Track Attack: Mineral — ‘Your Body Is the World’
Posted: by The Editor
While Mineral reformed five years ago, it’s only now that it really feels like they’re officially back. With their newest single, “Your Body Is the World,” the second from their upcoming One Day When We Are Young 7-inch, it feels like we’re getting what would’ve followed EndSerenading had the band stayed together.
The first single, the eight-minute “Aurora,” had all the hallmarks of classic Mineral—the arpeggios, the sudden bursts of distortion, even the slow fadeout. But “Your Body Is the World” feels, appropriately, like a new beginning. It has most of those elements (minus the fadeout), but they’re reframed. Maybe their most straightforward rock song since 1997’s deep cut “Sadder Star,” it’s emo by way of alt rock. “Aurora” was a refinement of their sound, but “Your Body Is the World” is an evolution.
The shift in sound is matched by a shift in lyrical content, too. Chris Simpson’s lyrics were always marked by a profound sense of wonder, typically filtered through a religious lens. Simpson is no longer a Christian, however, and while “Your Body Is the World” retains that wonderment, it’s secular this time around. “When I was fourteen,” the song begins, “I thought you could save me/thought there were no maybes/believed everything.” But now Simpson marvels at the uncertainty of everything, finding beauty “shrouded in the mist, the mystery.” Beyond any of that, it’s just a powerfully written song; Simpson’s lyrics have always been one of the main draws of the band, and that remains true twenty years later.
Unfortunately, as good as the song is, it seems unlikely that we’ll be getting any more from Mineral, at least in the near future. If that’s true, there’s hardly a better send-off than “Your Body Is the World.” It’s a culmination of everything the band did over the past twenty years—and a hint of where else they could’ve gone—distilled down into one song; past, present, and future all in one five-minute burst. But if they ever decide to try again, there should be no doubt in anyone’s minds; they’ve still got it.
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Zac Djamoos | @greatwhitebison
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