Dissidentica (2017)

Lilou & John

Dissidentica was the band’s second album and originated in a conflict with Swedish Radio who had refused to let the duo perform because of an article John had written that criticized identity politics. The album was therefore created in defense of free speech and was well received as a whole new approach to music. Before recording the album Lilou and John argued about the number of songs they should include. Lilou wanted to stick with five while John wanted to record a full album. Afterwards, John has admitted that he “perhaps should have listened to her, for it kind of went too fast and we didn’t have the time to make everything perfect.”

Citizen journalist blogger Projekt Morpheus compared the duo with Nina Simone and Buffy Sainte-Marie, while Motpol and Fria Tider wrote about the contrast between the pop melodies, the backbeat guitar, Lilou’s voice and the dark and tragic lyrics. African world music site Djolo on the other hand described the band as “sound UFOs”.

Via Dolorosa

“Via Dolorosa” was written as a lament for a woman going through a painful divorce and the original name of the song was “End of a Marriage.” The melody and the music video was intentionally made in stark contrast with the lyrics to create an ambiguous song of mixed emotions. The song was made to highlight the complexity of love and loneliness.

Text and music: Lilou & John

Chords all through the song:
Bm
Bm Em
Em D A Bm
Bm
Bm F#m
F#m Em F#m Bm

Why won’t you go
Why won’t you leave me
Why won’t you find another girl to call your own
Why won’t you go
Why won’t you leave me
Why won’t you find another girl to call your own

I see your shade
Pale through the water
I do not know if I should stay or should I go
I touch my hair
Like yours I used to
It seems like all the world has lost its sense to me

A waterfall
This morning shower
Warm and still I feel the chill all through my soul
I listen to
A voice so endless
I cannot grasp it is my own that sound so sad

Why won’t you go
Why won’t you leave me
Why won’t you find another girl to call your own
Why won’t you go
Why won’t you leave me
Why won’t you find another girl to call your own

I used to be
More than a shadow
I used to think I was your love and you were mine
I feel the touch
Of my own fingers
And for a second I can feel a broken glass

I will not die
Will not surrender
But there is nothing left that I can call my life
I want to feel
Your soul and body
But when I do I feel the cut that drains my heart

Why won’t you go
Why won’t you leave me
Why won’t you find another girl to call your own
Why won’t you go
Why won’t you leave me
Why won’t you find another girl to call your own
Why won’t you go
Why won’t you leave me
Why won’t you find another girl to call your own

The Girl from Antarctica

“The Girl from Antarctica” describes the torment of a girl suffering from child sex abuse and the confrontation with her parents. The song delivered the message that victims can choose to walk away from the perpetrators as adults. The song is based on Lilou’s experience as a child and she added the sad chorus to express her own emotions. The language is more direct than in most other of the band’s songs and that is intended to reflect the abused child within a woman delivering a straightforward message without poetry but only made up of honesty.

Text and music: Lilou & John

Chords verse:
G Em C G
C G
G Em C G
Em G Bm Em

Chords chorus:
G Em C G
Em G Bm Em

Chords outro:
Em G Bm Em

Mommy you walk out the door
Golden rings all over the floor
Daddy you won’t go with style
You’ll be lonely when you die

Mommy get those knickers on
I am fed up I am gone
Daddy get a grip on life
I refuse to be your wife

You’ll be lonely when you die

Mommy pay the rent for once
Life is not just sex and dance
Daddy come on get a job
Making money makes no snob

Mommy stop this moving round
Or stay some six feet underground
Daddy booze don’t make it fun
When everyone but me has gone

You’ll be lonely when you die

Mommy I am not your toy
Don’t wanna play your girl meets boy
Daddy you laugh when I ’m hurt
Drag me down into your dirt

Mommy no I won’t have sex
With your boyfriend mr X
Daddy don’t you understand
You’ve sunk as low as humans can

Mommy this is my last call
Without you I will never fall
Daddy there is much to say
But that is all too late today

You’ll be lonely when you die

And that is all too late today

Next Year in Jerusalem

“Next Year in Jerusalem” is one of the band’s most famous songs and dives into the mythology of Israel’s early history, the 2000 year long Jewish diaspora and the dreams of Theodor Herzl. The song remains one of Lilou & John’s personal favorites despite it being less than two minutes long. “The beautiful lyrics and the catchy guitars combined into something I had never heard before so when I started singing it was just like floating 2000 metres above the ground” according to Lilou.

