Music Review // Crash Test Dummies "Sacred Alphabet"

 

If you're old like me (or just love music) you'll remember Crash Test Dummies from their massive radio hit and creepy music video for "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm".    You have to think that the amazing thing about that song and everything around it was that you had a band really just captivate everyone with a chorus that wasn't even words.  

To that end, Crash Test Dummies have a new song called "Sacred Alphabet", which in many ways seems to explore the origin of words and sound.   As someone who loves music and writing, I've always been fascinated by this because even just to think of all the music we lost before it became a recorded medium is mind-blowing.   

Through that deep voice and solemn piano, the lyrics of "Sacred Alphabet" take us on this journey back to the dawn of time.  This raises questions such as how did the first people know what to say?  Like how did they know what the word "food" was and how to use it?  But then even more so, how did they come to take that word "food" and say "Let's write it down and it'll be spelled and written like this"?

"Sacred Alphabet" then takes all of this deep thinking up one step further, as we are left to contemplate the very existence of music and melody.  It's one thing to think up entire sentences and imagine their creation, but then to have these words come out in a way which becomes singing just feels impossible to imagine for the first time.   But, once again, Crash Test Dummies have surely given us a lot to think about to the tune of a great song.