Help Is On The Way

This amped-up rocker is the first single from American pop-punk band Rise Against's sixth studio album, Endgame. The album deals with "the end of humankind as we know it," with lyrics that, as usual, address world events and politics. "Every day, there's news about our financial system or the environment collapsing or stories about nuclear proliferation," frontman Tim McIlrath told Spin magazine. "We're living under this black cloud of doom - everything's spiraling out of control. The record is about all that." The singer added: "We're looking at Endgame from the perspective of, What if this is a good thing? What if this grotesque world we created doesn't deserve to go on? What if the place on the other of this transition is place we'd all rather be living in?"

This song details the destruction wreaked upon New Orleans after Katrina and the BP oil disaster. McIlrath was inspired to pen the tune after spending time in the city while the band was on break from touring. "I was down in those wetlands with a guy talking about how important they were and the damage that was being inflicted on them," he explained to Spin magazine. "And this was right before the oil spill! I could almost visualize a tear coming out of that guy's eye, like, 'Are you kidding me? Kicking us while we're down?'"

Lead guitarist Zach Blair told Gibson.com the song is a response to people moving on from Hurricane Katrina to the next news item. He said: "For an event like Katrina, there was quite a bit of help and aid, but we also believe there wasn't enough. It's just like any other major thing we should be paying attention to, the second Kim Kardashian trips, it's in the news and nobody is paying attention to a real news story anymore. We're just trying to say, 'While your short attention span is taking you to another place, this is still going on.'"