Text and music: Lilou & John

Chords all through the song:
Am C Am C Am C G Am
Am C Am C G Am
Am C Am C F Am
Am C Am C G Am

A bird came down on wings of fire from the star of sparkling red
He raised his head to the morning sky to honor Masada’s dead
And the sky was black and the city quiet and the shadows walked alone
Only God would know the answer to why they were not home

A wind came down on wings of heaven from the fires of our land
In each heart we lay the flower that only grows in sand
And as the sun was slowly rising over the city paved in gold
The star of David was still flying in every woman’s hand

Only God could know the answer to why they were not home

Solferino

“Solferino” is one of the duo’s least known songs but still another one of their favorites. The setting is the battle of Solferino in 1859, during the War of Italian independence, “Risorgimento”, and was written to honor the memory of Henri Dunant who founded the Red Cross after that battle. The chorus tells of a woman lamenting her dying brother on the battlefield and the verses consist of him trying to comfort her, saying that death is more than we know. But words cannot comfort her. She is still alone when the morning is dawning on the fields of Solferino.

Text and music: Lilou & John

Chords verse:
Am Dm Am
Dm Am Em Am
Am Dm Am
Dm Am Em Am
Am Em Am Em
Em Dm Am
Am Em Am Em
Em Dm Am

Chords chorus:
Am Dm Em Am
Am Dm Em Am
Am Dm Em Am
Am Em Am

But what did I know as the evening was falling
On the green fields of Solferino
What did I know as I felt how the morning
Wind blew over Solferino

I laid by his side as the wind started blowing
Into his fading blue eyes
I laid by his side as he started speaking
Words that he barely pronounced
I laid by his side and I heard what he told me
As guns started roaring again
I laid by his side and felt how my brother
Turned cold and my arms couldn’t hold him

”Death is an angel that comes from above
In a shroud of silk white winds
Death is a rose by the side of the road
A star that shines from above
Death is a voice that speaks softly and deep
About things beyond our world
Death is a mirror in which we can see
All those beloved and grieved”

But what did I know as the evening was falling
On the green fields of Solferino
What did I know as I felt how the morning
Wind blew over Solferino

”Death is a candle that burns in the sky
That takes us to kingdoms unknown
Death is a tallship with sails painted black
On seas where no sailor is seen
Death is a whisper we hear through the veil
From shadows we can barely feel
Death is the touch from an infinite god
Watching us grow and decay”

But what did I know as the evening was falling
On the green fields of Solferino
What did I know as I felt how the morning
Wind blew over Solferino

”Death is a battle where heroes are rising
From mud into ethereal triumph
Death is the ocean were all rivers end
Where fishermen set off at dawn
Death is the soft hand that carry us over
The gorge where no mortals can walk
Death is a sister that waits by your side
Until the journey is over”

But what did I know as the evening was falling
On the green fields of Solferino
What did I know as I felt how the morning
Wind blew over Solferino

Bataclan

“Bataclan” dives into the mental constitution of an Islamic terrorist and his view of “the West”. Much of the skeleton comes from Sayyid Qutb’s understanding of American society and the teaching of the Muslim Brotherhood that saw “the West” as infested by crime, degeneration, blasphemy and selfishness. The song title comes from the massacre at the Bataclan theatre in Paris in 2015 and the song was made both “to remember the victims of this pointless mass murder that so many seem to be willing to forget”, John says, but also to explain why these attacks happen. “As always, we write the songs to teach people something. Walk in these shoes for a while and try to understand what you see.” As of an eerie coincidence the album was released on the same day as the Stockholm terror attack on April 7.

