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hamofjustice · 1 year ago

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very slight teal mask and indigo disc story spoilers (the kind that'll probably help decide if you want them or not instead of ruin it for you, probably?) and very long commentary about it. mostly about how they've chosen to advertise it

gonna hit you with my longest run-on sentence yet, here we go.

the fact that we had to datamine the teal mask, a DLC whose only returning character is jacq and does not add a line to or scene of anyone else (well, mentions of heath and clavell, i guess?) due to being available to do at any badge count, the fact that we had to dig and pry in unintended ways, just to finally prove that our implied greatest treasures nemona arven and penny would at least be available to hang out with in the indigo disc...

with no new images footage or mentions of the friend trio of in any of the six months since the DLCs were announced, and ten months after these kids opened their hearts and dorm rooms to us, saying we could hang out any time from now on, and turned out to be statues with one line of dialogue after we had already gone on an adventure with them following us around, helping us in battle, and getting to know each other as we walked, and our rival promised to keep up with our strength forever, then never got any stronger...

and now, in the narrative's timeline, we run off to another country to transfer away from our rival for life's school to one she would fit into perfectly the MOMENT she opens up to us about her problems and how she's so much happier now that we're the first person she can actually connect with and be herself around, and shows clear signs of worry that you're going to leave if she doesn't make you promise not to...

and also shortly after Arven became effectively a high school orphan, who's still treated as kind of a butt monkey dumbass for some reason, when he was putting everything he had into researching how to save his dog, his only dependable family, instead of going to class (i guess he's not telling anybody what he's going through, as usual with these kids)...

because TPC did not think these characters being present in the second DLC in any form and not actually having their newfound, hard-earned sense of belonging ruined by the basic premise of said transfer-student DLC was worth advertising at any point, and only showed off gym leaders Katy and Kofu... and that was only if you even bothered to look at the website to notice the feature at all, because hanging out with, battling, and trading with all of the past characters who aren't present in Paldea anymore is now actually a feature, but wasn't in the trailer...

is fucking mind boggling to me.

why is it a secret that they're in the DLC. why would they not just. tell people that as soon as they revealed the DLC. why is it still supposed to be a secret now, half a year later. why weren't they in the first half. why did they not think we'd be worried that they aren't in the second half.

silly me, why would you want to advertise giving people more of the story and main plot-driving characters, the main thing people defend the rushed game for, or that they might get some resolution, or reassure them that the vaguely happy ending to their sad stories isn't going to be ruined like they've implied it will be? that'd be silly. the only way anyone is going to find that out is through hacking

but at least we were finally able to pry that basic fucking information out of them against their will, the only thing I wanted to know about the DLC before I'd buy it, because they left in placeholder stubs for it by accident. oops. wouldn't want to tell people who were on the fence about getting the DLC this information on purpose or anything. need to keep it a secret

we were able to confirm through our own digging that nemona (and many others) are at least allowed to hang out with us, but the thing that would make both her as a character and me as a Pokemon player happier than we've ever been is if she actually got to enroll with us. why wouldn't she go, right? what do a school and society that don't respect her and an empty home where her parents should be have to offer, compared to living her dream with her favorite person, surrounded by people just like her? who can stop a champion from going wherever she wants? but for that to be the case, one of the "club rooms" we found references to would have to be hers. only us kieran and carmine clearly have what are marked as dorm room objects.

i'm glad we're getting what we're getting, but it's still no guarantee that nemona arven and penny will continue to be important to the story that they were the driving forces of, or get the true resolutions and healthier happy endings that they deserve, or that our "true equal" will ever be any stronger or more important to our character than our home ec teacher, or that they'll ever actually get to be a friend group on screen without life or death situations or harrowing grief being involved

oops! accidentally wrote decent character arcs and relationships in a pokemon game! they're going to spend time together in the postgame! abort abort abort quick shove them off into different countries before they hug

okay that's just me being cynical, they will almost certainly be important to the story, but... TPC has the power to make me not cynical and they keep choosing not to do that. but they do keep making really sappy recap videos using previous cutscene footage, like this attachment and uncertainty is something they're milking on purpose

maybe stringing people along with how much they miss the funny, cute, loving, strong characters, or are worried about these three lonely and isolated kids dealing with parental neglect, ptsd and self loathing, autism and motor impairments, identity issues, and more, whose problems are clearly not resolved yet if they can be at all, will... help sell more plushies and gacha pulls, and get people consuming more spinoffs, or something? idk, maybe

