A Roar that Tore from your Lungs like Thunder

-

He wakes up.

He turns on the news, shudders. Takes in one breath, then another. The world is a painful place today, he thinks.

He goes back to sleep.

-

He wakes up.

He doesn’t turn on the news this time, because he’s learned. It is heavy - so heavy it will push him right back down into bed again, and there’s only so much of that he can take. And what will the news tell him anyway?

It’s not new. It’s old. All he has to do is stare back into time, and it’s just the same story being told over and over again. The same words screamed, the same people sunk and sinking, pressure building and building until they’re pressed six feet under and then some. It does not stop.

He thinks, This is just how it is, and then he slides his shoes on and grabs his keys to go to work. And then he walks out of the door, the earth cracking beneath his feet.

(And no one sees it. Of course they don’t - no one’s ever cared enough about people like him to look.)

-

He wakes up.

He doesn’t turn on the news, but he hears it all anyway. The city hums with it, alive with news - and that’s the thing isn’t it? The world is so goddamn used to tragedy pumping through its veins that, like an addict who’s built up resistance, it needs something especially horrific to happen just to feel something.

He laughs to himself. There’s no joy in the sound.

Everyone talks, he thinks. But does anyone actually feel?

-

He wakes up.

Sighs. He pulls up Twitter, and there are four trending topics highlighting today’s tragedy. He scrolls and scrolls and scrolls. And maybe it’s minutes later, or maybe it’s hours. But at some point, he looks up and realizes that his eyes have glazed over and his fingers are still swiping and it’s all still going.

Something tight weaves in between the spaces of his ribs and holds him there, frozen.

Fuck, he thinks. I’m becoming numb, too.

-

He wakes up.

Turns on the news. He forces himself to listen. Really listen. Because maybe he’s been lucky enough to avoid the pains his brothers and sisters have had to go through. He has a normal job and an average salary and an unremarkable two-bedroom apartment.

But he is different, and why should he ignore it when there are so many people out there who can’t afford to do that?

I can’t afford to do that, he thinks. It is with sudden clarity that he realizes he’s wrapped himself in an illusion of utter normalcy in an attempt to convince himself that the issues don’t apply to him. Because if he does that, maybe it’ll be less painful. Easier to look away.

Guilt swells inside his chest.

It’s always been like this, a scared, desperate part of himself reminds him. An attempt to let himself succumb to hopelessness, to think that it can’t be changed. (It’d be easier that way.)

And like a baby bird just finding its wings, something rises in his chest.

It doesn’t have to be, a new voice echoes back.

-

He wakes up.

He allows himself just a moment’s reprieve and stares at the ceiling above him. He can’t remember the last time he prayed. He watches the news and thinks that he’s not even sure God is real, because if He is, then He’s one hell of a father to idly sit by and watch it all burn.

He laughs, a bitter, angry sound.

Sounds like every other father he’s ever heard of.

But still, he prays.

I used to be so brave. Let me be brave once again.

-

He wakes up.

Inhales. Exhales. Thinks about all the people on the news who can’t do that anymore because of people like him who were too afraid to speak up, even for his own people - for himself. To stand up for what really matters. And he lets himself feel the pain of that knowledge. He tells himself he will never get used to it.

He rubs his eyes, forcing clarity back into them and sits up, back straight. He imagines his spine turning to steel and thinks about how he doesn’t need to be some sort of Wolverine to fight and make a difference.

It all comes down to me, he thinks. And maybe that’s full of himself. Maybe that’s absolutely pretentious.

But if we all believed that the ability to create a better world lies solely with us, well. Maybe we’d get our shit together and make it happen.

He picks up his notebook from the bedside table and stares at the list of numbers he’d written the night before. It all feels so, so big suddenly. It’s a daunting feeling.

But he shakes off the shadows and reminds himself that every big change starts with something small.

“What can I do to help?”

-

He wakes up.

It doesn’t feel like such a chore this time. There is something inside his chest that flutters with purpose, and that alone is enough to get him to rise out of bed. He turns on the news, his allotted amount for the day.

Because if there’s one thing he’s learned, it’s that he can’t take it all in, not all at once. And that’s okay. Humans aren’t really meant to anyway. And as long as he’s listening to someone - well, that’s all that matters, isn’t it?

And he does - listen, that is. He talks to people on the phone and online and reaches out to people in his community. And it’s not that he’s never talked to people before - he has friends, of course, but this is different. This feels like something new, like something that he’d been missing all along is finally finding that empty space in his chest and settling there.

