There's never a specific reason given but I think it's clear that something has happened and that they're going through these stories analysing the pain and problems found in them to try and make better sense of his own life and what's happened or find some sort of clarity. The fact that what happened is never actually spelled out makes it very easy for me at least to kind of put myself or my own personal past events into the space of the narrator which makes me connect more to it.
it just kind of stops me from ever feeling connected to the narrator even if i do connect to some of the stories themselves and therefore the entire narrative never comes around for me
See that's never been clear to me at all. I get that in certain songs on the album or even certain parts of songs but for a lot of them I wouldn't have guessed that.
The narrator of rooms has divorced from his wife and is recounting what happened throughout their marriage and where they went wrong. The narrators parents and grandparents are mentioned in several tracks as well. The tracks that are all capitalized are based on real events on Jordan's life. The woman tracks detail the before and after of the divorce. The collapse of the 35 bridge on 2007 is used as a metaphor for the collapsing relationship, and other natural disasters like falling through ice and the tornado in hudsonville are metaphors for both his and his parents/grandparents relationships. The stillbirth of his mom/dads sister in Child We Lost also strained that relationship. Objects In Space brings everything together, taking objects from every song and putting them in a box as the narrator moves out. Moving furniture around is also mentioned, stating that the couple never changed their approach to the relationships issues, instead changing mundane outside elements to fix things. There's also references to blueprints and the names of rooms, with the narrator stating that it's ironic there's a "living room" since they don't do any living in it and instead stay on opposite ends of the house.
the lyrics of objects in space make it pretty clear to me what was just experienced throughout the album. i dont get that from you and i in unison...at all. that song just seems tacked on actually
Yeah, I'm just the opposite which explains a lot about why our thoughts on that album differ so much.
Really? You and I in Unison is by far my favourite song this band has ever written and one of my top 10 of all time and I think that and All Our Bruised Bodies perfectly end that album and give context to the entire thing and make all of the interludes work so well. Objects in Space always felt a lot weaker to me and feels like a separate experience. It never felt like an explanation of the album or what happened in it. I might try listening to it with that in mind and see if I get that.
There's other things I'm missing, like the snow in Extraordinary Dinner Party and the stillness being metaphors for the stagnant relationship and the mundane parts of it. The mention of echoes in both Woman tracks, with the last Woman track saying "I live alone now, save for the echoes". First Reactions details the proactive steps the couple try to take to fix things, using the metaphor of taking opposite steps to even the stress on the ice to iterate the couple taking a break so to speak, but you never know which way the ice breaks/you never know what the future holds. Basically there's A LOT to that album to unpack
Almost thought I was in the La Dispute thread.I will say I prefer Rooms because the message behind it is more relevant to me as I get older. But I definitely don't think the narrative of Wildlife is muddled or indecipherable.
They premiered it on BBC Radio 1, right? I didn't get a chance to hear it, desperately looking for a rip haha.
Rapture is probably my favorite song released so far, cannot wait to hear the complete album on Friday.
they got that early listening party on the 14th i think. they're gonna have the album available for early purchase edit: or, pop-up art show, i mean