love to stop and helplessly gaze upon penny's depression pile every day before i go do tera raids / link battles with strangers (i don't actually do this but i might if poke portal worked indoors)

that all being said! it's pretty damn cool that hanging out with NPCs in a meaningful way and staging selfies with them and stuff is actually a game feature at all. that much is reassuring. it's a step in the right direction considering 90% of pokemon gameplay for a lot of people takes place after the credits roll and everyone normally despawns or becomes a one liner / repeating boss fight statue, or maybe if you're lucky a Multi Battle partner. it was just implied this game would be different, is all. i just don't know why they've chosen to string their audience along this way. wanting to have friends shouldn't throw up a $35 tollgate right as you go to talk to them that takes a year to open, and over six months to find out if it'll kill them when it opens.

i'd like to see pokemon postgame feel more like an animal crossing life sim type game in the future, personally, and this feature is a step toward that. i'd love if it one of your rewards for completing indigo disc was being able to take anyone you like as a follower as you go about your business and have them get on miraidon/koraidon with you as needed so your movement isn't impeded by it, even if there was no dialogue for it or anything. it's 2023, i shouldn't have to imagine something happening in a video game, or have to fill in my own fanfic to make a story satisfying, it should just be happening, on the screen. dammit. having a follower that goes with you everywhere even if you drive or have a following pokemon already was a feature in teal mask, so why not utilize it permanently?

(is the obvious player arven nemona penny 4v1 battle being saved for the final boss or something, is that why tera raids with them aren't a thing you can just do normally?)

Long story short: The basic transfer-student premise of The Indigo Disc implies that we ruin Nemona's happy ending and rub the one she really wants in her face to go enjoy it with Carmine instead for being more marketable, and I don't think they're even aware of why that would be a problem. Why have we not been reassured to the contrary in the last 6 months? I think a lot of us are waiting for this DLC anxiously instead of eagerly, especially after the first half.

#pokemon sv #pokemon #pokemon scarlet and violet #pokemon scarvio #nemona #trainer nemona #arven #trainer arven #penny pokemon #trainer penny #nemonaposting #arvenposting #pennyposting #the teal mask #the indigo disk

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applepiesandalibis · 1 year ago

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My God Bless Your Black Heart (by The pAper chAse) analysis/interpretation/I'm not very sure how to call it

General content warning: lots of dark stuff like murder, suicide, death in general, abuse, sexual and religious themes. Pretty sure this will be a loooong post

Please keep in mind that it's mostly just *my* personal thoughts and views on this record and the story it tells. I will go into some details about other possible interpretations though, but it's not something I will be mainly focusing on, as I'm writing this to connect it with my original characters based on this album. I got a lot of things I'll mention here are from genius.com (my beloved) annotations, so keep that in mind too, not all of these are my original thoughts, but of course I will mostly focus on them.

OH AND ALSO, English is not my native language, so excuse any dumb mistakes of mine if I didn't notice them...

Alright, let's start :)

1. Said the Spider to the Fly

The first thing we see before the actual lyrics start is "Entry number one, I still hear the boots in the hallway". GBYBH is divided by five of these "entries", we'll get back to them soon. The line itself is a reference to I Did a Terrible Thing from the band's previous album, Hide the Kitchen Knives, where an almost identical line can be heard ("I hear the boots in the hallway again"), so we can assume, that this album is a direct continuation of HTKK.

Also, in the official lyrics the song seems to have two separate parts: words that are being said by the "Spider" (from the first line) and the ones that belong to the "Fly" (from "So if I fight a good fight" until the end). I don't have anything to say about this and the exact thought behind this, but I guess it's pretty obvious that this is our first introduction to our main characters (who appear to be a straight couple with very complicated relationships). I'm also pretty sure that the chorus is sang by neither of them, but by some third person.

Alright, let's talk about the song itself. It has a looot of references to Jeffrey Dahmer and even uses a sample from his trial, though it was proven by John Congleton himself that it's not directly about this individual. He's being used as a metaphor for someone/something else. It's not uncommon for TPC to reference serial killers and other criminals in their stuff. It was done on their previous records and will also be done on the later ones.

