through the dead branches, through the dead branches

I'm going to get all pretentious again and say this one is about the concerning strain of what I might call "religious modernist traditionalism" espoused by technological singularity fanatics (Ray Kurzweil) and authors like Neil Stephenson.

I am concerned with the values of my generation.

Original working title was something like, "And after six years I finally understood why they sing in the streets here, and could go home." It's sort of about anonymity in the modern city. If that sounds pretentious, that's because it is.

A deceptively forceful song dealing with the death of my sister.

An older song from a previous band that was never quite captured to my satisfaction. I was going for very laid-back "Pale Blue Eyes" vibe.

An exercise in configuring sonic spaces - it was only later that I realized the scathing lyrics were self-directed.

An attempt to evoke images that weren't in the first-person. I tend to write in abstract fragments and this piece is no exception.

A song that ended up in an entirely different place than from where it began. It was meant to have a dark 'David Gray' kind of feel, but ended up being the love child of 'Love and Rockets' and 'Stars on 45.'

A song that really crept out of nowhere and one that I don't entirely understand its meaning. Some things in the song I can pinpoint the origin, but some I haven't a clue. I'm really happy with the way it turned out - semi-ok vocal and all.