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Album Name: Damage Collection
Artist Name: Puzzle
Songs:
1.Clash! 02:43
2.Kidnapped 02:26
3.Confined & Feathery 02:46
4.Conviction In Color 02:42
5.Slobber Of The Dog 02:08
6.Vile 02:17
7.The Long Way 03:02
8.Goody Two Shoes 02:13
9.Blind As A Bat 02:32
10.Run From The Good Things 02:35
11.Bankrupt (i hear it makes you smile) 02:09
12.Tragic Thief 02:48
13.Psycho Fest 02:10
14.Pearl Of Eagleland 02:33
Review:
This album was fun. From the first piano notes you can tell the vibes, a dark yet charming stroll through the night streets. The lyrics off "Clash!" provide the mood, with a gravely, almost nasaly, setting up the exposition that this preverbial stroll has been going on for a while, it just takes a "physical" one to start, and that is what we are greeted with. This stroll naritive is brought on by, in my opinion, a longing for someone, a wrong time wrong place situation on both ends, and a lack of current feelings for one another. While not the most unique of tales, Fletcher takes it into a different tone, adding a fun air to the tale, immersing you in the feelings from the first second the song starts. The second song "Kidnapped" keeps the sonic tone going, while providing a context (in my opinion) to this story. A relationship born out of hatred at first. The way I see it, at first, is that the narrator feels contempt and hatred for this other person, who maybe at first feels nothing at all back, thus, inticing them to pursue further, to delve deep into the other person, eventually feeling "A hate so great it turned to love". Already with the first two songs you get the vibe. If I were to put it into words I would say, christmas time night lights, a nostalgic, though (and this is just my interpretation) west coast vibe to it all. I grew up in the southeast US, so maybe my perception is skewed, but the whole Vada Vada label seems to eminate this similar "west coast chill". Getting back on track, "Confined & Feathery" jumps straight into a faster tempo, and a time shift. This to me feels like the narrator realising with horror that their hatred is no longer just hatred, its love, which to many is terrifying. To many, the realization that something you hate, you now hate with love, passion, and feeling, has now started a time bomb. Everything passes, from years, to friends, to interests, and when you love something, coming to terms with the fact it too will pass is scary. And so, the only "reasonable" option for the narrator is to drown in substances and hide, out of fear of actually feeling something that is already being felt. "Conviction in Color" may just be my favorite track on this album. It is FUN!. From the musicality, to the tone of the song, the apathetic, punk-esq lyrics, just chefs kiss. I wanna say it reminds me of a dead kennedys song, lyrically. The faux-normalcy and sarcasam that I feel while reading and listening is fun, the toybox and higher pitched lo-fi sounds bringing it all together is fun, its just FUN!. I say all this to explain that, while this song builds the narrator as a character, someone who walks through life trying their hardest not to give off a care in the world, and taking outward steps to do so, the "story" as I see it does not progress. That being said though, going off of my whole narrative idea, I feel like this takes place chronologically after track 3. With the narration driving home a feeling of uneasiness in their day-to-day life, seeing change, feeling, and emotion all around them, but just putting their head in the sand and saying "Nowhere I can go, so nothing I should fear". The lyrics "People hate change; But they love the cashier" specifically is one of my favorites off the album, as even if its not a real "narrative", even if the song comes on during shuffle, or a radio station, there are still valuble things to take away. No one likes changes, to a degree, but many times this change, in real day to day life, is not brought on by an outside force, but a person who is close to you. Someone whos actions can dictate how your life will go. Maybe it is a reach and maybe its an overgeneralization, but I feel like with this lyric, it can bring others, and myself, down to earth. At least in my narrative idea, the narrator is a hypocrite, chastising others but observing that everyone does the same, in their own unique ways. Funny enough, while lyrically I really enjoy "Slobber of the Dog", it doesnt hit that spot for me, sonically, as much, until the end. Maybe its the voice done to emphasize the lyrics or the clunky stabs of sound but something feels not quite done. Though again the lyrics paint a forward status from the last track, with the narrator again going on about how "their feelings were supposed to be set, no chance was supposed to be given" and yet its all for not. They feel, and maybe this is just me speaking here, but maybe they will choose to act on it. Singing at the end, "My faith expired several times, I walk away with head up high" with my interpretation being that the narrators apathetic, nihilistic faith being broken, and a more upwards direction can be taken from this... then, saws, laughter, and a breakbeat. While "Conviction in Color" is fun, this song is cool. But not cool in the positive way, cool in the Billy Hargrove, Tyler Durden, Patrick Bateman kind of way. A "coolness" that can be seen as desirable to someone without the proper skills to unpack why that person acts in that way. "Vile" sets the stage for a relapse. And not in the way seen in "Kidnapped" with