In this song we hear the phrase "God bless your heart" for the first time. It will appear again several times throughout the album. The interesting thing is: this phrase could be used both as an insult and as a genuine expression of sympathy. Again, I'll go into some deeper detail about this later.

In general, I think this track works as some kind of foreshadowing to the next ones, especially the chorus. One of the main ideas this album explores is people not sinning just because they want to go to heaven or deserve some "prize".

Okay, it's not a very interesting song to analyze (I still absolutely love it, though, don't get me wrong!), so let's move on.

2. One Day He Went Out for Milk and Never Came Home

In the lyrics before this track we see "Entry number two, at one point I had the time... now time has me". I don't think this worth commenting?

This song gives us a more clear view on what the characters' relationships are like. The main character seems to be abusive towards his partner, judging by the next lyrics. "Your smoke alarms and barred windows / Can't save your house, God burn your soul" could mean that the victim (A.K.A. his partner) cannot escape from him, he also promises to "never let [her] die", which could, again, mean the unwillingness to let her go. "Is my dinner in the oven? / Lovebird, you haven't touched your bread" may be about the protagonist only caring about her serving him (cooking for him, etc.) even if she will literally starve because of it or lose interest in her own life to the point that she refuses to eat.

Then, we are exposed to the way our protagonist manipulates his victim and calls her various cute nicknames, to make her believe he loves her:

My tender jewel, my precious pearl / My ruby red, my diamond girl

"I'll never touch a hair on your pretty head" may be about the same thing — him denying that he is abusive towards his girlfriend/wife.

This song contains some references to the previous one ("I want your heart, I want your head") and one of the next ones ("The sinking ship, the grand applause", which is the name of another song).

There's also some religious things: for example, "Do you want to go to heaven?" being repeated several times. And the song ends with a bunch of lines from The Tibetan Book Of Living And Dying.

3. What I'd Be Without Me

We are witnessing the protagonist writing something in his diary — it can be taken both as a metaphor and/or literally. It also explains the "entries" we see throughout the album.

There's a line that says "My sweet body will turn on me", which could be one of many lyrics about a body (or, more specifically, hands) not being fully controlled with one's mind in The Paper Chase's discography. That was a common theme in Congleton's songs, I'll link the genius annotation here if you want to read more about it, I'm not really good at explanations. This could mean that our protagonist can't control himself, he makes big mistakes because of this and they look like awful ink spots on a white paper in his "diary". Maybe I'm going too deep into this, I don't know, that's just an assumption.

The main character starts to think about "what girls and boys want/need", and basically about the relationships between a man and a woman.

Then, the first name on this album is mentioned — Abeline, or Abby (it would make sense if you assume both names belong to her. I'm sure you can make a different interpretation as well, where they are two separate people, but let's just go with it). The protagonist tells her to "not forget what she'll be without him", so yeah, he's being a manipulative asshole again, I guess.

Let's move to the next song on this note.

4. The Sinking Ship, The Grand Applause

One of my favorite songs on this album. And it's very interesting to analyze!

Let's start with a little fact I found out about recently while googling this song: there's a Gotham episode that was possibly named after it! I'm not familiar with this series, but from what I've heard, it's not uncommon for its episodes to be named after songs, so yeah, I just think it's really nice. :)

Now, about the track itself.

The lyrics start with "Entry number three, I've come to the conclusion that I am not in fact a messiah after all". Pretty self-explanatory, I guess, especially after you listen to the song. John has also said that it's kinda autobiographical. In general, it's just about realizing that the world doesn't revolve around you.

Grandfather burned up to ash and returned to the earth it spawned / This nefarious prank that's controlled by the lengths of his arms / And the kindred is gathering by coffin and chaplain on his behalf / And [a] discreet tender man clears his throat, waves his hand following a laugh

This appears to be about a funeral of some old man ("grandfather"). We'll talk about him later.

The next verse goes like this:

Like a fat baby's birth, like a cry and a curse at the breathing space / While the mother rejoices, ten fingers, ten toes, and a handsome face / And the family is gasping, each one can't help asking «How was it, my dear?» / Like a scorn for the one that was torn and deformed for the next cruel years, next cruel years

Obviously, some woman has just given birth to a child. Her and her family are celebrating and all of them are glad that the child is "normal". Meanwhile, somewhere else there is also the one who isn't — the one who will remain "torn and deformed for the next cruel years", which can refer to either physical or mental condition of this person. And I'm pretty sure it's about our main character again: he is that one child who was born "wrong" and can't do anything about it. He couldn't live normally because of something that wasn't accepted by society and that probably traumatised him and not getting help resulted in him becoming a terrible person he is. The first child could be literally anyone, probably even Abby herself, which could also explain why is he so abusive towards her — he simply envies her.

