Walking Away

from the LP Information Society, Tommy Boy Records, 1988



Sometimes you gotta know when to cut your losses, a truth which is rarely easy to swallow, but is nonetheless vital for a human’s ability to genuinely relax. One of the more valuable lessons given to me by my folks is: pick your battles in life carefully, because a mêlée in the mind (or of the body) can be a deeply draining and debilitating endeavor, so it should be worth it; they also implied that those battles will likely change over time, so don’t get too comfortable hanging on to one fight or another. This song is about a girl, presumably, but the lyrics are broad enough to enable the listener to imagine anything from their past/present which required walking away; the group, Minneapolis’ own Information Society, were one of the more investigational synth crews in the ‘80s, giving their pop-friendly tunes healthy doses of techno, industrial, & freestyle elements. To be perfectly honest, I always thought these guys were from Florida as a kid, because (I believed) that would be the only place where white people could get away with making music that drew inspiration from freestyle beats the way this song does.