substance abuse and hiding. "Vile", like its name suggests, is a grotesque song, with a reprehensible, pearl clutching atmosphere to it. The narrator took that upwards direction and flipped it on its head, with the understanding being "What can I say, I cozied up to the bitch!", but the feeling and emotions once tied to it being abandoned, replaced by once again, nihilism, apathy, and cynisism. The narrator feels that this life, these emotions, his feelings, are just that, feelings. To them, it doesnt matter, they just want to be rid of it all, because you're better off dead than feeling, letting the grime and viality of the world, of their mind, cloud what is truely important. But I'll be damned if this song doesnt kick ass. Remember when I mentioned Tyler Durden in the last song synopsis? This feels like a narrators split personality, split emotions, speaking for themselves. I am reminded of One-One from infinity train, two "pure" emotions as one being, talking to each other, completly unable to see the others perspective on the matter. The more dirty side, the nihilism, the "vile"-ness, seeing the long way to "recovery" and love being pointless and not even worth the effort, but the humanity expressing that the long way is good, allowing the path to feeling to twist and turn in non-linear ways, as growth is never linear. The lyrics also present a key detail in an exposition sense, with "I’ve done it before so I know I can make it" signaling to me, that this thing has happened before, the narrator has loved, and lost, giving birth these "vile" thoughts and a tendency to shut off sprouting from it. But its been "a long way" since then, and the good has started to come out again, giving polarization and a second chance to feeling. "Nobodys perfect even the ones who fake it", Nobody grows on an easy path, you dont get to real, emotional, raw, love by simple means. The narrator knows the right path, but nihilism tends to make the wrong path look enticing when you have nothing to live for. Stopping the track for a second, you may have picked up on a story shift in 2 ways, the first being this love interest is almost completly null and void up until now, with the idea of them serving as a landscape for a battle in the narrators mind. The second shift being the greater emergance of a tangible 2 sides, with one being an open-ness to love and emotion, and the other being (say it with me) a "vile" side that wants to run away from it all. The narrator no longer serves as a single entity telling their story, but a tool for the emotions to speak through. Ive felt the feeling of being pulled in two by no one other than my mind before and while its never fun in the moment, when a side does win, a shift in my life tends to occur, and things start re-organizing themselves in my mental life. This, I feel, is the same thing the narrator is feeling while going through the emotions of the album. This coincidentally works nicely with the next song, "Goody Two Shoes", being a progression of the last, seeing the emotional side win out, while the nihilism taunts and jeers, though still maintaining its voice on the matter. "I don’t give a shit man" and "Skin over bones, destined to rot" being some of the words, out of the majority spoken from their end, intended to break the spirit of the emotions. Though the more kind side reiterates "This might be the time you make it, All the way home" (or at least that is how I feel it plays out). The two sides taking on a more "angel and devil on my shoulder" to the narrator rather than being the focal point of the story. Because while all of this inner turmoil occurs, the narrator is still out there, influenced and influencing, to try to reach the next goal in life. Did you know that bats are not blind? They actually have fairly standard vision for animals their size, and it is just due to their reliance on echolocation and nocturnal tendencies they get that stereotype! "Blind as a Bat" zooms out to the narrator, thank god, and wouldnt you know it, they are feeling some more emotions. Keeping it short and sweet, they see a girl/THE girl, and start feeling love again, saying "She looks real nice when she walks past me;Now I’m blind as bat nothing else I want to see". Taking the plunge, they take the chance to pursue, emotions, love especially, is scary, but whats the worst that can happen? Track 10. Track 10 is the worst that can happen. Picture youre watching a movie, this is the part where the main character fucks up in the worst way, maybe not by their own fault, but nonetheless theyre seeming back at square one, maybe even square negative three, and are giving up. It is no use crying out because theyre not real, but damn does it sure feel like they are. Track 10, "Run from the Good Things" can be interpreted in a couple different ways, though I will stick to my own interpretation. The narrator, our protaganist, decides to hell with nihilism and decides to make a move, but jokes on them, their heart gets broken. Lines like "The love you lost was yours to drain", "Never hear nobody ever say they’re on the upswing", and "Is the good life all filth and squalor", give a feeling of hoplessness and deppression. This isnt just apathy anymore, its a sadness. A sadness that a too-quick-to-love emotional side didn't stop to think about. It hits home. Stepping back from the lyrics, this is another one of my favorite tracks off the album. The sloppy beggining, the melodramatic vocal style, the downtempo stop-start drums, its nice. Especially if you don't pay