Babylon | 5ive Songs

1. Lady Gaga, “Babylon”

💿 Chromatica • 🏷 Interscope • 📅 2020

“We can party like it’s B.C. / With a pretty sixteenth-century smile.” 🎙 Lady Gaga concludes her fabulous 2020 album, 💿 Chromatica, with bang.  Specifically, 🎵 “Babylon” caps things off “ancient-city style” for the pop superstar. Perhaps “ancient-city style” doesn’t scream scream BOP, but in the hands of Lady Gaga, it is!

“Bodies moving like a sculpture / On the top of Tower of Babel tonight.” Lady Gaga creates ‘something’ of a religious experience. No, “Babylon” isn’t tailor made for church, but there’s spiritual association to an extent. With the help of 🎛 BURNS and  🎛 BloodPop®, she references 📚 The Bible (“Gossip, babble on / Battle for your life Babylon”), plays on words, and incorporates gospel-style background vocals.  That’s a winning formula from a 🏆 Grammy-winning superstar! “Ba-Ba-Babylon!”

2. Joey Bada$$, “Babylon”

💿 ALL-AMERIKKKAN BADA$$ • 🏷 Pro Era / Cinematic Group • 📅 2017

Rapper 🎙 Joey Bada$$ delivers a knockout punch on his 2017 album, 💿 ALL-AMERIKKKAN BADA$$.  He constructed a socially and politically driven tour de force, that paints a picture of the state of being black in America.  He focuses on the black male, and articulates next steps in the resistance of unfair, hurtful situations, etc. Overall, this gem deserved more attention.  One moment worthy of highlighting (among many) is 🎵 “Babylon.”

Contextually, “Babylon” keeps ALL-AMERIKKKAN BADA$$ going strong, never missing a beat. Joey Bada$$ focuses on the unfair persecution of black men. 

“Turn on to CNN, look at what I see again
It’s another black man, died at the white hand of justice
To tell the truth, man, I’m fuckin’ disgusted.”

This represents one of the rapper’s most passionate performances, getting an exceptional lift from Jamaican reggae artist 🎙 Chronixx. One of the most moving references Joey makes a couple of times throughout the song is Eric Garner (“He ain’t breathin’, you made it clear / ‘Fuck your breath, nigga,’ don’t even deserve air”).

3. 5 Seconds of Summer, “Babylon”

💿 Youngblood (Deluxe) • 🏷 Capitol • 📅 2018

“I see it on your face, a small trace, a blank slate, we’ve been erased.” Seems crystal clear to me that the relationship done for 🎙 5 Seconds of Summer on 🎵 “Babylon,” specifically 🎙 Calum Hood. If you happened to miss “Babylon” on 💿 Youngblood, there’s good reason: it only graces the deluxe version of the LP.  The big takeaway, of course is, the love has expired.

“Burn too bright, now the fire’s gone,” 5SOS sings, continuing, “Watch it all fall down: Babylon.” The band uses Babylon metaphorically, and it perfectly parallels this ended relationship.  Calum goes on to express things he’s tired of, yet, like the end of the first verse, still clings to one more night of intimacy: “But if we’re way too faded to fight, you can stay one more night.” Still, sex won’t atone for what ails – it’s a temporary Band-Aid.

4. SZA, “Babylon”

Ft. Kendrick Lamar

💿 Z • 🏷 Top Dawg • 📅 2014

“I bet you hate me now (Here) / Bring on the thorny crown (Here) / Crucify me.” Wow! 🎵 “Babylon” appears on 💿 Z, the 2014 mixtape by 🏆 Grammy-nominated R&B artist, 🎙 SZA.  A winning record, SZA gets an assist from the unstoppable Kendrick Lamar (this would predate another fabulous collaboration, 🎵 “Doves in the Wind”). The crucifixion references are bold for sure.  Of course, also blasphemous is a lyric like, “We did ungodly ghastly things, last night I mean / Who’s God anyway? You’re mine any day.” Ooh wee!!!

SZA keeps it 100 on “Babylon,” stating to the audience things she can’t recall including taking advice and taking love.  One killer jewel of a line comes when she says, “I called daddy, who’s got one anyway? Not me.” As for Kendrick Lamar, he serves surefire excellence with numerous lyrical gems.  In one instance, he confesses to a Napoleonic complex (“I notice people got Napoleon complexes / That’s my confession), while later, he references J. Cole (“Born Sinner, you know? Cole showed us!”).  And for good measure, he closes out the second verse referencing Babylon: “And this here just one of my moods, Babylon.”

5. Cattle Decapitation, “Mammals in Babylon”

💿 The Anthropocene Extinction • 🏷 Metal Blade • 📅 2015

“The messiah, the humans, these ingrates, goddamn them all.” Wow, well, okay… Death metal band 🎙 Cattle Decapitation certainly have a way with words, don’t they? On 🎵 “Mammals in Babylon” (💿 The Anthropocene Extinction), 🎙 Travis Ryan doesn’t have the most positive outlook regarding humans.  This ‘goes with the territory’ with a band that loves to explore all things Anthropocene (2019’s 💿 Death Atlas continues this line of thinking). 

Pardon my French, but Travis Ryan illustrates a picture that finds that mankind has totally fucked shit up. “We had it all / The whole of Eden in our hands,” he sings at the beginning, adding, “We suffocate ourselves / We defecate on the product line / Fell under our own spell / Carelessly crafted hell.” Honestly, as pessimistic as his assertions are, he has a point.  His next line is damning to the nth degree: “You can’t escape your own rape when you’re not the only rapist.” As you’d expect, leading up to the penultimate lyrics excerpted in the opening paragraph of this blurb, things only get worse.  It’s depressing but as Ryan illustrates lyrically and vocally, this is our own fault.