I didn't know what to call this record. I asked the guys and we came up short. I asked my wife and she thought up some criteria. Does one of the songs really stand out? Is there a theme? I thought about the lyrics and my interpretations of them. I thought, pretty cynically, yeah, there is. They're all depressing. I was right, but that wasn't the theme. The theme is empathy. My first record on my own was called "error connecting," and this one's the opposite - it's about connecting. When I listen to Nice, I hear a conversation about how bad someone has it, and the other speaker saying "you're not the only one." In Fall, we're asked to think about the people we see on the news - the leaders, the rebels, the bombers, the bystanders, and their relationship with the rest of us - the audience. Ether tells me the story of a terminal patient and their spouse, still trying to understand each other's paths, and why they can't walk them together. Billy wants to tell you that there's still life in something that seems broken and disused. =Nice= There's no going back. You're stuck like this for good - at 82% - the best that we can do. But people make mistakes - that's what got you here. Don't blame us when there's no chance to improve. You're stuck like this and there's no use in hoping you'll heal back to new. You start to realize that we've all got our share of handicaps and wounds too deep to repair. She needs help to move and his left eye's no good. The broken don't complain as much as you do. They're living each day as best they can, not hoping to die and start again. But no one's sure where to begin and no one's sure just what they did. No one's sure just how this ends. =Fall= Just say the word and I'll let you down. Didn't wanna see you hanging around. Just say the word and I'll cut you free. You'll swing above the crowd at my feet. And all the leaves turn brown. They're out there bombing towns, and we're just staring at the marvel. All the leaves come down. You're hiding underground and we'll find somewhere else to gander. Just shut my eyes and away it goes. It sure was nice never having to know you. Don't turn my head to see if it hit; I can hear it fall above the instruments. Cuz we're the ones out there whose flag you've come to fear, who you're not sure whether to side with. We say that freedom rings: the sound of IEDs. And we'll salute the ones left standing. Just say the word and I'll let you down. Didn't wanna see you hanging around. =Ether= "It always ends the same: in the dark, in the ground, in the grave. It's not the worst," you say. Don't pretend you're not afraid. If you would try and hold on.. it's not too late for you now that you're not on your own. Can't leave me here to stay depressed, a mess, in a daze. You won't give up this way, like I know I would in your place. And then you tell me that "it's never too late for you to start again. Be careful with our friends: they never do quite what you would expect." But you were right all along. It's not much good to me now that you're gone and I'm alone. Hear you talking all the time. "I don't regret this life." =Billy= You'll never be half what you once were. Her Majesty left a stain. In our lives we'll never understand the beauty you held and the people that dwelled there. I sanctify your rusted wares, but I don't feel a thing in the places I've lived. I'm sorry to have ever stayed. Because you were as I am now - just a dream that let you down. A spot on the map to view over and over in my room. You wanted more. I gave you up all for a girl. Because you were as I am now - just a dream that let you down. And you were as I'll always be: broken, abandoned and free.