Just because an artist knows what they intended to say with the lyrics to their own song doesn’t mean others aren’t allowed to find different meanings or new ways of interpreting the message. And that is what Ben Hazelwood has done with the Phil Collins classic “Another Day In Paradise.”
Although originally exploring themes of homelessness and the societal division between the haves and have-nots, Ben’s reworking takes a different reading. For him, it is about “how small changes and an openness to new perspectives can create big impacts on the way we treat and love others.”
Musically, too, things have changed, not drastically enough to put off existing fans, but enough to set it apart from the 1989 original, incidentally, the year that Hazelwood was born. This time out, the track carries more sonic weight, is punchier, more forceful, though not without a nod to that ’80s sound, a blend of the now and the then, the what was and the what now is.
Fans of the original will find plenty to love here, but it will also bring a whole new audience to what, let’s face it, was always a great song. And the video also brings a new angle, a fever-dream tableau depicting bizarre and brilliant scenes – tattoo artists at work, red-lit rooms, homemakers in states of crisis, and masked figures painting the mundane, all wandering through the neon glare of a neo-noir world.
That’s how you update a classic song.
Facebook
Instagram
Spotify
YouTube