He’s not just learning to stand up for himself and other people. He’s learning to stand with them.

This is what I’m meant to do, he thinks to himself. It’s a cheesy thought, but it settles deep into the marrow of his bones, and he knows it’s true.

He sits in a hole-in-the-wall cafe and listens to the woman across from him tell her story. At the end, he asks her to join him at his side. She bites her lip, nervous.

“I’m scared,” she confesses, like it’s some sort of sin.

He smiles, just the barest quirk of his lips. He leans forward slightly.

“They don’t have to know that.”

-

He wakes up.

He flings his covers off of him, nervous and excited. Today, he meets up with all of his people, and the planning will begin. He turns the news on, and it’s still as horrible as it always is, aching in a way that pierces at his chest, but this time there’s something there to soothe it, just a little.

It’s hope.

I am thunder, he thinks as he pulls his socks on, and well - he’s always had a flair for the dramatics anyway. But he knows - he’s determined - to make so much noise that people can’t look away. He’s determined to be so loud and so angry and so loving that people know he will fight for them.

He knows what it’s like to be tired and empty and lost and hungry. And slowly, slowly he’s creating a movement for the people who have been rejected by society and left wanting. There is a family to be found in those left behind.

He laughs to himself, just a tired huff of air.

There are people who see them as blind, ignorant to their suppression because so many are too scared or powerless to stand up to it. But they were never blind, no. They were merely blinking, clearing any fog from their eyes.

We see what you’re doing to us. And we won’t stand for it any longer.

-

He wakes up.

He doesn’t bother turning on the news, because if this all goes right, they’ll be the ones on the news for once. They’ll be the ones who get the last word in. They’re gonna be the ones who are remembered.

They gather, packed tight into the building, holding signs and anger and grief and all the things they haven’t let themselves feel because they were afraid of what would happen if they did. There is a nervousness thrumming through them.

He sees someone break through the crowded mess of people and approach him. It’s the woman he’d met with at the cafe. She holds her head up high, and he meets her gaze straight on.

“They call us devils, you know.” She doesn’t sound scared.

She sounds angry. A hush runs over the crowd.

He laughs, genuinely amused by the statement.

There is no guile or warp in him. May he keep so.

So here’s this theory and Joey, if you read this, just know that I’m impressed either at how much thought was put into this, or the sheer number of coincidences that make this work if it wasn’t planned. It’s turned me into a conspiracy theorist for the past four days or so? And it’s severely affected the amount of sleep I’ve been getting.

My basic theory here is that Joey and Madeleine aren’t singing as themselves throughout this album, they’re playing characters, and those characters are old gods. Joey is the Wild, Madeleine is Time. (Alternatively, she’s Horror, fitting with the album title, but as she’s never explicitly referred to as such, I’m not insisting on that point.)

Now, where am I getting this silly idea from? None other than the title track, of course, in which Joey sings, “witness me, old man, I am the Wild, and Madeleine sings, “And I am Time itself.” And yes, they are both capitalized like that in the lyrics.

So they explicitly refer to themselves as such. But Emily, you might be saying (or not, depending on how much you care), that’s one song! This is hardly an album’s worth of proof! Sure, they might be gods in this song, but what about the other eight? To which I say, hoo boy, I’m just getting started.

Before I continue, I’d like to add something about how their characters are depicted throughout the album: Joey is more cheerful, Madeleine is not. (see: Wild Blue Yonder, Marbles, Battle Cries.) Joey is whimsical, Madeleine is practical. (See Battle Cries especially, but you can also see this in Wild Blue Yonder.) Madeleine is referred to multiple times as being stronger than Joey, and appears to assume a more protective role over Joey’s childlike. This fits in with my theory, by the way, in a roundabout sort of way that involves some squinting. Joey is the Wild, which is…well, wild. Think of little kids: cheerful, whimsical, in need of protection. Madeleine is Time. She knows what has been, what is, and what will be. Of course she’s going to be more mature, practical, and pessimistic.

And why is this important? Well, it’s kind of how I’m tying together a lot of the rest of the album. (Not all of it; Farewell Wanderlust is a notable outlier in many ways, and some of my connections are tenuous at best, but we’re going to ignore that and pretend it’s all rock-solid. Rockrose-solid. I’m sorry, I’m very tired.) I’m ignoring The Rockrose and the Thistle a little bit in this post, not because I dislike it (it’s gorgeous), but because it’s stubbornly eluding my attempts to tie it into anything other than Elsa’s Song, which isn’t even part of this album.

