Bengal Lancers - Last Orders

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results. Finding yourself in the same situation you've faced time and again tends to be a place that we've all been before. And when that situation leads you to looking for salvation, acceptance, forgiveness, love, or just answers in the bottom of a bottle, what you may find may be close to insanity. We spend so much time in this world fighting to better our selves or our station that the stress of day to day living can be too much and self medication is the answer. I've been there. Get a few beers in me and I become the life of the party. People gravitate toward me. They laugh and the revel in the memories we're creating but at what cost? What is it that we're losing when we hide behind artificial courage? Who are we really attempting to impress with our actions and when it all boils down to it, do they really matter in the grand scheme of things?

Life is hard. Being part of it from day to day finds us struggling to make it through and escapism is key. It take the mundane and the wearisome and makes it tolerable. We all find answers through our preferred methods of escape and as long as they're tempered with solid doses of reality and stable places to take off and land, they function as they should - they provide a respite from the grind but when they're the preferred alternative to activities of daily living, then we have a problem and we need to take a step back and reassess the situation. More often than not, happiness and stability are ever so elusive and we do what we think bring us happiness when we are really spending more time overthinking and creating a pattern of behavior that only perpetuates these cycles. Sometimes it takes a reminder to break us out of our rut and help set the course.

I realize that those are two paragraphs that have nothing to do with this single, on the surface, but listen to what Harry's saying in this song. Listen to what he's recounting. How many nights have you found yourself in the exact situation he's talking about. Ten more minutes at the bar and then you have to find a way home. Waking up on the floor, not remembering how you got there or what led up to those choices. I think that we spend so much time on a daily basis searching for something, anything that brings us closer to fine that those choices start to become ingrained in our decision making process. Self medication. Over indulgence. Binging on anything that connects us to people, places, or memories. But there has to come a time when we face reality and realize that these things only serve a purpose to hamper our growth and development into the people we are meant to be and they can be dangerous. We forget how to be happy without them. We forget what it's like to find ourselves pushing through the hard times without assistance and we forget what self reliance looks like.

Bengal Lancers have become literally one of my favorite bands of all time because of what they stand for. They are sharing a message and they are helping people express themselves in ways they may not even know. I've listened to this single twice now and look how much has poured out of me. Look at the introspection they've caused in less than five minutes if indie pop gloriousness. These four men have a unique ability to do what not many other people in the music industry are doing. They're creating conversations and they're catalyzing emotional journeys and that's what music is for. They're just doing so much good in the world and they need to be much more of a household name.

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Bengal Lancers - The Shakes

After an extended hiatus, it's kind of appropriate that the first track I decide to write about is steeped in discussion about mental health. A lot has happened in my life over the past two years and I really lost my way. It's taken me this long to get back to where I need to be and music has always been that driving force. It's healed me. It's soothed me. It's created connections with a much larger body of creatives than I ever knew. And it's never let me down.



So imagine my reaction when this song slid across my desk. The official press release says,

“On the surface, it’s about looking after a friend who’s had a bad turn on a night out: That moment of immediate clarity you have when “something isn’t right and I need to do something about it”, but I guess it’s just about pulling people back from the edge when they aren’t feeling 100%.”
At any given point in any day, find me a person that's feeling 100%. I don't think you're going to be able to but this song tells you that you are wholly within your rights to not have to feel that way all the time. It's fine to acknowledge all that is going on in your life; to accept that you are a fighter, a coward, you are a bit of everything mixed up into one but the trick is to make sure that the people in your life, the ones that know you and I mean really know you are there with you. They are along for the ride steadying you, reassuring you, bolstering you.

When you feel like you can't get out and you are trapped in the prison of your own mind, it's these people, it's this music that will help you. This song is frenetic. It's fervored. The tempo just rips through you and you feel like you are running as fast and as hard as you canto get away from all the negativity and all the shit that just piles up day after day. It's a flight of freedom from your own shackles. This is a modern take on "Eye of the Tiger". It's a battle anthem for your own mental health. It's a group of guys that know what you've experienced because you aren't alone and they're standing there, instruments in hand ready to go into war with you. They are standing strong beside you giving life to all the small voices in your head that remind you that you're going to be ok even though all the negativity seems to wash them away. They are helping you climb up out of the muck and leading you into the fray.

I've now listened to this song on repeat for the past 30 minutes so that I can just experience every single nuance and every single breath they're pumping into this and I have to say without a shadow of a doubt, this may be one of the most important songs I've heard in a long time. It's a song of hope. It's a song that reminds you to never ever give up.

We are all broken. We are all bruised. It's part of living and in the end we have to wear all those battle scars with pride but we have to remember that we are not alone and if takes four guys from London to give life to the emotions we're feeling then that's what we do. We let them. We become part of something with them and it's beautiful and it's good.

Bengal Lancers on the Web