Riddles Abound
single
Riddles Abound
Closing an album after its peak is an art, and ‘Riddles Abound’ handles it cleanly. PCBender opens with a wailing guitar that wastes no time establishing the stakes, then drives the whole track at a pace that barely lets you breathe, which is exactly the right call after ‘Prehistoric Lies’ has spent six minutes tightening everything down. The lyric ‘buried in dread is the spark of a dream’ captures what the track is doing structurally: tension that earns its release. The call-and-response chorus hits with the kind of communal lift you get from early Springsteen, and the guitar solo around the ninety-second mark is genuinely the kind of playing that makes you rewind. At five and a half minutes, it earns every second. As a closer it doesn’t try to top what came before; it opens the window and lets some air in, which is the right instinct, and the album lands on its feet.
Lyrics
The cautious surrender you feel when it rains The lightning recedes but the thunder remains The sky still remembers, it echoes in veins A whisper of water, a promise of chains
In all of my playing I can't find the key The notes on the score too fast to see The melody hides in the cracks of the floor A shadow of sound that asks me for more
The rain pounds, the sky cracks The time divides, no going back The ground shakes, the branch snaps The song collides, no fading track
A silent progression resolves to the one The ink is still wet but can't be undone The paper remembers the heat of the sun It captured the moment, though the moment has run
Relief fills the lantern Escape feeds the flame The flame bends the shadow The shadow speaks your name
If I could explain the noise in my head A lullaby laden with endless dread The frequency fractures, it splits at the seam Yet buried in dread is the spark of a dream
The rain pounds, the sky cracks The time divides, no going back The ground shakes, the branch snaps The song collides, no fading track
No answers profound Not this time around Just echoes that wander Just riddles abound Just echoes that wander Just riddles abound
Credits
Songwriter: Michael Anthony Rose