Keith Vogelsong (The Blue Hour) had recently moved to New York to relocate the record label he runs, Goodnight Records. Five minutes after he got off the plane, Ashley nabbed him as Anthem In’s bassist. Drummer Paul Petitto was procured by theft from the band he was playing with at the time, Russian Vogue. Rob Miller had just moved to New York from Austin where he was writing his own solo material. Allen asked him to come on as lead guitarist, and Anthem In was complete.
Anthem In released it's debut self-titled album in June of 2008 on Quiet/Loud Records. The album entered the CMJ charts at #118 and continued to chart at stations across the country for 13 consecutive weeks. In April of 2008 the band filmed a video for the song "Down" with director Will Joines. The video debuted on both Fuse and MTV in the fall of 2008.
Recording was completed on "The Cloudbusting EP" in April of 2009 and features a cover of Kate Bush's 1985 hit "Cloudbusting". Four other original Anthem In songs are included on the EP and will be released on Quiet/Loud Records in July of 2009.
Down
Anthem In Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
How come everybody gets down
On the dance floor but I can't even hear a sound
Through the noise and through the clutter in my head
Take me one step closer to something or to your bed
Come and take me out onto the dance floor
Come and take me out so I can be yours
Tonight
How come everybody gets up
Through the evening but I can't even see the light
In the city cause the darkness overshines
All the people in my life and through the night
So come and take me out onto the dance floor
Come and break it down with me just once more
Come and take me out onto the dance floor
Tonight
Tonight
So baby take me out onto the dance floor
Baby break it down with me just once more
Baby take me out onto the dance floor
Baby break it down with me just once more
Baby take me out onto the dance floor
Baby break it down with me just once more
So baby take me out onto the dance floor
Baby break it down with me just once more
Baby take me out onto the dance floor
Baby break it down with me just once more
Baby take me out onto the dance floor
Baby break it down with me just once more time
Tonight
Tonight
The song "Down" by Anthem In explores themes of isolation and disconnection in a crowded social setting. The lyrics express the frustration of the singer as they observe others enjoying themselves and getting lost in the energy of the dance floor, while they struggle to connect with the same experience. The opening lines pose a rhetorical question, asking why everyone else seems to be able to enjoy themselves, while the singer remains stuck in their own head. The second verse expands on this idea, describing how the darkness of the city and the noise in the singer's head are preventing them from being able to fully engage with the world around them.
Despite the sense of alienation that pervades the song, there is also an underlying desire for human connection. The chorus repeats the phrase "take me out onto the dance floor" several times, suggesting that the singer is searching for some sort of release or escape from their inner turmoil. The repetition of the lines "baby break it down with me just once more" adds to the sense of urgency and desperation in the song.
Overall, "Down" speaks to the experience of feeling disconnected from others and struggling to find a sense of belonging. It captures the paradoxical feeling of being alone in a crowded space and the longing for a deeper human connection.
Line by Line Meaning
How come everybody
The singer wonders why everyone else can enjoy themselves on the dance floor, but they can't.
How come everybody gets down
The singer is wondering how everyone else can enjoy themselves on the dance floor.
On the dance floor but I can't even hear a sound
The singer is unable to enjoy the dance floor because they cannot hear the music.
Through the noise and through the clutter in my head
The singer is struggling to focus on the music due to their own internal distractions.
Take me one step closer to something or to your bed
The singer is seeking a physical and emotional connection with another person.
Come and take me out onto the dance floor
The singer wants to be asked to dance.
Come and take me out so I can be yours
The singer wants to be swept away by their dance partner and possibly develop a romantic relationship with them.
How come everybody gets up
The singer is wondering why others are able to rise above the negativity they feel while they cannot.
Through the evening but I can't even see the light
The singer feels trapped in their own negativity and cannot see any hope or positivity in their situation.
In the city cause the darkness overshines
The singer feels like the negativity and darkness surrounding them in the city is overwhelming.
So come and take me out onto the dance floor
The singer wants to be invited to dance as a way to distract themselves from their troubles.
Come and break it down with me just once more
The singer wants to enjoy the dance floor with their partner again, even if just for one more song.
So baby take me out onto the dance floor
The singer is asking their dance partner to take them out onto the dance floor.
Baby break it down with me just once more
The singer is asking their partner to dance with them for just one more song.
Baby take me out onto the dance floor
The singer is again asking their partner to take them out onto the dance floor.
Baby break it down with me just once more time
The singer is asking for another dance with their partner.
Tonight
The singer wants to enjoy the night and forget their troubles through dancing with their partner.
Contributed by Alexandra R. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Agrume
Because Anthem is really hard to make. Bioware idea was really awesome, but they needed to know exactly what the player was able to do and most importatly, what he was not.
They were on a greed phase where they wanted to implement so much things without even completing one of them.
So the game went out with few little shards of good ideas, but none of them were completed and it was buggy. Opening the game and facing the unfinished product was enough to make people instantly quit the game.
Making a game like Anthem, but good, is really really tough and requires :
Maintanability, enough room for gameplay enhancement, minimum and simple mecanics to make the game feel good and not empty at the same time, a strong visual identity (each armor has to be appealing and push the player to grind them), finding a good economic model to make the player spend money without feeling forced everytime, good story quests and a really strong late game hamster wheel.