The vast majority of what you need to know about these two characters is in The Horror and the Wild (the song), so I’m gonna copy/paste some lyrics, and go through them. (Actually, the copy/pasting is nonexistent, these lyrics are imprinted on my brain at this point. That being said, if there are errors, lmk and I will edit the post and fix them!)

So we’ve got Madeleine starting, singing about Joey, with “You were raised by wolves and voices, every night I hear them howling deep beneath your bed, they said it all comes down to you.” Aside from the fact that I have no clue why “it all” comes down to Joey, or anything with that last bit, maybe a few more late nights with a tinfoil hat will do the trick. That being said, the first line of the song references childhood specifically in relation to Joey. Notice also how wolves are referenced in Wild Blue Yonder (“we don’t know what’s out there/could be wolves”) and That Unwanted Animal (“‘What’s the time, Mr. Wolf,’ but you, you’re blind, you bleat, you bear your claws”). The whole “howling” thing and “deep beneath your bed” both pop up in That Unwanted Animal, too: “and on the wind it howls,” for one. And for the other, there’s “you [presumably Joey] make the bed up silent on the floor so no one hears us,” later followed later in the song by “and the door below us splinters, and the creature creeps inside.”

Following this, Joey sings about Madeleine: “you’re the daughter of silent watching stones, you watch the stars hurl all their fundaments, in wonderment at you and yours, forever asking more.” First of all, I’m gonna say that this is Joey’s point of view; later on, Madeleine will refute the daughter thing (“I’m not a drunkard, a daughter, a preacher”.) Anyway, “silent watching stones” could reference Wild Blue Yonder: “every stone you threw, I stood on to better see the view.” The view being the stars hurling all their fundaments?

(Incidentally, I knew vaguely what “fundament” meant, but I looked it up to make sure I had it right, and learned that, among its other meanings, “fundament” can mean “butt.” But I don’t think that’s what Joey had in mind with this. I just think y’all should appreciate it.)

Anyway, we’ve also got in Battle Cries, “With you I could summon the gods and the stars, make them dance out the plays that we wrote from the heart, and we’d laugh at the ghosts of our fears,” with Madeleine singing, “Come on, love, please don’t start, sing your notes play your part,” and then the part that gets me every time: M: “we were gods,” J: “we were kids.” Which is a whole other can of worms involving their personalities, which I’ve already briefly outlined. My point is the whole “gods and the stars” bit.

I could (and have, on Discord) done a full, in-depth analysis of this track, and I don’t want to go all over it again, but “I promise you, they’ll sing of every Time you passed your fingers through my hair and called me child, witness me, old man, I am the Wild” has both Time and Wild as proper nouns in the lyrics, plus reinforces Time’s view of the Wild as a child. No clue who the old man is, though.

In verse two, Madeleine sings, “you [Joey] are the son of every dressing-up box, and I am Time itself, I slow and let you play, I steal the hours, and turn the night into day.” Again, this reinforces Joey’s childlike aspects (which will later be hinted at in That Unwanted Animal, with the “god-child,” who’s clearly Joey), but also shows, as in the refrain, the fact that Time has a sense of protectiveness over the Wild, at least sometimes.

That being said, although I’ve obviously referenced other songs, I still have mostly focused on the title track. So. I’m going to go through some of the other songs real quick.

The songs on the album (again, excepting Rockrose, because my attempts to tie it in have been frustrating and not gone anywhere, Mr. Batey please explain) can be grouped into categories: songs outright referencing gods (THatW, Farewell Wanderlust, That Unwanted Animal, Battle Cries), songs about their relationship, (arguably all of them, although Welly Boots is a bit confusing), and songs that refuse to allow me to classify them (Rockrose).

I would argue that this entire album is about the relationship of two old gods, but I’m not quite sure what the chronology is of the album, because it seems like it can’t be straightforward. (Farewell Wanderlust, although its placement makes sense in the setup of the album, doesn’t make sense in the chronology of this theory.) Another important note in some way is that every song on the album, with the exception of Farewell Wanderlust, is about being there for someone, or steadfastness in some capacity, while Farewell Wanderlust is about abandonment. It’s an outlier in a lot of ways. (Though not as many ways as frickin Rockrose.)

I have been talking about this at great length (and almost incessantly) on Discord, so unless you want this post to get even longer, I’m going to run by some lyrics real quick to try and show a little bit my thought process.

