LogFAQs > #970984402

Man, I've got a lot to catch up on. I was doing a lot better keeping up earlier in the topic. Fortunately I don't have a whole lot to say about a lot of these.

The Haves Have Naught: It's funny that you enjoy the duet aspect so much, because even after years of listening to this album, I'm still not sure I like it. It feels weird to have just one song in the Acts where anyone but Casey is doing anything but backing vocals. I also don't exactly love Gavin Castleton's voice all that much in the first place. Admittedly, though, I'm not sure the song really even works without it. It's not like Act IV's "Wait," where you can easily understand the overall point of the song without even knowing it's meant as a duet. And anyway, those are nitpicks - it's a cool song.

Regress: Narrowly edges out Writing On a Wall as my favorite intro song in the Acts. Piano and violin are my two favorite instruments and the lyrics do a more perfect job of setting up the overall feel of the album than any of the others. Also, a fun tidbit: an early version of the sheet music without lyrics showed up online a good while before the album released (https://my.scorecloud.com/song/41388a4a409189b8d8d86e1564f4228b/TDH1) and I distinctly remember actually tearing up the first time I heard the part beginning at 0:43. I wore out that replay button waiting for Act V to drop, lemme tell you.

The Most Cursed of Hands: The guitar work in this song is just so groovy and I love the parable aspect of it for the uniqueness in the story. I do think it's effectively a middling song among Acts IV and V, though. Another fun tidbit: the band released a full short story about it and it's pretty fun, if somewhat cheesy. https://i.redd.it/orwp7nhabo081.jpg

The Fire (Remains): The Simpsons memes are honestly kind of hilarious, so no worries there, even though this is a top 20 song all-time for me. It's about the most perfect climax I could've hoped for, with Casey's work in the last chorus being among his finest performances ever IMO.

The Revival: That's certainly a depressing drop from the Revised Score. I feel like I have one song every year that does that. For whatever reason, this is the Act V song that I find stuck in my head most often - something about the melody is very earworm-y, I guess, with the theatricality of it all. It's such a fun track despite the unsettling subject matter.

Picking Up the Pieces: I basically have the same thoughts on this one as you do. It's pretty easily the least interesting song I nominated this time around, I think, so I kind of expected it to be gone long before it even was. But that's obviously not to say it's bad. I think the lyrics that are present are quite good and pretty much everything I've heard from MEER has had outstanding vocals.

And theeeen...

The Moon/Awake: Definitely a bit of a bummer that this one didn't get more of a bump. I currently have this as my #7 favorite song of all time, and some days I feel like moving it into my top 5. I think this is something of a career peak for Casey, because it has some of his absolute best lyrics (which is saying something) and also maybe his best vocals work.

I'd bare you my heart if I knew that it still was there
I'm too nervous to look
Too afraid to close the book

Chills every time. Four-plus albums of buildup for Hunter to finally demonstrate a tiny bit of self-awareness and it comes out in that poetry. Casey sings it with such a palpable feeling of regret and desperation and sheer, utter sadness, and with his wife supporting him in the background with those restrained ethereal accompaniments... There may not be another example in music that gives me that frisson sensation. The only one I can think of that comes close is The Show Must Go On by Queen, but I don't think it's quite the same, and a lot of that has to do with the real-world circumstances behind that song anyway.

A lot of TDH superfans, myself included, tend to think of many of their songs as needing a bit of time to grow on you. I like most of their output from my first listen, but I rarely decide which songs I love until I've heard them at least a half-dozen times. The Moon/Awake bucks that trend; I adored it from my first time hearing it. I had to get over some initial feelings of confusion, granted, because the #2 tracks on the Acts had always been very high-energy, shouty affairs (outside of The Lake South on Act I, which is basically an extended intro anyway that moves into City Escape being more of what I just described), whereas The Moon is restrained and almost reticent for most of its runtime. I could tell the chorus was beautiful immediately, but I'd been waiting for bombast that didn't come, so it kinda took me aback.

It comes later, though! The end of that bridge section that brings Casey screaming The spirit split in TWO made me start nodding my head and smiling, and then he immediately tops himself with the Dear Apparition section (hearing him perform that live is quite something, as a side note).

Anyhoo, I'd certainly hoped it'd go a little further, but I can't complain about it landing in the "I really like this" tier. I'm just glad you're not tired of the band by now!