For My Sunday Song #377, We explore another of Deke’s Choices with the song “Smoke & Ashes” by the Canadian band 13 Engines. The song was a single off their Canadian breakthrough album ‘Perpetual Motion Machine’. It was the band’s fourth album and released in 1993, but it isn’t grunge…more alternative rock. Billboard magazine called the song “the perfect two-minute rock song.” We will see if that is the case.
The song is about the consequences of doing drugs and leading a life that is nothing but destructive. The ticking of the watch is symbolic of all the time wasted and missed while doing drugs while you are kneeling down throwing up in the porcelain God. The comet burns and crashes is exactly what happens to you due to the addiction. You crash & burn. You end up alone in the world as everyone has been driven away. It is a sad commentary, but it is pretty accurate.
The song rocks out with a distorted guitar sound and John Critchley on vocals. The band has a sound that is reminiscent of the Gin Blossoms, but maybe a little heavier. At only around 2:30 minutes long, it has no time to waste and compacts a lot of sound in that brief window. A powerful song that packs a punch.
2 Loud 2 Old Music 