- “He watches her get dressed as though she’s hurtling through time” (Fair)

- “And she is stronger than he has ever been, he knows” (Fair) versus “Without you, I’m stronger, I’m no longer filled with wonder. How wrong you were” (Wild Blue Yonder, Welly Boots)

- J: “Place your hand in mine” M: “Hold the hand of the god-child, they said, as he falls from the sky” (That Unwanted Animal)

- “I’m the saint of the paint that was left in the pot, I’m your angel ellipsis, your devil of dots” (Farewell Wanderlust)

- “the fluttering of all your wings” (The Horror and the Wild) versus “when you think about him, my wings start to flap” (Farewell Wanderlust)

- “come, devil, come, she sang, call out my name. Let’s take this outside, ‘cos we’re one and the same. Our gods have abandoned us, left us, instead, take up arms, take my hand, let us waltz for the dead” (Farewell Wanderlust)

There are even more lyrics, and I’m going to be completely honest with you, I’ve gone totally insane with all of this, but this post is way too long already, so just let me know if you want any clarification or something.

Tldr: The Amazing Devil’s album The Horror and the Wild is about two old gods, one being Time, and the other being the Wild, or the god-child. The album is primarily about their relationship and steadfastness they show each other, even in tumultuous circumstances.

So basically, I agree with everything this post said, except I’m adding onto it a bit. I have this (possibly ridiculous) theory that Madeleine and Joey are not just gods, but banished gods. In a similar fashion to how Atlas was forced to hold up the sky as punishment, I think Madeleine’s character was forced to keep a hold of time. And I think Joey was just cast aside.

In Rockrose, Joey sings, “I find you all unwoven / Trying desperately to sew” and it makes me think that she’s losing her grasp of time, that it’s hard to keep up with. He later sings, “all the pins inside your fretted head / and your muttered whens and hows” which goes with the idea that she can’t keep track; she can’t remember what goes where and how to put it all back together right. She’s tired, too. The line, “Just let me die, me die” - she cries these words out to the sky, which could be interpreted as her crying out to the gods that cursed her. Like begging for mercy.

Emily covered most of anything I’d have to say about TH&TW since that’s sort of the basis of the theory that they’re gods in the first place. I’d also say that “Witness me, old man, I am The Wild” makes me imagine his character like bitterly looking up to all the old gods that banished him and just shaking his fists like, “I’m still here and I’m strong.”

Wild Blue Yonder and Fair are songs that just go into detail about their relationship, so I’m not going to talk about those much, because all the interesting stuff about my theory that they’ve been banished comes in Farewell Wanderlust.

[Side note: Welly Boots refuses to let me fit it into anything, so I’m just ignoring it for now.]

Farewell Wanderlust, to me, is where they meet. They meet and they realize they’re both these young gods who were cast out by the old ones. (Is there a god hierarchy? I don’t know.) They each take turns talking about the bad things they are/can be compared to - maybe these negatives are why they were banished in the first place. They couldn’t be perfect gods because there’s something “wrong” with them.

Madeleine sings, “I promise you I’ll be better / I promise you I’ll try” which makes me think of her begging to the gods that she can be better, but she feels like she’s cursed to always mess up and make it worse. In parallel, Joey does the same thing: “I promise you I’m not broken / I promise you there’s more.” They both have this sort of desperation that I associate with those who’ve been abandoned - the desperation to prove that they’re not broken and they’re worth loving.

The biggest bit to me, and what the feeling that they’ve been banished is based on, is rooted in the lines, “Come devil come, she sang, call out my name / Let’s take this outside cos we’re one and the same / our gods have abandoned us, left us, instead / Take up arms / take my hand…” So they realize they’ve been through the same shit, they’re the castaways. She’s like, “Join me. We’ll be the misfits - the left behind - together.”

I’d also like to add that the line where Joey’s character says “I’m the child that you just didn’t have time to conceive” makes me think that maybe he feels like his literal god-parents just didn’t want to deal with him because he was too much trouble and they couldn’t be bothered with him, so they just… banished him.

And I think there’s this anger and hurt that they bond over, and what they’ve gone through drastically changes them. Hence the whole “s/he’s down, s/he’s dead, etc.” bit. I sort of imagine them raging at the sky/gods above like, “Look at what you’ve done to me.” I also think they choose to fully reject the person the gods wanted them to be. “So long to the person you begged me to be.”

So yeah, there was a shit ton in Farewell Wanderlust, whoops. As I said before, I’m not going to really go into Fair, except for mentioning the same line that Emily pointed out: “he watches her get dressed as though she’s hurtling through time.”

