EVERY RED HEART SHINES TOWARD THE RED SUN

Great Math Rock and one of the coolest album concepts EVER! Did you know that as part of Chairman Mao's changes he decided to implement from his 1958 book, A Great Leap Forward, he endorsed the extermination of millions of sparrows because they were eating so many of farmers' freshly-planted seeds? The thought behind this was that a higher percentage of germinating seeds would lead to greater agricultural yields and therefore make farming more efficient and feeding his nation's huge population successful. Little did he or his counsellors know that one of sparrows' favorite foods was locusts and that with the loss of the locusts' main natural predator his country's crop losses (from locust infestations) over the next two years would cause the deaths due to starvation of between 30-50 million people!

The song titles used on this album are apparently direct translations from a personal recounting of the devastation caused by many of the campaigns started by Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward.

1. "The Great Leap Forward Poured Down Upon Us One Day Like A Mighty Storm Suddenly And Furiously Blinding Our Senses" (8:10) 2. "We Stood Transfixed In Blank Devotion As Our Leader Spoke To Us, Looking Down On Our Mute Faces With A Great, Raging, And Unseeing Eye" (10:01) 3. "Like The Howling Glory Of The Darkest Winds, This Voice Was Thunderous And The Words Holy, Tangling Their Way Around Our Hearts And Clutching Our Innocent Awe" (11:24) 4. "A Message Of Avarice Rained Down And Carried Us Away To False Dreams Of Endless Riches" (7:56) 5. "Annihilate The Sparrow, That Stealer Of Seed, And Our Harvests Will Abound; We Will Watch Our Wealth Flood In" (8:07) 6. "And By Our Own Hand Did Every Last Bird Lie Silent In Their Puddles, The Air Barren Of Song As The Clouds Drifted Away. For Kill" (1:45) 7. "Millions Starved And Became Skinnier And Skinnier While Our Leaders Became Fatter And Fatter" (10:01) 8. "Finally As That Blazing Sun Shone Down Upon Us Did We Know That True Enemy Was The Voice Of Blind Idolatry; And Only Then Did We Begin To Think For Ourselves" (8:03)

While I must admit that I do not enjoy the music from this album as much as At the Soundless Dawn or The Fear Is Excriciating, But Therein Lies the Answer, I give Red Sparowes mega kudos for one of the cleverest song and album titling concepts ever.