Gravel

The intro of the song. Unlike what instrumental intros usually are, Gravel is considerably long, it has an almost cinematic sound stuck in a single musical motif that goes in crescendo with a "spatiality" that manages to capture attention and immerse you in the general "mood" of the album.

Into the wind

Did you hear that? If you have the ablúm playing without stopping you may have realized that the Gravel audio continues with this one, as if the previous song had never stopped, this is what I meant by not breaking the immersion. The whole song feels like a preparation, the lyrics themselves imply that the situation is not the best and this has led to a feeling of alienation and disorientation, like going against the wind because it is the only place you can go.

The most interesting thing is that although during most of the song its energy only increases, it reaches a point where everything stabilizes again, the calm tone of the voice and the lyrics leave open a window of reflection... But it's too late, the calm that gravel had imposed has been broken and the next song will take advantage of this.

Running shoes

If the song-to-song connection wasn't obvious before, you should notice it now. The song is extremely aggressive from the beginning with contradictory lyrics, distorted vocals and a deep bass, the different vocal styles enrich each part of the song as if they were different perspectives of the same narrative, conflicting emotions.

Pay attention to the part that says:

"You see me walk out the door
Ice, freezing 'n' storms
Pray I make it home
Late a.m 'n' roads"

It'll be important later

Again, the song ends with a calm tone to transition to the next one.

Empty roads, she's beautiful

Remember that part in the last song? yup, it's the whole theme of this one. Even if the song reaches very energetic points, you can tell that it is going for a more personal and ambient sound.

The lyrics once again talk about being or entering an unknown environment but this time there is a girl who, figuratively or literally, seems beautiful but she doesn't want to see him.

The ending is quite special in this song because its almost completly instrumental and its atmosphere is so unique you could interpret it in a thousand different ways.

12 Gauge

well well, this song has much more than what meets the eye. For 80% of the song it is extremely aggressive and the lyrics are about how no matter how bad her clothes are, this girl from the previous song always borrows them, to the point of having already tried everything in her wardrobe. This may be one of those situations in which someone places their emotional justification on something relatively insignificant, it's not about the clothes, it's about what it symbolizes, that "toxic" attachment and a heavy memory.

The twist that the song takes and that allows the previous interpretation to be made is one of the best plot executions that I have heard in a song for the simplicity that it has. He says that he has woken up and dreamed of her next to him, that he tried to go back to sleep to have her again and couldn't, it clearly indicates that he has not let her go and that he cannot return to his dream, he is aware that this is not ok and overthinks what he is doing.

So far the album had only generated loose sensations without any apparent explanation or greater depth, but this song gives meaning and support to what was previously heard.

Blinded by the sun

The lyrics of this song are completely direct, no interpretations, just pure anger and frustration over what happened. It implies how terribly badly that relationship he had with that girl ended and how much it affected him, he tries to move on but for some reason that girl keeps appearing in his life preventing him from doing so.

Getting to the end when he says:

"Why'd you make it worse than it had to be?
Only if you knew how I felt right then
When I see your name, I barely can breathe
Might as well just consider me a wretch"

You can see that in the end what has more than anger is great sadness and disappointment at how things ended thanks to her.

With the last stanza he makes clear his complete inability to move forward, seeing as the only way to be happy to have her in his dreams.

Paranoid

The last song and personally my favorite; Here the narrative of the album closes with an atmosphere and lyrics that show what would be one of the many dreams he would have with the girl, only this time it is different, heylog seems to be already too aware of his situation and this affects what happens in his dreams, things are not normal and he feels judged by some higher entity that he calls god, he feels that he should not be there but instead of going out he hides, thus making a comparison with Adam and Eve who after the sin they hid so as not to be expelled from paradise.

For me, this is the perfect closing to the album. Each song masterfully composed and tuned to deliver its message effectively. I must also say that the production and quality never drops throughout the album which keeps you strongly focused on its narrative.

Finally I want to say that the language of this album allows a very free interpretation of its content, so everything said in this review is completely subjective. In case it wasn't obvious, feel free to draw your own conclusions from this great piece.