attention to the lyrics, even though it's hard to. It is a thuroughly sad song, and it doesn't try to hide that, even though some could take its styling as sad, but hopeful. But only time will tell. "Chuck the toy, so you can fetch it" sums up this album nicely. "Banrupt (i hear it makes you smile)" is another fun song, with sad-ish lyrics. But while losing your emotional balance may make you feel like you have lost everything, you still have you. Your experiences, and your life. This song tells the tale of someone who, while they may be "emotionally bakrupt", it's best to try smile, and fetch the toy again. The next song, "Tragic Theif" continues this feeling, in the same dreamy piano chord soundscape, that "All the attitudes, they sway;But it’s unrealistic;Can’t change a sorry soul;From a moron to a mystic". You have to get better to be better, and while the journey may be hard, it is just that, a journey. The past few tracks have felt semi-repetitive, lyrically speaking, in a way that shows someone getting knocked down, but getting back up, with a faster pace each time. It feels like others have a type of magic when looking into their life from a sorry-past perspective. Questions like "How do you get to that point?", "How do I do the same?", and "Will it ever end" linger in the mind of the narrator (though I may be wrong as I am just going off context clues) as they carry on their life. We have ditched the themes of person to person love, person vs self, viality vs love, and person vs love, and now focus on a wanderer, searching through the swamp of life, hoping for the next answer. Though not all of these themes are left behind, with the cycle of the narrator battling their own desire to run and hide, forget about heartbreak and emotions, and just move on. "Psycho Fest" is, I feel, the narrator talking to that nihilism again, smaller in power but not in words, considering leaving it all behind, and being posed with the question, "Do you really think you could?". This story has almost reached its end, and now instead of a command from the self to leave, the emotions and nihilism swirl together to inquire if the narrator could ever regress that far back and leave it all behind. Track 14, "Pearl Of Eagleland", the final message in the tale of this heartbroken apathy inclined narrator. The saws of "Vile" make a return, aswell as as the faster pace and break drums. But something has changed, this narrator doesnt exist as the same person they once did, there is no one half or another, lifes journey has taken them through ups and downs, and while able to see corruption and greed all around them, it doesnt swallow them whole. "Everybody I know sings the fucking blues", everyone faces their own shit, and the narrator knows now that "They don’t know any better" these opposing forces are just "Another piece of meat". The old saying goes that "It is better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all." and that is excexuted perfectly on this project. "You can get sick, you can really hurl;Or you can break up soil and discover a pearl" are some of the last lines from the monologue-esq end before the final 4 lines are delivered, wrapping a neat bow on the story.
What does it all mean? It just means to keep living, and try to stay on the bright side. Shit gets rough. But that shouldnt keep you trapped in turmoil, In fact, it is the opposite. When things get rough, the only solution is to buckle up, and break through. Change comes from hardship, and while you may hate what is happening, you will learn to love the difference. Every song feels like a chronological narritive (at least in the way that I have put it), but something is learned from it all. And while the narrator doesnt have the power to go back to a past point in their life, we do. We can go back, and see the state and choices the narrator makes, made, and will make during this time of growth, and use that to take something of value. In writing this, I have come to love this album tenfold from when I started. It may seem on the surface like a fun group of songs, similar in some sonic and tonal elements, but it is so much more. It is a life lesson given piece by piece, and a story of hope and resilience to remember.
What does it all mean? It just means to keep living, and try to stay on the bright side. Shit gets rough. But that shouldnt keep you trapped in turmoil, In fact, it is the opposite. When things get rough, the only solution is to buckle up, and break through. Change comes from hardship, and while you may hate what is happening, you will learn to love the difference. Every song feels like a chronological narritive (at least in the way that I have put it), but something is learned from it all. And while the narrator doesnt have the power to go back to a past point in their life, we do. We can go back, and see the state and choices the narrator makes, made, and will make during this time of growth, and use that to take something of value. In writing this, I have come to love this album tenfold from when I started. It may seem on the surface like a fun group of songs, similar in some sonic and tonal elements, but it is so much more. It is a life lesson given piece by piece, and a story of hope and resilience to remember.
Rating:
I would rate this album 8.5 stars out of 10, due to its appealing soundscape, thought provoking lyrics, and beautiful journey. The only thing I would say I dislike would be some minor grievences with production choices, vocal styles, and a very repetitive similarity sound wise.
★★★★★★★★⯪☆