#seeming music

I love the song progression the most.

"the fates" as the Opening statement. Atrocity is imminent. There's nothing you can do to stop it. So how do you cope?

You "Go Small". With the fast and steady backing drum beat to accentuate that even though fate is coming; so are you.

The ego-favorable perspective is emphasized in "Someday Lily". Remove yourself further from the world, the atrocities around you. If they want to see you dead you gotta keep living. But remember there's kindness, most of all within you.

For without kindness - "The Flood Comes For You". And god I love the anger in this song. It's a contrast to Someday Lily but in the way that it's the other side to the same coin.

'I will gladly gladly drown' says the flood, but the response of the next song is clear – "Remember To Breathe". You won't be the one to single handedly end the world in one fell swoop. You're in this for the long haul. Through the pins and needles of the mundane.

And after that last breath is taken we get right back to the entropical hubris of "End Studies"!! Top 3 songs of the album imo. It's even more proactive than "The Flood Comes For You" in its strive for an End.

And as it fizzles out we get to "Permanent". The only thing that's permanent is irrevocable change. Loss. Destruction. BUT it also clearly states there's always another way out. And we can leverage these.

the way "Permanent" ends with 'No need to be good now' to lead into "Reality is afraid" is so beautiful to me. It's such a triumphant song. Declaring that yes, you are powerful, even after everything that has happened to you. Every atrocity. Every death. You're still here. And you can shape reality as you like. Fuck what everyone else is saying. I care about me and my and I can manifest that care even if reality would deem it ridiculous.

This, taken to the extreme leads us to the conclusion that is "Learn to Vanish". Listing a bunch of "[verb] a [noun]" groups to illustrate just what it is we fill our lives with. But there's absolutely no connective tissue between them. It feels unreal. As if those things never really happened. It closes with the Titular "learn to Vanish" as the last action one has supposedly done. And after vanishing - you gotta celebrate

"Celebration Song" is the album's closer. And goes on a tour from outside reality, where you're powerful enough to bring back life from extinction, to a forceful reintegration to reality. But this isn't framed as damnation. You're still powerful. You have control over yourself.

And the birds will still fly.