So, second 'single' off of FROM HERE comes out Friday 26 July...

[Shush]

Looks like the Yorkshire Dales?

That's what I thought. Simple but effective video.

[lotus]

Great song

[cthulhu]

I wasn't at home for some days, so on friday i found the link to the song and listened to it on my mobile-speakers. Another immediate fall in love moment...i had been so curious how the song from the short first trailer to the new album would evolve.

The trailer sound, this little snippet of a promising scaffold of drums and bass with the desription of the announcement of the new album being a more intuitive work really pleased me and i think you can hear this intuitive approach very well in Never Arriving.

A wonderful buildup again, you can imaging how the vastness of their sourrounding in norway is right there in the beginning of the song, not much there but rocky, structured, rhythmic elements and then the singing also more like a monolog at the beginning but everything constantly on the way to merge more and more and become a powerful, wonderful chorus. The song could have ended early but there comes this quiet part, high tension, searching for what will happen, ceri changes the chord, a different tone and the end part builds up.
 
The second listen was with the video and a blu-tooth box with decent sound and then i was thrilled by the beautifully shot video and the concept of it. You have these shots of the band playing and so often you see bands act out like over-acting out or it just feels too staged for the pure image they had to get, but here i totally like it to see all the guys singing with passion (but i missed michael though) and all of them have their eyes closed, so they point at the inner view...Aren't the best music videos those you can watch with your eyes closed? (ha, i just made that up;-)

And also never arriving touched me lyrically and in my personal draft, which maybe will nothing have to do with the real lyrics, i found myself sitting around, moving again into a different city, having moved so much around in my life, had so many jobs, don't know what will happen next and i know the next station could also be only temporary, so i kind of have the feeling that i am never arriving and was thinking about that recently.

and for cowards like me, the safest place that i know? of the road?..is here between departing and arriving

Love it!

[sailor_joe]

Great, just great! I rarely listen to anything 30x over without getting bored, but this - wow! Can someone please push the button and beam us to 23rd of august?

Oh, PS - Lyrics would be supergreat to have. I get most of it i guess, but there's some blanks here and there...

[Anna Woman von NRW]

Class 

Loving the sound of this, roll on August 23rd 

[Guillaume]

First playings, i was a bit like ..."Meh...it's just ok", i liked the intro, rythm, spoken words, acoustic "bridge" but not so much the chorus and end of the song 
...now after 20 or 30 playing i must admit it's a kind of addictive song! 

[Marcin D.]

NEVER ARRIVING

I drove you South through the landscape that you love, all those medieval towns with the cobbled stones washed by the blood of the martyrs in the last great stand of the true believers
The hilltop villages baking in the afternoon sun, the walls pocked with old bullet holes and the iron and the stone that broke the people’s backs all laid out for the tourists
I’ve always considered it best never to disturb ghosts but it seems that women always want to go straight to the heart of things and, as you said, you have your reasons

And the roads are like the lines in the palm of my hand
Growing deeper and dividing
And for 3am confessions the safest place that I know
Is here between departing and arriving – but never arriving

There was that club we used to go to way out by the park where the music was loud and the corners were dark and we’d sit in those corners like some kind of witches’ coven
We were so young and brave, always looking for trouble, it’s easy to find it when you’re looking for trouble, we’d take on all-comers - when no more would come we’d take on each other
So when the phone call came I wasn’t really so surprised, I set off with good intentions but soon I was lost and the signs all graffitied out and the compass needle spinning

And the roads are like the lines in the palm of my hand
Wearing deeper and dividing
And for 3am confessions the safest place that I know
Is here between departing and arriving – but never arriving

And now I ‘ve seen the very worst that you can be
And you’d have been witness to the same of me
Somehow it should be easy to forgive everything that happened
Back on the roads that stretch like the lines in the palm of my hand
Wearing deeper and dividing
And for cowards like me, the safest place that we know
Is here between departing and arriving – but never arriving

[Johnz]

This is my favourite of the new songs so far. I did find the spoken word lyrics a bit crammed at first but they've grown on me.


Really looking forward to the album.

[cthulhu]

I played Never Arriving to a friend of mine, he knows NMA and likes and respects them but he is not a "fan" and didn't know about a new release. We watched the video on youtube and he was directly into it.  We talked and later i put the song on again, just the sound, while we were talking.

10 mins after he left he wrote me that he had to buy and download the song and hat put it on one repeat;-)

[Guillaume]

NEVER ARRIVING

So when the phone call came I wasn’t really so surprised, I set off with good intentions but soon I was lost and the signs all graffitied out and the compass needle spinning

Are these lines about Robert Heaton?

[cthulhu]

Are these lines about Robert Heaton?

I also thought about that, but a second look let's me think otherwise. He says: "..I wasn’t really so surprised" and i thought that the phone call you are referring to, came as a big surprise. But who knows. Justin often stated that his lyrics are often not from his point of view, but a story told from the i-perspective.
What i can see here is a description of a situation that resembles a phone call which spins your plans and intentions out of control, but in a more general meaning. But of course it could be totally about Robert Heaton.

[Poes Raven]

Does anybody know where the video was filmed for "Never Arriving" ?

[cthulhu]

Hello Poes Raven and welcome aboard!

Here's a short article about Never Arriving and the video:
Justin Sullivan Wanders The Misty Yorkshire Countryside in New Model Army’s Beautifully shot Video for “Never Arriving”

[Poes Raven]

Hello Poes Raven and welcome aboard!

Here's a short article about Never Arriving and the video:
Justin Sullivan Wanders The Misty Yorkshire Countryside in New Model Army’s Beautifully shot Video for “Never Arriving”

Thanks, a good article also....

[Master Ray]

Another big welcome to Poes Raven... please post often!