So I'll cut you all open, I'll see what's inside you or what's missing / While this virgin, your daughter, skirt down in the altar - she don't owe you a God damn thing / 'Cause she's gorgeous, I'll take her to the house by the lake where I'll write her a song / While you fat pigs with call-girls, they dance in the ballrooms shaking their wallets at God / And the notes fill the pages, I scramble to paste up my bleeding heart / And this sick song moves on, if you're lucky lifelong you can sing a part as it falls apart

Okay. I have a lot to say about this one.

These lyrics can be interpreted in many ways, depending on who you consider the "daughter" to be — Abby or someone else. In the first case the line is about the past, when her and protagonist just met and were genuinely in love with each other. However, if you see this as some other character — it's most likely about the protagonist cheating on Abby with someone who he will be truly happy with.

Anyway, in both of these cases it's clear that the "daughter" is not like her father, who seems to be hated by the main character for being one of the wealthy greedy people who, again, believe in god just so they can get something from him, all they do is "shake their wallets" at him. The protagonist has already expessed his hatred towards this type of people, but here we can see it perfectly. Actually, this phrase can also be referring to the "call-girls", so they're the ones shaking wallets at god. Anyway, you get what it's criticizing. Also, the theme of some guy saving a girl he loves from the hands of her awful abusive father can be seen in some other TPC songs: for example, At The Other End of The Leash is most likely about it, and there are some other songs where it's mentioned as well.

So, in both of those scenarios it starts as pure and innocent love, but soon we'll see that everything is ruined.

The last two lines, as well as the "And the band plays on" that we can hear several times throughout the song tell us that life is... kinda cruel. When someone's suffering or dying it's a tragedy just for this person and, maybe, for the ones who know them — everyone else on this planet doesn't care. Because they simply don't know about it. And the one who's suffering don't care about the people they don't know. The band will keep playing, some people will keep celebrating their happiness while someone else is experiencing horrible things. That's just how life is. You don't really matter. No one does. But maybe it's for the best.

And, well, our protagonist is the one who is not the part of this "orchestra", so he has to listen to their awfully festive melodies that feel absolutely wrong for him.

Okay, feels like I got too serious... Next one!

5. Piggy's Had Too Much Wine

One of the sample/"divider" tracks on the album. Don't have that much to say about it, honestly.

We can hear someone talking about loneliness and there's also a line that says "you're 60 years old" — in this context can be easily seen as "you're running out of time", "you're going to die soon", etc.

Well, I'm pretty sure the main character is somewhere in his 20s, but it can still be about him being scared of getting older and dying alone.

I couldn't find any information on where this sample comes from, though.

The song ends with "Get rid of 'em"...

6. Ready, Willing, Cain and Able

...and in the next one we hear the following:

See, but once you bury somebody, it was already gone. Once they were in the ground, they weren't my problem.

Something I really like in TPC songs is the way they're connected between each other: a sample starting in one song and continuing in the other, like here, is a good example of this. That's why I always recommend listening to their albums in the correct order.

This sample itself comes from an interview with John Wayne Gacy, an infamous serial killer. As I've said before, it's not an uncommon thing for the band to use samples of criminals, especially serial killers. That can also be seen comparing one or some of the characters to such people.

This song has an interesting name: it's a word play that combines a story about Cain and Abel (a religious reference once again) and most likely the name of a 1937 movie "Ready, Willing and Able". I've never watched that movie, so I really can't say anything about it and if there are any references to it in the song.

A line I'd like to mention is "I'm 26 and running out of time". According to John Congleton, it is, again, pretty much autobiographical and he really was 26 at the time when he wrote it, but it can also be about the main character. The fear of getting older and dying before you make something meaningful has been already expressed a bunch of times in previous tracks (and will also be expressed on the band's next record, Now You Are One Of Us, just in a bit different way. I'll probably write about that album too someday!)