So maybe some studios try to find a good solution to make a game like this work fine, but it's not in the next incoming projects
Shane Roberts
Literally this game had so much potential, it could of been the biggest and best game played my millions for a generation. The story, lore and world were all interesting.
Combat was fun, very fun, it had difficulty for not so serious gamers, and epic difficulty for gamers who really wanted to use all the mechanics to the limit to be able to win. The movement of flying, boosting, limited flying time all meant you had to plan your flying routes and movement. The combo's you could pull from various weapons felt great.
The game was beautiful, even though it didn't quite live up to its promises, it was still a beautifully made game.
It was basically DESTINY but better. Just obviously got ruined by poor load times, bugs, poor loot system mechanics/drops, and what felt like a rushed story...
If you can get this game on the cheap, I'd recommend playing it still even thought the game is dead now...it upped and changed my tier of gaming forever. It's the level of gaming I want to see more of in future. I'll hate EA and be very distrustful of Bioware for a long long time because of this.
GameTesterDev
The problem with this game was that it had too much hype… it was unveiled at E3 in 2013 for the first time… but it took them 5 years to actually release it… They even thought it was going to be released in 2015 because they were advertising it to be released even on the PS3 and Xbox 360… even I knew at the time that there was no way the PS3 hardware could handle Anthem, let alone the 360 hardware… so they kept pushing it back every year and kept teasing it at every single E3 event up until 2017… and then they went completely silent for 18 months and then BOOM unveiled it for the final time at the EA Event in 2018 revealing that it would be released in February 2019… I mean this game literally had multiple release dates and even false console releases.
October 17th, 2015 on PS3, Xbox 360, PS4, and Xbox One
May 26th, 2016 on PS3, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PS4
November 9th, 2016 on PS3, Xbox 360, PS4, and Xbox One
June 13th, 2017 on Xbox One, PS4, and PC
December 11th, 2018 on Xbox One, PS4, and PC
February 22nd, 2019 on Xbox One, PS4
N8 The Great
I don't understand why someone doesn't make similar game like anthem just 100x better. The whole flying mechanics are awesome. I wish more games had flight like anthem that's pretty much it.
Agrume
Because Anthem is really hard to make. Bioware idea was really awesome, but they needed to know exactly what the player was able to do and most importatly, what he was not.
They were on a greed phase where they wanted to implement so much things without even completing one of them.
So the game went out with few little shards of good ideas, but none of them were completed and it was buggy. Opening the game and facing the unfinished product was enough to make people instantly quit the game.
Making a game like Anthem, but good, is really really tough and requires :
Maintanability, enough room for gameplay enhancement, minimum and simple mecanics to make the game feel good and not empty at the same time, a strong visual identity (each armor has to be appealing and push the player to grind them), finding a good economic model to make the player spend money without feeling forced everytime, good story quests and a really strong late game hamster wheel.
So maybe some studios try to find a good solution to make a game like this work fine, but it's not in the next incoming projects
Radioactive Gaming
It was such a fun game for me. The issues wasn't the core gameplay, it was the lack of content, slew of performance problems and loot balance issues. I personally believe someone at EA forced an early release against the developers wishes, because that's what it screams to me. It had a good formula, just a total lack of content and a bunch of performance issues
Charles Ingram
I just started to play the game and I really like it. I mean I do feel like it’s lacking in many areas, but I believe it has grate potential. I would like to see it get another chance and this time it gets the work it needs to be a grate game. That’s assuming it’s given another chance.
War Tome
It lacks areas because it never got off the ground. The studio was gonna let us decide the story yet new era gamers are trash and can’t wait for shit.
War Tome
Bar Son so.. it was exactly like Diablo 2 resurrected eh? 👌🏿
War Tome
Bar Son anthem was fine, it copied something great but the players didn’t realize it. This is evidenced by the game Diablo being successful today.
J Fox
I bought Anthem for PS4 when it came out, and I completed the campaign, but I was unimpressed at the time. I then didn't play it for a couple of years but I have just got back to it and it is actually good It's hard to make coins in it but I spent literally all day playing it yesterday. It's a shame that they hyped it up so much and then disappointed all its customers.
Touka
The game was beautiful. Honestly the time I spent playing the game was some of my favorite gaming experience
Christiam Cruz
You know that the game's enjoyment is not about how beautiful it is if the game itself is a chore to play, right? Is like falling in love with a hot girl top model but then as you keep on dating her you get to know her better to realise later on that her behavior and attitude is so toxic and vile that you stop having interest in her. THAT is what Anthem turn out to be. So what did a lot of good folks did? They broke up with the game because of how uninspiring it was to play because of its issues surrounding its core game design, and tecnical issues, bad looting, loading screens, live-service to cash in on the trend at the time, horrible development cycle, you named a problem this game had it. Unfortunately. So my friend, with all due respect i'm glad you found some enjoyment with the game but dont give it to much praise ignoring on the evidence on what EA and BioWare did with the game based on the issues that i just mentioned you.