#counterfeit arcade

weight of the world: This makes me wanna dance, and the lyrics feel like a tired, cynical antihero type convincing the hero that nothing matters but like… with style. “That’s just the weight of the world, the weak and the weary will never survive… that’s just the weight of the world, and we’ll all be the weak and the weary sometime.”  

for the departed: Again, this is super catchy and really fun to listen to. I don’t know how to explain it except that it’s a criminal realizing they’re about to get caught- it references Edgar Allen Poe’s story about the heart beating beneath the ground, and it’s someone saying goodbye to their lover. 

where we belong: I know I sound like a broken record, but this is catchy as hell. Seriously, listening through this I was just astounded by the fact that every song drew me in and I wanted to keep listening (I find it super hard to listen to new things, I have to add songs I know in between new songs just to keep my attention on them). Some fun lyrics: “I know we're far beyond the point of no return, Let's say we light a fire and be the first to burn”. I told y’all this album is built for hero and villain writers.

L.V.S. (your lady waits): This is the first slow song in the album. It was written after the death of James’ father (LVS are his dad’s initials, the lady waiting is probably his mom), and it addresses an absent, admired loved one. This is probably one of my favorites. It’s mournful and peaceful and hopeful and just. Really amazing. 

villainous thing: Moving on from the sad one, we have this! And y’all. Y’all. This is the song that I heard first on another playlist, and lemme tell you, this isn’t my favorite but it might be yours. It’s a villain seducing their significant other in villainy bc they’re “a villainous thing, and we can’t have you living a lie”. !!!!!   

battle cry: The chorus on this one makes me wanna be evil- you just gotta listen to it. It has one of the best villain lines ever: “You'll sacrifice the truth to justify your sins/but I don't need an excuse to let the darkness in”.

peace: Okay, this is my least favorite by far. But! I’m sure it’s an acquired taste, and as I keep listening to the full album I’m sure I’ll like it more. It’s very slow, the melody is kind of odd (and it’s supposed to be odd!) and discordant. Next to the others, it’s just slower. The main thing is just “I will never deserve peace”, which fits with the discord. Listening to the full album, it makes sense… but I wouldn’t listen to it for fun. 

diggin’ up hatchets:  Feels like people dancing on the corpse of a post-apocalyptic dystopian world. Super catchy, super fun to dance to.

under the willow: I forgot that this one was also slow, but it’s not as slow as peace or LVS. It’s good! It’s not my favorite and it’s not as catchy as the other, but the lyrics are great and it’s really fun to get into character singing (that feel when you pretend you’re in a music video or smth while singing to songs).

godspeed:  The genius.com blurb for this song says that it’s about two friends who betrayed each other a while ago and are seeing each other again, and I can get behind that. “You’ve got some nerve to be coming around with that smile on your face and your feet on the ground, I used to be someone that you could believe but it’s been a while, been a while”.