The rest of the lyrics contains the narrator being critical of religion (once again) and a lot of what can be easily seen as threats. "They're coming for you" can be read in different ways:

1) It's something the main character says to his victim (whoever that victim is. Could be Abby's abusive father who is being killed by the protagonist, or someone she cheated on him with, or someone completely different, you can imagine basically anything here), meaning that he and "his guys", or something like that, are coming to kill that person;

2) It's the protagonist thinking about how someone is coming for him after what he did.

But yeah, in these two interpretations it's clear that he murdered someone he really hated and now is suffering because of guilt/paranoia/whatever.

3) The protagonist never killed anyone, but still did something that led him to being threatened by some evil guys. So, in this case the song is not from his perspective, it's some other person or group of people.

Anyway, the song ends with "Yes, a war is coming", which is a sample from a 1988 movie called Talk Radio. And also... Bingo! The name of a track that will appear on this album soon. It possibly means that some kind of "war" between our main character and whoever the second side is has started.

7. Now, We Just Slowly Circle the Draining Fish Bowl

This one starts with "I'll come back from the war", which could means that it has already ended or it's just the main character imagining what will happen after. The whole verse goes like this:

I'll come back from the war / But everything I'll touch seems to break / And I won't be the same man / I won't be the same man you knew / And I was somewhat tickled by your gauge / Of your ticker tape parade / Now you know and you know that I know / We could dance all night here on their graves / God bless our black souls

Let's keep assuming that "war" means whatever happened in the previous song, with the MC finally escaping/getting rid of whoever threatened him. The protagonist is being compared to a soldier, who comes back from the war, but can't live the same anymore and can't bring himself to care about all the parades thrown to honor him. This metaphor can seem kinda weird, especially considering that the MC is not a "hero" and he shouldn't be compared to people who risk their lives at war, but still, for him it was a war, his own battle that he won.

Also, regarding the last lines: it's clear that he's saying them to someone he loves, but it's most likely that this time his feelings are genuine, so he either has changed his mind about Abby (and it wouldn't be the last time he does so), or he's simply refering to the second woman, who he truly loves.

Later, the protagonist starts to wish himself all kinds of bad things ("Hope I choke, hope I stroke, catch the flu"), probably regretting what he did and hating himself.

Wife resents kids that fuck in your room / When we laugh, we’ll be laughing at you / When you circle your draining fish bowl / Sell your house, sell your car, sell your soul / Spend your whole life just praying to spend your life

Finally, those lines imply that he keeps wasting his life by spending it with a family he hates and thinking he'll never feel happy again. That's why he seeks love somewhere else, escaping his tragic reality and building a new relationship without his wife and kid(s) knowing about it, or simply spending time with women he barely knows. Maybe, family life wasn't made for him at all, but it was way too late when he realized it. That's pretty sad.

8. A War Is Coming

Entry number four, welcome home Henry. So table for one, is it?

Wow! A name! Who is Henry, you may ask? Pretty sure that's the name of our protagonist (and now I can finally stop referring to him that way). You'll get why I think so later, this isn't the last mention of this name on the album.

So, Henry is being welcomed by someone in a restaurant or some place like that. He probably visits it very often, so it starts to feel like home. Maybe even like his real home.

The track itself is simply just a repeating of various common sayings with the word "heart" — including "God bless your black heart", which is the name of the album (in case you forgot).

What does a heart usually symbolize? That's right — love and feelings. So, for me this track is a representation of Henry's feelings. It sounds extremely chaotic, and so are they. We can imagine that emotions have always been a hard thing for him to deal with and it seems like it simply drives him insane when there's too many of them.

Now, another question: why is it called A War Is Coming if we decided that the last track was about the main character already coming back from his "war"? I don't really know. But probably it's about how he still has to go through the hardest battle — the inner one. He has to deal with his feelings and maybe... forgive himself... Um, I'll get back to this later.

Well, at least that's how I see it, but maybe I'm thinking too much yet again.

9. Your Ankles to Your Earlobes

This song is basically about Henry running away after all of the shit he had done.

So Abby, it's far too late for me / I left a notebook on the shelf / Just take the keys, just save yourself / My little Abby, and soon they'll come for me / Just tell my son that I'm sorry / I'll disappear, you now are free

He leaves Abeline alone and asks her to give his apologies to their son. It feels like in this song his words actually mean something. Like, he seems more genuine, probably he's truly sorry about the terrible thing(s) he have commited and that is the reason he's leaving now. It is possible that he will be murdered by someone as a "punishment" for whatever he did — or just simply will end up in prison — so, obviously, he doesn't want his family to know about it and everything he can do is just leave them. You start appreciating something more after losing it, so that's probably the case here too and that's why he finally starts to care about those people.

