell
Perry Farrell (born Peretz Bernstein; March 29, 1959) is an American singer, songwriter and musician, best known as the frontman of the alternative rock band Jane's Addiction. Farrell created the touring festival Lollapalooza as part (one of the ...
indicated that "the song chronicles how the universe was created", while the drummer
Stephen Perkins
Stephen Andrew Perkins (September 13, 1967) is an American musician and songwriter. A drummer and percussionist, he currently plays with Jane's Addiction and Hellride.
Following the dissolution of Jane's Addiction, Perkins continued to play ...
described it as "what pulls him, Dave and Perry together".
Will Hermes
Will Hermes (born December 27, 1960 in Jamaica, Queens, New York City) is an American author, broadcaster, journalist and critic who has written extensively about popular music. He is a longtime contributor to ''Rolling Stone'' and to National Pu ...
of
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
also commented on the song's lyrics, describing it as "Perry Farrell sounding like
Carl Sagan
Carl Edward Sagan (; ; November 9, 1934December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, planetary scientist, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, and science communicator. His best known scientific contribution is research on ext ...
in an episode of
Cosmos
The cosmos (, ) is another name for the Universe. Using the word ''cosmos'' implies viewing the universe as a complex and orderly system or entity.
The cosmos, and understandings of the reasons for its existence and significance, are studied in ...
, musing ominously about the stars and some sort of
big bang
The Big Bang event is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models of the Big Bang explain the evolution of the observable universe from the ...
."
Reception and release
The critical reception for the song was positive.
A music video for the song was produced.
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Track listing
Charts
References
External links
*
Jane's Addiction - "Irresistible Force" on Youtube
{{authority control
2011 singles
Jane's Addiction songs
Songs about science
Songs written by Perry Farrell
Songs written by Dave Navarro
Song recordings produced by Rich Costey
Songs written by Stephen Perkins
2011 songs
Capitol Records singles
Songs written by Dave Sitek