While this track starts out subtle and quiet it quickly becomes bright and upbeat, with references to smoking out of tin cans and living in the shadows.
“Clad With Bunk” loosely translates to clothed in nonsense, though this is one of the more serious tracks on Course In Fable. One strategy to uncover the meaning behind Walker’s lyrics is to dissect the titles of his songs. “Course in fable, faked by still lightening,” Ryley Walker sings at the beginning of “Axis Bent,” which descends into poetic images punctuated by the phrase, “Fuck truth.” It’s probably the closest to a pop song on the album as it feels familiar and catchy, especially for such an eccentric musician as Walker. The song ends with the repeated words “Hold on to loose ends,” perhaps a mantra to keep from unraveling. The lyrics refer to “Mother Mary of Crack,” the patron saint of tweakers, casting a positive light on some dark topics. The song is an easygoing, guitar-centric memory of wondering around his neighborhood and wondering, “Should I dose again? Or just break into song?”Īt nearly eight minutes, “A Lenticular Slap” is the longest piece on the album, shifting thematically from curiosity to determination, with mechanical and clocklike percussive sounds and twinkling guitar playing.
It’s a good explanation of the human condition.
“I am wise, I am so fried, rang dizzy inside, fuck me I’m alive,” he sings in the chorus. It’s an energetic push-off into the Course In Fable and leads well into the first single, “Rang Dizzy.”
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It starts off vigorously with “Striking Down Your Big Premiere,” full of piano, muted but amplified percussion, electric guitar and laments of receiving postcards form a distant friend.