#dwlb

House of Wax is a song from Memory Almost Full (2007). The title is a reference to the Movie (original 1953, remade 2005 -- I don't watch horror, so I haven't seen either).

The song is atmospheric, evocative, and eerie. The lyrics feature words like "confusion", "battleground", and "demented". The song speaks of an "answer" hidden and buried.

I have always interpreted it as an expression of Paul's experience of the breakup. "Poets spill out on the street", "Women scream and run around". It's concerned with a buried past and a future cut-off.

And it's that cut-off future that connects it most strong with Days We Left Behind.

"To set alight the incomplete Remainders of the future"

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From the first or second listen I knew "Reminders of my past" (from the first verse of DWLB) was pinging something for me. It didn't take me long to realise it was "Remainders of the future" (very Paul. The same but so different. Future/past. What is left (remaining)/what is left (behind).)

In fact, the melodies are so similar that, before I could mention anything to him about the connection, my husband triumphantly sang HoW to me to point it out. (He's a Paul-fan-by-proxy).

But the atmosphere couldn't be more different. The gentle acoustic guitar, recorded with a bell-like clarity, in such close sync with the piano that it could be a dulcimer or something is in stark contrast to the harsh piano riff, echoing drums, and electric guitar of HoW.

Even the secret in DWLB is bubbling to the surface, instead of buried beneath a thousand layers.

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HoW was written during the breakdown of Paul's marriage. It is tense and even fearful. It is named after a horror movie, and recalls unresolved past events with nightmarish imagery.