Track by track

1. One Soul Now
Watch the color drain from the sky … Stillness settles, glides on by. Michael: “When you are in the countryside there’s that moment at twilight where everything goes quiet. Whenever that happens, I just feel totally connected. This was originally written in 1997 during the sessions for Miles From Our Home. Sometimes you write lyrics and you don’t know what it means, it doesn’t have any resonance until years later. Now, this song makes sense in the context of our world and in the context of where I am in my life.”

2. Why This One
A dusty, simple-minded piece of fiction/Strange and odd, twisted as a contradiction. Margo: “For me, this album is about uncertainty. Questioning things like relationships is not necessarily negative. I wanted it to be more of a searching thing.” Michael: “The link that holds these songs together is trying to figure out relationships. There is a lot of turmoil in relationships when you get to our age. There’s just so much … stuff in there.”

3. My Wild Child
Life is a riddle/Of which we’re caught in the middle Margo: “Parents know that you’ve got these little people entering the world just as you are realizing you really know nothing. And the world is getting more and more confusing.” Michael: “….and then added to that is the distraction and confusion that they bring to your own life and relationships….which makes one even more unqualified to guide them through life. The irony is that we, the parents, are suppose to be the stabilizing forces in our children’s lives, when more often than not, it is the child that becomes the stabilizing force in the parents life…my wild child brings she’s my stone”.

4. From Hunting Ground To City Street
I’ve seen that line of broken minds/And I fear to join its ranks Michael: “In downtown Rochester, New York, there’s a historical plaque that explains that the area was once a hunting ground for various Indian tribes, and now it has been built into this wonderful city. And you just look around and say - this is better? It is basically an obscure parable about finding Paradise only to discover that it is only a disguise for Hell”. We did this totally live in the studio, just jamming it out. Al came up with that really cool bass line and we built around that.

5. Stars Of Our Stars
You make a start with an eager heart/But it always slips/And then everything shifts. Margo: “Amid all the uncertainty, this is a celebration of what is certain. The sun will come up. There will always be the next morning. You start again.”

6. Notes Falling Slow
My love swears that he is made of truth/I do believe him though I know he lies Michael: “That opening couplet comes from Shakespeare’s 138th sonnet. I think it sums up the confusing and contradictory nature of relationships. Certain aspects of this song come from a lot of people saying to us that our music is depressing, when actually, it’s just slow.” Margo: “Our songs are sad, maybe a little melancholy. But reflection on anything brings sadness. I think it is sad to be afraid to look at those kinds of things.”

7. No Long Journey Home
… a tired and twisted plot/Another hero finding out that he’s not. Michael: “Sometimes, you think you know what you are doing, you think you are right, but the wiser you get, the more you realize how little you know. I think that is a very common way of feeling. There are no pat answers, there’s not even a long journey home. That would be too simple.

8. He Will Call You Baby
He will call you sweetheart/But always seem apart. Michael: “This is another one where we just set up live and left the tape rolling as we played. In pop psychology, you would say that these lyrics convey dysfunction, but in the real world you would say that they describe a normal, although not necessarily healthy, relationship”

9. Simon Keeper
Jesus was a carpenter, he died nailed to a wooden cross/ Irony, oh irony, upon me it is never lost. Michael: “This was actually recorded during the Open sessions. I hadn’t written a narrative song in a long time and I was thinking about how we define ourselves by our work – and it predates Enron, by the way. It is another parable and fits in well with Hunting Ground. We build our own little worlds around ourselves and define ourselves in the most facile manner. And even when that world crumbles around us we still seem content to build up another façade and present that to the world as a representation of “us”. It’s not a huge jump to be a cheating backroom accountant one day and a street preacher the next. The irony is that, despite the façade and the trappings and how we are viewed by those around us, we are, all too often, for better or worse, the exact same person, with the same morals, foibles and imperfections. In a way this song is the counterpoint to the One Soul Now ”

10. The Slide
Grab on to this moment, inhale it/and hold it inside/Savor its sweetness/Yearn for the slide Margo: “It’s a recognition that life is about searching and questing. You may be lucky enough to get a glimpse of understanding and then it is gone again. Everyone has downer years, but those are the ones that really define the better times.” Michael: “It is a slide into the sense of wonderment and confusion of life, with all the great moments and all the terrible things that knock you on your ass. Change can be tough, but that’s what life is.”