That Unwanted Animal has two lines that jump out to me. “Cos if we join our hands in prayer enough / To God I imagine it all starts to sound like applause” is such a bitter, cynical line. A bitterness and cynicism which would be much justified if they’d been banished and ignored by the gods. Also, “’Hold the hand of the god-child’ they said, ‘As he falls from the sky’” creates this imagery of Joey’s character being literally banished from the heavens. (Also re: is there a gods hierarchy? The existence of a god-child implies that there’s a god-adult, so I’m saying yes. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.)

Now, onto Marbles.

It’s interesting that she starts off with “I’ve held your hand since nineteen seventy-nine” because that sort of goes with the line about holding the hand of the god-child, but anyway. Connecting this song back with Rockrose, I think she’s losing her grip on time. “Hope, how can she lose her grip on time if she’s the god of it?” you might ask. I don’t know. I still think it’s somewhat like a curse, very Atlas-like.

Anyway, lines from Marbles that stick out to me: “And I’d sink to the floor / what’s the point anymore” with Joey’s reply of “I don’t know, but I’m here, I’m all yours, dear heart don’t cry” which makes me think of Madeleine’s character feeling so tired and defeated and wondering what the point of even trying is anymore. And, just like in Rockrose (“I know the kindest thing is to never leave you alone”), Joey assures her that he won’t leave.

There’s also the bit where he goes, “I’ve loved you, for a hundred years” and she’s like, “Certainly fucking feels like it” which… if they’re gods, it really could be that long.

[Side note: I’m confident enough in my theory that they’ve been banished by gods, but the shit about Madeleine losing control of Time or getting lost within it is just my attempt to tie Rockrose and Battle Cries into it.]

But I have this image of Madeleine going mad (no pun intended) as time starts to blur for her. I almost picture time as something she has to weave, and she can’t keep track of the threads and they’re getting all tangled, and her memory is getting scrambled. Hence the line “even though you’re mad and these memories won’t stay, it’s okay.” That might be a bit of a stretch, but isn’t all of this?

Onto Battle Cries. The main line in Battle Cries - which Emily mentioned - is the “we were gods / we were kids” bit because oh boy. It makes me think of them talking about what happened to them, and Madeleine being like, “We were gods, once.” And Joey gently being like, “We were both kids. Maybe we were gods, but we were still kids and they cast us out. Left us.” Another stretch, maybe, but it’s now 3AM, and I don’t care.

“And now at the end, at the end of all things” might be her unraveling completely. It’s the end of everything - the end of Time itself/herself. And she’s not going to scream or rage against it. Neither of them will. They’ve accepted their fate and made peace with it together. (Or maybe it’s their exile that they’ve finally accepted.) They’re doing fine.

Awake awake you children bold.

Take hold of all your books and fold

The corners; they warned us.

A storm is coming on.

What do you mean you’ve lost

Your scarlet welly boots, do y’know what they cost?

Wear a raincoat or it’ll soak you to the bone.

We have the Father figure here warning the Girl that a storm is coming, and he’s trying to tell her how to be prepared for it. In a way Welly Boots can be read as an Origin Story for the daughter of Father Time. We also have these lyrics:

Cos you were always strong,

When you were young, you’d kick things just to see if they would fall

They said ‘that girl she’s wrong’

But I’ll stick up for you, even though you haven’t got a clue, you haven’t got a fucking clue.

We see the Father figure describing the Girl in the way that the God-Child is described in the rest of the album. Reckless, sometimes angry, testing everything. And so when the Daughter of Time comes across the God-Child, she sees who she once was in him. “I’m lost/I’m found/in you.”

It’s tenuous but it’s a thought. ANYWAY. Thank you for pulling me into this rabbit hole, I’m just going to think about this for the next 4 years.

EDIT: ALSO. We have the Father telling the Daughter this:

“That I’ll be with you all along, as long as you are kind

To those who are not strong and cannot find their scarlet welly boots”

So here’s this theory and Joey, if you read this, just know that I’m impressed either at how much thought was put into this, or the sheer number of coincidences that make this work if it wasn’t planned. It’s turned me into a conspiracy theorist for the past four days or so? And it’s severely affected the amount of sleep I’ve been getting.

My basic theory here is that Joey and Madeleine aren’t singing as themselves throughout this album, they’re playing characters, and those characters are old gods. Joey is the Wild, Madeleine is Time. (Alternatively, she’s Horror, fitting with the album title, but as she’s never explicitly referred to as such, I’m not insisting on that point.)