And Abby, it's far too late for me / I left a checkbook on the shelf / Just take the keys, just save yourself / My little Abby, I hope you die laughing / All fat and cheeky in your warm bed / The raven, the vulture won't circle your head / My sweet queen bee, I hope it comes quickly / I hope your thoughts don't drift to me / I'll die in here, you now are free

Why is she dying? Of course these words could have a literal meaning, but very unlikely, so let's not focus on that. Remember the songs we discussed earlier — I think it's because she simply can't live without him. If Henry will leave or (god forbid!) die, her life would be absolutely ruined. So, even when he seems more "kind" in this song, he's still himself and still can't bring himself to care about Abby more than about his own life. He still has chances to get away and live happily with a new family (if we look at some of the next songs, seems like it's actually what happened then), but Abby will suffer. And Henry knows that. What a bastard, am I right?

This verse also really contrasts with the second song, where the protagonist promised he would never let her die.

10. Let's Be Bad, Henry, Let's Be Really Bad

(As if he wasn't bad enough already, huh)

Oh, what a song. Okay, so it starts with:

Henry, tell your wife everything / Henry, put your bible under your hand/head / Henry, bite your lip if she says / "Do you love me? Do you love me?"

Someone (or something) is convincing him to come back to his wife until it's too late and, considering the bible being mentioned, even confess all his sins and pray to be forgiven. Sounds interesting, if you remember his disgust towards religion that has been expressed many times before.

The "voice" that tells it is most likely his own inner voice. Deep down he knows that what he did was incredibly wrong and he should at least try to accept it and ask for forgiveness (even if he doesn't deserve it).

Wife bedside, she's in heaven right now / A voice from the ground / Come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me / Wife bedside, the good son says his goodbye / A voice from pine box / Come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me

Feels like he's also very much paranoid about this whole thing. He can "hear" the voices of his, probably now deceased, wife and child. And they're inviting him to come with them. Obviously, the "pine box" here is a coffin, so they want him to be dead, just like them. It doesn't matter if it's about literal death or it's a simple metaphor to "feeling" dead, it's clear that they want him to suffer like they did. Or at least that's what he thinks.

The girls you got inside? Tell me every time you tried / Tell me everything / Come to me, come to me, come to me

Also pretty obvious, but this is about him cheating/having one-night relationships with sex workers. Henry probably thinks Abeline will also find out about that soon and the shame he feels makes him want to "come to her" even more.

I think it's *also* worth mentioning that there's a little instrumental sample that repeats a melody from Your Ankles to Your Earlobes, one of the next songs. Love how literally everything on this album is so beautifully connected.

There's really not much to say about this track as it's pretty self-explanatory, but I adore the atmosphere it creates. It's so heartbreakingly sad and you can really feel every emotion that the narrator goes through, so even if you think he's a terrible being (which is a very valid point) you can still kinda symphatize with him here. One of my favorites, not only on this record, but in the whole TPC discography!

11. Now You're Gonna Get It

That's funny how in this song it seems like Henry lost all of his good feelings to Abby again. He probably have changed his mind about her a hundred times by now. My guy has some terrible mood swings, or whatever even is that... Seriously, this could be a result of untreated mental ilness(es), because it's pretty clear that he's not mentally stable (and I really doubt Abby is).

Well, the song starts with:

Are you planning your escape? / Are you crumbling for the evening when I'm asleep and you're awake? / I swear to God, I'll take it to the grave / Are you planning your escape?

This could be Henry saying this to Abby, or vice versa, or it's from someone else's perspective, I don't know. This verse can have a lot of different interpretations, so it's up to you to decide which one you like.

The phrase "She's a wonderful actress" can be heard a bunch of times in this song. Of course it's our poor little angel Henry once again saying that Abeline just manipulates him by playing a victim! But wait, when did we decide that she was absolutely innocent?

Okay, I'm not gonna do any kind of victimblaiming here, but I'm trying to say that we never got to hear the full story. Maybe both of them are abusive and these relationships are harmful for both sides? That could be the case, considering human sins being the main theme of this album. None of the characters mentioned here are "good".