Text and music: Lilou & John

Capo on second fret

Chords verse:
Am Dm Am
C Em Am
C Em Am
C Em Am

Chords chorus:
Am Em
Am Em
Am Em
C Am

Death and war
That’s the only thing I ever known
Fuck the whore
The rule of infidels is overthrown
Kill them all
Just cut their heads off let the bodies rot
Heed the call
Listen to the heartbeats as they stop

So lock your door
Bar your window
Hide your soul
Cause I’m coming for you

They will fall
Among the ruins there’s a deep mass grave
Rape them all
Prisoners of war no one will save
Girls and boys
They sold themselves to Satan long before
Got no choice
The West is nothing but eternal war

So lock your door
Bar your window
Hide your soul
Cause I’m coming for you

No more room
For anything but death in your own hell
Kiss the moon
I have no sympathy for infidels
Grind them down
Rape and kill and watch their dirty children die
Burn the town
See the fire spread and reach the sky

So lock your door
Bar your window
Hide your soul
Cause I’m coming for you

9/11

“9/11” is a journey from the gas chambers of World War II, to the concentration camps of Siberia and the terrorist attack at World Trade Center on 11 September 2001. The backbeat guitar was used to create an catchy wrapping for the tragic text. The chorus was originally intended as a lament but Lilou’s voice turned it into a more powerful accusation against anyone who hides behind ideology to commit murder. It is in a way an attempt to understand a moralizing humanist attitude that – as sympathetic as it may seem – in some cases can prevent deeper understanding of the ideas behind genocide.

Text and music: Lilou & John

Chords verse:
C Am F G
C Am F C G
C Am F G
C Am F G

Chords chorus:
C F G
Em G C

You closed the door to the chamber where everything stops
You turned on the gas with the hands you stole from the savior
You let a smirk crawl up like an angel past your cheekbone
When you heard the news that Warsau lost to Konigsberg

But did you not for once just wonder
Oh God what have I done

You knew right from wrong you said and raped the pale young woman
Then you watched her die in a mass grave in Kolyma
Her hands lost their grip on a baby clinging to her
They turned into ice as you saw the winter come

But did you not for once just wonder
Oh God what have I done

You boarded the plane with the smile of a school child
Sat next to an eight year old girl from Iowa
Then you and your brothers took control of the airplane
Heard the screams in panic as you saw New York

But did you not for once just wonder
Oh God what have I done

But did you not for once just wonder

Spirit of America

“Spirit of America” originated as a poem John wrote as a post on the social network Gab, and quickly developed into a song. The chorus was intended to make the listener think of the migrant ships coming to New York harbor in the 19th century and the text deals with John’s perception of the complexity of the American Conservative Christian heritage and the concept of USA being “The promised land”.

Text and music: Lilou & John

Capo on second fret

Chords verse:
Am C G C G Am
Am C G C G Am
Am C G C G Am

Chords chorus:
Am Dm G Em
Em Dm C Am

Chords outro:
Am Dm G Am

From Europe they came
And gave it its name
This great nation founded by migrants
Who, united by faith
Made this country so great
And gave their lives fighting the giants
Just like Nathan Hale
Their spirits prevailed
Say “bow not but stand up to tyrants”

Aaaaah America
Aaaaah America

And they built the land
With the engineers’ hands
And the gun and the Christ and the cattle
They saw it come true
What God only knew
This union of grain and of metal
And over the sea
Throughout history
They came and they saw and they settled

Aaaaah America
Aaaaah America

And the people who fought
For the freedom they sought
They prevailed and they conquered the mountains
In the old village church
All the wars of the earth
Stretched out like waves far beyond counting
They knew that a land
Needs a gun to withstand
When the hammer of hell comes a-pounding

Aaaaah America
Aaaaah America
Aaaaah America

Payback Day

“Payback Day” is the band’s signature song, and is by far the most popular song made by the duo. The song has aroused controversy due to its strong support for individual freedom and it is an attempt to describe the radicalization process among Libertarians, Conservatives and Nationalists that came out in the open after Donald Trump became American president in 2016. The song was also written as the band’s only real protest song as it criticizes the widespread misuse of derogatory vocabulary to dehumanize people.

Text and music: Lilou & John

Chords verse:
C G Am
C Em
C G Am
Am G C
C G Am
C Em
C G Am
Am G C

Chords chorus:
C G Am F
C G Am F
Dm G C

Betrayal yes life was betrayal
A sewer that’s where you were born
Born to a life of indifference
Prejudice violence and scorn
You learned that trust was a bastard
Tried to rise after each blow
Crawled in the dirt on your knuckles
You swore you’re the last one to go