Now, where am I getting this silly idea from? None other than the title track, of course, in which Joey sings, “witness me, old man, I am the Wild, and Madeleine sings, “And I am Time itself.” And yes, they are both capitalized like that in the lyrics.

So they explicitly refer to themselves as such. But Emily, you might be saying (or not, depending on how much you care), that’s one song! This is hardly an album’s worth of proof! Sure, they might be gods in this song, but what about the other eight? To which I say, hoo boy, I’m just getting started.

Before I continue, I’d like to add something about how their characters are depicted throughout the album: Joey is more cheerful, Madeleine is not. (see: Wild Blue Yonder, Marbles, Battle Cries.) Joey is whimsical, Madeleine is practical. (See Battle Cries especially, but you can also see this in Wild Blue Yonder.) Madeleine is referred to multiple times as being stronger than Joey, and appears to assume a more protective role over Joey’s childlike. This fits in with my theory, by the way, in a roundabout sort of way that involves some squinting. Joey is the Wild, which is...well, wild. Think of little kids: cheerful, whimsical, in need of protection. Madeleine is Time. She knows what has been, what is, and what will be. Of course she’s going to be more mature, practical, and pessimistic.

And why is this important? Well, it’s kind of how I’m tying together a lot of the rest of the album. (Not all of it; Farewell Wanderlust is a notable outlier in many ways, and some of my connections are tenuous at best, but we’re going to ignore that and pretend it’s all rock-solid. Rockrose-solid. I’m sorry, I’m very tired.) I’m ignoring The Rockrose and the Thistle a little bit in this post, not because I dislike it (it’s gorgeous), but because it’s stubbornly eluding my attempts to tie it into anything other than Elsa’s Song, which isn’t even part of this album.

The vast majority of what you need to know about these two characters is in The Horror and the Wild (the song), so I’m gonna copy/paste some lyrics, and go through them. (Actually, the copy/pasting is nonexistent, these lyrics are imprinted on my brain at this point. That being said, if there are errors, lmk and I will edit the post and fix them!)

So we’ve got Madeleine starting, singing about Joey, with “You were raised by wolves and voices, every night I hear them howling deep beneath your bed, they said it all comes down to you.” Aside from the fact that I have no clue why “it all” comes down to Joey, or anything with that last bit, maybe a few more late nights with a tinfoil hat will do the trick. That being said, the first line of the song references childhood specifically in relation to Joey. Notice also how wolves are referenced in Wild Blue Yonder (“we don’t know what’s out there/could be wolves”) and That Unwanted Animal (“‘What’s the time, Mr. Wolf,’ but you, you’re blind, you bleat, you bear your claws”). The whole “howling” thing and “deep beneath your bed” both pop up in That Unwanted Animal, too: “and on the wind it howls,” for one. And for the other, there’s “you [presumably Joey] make the bed up silent on the floor so no one hears us,” later followed later in the song by “and the door below us splinters, and the creature creeps inside.”

Following this, Joey sings about Madeleine: “you’re the daughter of silent watching stones, you watch the stars hurl all their fundaments, in wonderment at you and yours, forever asking more.” First of all, I’m gonna say that this is Joey’s point of view; later on, Madeleine will refute the daughter thing (“I’m not a drunkard, a daughter, a preacher”.) Anyway, “silent watching stones” could reference Wild Blue Yonder: “every stone you threw, I stood on to better see the view.” The view being the stars hurling all their fundaments?

(Incidentally, I knew vaguely what “fundament” meant, but I looked it up to make sure I had it right, and learned that, among its other meanings, “fundament” can mean “butt.” But I don’t think that’s what Joey had in mind with this. I just think y’all should appreciate it.)

Anyway, we’ve also got in Battle Cries, “With you I could summon the gods and the stars, make them dance out the plays that we wrote from the heart, and we’d laugh at the ghosts of our fears,” with Madeleine singing, “Come on, love, please don’t start, sing your notes play your part,” and then the part that gets me every time: M: “we were gods,” J: “we were kids.” Which is a whole other can of worms involving their personalities, which I’ve already briefly outlined. My point is the whole “gods and the stars” bit.

I could (and have, on Discord) done a full, in-depth analysis of this track, and I don’t want to go all over it again, but “I promise you, they’ll sing of every Time you passed your fingers through my hair and called me child, witness me, old man, I am the Wild” has both Time and Wild as proper nouns in the lyrics, plus reinforces Time’s view of the Wild as a child. No clue who the old man is, though.

