Track five broke a wall down. Track six shows what came of it, using an image that had to return at this point on the record.
In track three the crack was an illness. Here it is a way in.
The Same Crack, a Different Use
The second verse: “The cracks in my thoughts, they let light filter through.”
It is precisely the fissure that three tracks ago was called “a crack in the stone” and was the reason everything was falling apart. Nothing has sealed it. What changed is which side of it somebody is standing on.
The track does not claim to be unbroken. It says: I am broken, and that is exactly why something can get through. Those are two entirely different statements, and only one of them is true after a year like that.
The Mind as Material
The third verse: “My mind’s jagged edges now shine with a spark.” And immediately after: “Each fracture a canvas, for light in the dark.”
A canvas is a thing you work on. Not a symptom, not a sentence — material.
Earlier on this record his own head was where he got lost. “In the dark of my mind, I’ve lost all control,” ran the chorus of track three. Now that same place has edges that can be put to use.
The Shortest Track on the Record
It runs 4:43 and is the shortest of the nine. For comparison: the opener is 7:34, and the two tracks at the bottom of the record are six minutes each.
I doubt that is an accident. The first four tracks went in circles and needed the time — standing still has to be endured before you can hear it. This one has nothing to endure.
So it is brief, and that is why it works. Saying “light gets in through the cracks” does not take seven minutes. Getting to the place where the sentence means something did.
An Outro That Reports Instead of Promising
Tracks three and four ended identically: “I’ll still search for my home.” Future tense, the search ongoing, nothing found.
This one ends: “With the glow in my soul, I’m broken no more.” No “will,” no “one day.”
It is the first moment on the record where somebody says something good about himself in the present tense. Three tracks later he will be talking about it as done.
You can hear the track on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube Music.
In the next post I will write about “Rage of the Unseen” — about calling your demons by name.
Thank you for being here.
Adam Smentoch Creator of the Dust Anthem project