Honestly, no idea what to say about the rest of the lyrics. Again, this song doesn't have only one "correct" interpretation, so I'd like to stop here. Though it's clear that the song is about hatred and abuse, once again. Just listen to this song and imagine your own story based on it, I think that would be even more interesting than just reading me reciting every single variation that can be seen here.

One more thing: there is a sample that says:

Tired of your suffering, tired of your having pain, tired of your being misunderstood".

This comes from Funeral Eulogy For Elder Marguerite McClain (Excerpt), which is the first track from Dancing With The Dead: The Music Of Global Death Rites. The sample is probably completely out of context, so here it can easily be read in the same hateful nature, and that's why it suits the rest of the song very well.

12. Abby, Your Going to Burn for What You've Done to Me

As we can see from the name, Henry just keeps blaming his beloved wife in everything for reasons that will not be revealed to us for the rest of the album.

The track itself also contains a sample from that exact source I mentioned just a minute ago. This time it says the following:

Better off as a result of having died, glory to God, and we all too must die one day. But the thing about it is, will you be ready?

Then it's just some slightly changed lyrics from One Day He Went Out for Milk...

Alright, so Nobody_of_any_importance on Genius made this annotation that I'd really like to share because it's so well written:

The album enters its final stages, beginning with this reprise of “One Day He Went Out For Milk And Never Came Home.” However, whereas before there was fire and brimstone, now there is quiet resignation in its place.

I really can't think of anything that could describe this track and this album better, so credits to this person! By the way, they have done a lot for the TPC fandom in general which I think is very cool.

Although the exact details of what occurred across the prior tracks of this album are open to interpretation, there were certainly a lot of bad people who did a lot bad things. From this point on, the album’s tone shifts radically from vengeance and rage towards themes of guilt, remorse, and fear of God’s judgement as they relate to the terrible things that the narrator has done over the course of the album.

13. Your Pretty Little Head

We're being meet with a melody from The Sinking Ship, The Grand Applause, and a sample from The Green Mile (1999), which simply says "I hope it hurts like hell" and which was also used in The Sinking Ship... (but I did not mention that before for some reason).

Then there's yet another sample from Funeral Eulogy For Elder Marguerite McClain. This one says:

If there's any out there today that have not made preparation for this final day, now is the acceptable time. You don't know what tomorrow is gonna bring. Will you be ready? Will you be ready? Will you be ready? Will you be ready? I'm like you, I hate to give her up, we just hate to give her up, but we've got to give her up. Will you be ready? Will you be ready?

Okay. Don't you dare thinking I'm just being lazy to write my own thoughts, I still have a lot to say, but let me just paste one more annotation by the same user:

Following an album full of madness, vengeance, and murder, the narrator is seemingly overcome with guilt and regret. There is nothing left for him now, except to contend with the idea that there may be an afterlife and a god to whom he will ultimately have to answer (hence the sampled pastor talking about making preparations for “this final day”).

Also, I think that the name of this song could be, once again, a reference to the second track. Don't you think it's being referenced too many times? Hm? But that might be just a stretch.

Now, we're heading to our most important part...

14. Dying With Decent Music

We're being met with "Entry number five, you now are free" (which was also a line used in Your Ankles to Your Earlobes btw).

And the final song begins.

Well, maybe better you than me / You're much weaker, you're more clumsy / When I forfeit my patience to you / So maybe you've had too much wine

For me this sounds like Henry trying to accept that he is the bad one here. Again.

"Maybe you've had too much wine" is possibly him trying to find an excuse for Abby's behavior that he (for whatever reason) hated so much while they were living together. It also references track 5 which is called Piggy's Had Too Much Wine. Or vice versa, it was named after this line.

We can see him once again confirming that he spent a lot of his time with prostitutes: the song contains lyrics like "...ankles swell up as my lady works the room" and "Oh my hostess, oh my pick up, oh my dreadful… my white slave" (all of these words can be used for sex workers).

"Let them die while some decent music plays" probably refers to... Well, everyone Henry knew in his life. While having sex with some lady and really enjoying it, he's thinking about wanting to let all of them go ("die"), stay with this woman forever, keep pleasing himself and finally become free.

When the shit shoe stumble, that's me, dirty nails and awful thoughts / I'll use the words used up on commercials / Like such sharp boys like to write songs, music, and quick lines / This feeling, I can't confine that to a rhyme / But maybe I can, if I see you on the other side

The "shit shoe" can be a different way to say "shit heel", which is simply used to describe "a contemptible person". The alternate version of this line, heard in one of the band's live perfomances is "When the shit shoe stumble, that's me, scratching nails outside your box". Again, the "box" here means coffin and probably implies him trying to reach out to Abby, even if she's already "dead" (at least to him).

Henry tries to use pretty words to describe his feelings, but fails: he wasn't made for it, he's not one of those poets/songwriters and everything he's going to say will sound awful. Just like him.

I really like how this verse uses an unidentified (as far as I know) sample of a woman screaming and it's being used as a part of the instrumental. It fits in this part so well you barely pay attention to it, but then it ends right when John says the word "rhyme" and it creates such a great feeling. I can't even explain it, but I think you'll get it if you listen. They also did almost the same thing in the chorus of Said the Spider to the Fly.

And that's not the only thing that connects these two tracks. Once again, probably a big big stretch, but it came to my head that this can be linked to "You'll never have to find the words, they come spilling unrehearsed / But you and I will never find that peace" — a line from the first song.

Also think it worth mentioning that "lines", "rhyme" and "side" do rhyme pretty well. And that's probably intentional.

So, our narrator is dying, or probably even killing himself — this theory is supported by the fact that John Congleton used to mime a rope around his neck in several live performances of this song. This also looks like a little foreshadowing to their next album, Now You Are One Of Us, which has a hanged man on its cover, but I'm 99% sure that's not the case. Just a silly thing I thought about.

Henry wants to reconnect with one of the women mentioned on the album after his death, so they can finally be together, in peace. Though it's not entirely clear if he believes in afterlife (that's why it's "if I see you on the other side"). I think it's about his wife, because she's the one who "died" and earlier on this track he finally forgave her.

The track is coming to its end with Mr. Congleton tragically screaming "I will be free" for a couple of times while the most amazing instrumental you will ever hear in your entire life is playing. If this part doesn't make you incredibly emotional and you don't think it's absolutely beautiful, then... Well, I strongly disagree with you.

We can hear one last sample from The Tibetan Book Of Living And Dying :

What is born will die / What has been gathered will be dispersed /What has been accumulated will be exhausted / What has been built up will collapse / And what has been high will be brought low

And then... footsteps. You may remember the first entry which also mentioned them ("the boots in the hallway"). My favorite part about this is actually the fact that in Said the Spider... there's the sound of footsteps at the very beggining and in this track it's at the end, so the album can loop perfectly.

Now, what does all of this mean?

Hm. Maybe, the main character is in his own personal hell now, and the loop is the way to tell us that he will suffer forever, even after his death, so he can finally pay for his sins. Or maybe he didn't die at all — it was just a metaphor, the way to show us the chaos going on in his sick head. Maybe nothing was real? Maybe some of these things never happened? I don't think this "Henry" guy is a very reliable narrator, so who knows.

We're not supposed to know. We can only guess.

And that's what I find so amazing about this album: it can have a million different interpretations. You can see it as a totally different story rather than what I wrote here. Or maybe you don't see a story with some plot and characters here at all, and for you it's just the artist's thoughts and feelings being presented this way. It's up to you to decide.

For me, God Bless Your Black Heart is one of the greatest albums ever made (sorry for sounding dramatic, but really). There's just SO many little details and references you can think about, it almost makes my little brain explode. It hurts to see it being so underrated. If you never listened to The pAper chAse before but somehow got to this point of my hilariously long essay and you're interested — please do. You won't regret it.

And, well, reblogs are incredibly appreciated. I spent A LOT of time on this (for a bunch of different reasons), so of course I want this post to reach... at least someone, lol. Also, if you have anything to add — it's always welcomed. I'd really love to hear your thoughts! :)

Thank you for reading!!!

UPD 9/12/2024: I came back to this post after a year because I am writing the same thing for Now You Are One Of Us right now and noticed a couple of mistakes/little things that I now think were unnecessary, so I got rid of them. Didn't make any big changes (even though I have some things to add — my interpretation has changed a bit after writing this — they are just less important than what I've already written here), but I still think it's worth mentioning. Just in case someone reads this.

#my posts #the paper chase #john congleton #god bless your black heart #album analysis

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