In verse two, Madeleine sings, “you [Joey] are the son of every dressing-up box, and I am Time itself, I slow and let you play, I steal the hours, and turn the night into day.” Again, this reinforces Joey’s childlike aspects (which will later be hinted at in That Unwanted Animal, with the “god-child,” who’s clearly Joey), but also shows, as in the refrain, the fact that Time has a sense of protectiveness over the Wild, at least sometimes.

That being said, although I’ve obviously referenced other songs, I still have mostly focused on the title track. So. I’m going to go through some of the other songs real quick.

The songs on the album (again, excepting Rockrose, because my attempts to tie it in have been frustrating and not gone anywhere, Mr. Batey please explain) can be grouped into categories: songs outright referencing gods (THatW, Farewell Wanderlust, That Unwanted Animal, Battle Cries), songs about their relationship, (arguably all of them, although Welly Boots is a bit confusing), and songs that refuse to allow me to classify them (Rockrose).

I would argue that this entire album is about the relationship of two old gods, but I’m not quite sure what the chronology is of the album, because it seems like it can’t be straightforward. (Farewell Wanderlust, although its placement makes sense in the setup of the album, doesn’t make sense in the chronology of this theory.) Another important note in some way is that every song on the album, with the exception of Farewell Wanderlust, is about being there for someone, or steadfastness in some capacity, while Farewell Wanderlust is about abandonment. It’s an outlier in a lot of ways. (Though not as many ways as frickin Rockrose.)

I have been talking about this at great length (and almost incessantly) on Discord, so unless you want this post to get even longer, I’m going to run by some lyrics real quick to try and show a little bit my thought process.

- “He watches her get dressed as though she’s hurtling through time” (Fair)

- “And she is stronger than he has ever been, he knows” (Fair) versus “Without you, I’m stronger, I’m no longer filled with wonder. How wrong you were” (Wild Blue Yonder, Welly Boots)

- J: “Place your hand in mine” M: “Hold the hand of the god-child, they said, as he falls from the sky” (That Unwanted Animal)

- “I’m the saint of the paint that was left in the pot, I’m your angel ellipsis, your devil of dots” (Farewell Wanderlust)

- “the fluttering of all your wings” (The Horror and the Wild) versus “when you think about him, my wings start to flap” (Farewell Wanderlust)

- “come, devil, come, she sang, call out my name. Let’s take this outside, ‘cos we’re one and the same. Our gods have abandoned us, left us, instead, take up arms, take my hand, let us waltz for the dead” (Farewell Wanderlust)

There are even more lyrics, and I’m going to be completely honest with you, I’ve gone totally insane with all of this, but this post is way too long already, so just let me know if you want any clarification or something.

Tldr: The Amazing Devil’s album The Horror and the Wild is about two old gods, one being Time, and the other being the Wild, or the god-child. The album is primarily about their relationship and steadfastness they show each other, even in tumultuous circumstances.

A child is called to help the sad lady on the cliff, but doesn’t know if he should as she’s clearly a powerful being, and what can a child do to help or calm them?

The child is a little broken himself, perhaps that’s why the being called to him, and he sees the thimble and recognises it, offers to help

Time sees this broken little child summoned up the cliff, how he tries to help, how he’s hurting and alone in his life, I know the kindest thing, is to never leave you alone

My dear hearts!

We’ve all been loving the hidden track in Welly Boots but tonight I also noticed LAYERS of hidden tracks in the Love Run Intro from the older album. Basically a line from every other song from the album is sung over each other, sometimes I think as deeply as 4 layers of lyrics at once. Most of them are sung by both Madeleine and Joey, usually in canon.

Lyrics we’ve noticed so far (incomplete list, will update as more emerge):

I don’t know how to reach you when you get like this, I’ve been waiting for you to come home Come back I’ll keep him safe Forget the girl that she once was Hearts I’ve broken, minds I’ve woken, sweet nothings screamed not spoken You get trapped in the lift Tear me up and burn me up and rip me up Tippy toe tin rooftops It cannot be a lie if no one else can hear (p.s. Joey it is highly unfair of you to change the words, this took a really long time to find)

OF COURSE they’ve all been made minor key and slow, whether that’s how they appear in the other song or not.

I would love to add an audio clip like I did for Welly Boots but it doesn’t really work because of the number of layers of vocal tracks. Just listen intently and the lyrics will jump out at you.

If you find others, please let me know!

