"The Landscape is changing"
       by Depeche Mode (1985)

This song is about a changing landscape due to human intrusion and exposure of nature. It consists of three stanzas of different length and a refrain after each stanza.

The Lyrics

The landscape is changing,
Thousand of acres of forest are dying
Carbon copies from the hills above the forestline
Acid streams are flowing ill across the countryside

'Cause I don't care if you're going nowhere
Just take good care of the world
I don't care if you're going nowhere
Just take good care of the world

Now we're rearranging there's no use denying
Mountains and valleys can't you hear them sighing?
Evolution, the solution or the certainty
Can you imagine this intrusion of their privacy?

'Cause I don't care if you're going nowhere
Just take good care of the world
I don't care if you're going nowhere
Just take good care of the world

Token gestures, some semblance of intelligence
Can we be blamed for the security of ignorance

'Cause I don't care if you're going nowhere
Just take good care of the world
I don't care if you're going nowhere
Just take good care of the world. (*)



The first stanza immediately creates an awareness of the fact that the changing landscape is a negative process. There can be positive changes, such as the changes of seasons, the beautiful silence of the first snow or the joy and hope connected to the first flower we see in spring. But in this song, the landscape is “crying,” so there has to be something to mourn. It is the destruction of land, as carbon and acid, among other things, disrupt the natural world. The song confronts us listeners with acid streams instead of fresh, clear brooks (l.4). So it is made clear that the destruction, the change of the landscape is due to human behavior, and not caused by natural events such as earthquakes or storms. We humans “rearrange” (l. 10) the world right now.


The refrain carries the overall moral/message of the song: “take care of the world.” Individual progress is not important, in fact, it does not matter at all (according to the song) as long as the Earth is protected. Compared to the Earth, a single life is so small. The world, however, is our home, a home of millions of people. If we destroy it, we also destroy the living space of future generations. If we don’t take care of the world now, there might not be a world to be taken care of any longer some day.

The earth is anthropomorphized in this song. Things we consider as lifeless, such as mountains and valleys are able to sigh and cry. In some sense, they are given a voice – not a voice that is able to directly speak to us humans (such as in the beautiful poem “Lament of Swardy Well”), but a voice to express emotions, to become audible. At least for those who are willing to listen to it. That is why the singer asks “can’t you hear them sighing?” (l. 11). Apparently, a lot of people can’t. Or they do not want to. The humanization makes it easier for us human beings to identify and empathize with the landscape and the pain and mischief done to it; the earth thus gets closer to us and our world of experience.

Also, the landscape has a right of “privacy,” something humans are not allowed to intrude. An example for human intrusion could be deforestation or overfishing. Again, this is easier to understand since we experienced it ourselves that everyone needs some privacy, though every individual defines it different. Nonetheless, probably a lot of people would agree that an intrusion into privacy creates a very uncomfortable feeling. By transferring our experience to nature, the issues how we deal with it become more understandable. It is interesting, however, that the earth’s actions are in fact reactions: sighing and crying. This shows us that the Earth reacts on the human impact but is unable to resist. Thus the earth needs protection, or, as the refrain demands, has to be taken care of. One could argue that nature is in fact able to resist, e.g. through heavy floods, but this is commonly not considered to be an active decision, it is not as in Ancient Greek myths, for example, where the landscape was embodied by Gods, such as Poseidon, who can be angered and then creates a natural catastrophe. 

Or is there a greater ‘plan’? The song speaks about evolution in the same stanza. It is asked if evolution is the “solution or a certainty” (l.12). I interpret the question in this way: if evolution is a solution, it might be suggested that we humans, by destroying nature, will eventually destroy ourselves, too. We (technologically) developed so far that our (arguably) superior position has to lead to a following decrease. This discussion came up after Darwin published his evolutionary theory. But if evolution is a certainty, then it is said that happens what has to happen, no matter how we humans behave.

 
The fifth stanza implies that there is little or nothing done yet since there are only “token gestures” – promises, empty words, but no real action. And the question “Can we be blamed for the security of ignorance?” is in my opinion a rhetorical one. There is this phrasal verb ‘Ignorance is no excuse.” There is no security of ignorance, at least not today. Former generations might not have known what we know, and therefore it is arguable if they can be blamed for treating the environment without knowing the consequences. I certainly do not blame them in general, but I think we should consider if it is ever appropriate to act without thinking about or knowing possible impacts. Anyway, ignorance does not count today. We know very well that a huge CO2 emission leads to global warming, that deforestation leads to a loss of biodiversity and decrease of species. Nonetheless, many of us keep going in the usual way. I do not deny that there is still ignorance today, but we at least have the possibility to know. Such knowledge about environmental issues has to be made available to more people, and more people have to be interested in. That this is not yet the case is one reason why I am doing this project.


 
The Music

The music of this song is, contrary to the lyric’s subject, completely artificial. Depeche mode used synthesized sounds, a drum machine, and samples. The melody is very simple, thus the listener can better concentrate on the lyrics and is not distracted by complicated harmonics, rhythms, or a changing melody. There is almost no allusion to nature through the music, no musical/textual painting, or a connection between the text and the music except for the third stanza. In this stanza, the stanza about the sighing mountains and valleys, a plated reverb is used, and the percussion sound pans, comes from different directions. This indicates/mimics the reverberation one can hear in valleys and mountains (thanks to Andrew Babcock for this observation).

But besides this, there seems to be a disconnection. Maybe that's the point, our alienation from nature, which is then presented in the song by the contrast between music and text. The sound is very industrial and reminded me of noises in a factory, and all the industrial/technological ‘progress’ leads to the destruction of nature (cf. the Acid streams and Carbon in the first stanza). The absence of almost any allusion to nature in the song shows how far we have already gone: there is almost nothing left to refer to. 

 
This song is more than 25 years old. And it is still alarmingly up-to-date. It is even more topical than at that time because it shows the elapsed time. It makes clear that a lot of these issues were already known back then, yet there does not seem as much progress to positively change our environmental behavior as it could have happened. There are now more than 25 years less to deal with increasing environmental issues.

*Unfortunately, I cannot publish audio tracks (at leat not without paying for them), but the song can be found on itunes and here.