When NEEDTOBREATHE’s Bear and Bo Rinehart set out to write the songs that appear on the band’s new album, The Reckoning, they felt something bigger awaited them. It wasn’t just commercial success either. The band’s last album The Outsiders hit No. 9 on Billboard’s Rock Albums chart, went Top 20 on the Top 200, saw the band sell out venues such as Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium and Chicago’s House of Blues, and score an impressive number of placements in blockbuster films and numerous prime time television-shows.
With their reputation as a must-see live act built from non-stop touring, the Rinehart brothers, pastor’s sons who hail from the rural South Carolina town of Possum Kingdom, along with drummer Joe Stillwell and bass player Seth Bolt, were determined to create a statement-making album that truly captured the magic behind this genuinely appealing rock band.
Lyrically, all roads lead from the album’s title, which Bear says has several different meanings, one of them being the justification of accounts. “I like the idea that you put in all this work and at some point it comes to a peak -- that’s the reckoning time.”
What the band emerged with is a timeless-sounding album rooted in classic American rock and roll, unafraid to veer off into unexpected directions. Songs such as “Maybe They’re On To Us” address the paranoia of wondering whether people know too much about the band. “It also asks, ‘Are we still driven in the same way?’ We’re always questioning ourselves,” Bear says. Even the songs that may sound light-hearted on the surface, like “White Fences,” “Slumber,” and “Drive All Night,” explore serious themes. “’White Fences’ is about the American dream of growing up in a big house with a white picket fence, but when the dream is broken and things don’t pan out the way you planned, asking who’s going to fix it,” Bo says. “’Slumber’ is meant to be about how beauty is all around you but you just can’t see it because of the funk you’re in,” Bear says. “It speaks to something that we really care about which is giving yourself a chance.” And there’s “Drive All Night,” a galloping barnstormer that Bear sees as a statement on the false idea that one can run away from one’s problems.
With their intriguing melodies and bright choruses, the songs on The Reckoning are certain to translate in the live setting, something that is crucial to the band. “The worst thing that could happen is you get done playing and people don’t think about you again. We’ll do whatever it takes to force people to make a decision about our band, whether they love us or not. It makes for more passionate fans.”
Hurricane
NEEDTOBREATHE Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
It's hard to feel like we can turn around
With the damage done
It's hard to see how far we've come
We could not be proud
Of where our feet have walked along the ground
In the silence now
We play it back and forwards again
There's a sound in our guiltiness
It's a warning bell that rings
It's a call for our loneliness
And we can't see
We roll the dice we play like fools
We plead with time to change the rules
It's like a hurricane is coming our way
We've all been warned but we still chose to stay
I can't believe it now the time has come
Play the victim here
You know it's nothing but your pride and fear
But the more you hurt
The more you love the one you were
There's a sound in our guiltiness
It's a warning bell that rings
It's a call for our loneliness
And we can't see
We roll the dice we play like fools
We plead with time to change the rules
It's like a hurricane is coming our way
We've all been warned but we still chose to stay
I can't believe it now the time has come
In the light of the morning
Can we change what we felt and heard
Can we turn it into the glory
Break the paths of our fathers before us
Though we stand on the outside
We will find what we once believed
And will crawl our way to the clear skies
Standing up we are
Standing up we are
We roll the dice we play like fools
We plead with time to change the tules
It's like a hurricane is coming our way
We've all been warned but we still chose to stay
I can't believe it now the time has come
The song "Hurricane" by NEEDTOBREATHE talks about the consequences of our actions and how we deal with them. It's easy to get lost in the aftermath of our mistakes and feel like we can't turn around. The lyrics express the feeling of being trapped in the storm of our own actions, and how we roll the dice and make foolish choices. The guilt and loneliness that come with these choices are likened to warning bells that ring, but we struggle to listen to them. The hurricane is a metaphor for the chaos that ensues when we don't take responsibility for our mistakes.
The song also talks about the importance of taking responsibility and finding redemption. We can't keep playing the victim or blaming others for our mistakes. The chorus speaks of the warning signs that we ignore, and how even though we know the consequences, we still choose to stay. The second half of the song talks about the possibility of change and redemption. We can break away from the path of our fathers and find a new way forward. The lyrics express a sense of hope that we can crawl towards clear skies and stand up for our mistakes.
Line by Line Meaning
In the fallout now
After the damage has been done
It's hard to feel like we can turn around
We are finding it difficult to see a way out of our situation
With the damage done
After the harm has been done
It's hard to see how far we've come
It's difficult to gauge the level of progress we've made
We could not be proud
We have nothing to be proud of
Of where our feet have walked along the ground
Of the choices we've made and paths we've taken
In the silence now
Now that things have quieted down
We play it back and forwards again
We keep replaying the events that led us to this point
There's a sound in our guiltiness
We are being haunted by our past mistakes
It's a warning bell that rings
It's a wake-up call that we must heed
It's a call for our loneliness
A plea for us to confront our inner demons
And we can't see
But we are blind to what's really going on
We roll the dice we play like fools
We take unnecessary risks without thinking things through
We plead with time to change the rules
We hope that things will magically get better
It's like a hurricane is coming our way
It feels like a storm is on the horizon
We've all been warned but we still chose to stay
Despite being aware of the danger, we refused to leave
I can't believe it now the time has come
We are now facing the consequences of our actions
Play the victim here
Blaming others for our problems
You know it's nothing but your pride and fear
Our ego is getting in the way of finding a solution
But the more you hurt
The more you harm yourself
The more you love the one you were
The more you cling to your past self
In the light of the morning
With a fresh perspective
Can we change what we felt and heard
Is it possible for us to change the way we perceive our situation
Can we turn it into the glory
Can we transform our circumstances into something positive
Break the paths of our fathers before us
Breaking free from the cycle of destructive behavior that we inherited from our ancestors
Though we stand on the outside
Even though we may feel like outsiders
We will find what we once believed
We will rediscover the values and beliefs that we had abandoned
And will crawl our way to the clear skies
We will slowly but surely climb out of this dark place
Standing up we are
We are rising to the challenge
Lyrics © Downtown Music Publishing, Peermusic Publishing, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: NATHANIEL RINEHART, WILLIAM RINEHART
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind