Manchester Orchestra - A Black Mile to the Surface (July 28, 2017) Album • Page 237

This is what I think the narrative is. I know some songs weren't written with the narrative in mind, but I feel like it crafts perfectly into what the album is about so I sort of adopted them into my experience. All of this could be wrong, it's just my personal observations.

First off, the album starts off with "The Maze", which is a song about Andy's daughter, Mayzie. This is important, as the last few lines of the closer are also about Andy's relationship with Mayzie.

The narrative starts with "The Gold", it's the prelude to all of the events of the record. It is the beginning of the divorce of the narrator's parents. The father, obsessed with finding better conditions for the family, keeps going at the mine in hopes to find gold. He is never around anymore. This leads to the events of The Moth, with an interesting dynamic on the lyric "Obsessing with the light". It's cleverly religious, but I interpret it as the father obsessing with the light of a better life. He keeps going to the mine every single day, telling himself there's "a way out" and he's not really obsessed. But it's contrary; him accepting this routine is really a way in.

Fast forward a bit, The father cuts off or damages the ear of his child in drunken anger, as hinted in The Alien, probably fighting with the spouse and taking it out on the child. The kid gets bullied at school. The kid deals with the trauma of divorce. Life is hell. I also think this is where the "bury me with metonymy" line comes from, and I think it could be about how the kid just happens to call the guy who caused his existence his "father". The whole song feels like a track about resentment and the changes of divorce. "Force myself to take a different name" could possibly be about being disgusted at sharing a last name with his father.

There are actually two incidents of suicide attempts going on in the album. The first one is the events of the grocery. The kid, (not sure how old he actually is now), goes into the grocery, at first wanting to take it out on other people ("'Don't you dare move a muscle', cardboard cut out ads"), but he reaches his breaking point, shooting several rounds at nothing and caves in, lies on the floor, and asks himself the final question on whether he should kill himself or not. As he repeats "I don't know where I'm going", a woman, I assume to be pregnant due to the lyric in The Wolf ("ironically into the family planning isle") is shot by one of the stray bullets and is overhearing the kid's conversation with himself.

I have to be honest, I don't know what exactly causes him to stop, whether it be outside interference or if he decides not to go through with it, most likely the latter. The events of the third verse of The Alien occur, the mom covers up the ears question but the kid knows its a lie. The kid then ponders about how his actions can affect others.

Years pass and he is in a relationship. He finds out he is going to have a child (Lead, SD) and he goes through denial. He loves his significant other, but something is bothering him. After drinking (I think the line in "The Alien" about the father's medication is just a metaphor for alcohol consumption), writes a suicide note, and goes on the road and drives against the traffic. After the crash, an officer, who happened to be the high school bully, attends the accident. With the high school letting out, they all come to see the incident and mock the same insults (alien) he heard all his life. He tried to escape his horrors and yet they're spilled right in front of him regardless.

The reason why he wanted to commit suicide the second time is because of the fact that he didn't want to be a dad. The song Lead, SD, talks about the monotony of the town and how nothing changes, and that's a metaphor for the family cycle. If he has a kid, he is scared he will treat him the same way.

The last part is a bit blurry. I'm not sure if he ultimately commits suicide, as the first part of The Silence gives me the vibes of that being the child speaking, but I'm pretty sure the last part of The Silence is about Andy/Mayzie's relationship and how Andy personally had to face all his demons and how he wants to give his best to Mayzie and make sure she is treated as best she can. In some ways, the fictional side of this album is like a nightmare to Andy.

That's all I can think of right now. I'll probably find out more on more listens, as I only found out about the Mayzie ties in The Silence and the accidental shooting of the woman on my latest woman. Sorry for the rambles or any potential misinformation ;-;

 

Do you need me?

 

I actually saw Rob smile when people cheered for the locations during the Alien. Also I attached a near perfect setlist recreation I made into a PDF. The preview may look funky because I had to go inbetween a bold and regular font, but it prints perfectly.

 

Wait, they're only playing one off of COPE? I mean, I know how y'all feel about the album as a whole, but there are some jams on there that are 100x better live.

 

Guess they're balancing the fact that the songs might sound good but less people may be familiar with them.

 

Hope they stick with this set list for the UK leg of the tour.

 

I have a new appreciation for cope

 

Manchester needs to release a live album already.

 

hey

 

Hey guys

 

Pretty sure it isn’t new Music but a repressing of the trilogy

 

He just repressed it in February.
My guess is a string of shows.

 

I’m revisiting this now and man the harmonies here are out of this world. I think this might be my favorite album released this year along with The Menzingers.

 

The fact that I'll be seeing them in Manchester, UK on Saturday is getting me through this week. Seriously.

 

This album has fallen way off for me.

 

then listen to it more

 

I've tried. I don't think it's as good as I thought initially. I'm obviously going to keep listening, but yeah.

 

I BELIEEEVED YOU WERE CRAZY.

See what I did there?

 

You're a maze to me.

 

This has dropped off for me as well, sadly

 

Still don't know what I think of this album as a whole or if it has as much longevity as others like SF, but those last three songs from The Mistake to The Silence has to be my favourite 3 track run of the year.

 

I wouldn't say that this one has fell off for me so much as I just haven't had a desire to return to it in a good month. I still love it and know it will stand in my top albums of all time, but I've been so distracted by life that I just haven't had the time to slow down a enjoy music as much as I want to.

I'm sure I'll come back to it.

 

In a weird way, Science Fiction kind of ruined this album for me. I had it on nonstop repeat for weeks then BAM, Science Fiction came out and I totally stopped listening to A Black Mile for a good month or so. I've listened to it through a few times in the past month or so, but I do somewhat agree that it's not hitting me like it was upon its initial release. It's like the hype was crushed by SF.

I still love it - and it's a great album - but I just haven't had any crazy desire to keep going back to it lately.

 

I think, with time, both of these albums will settle themselves in my mind as highly regarded.

 

This album has everything I've ever wanted in a Manchester Orchestra album since I'm Like A Virgin. I think it's really special.