Joshua Radin's "Everything'll Be Alright" : A Small Apocalypse

Contemporary singer songwriter Joshua Radin's "Everything'll Be Alright" is the epitome of a small apocalypse - an everyday, easily overlooked piece of culture or art full of end time sentiment. The crux of the song is the expression "everything'll be alright", a saying so everyday that its meaning, its ability to jar us, is almost lost. Yet it is an expression so full of meaning because it suggests an inherent sense of finality, or need for finality in human existence. We want there to be an end point: adulthood, retirement, death, heaven or some sort of afterlife. Our sufferings don't make sense and our joys seem fragile and fading without a place of rest where we are permanently rewarded for our sacrifice. It doesn't necessarily have to be a religious telos of God or Heaven, but we need something. Don't we? Maybe just a positive legacy carried on.

The music composition of the song is soft, calming and simple. I think voice and guitar are the only instruments present. The chords are sad, but hopeful and they successfully reinforce the theme of the song. The four verses conjure up contrasting images of a fading or trashed romance in New York City, of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, and of a child peacefully asleep in a crib. The first three verses are tragic situations that Radin lives in the aftermath of hoping everything will indeed be alright, but unsure of it. Katrina especially makes him doubt. But the song ends with the image of Will, his friend's son asleep in his crib, a mobile dancing above his head. The sight of this new life and its possibilities restores his faith. But the question is: faith in what? What will make everything alright? At what point will all be well. Will this peace and happiness be permanent or only fading. Will everything being alright take away the point of living?

The song ends with no answer, but a feeling of hope. It is uplifting, rather than disillusioning. But I am bringing it to the attention of class because it plays on sentiments, and is the unknowing victim of sentiments, central to this course, and central to humanity. Which begs the question: is the sense of a good end necessarily for us to live our lives. Is it only necessary for some people, or is it a fundamental human longing that gets expressed in the morality, religion, philosophy, myth and art of different cultures. All cultures? All persons? I have no answer to this question, I only aim to raise it.

I have attached the lyrics to my post:

Way down, in New York town
Thinking about the way she loved me
There's a hole in my pocket
That's about her size
But I think everything
Is gonna be alright
Yes I hope everything
Is gonna be alright

The smiling face, straight in LA
The gifts are found at the bar
But I wish my car
Could drive to her tonight
Then I'd know everything
Is gonna be alright
Yes then I'd know
It'll be alright

The rain in New Orleans, forgot to end
But the mouths of the people are dry
And we watch and wait
And do nothing but sigh
And hope everything
Is gonna turn alright
But I don't know
If it'll be alright

But I look at you, warm in your dream
While your mobile dances above
And I think to myself
It's a beautiful night
And I know everything
Is gonna be alright
Yes now I know
It'll be alright