(I can’t believe I missed this all this time, omg)

(@joeybateyofficial is making me a conspiracy theorist at this point)

Just gonna expand on this a little with the order I hear them in so I can come back to it later and cry. The layering rounds start about 1:17 in the full track:

M: I don’t know how to reach you when you get like this, I’ve been waiting for you to come home (Little Miss Why So)  

M: Tear me up and burn me up and rip me up (New York Torch Song)

J: Come back (Two Minutes)

J: Don’t turn ‘round (Pruning Shears)

M: I don’t know how to reach you when you get like this

M: Not Yet (Not Yet)

J: Hearts I’ve broken, minds I’ve woken, sweet nothings screamed not spoken (Pray)

J: I don’t know how to reach you when you get like this (Little Miss Why So)  

J: Come back

M: I’ll keep him safe (King)

M: He said (Little Miss Why So)

J: Forget the girl that she once was (Pruning Shears)

M: I’ll keep him safe  

J: You get trapped in the lift (Shower Day)

J: On the tippy toe tin rooftops (New York Torch Song)

J: It cannot be a lie if no one else can hear (Elsa’s Song)

M: I’ll keep him safe  

The Elsa’s Song lyric is different than the line from the actual song. Instead of "it cannot be a lie if no one hears” it’s been changed to “it cannot be a lie if no one else can hear” 

TLDR; The Amazing Devil, Joey Batey @joeybateyofficial, and Madeleine Hyland are goddamn geniuses and I love them very very much

Anyway there might also be “love” or “love run” after 2 or even all 3 “I’ll keep him safe” but we couldn’t reach consensus. There might have been some other stuff as well but we couldn’t even agree on what it might be.

Feeling quite salty about this because I keep thinking we’re done but we’re not, we’re never gonna be done, this onion will keep peeling back layers forever and ever and I will never escape.

The latest one is from 1:32 to 1:34. It’s Madeleine’s voice, and I’m about 80% sure the lyric is “I won’t forget you.” I’m not totally certain because it’s very buried and obscured. But it definitely could be “I won’t forget you,” and that certainly is a lyric from a song on the album, so I’m gonna go with it.

Hear me out.

(CW: death, suicide)

A guardian of wild spaces, the embodiment of nature untouched by mankind's industry and greed. Fewer and farther between.

The ideal of "Purity" made manifest, elusive and powerful and hunted for fruitlessly by many a person. To kill. To actually kill. Living symbol of the oh-so-coveted Purity, not treated as a sacred thing to protect, or even predated for food to survive off, but a trophy for knights and lords to boast about.

So absolutely fierce and deadly that no one smart dared to fight it fairly. A gentle maiden had to betray it into resting in her lap so that a man could spear it while its guard was down.

Able to heal any wound no matter how severe - it promised miracles, if you could find one.

This is going to be a monster of a thing, but the basic idea is that in Haven one of the forms of magic is known as the Songweave, where you can actually manipulate reality purely through storytelling/singing/dancing/other performance art. And, like the many other belief/magic systems in this world, Songweave comes with its own pantheon of entities.

I've decided to base these entities, called devils, and their mythology on the songs of specific artists whose works have helped inspire the project at large; those being:

The Amazing Devil

The Crane Wives

S.J. Tucker

[from The Amazing Devil songs]

The Wild

Time

Old Witch Sleep

Good Man Grace

The King [of Nothing]

The Wind

The Sea

Unwanted Daughters

The Man in Tartan [Weeping Blood]

Holy Men [?]

Godforsaken Prospero[?]

The Stars

That Unwanted Animal

Wanderlust

The Trees

The Fox

The Cat[?]

The Blossoms/Soldiers

The Saint [of Never Getting It Right]

This is going to be a monster of a thing, but the basic idea is that in Haven one of the forms of magic is known as the Songweave, where you can actually manipulate reality purely through storytelling/singing/dancing/other performance art. And, like the many other belief/magic systems in this world, Songweave comes with its own pantheon of entities.

I've decided to base these entities, called devils, and their mythology on the songs of specific artists whose works have helped inspire the project at large; those being:

The Amazing Devil

The Crane Wives

S.J. Tucker

[from The Amazing Devil songs]

The Wild

Time

Old Witch Sleep

Good Man Grace

The King [of Nothing]

The Wind

The Sea

Unwanted Daughters

The Man in Tartan [Weeping Blood]

Holy Men [?]

Godforsaken Prospero[?]

The Stars

That Unwanted Animal

Wanderlust

The Trees

The Fox

The Cat[?]

The Blossoms/Soldiers

The Saint [of Never Getting It Right]