The frantic violin during the last section of That Unwanted Animal like if you agree

Ive been listening to Secret Worlds a lot recently and I havent seen anybody talking about my favourite part, so I'm going to.

When they sing "you asked me to climb, I never learned", Madeleine and Joey sing the last three words differently. Her voice raises, a desperate plea to be understood, whereas his goes down, resigned and unwilling to challenge what is indisputable. He has already given up, whilst she is still fighting. It really emphasises how far they've drifted, that they can't even find any common ground when they share the same grief, the same regret.

TADvent Day 31 - Sparkles and Glitter

@theamazingdevildiscord

It's NYE, and I made it! 31 days straight of TADposting! That in itself feels worth a celebration to me, so I'm raising a virtual glass to myself and to all of you. I started this challenge expecting to drop out within the first week, so honestly this is unbelievable haha, who knew I had this many thoughts about one band? Everybody knew, lets be real I never stop thinking about them but that's beside the point.

I'm so excited for what 2024 is going to bring. There's a new album to come, with all the emotions and inevitable posting on this account that it will bring, and I'm hoping to have the Entity List™️ finished and ready to post at some point soon. I am tempted to wait for the new album though, so that I can include any new additions to the lore, but it's really going to depend on how quickly I get the current draft finished. I'm sure I'll have lots of other TAD thoughts to unload onto this website in the meantime (I've been having FEELINGS about Secret Worlds recently!)

In the meantime, I want to wish anyone who's read even one of my posts a very happy and healthy new year - may your 2024 be filled with joy, peace, and the people who bring you those things. I'll see you all next year, Dearhearts 💜💜💜

TADvent Day 30 - New Beginnings

@theamazingdevildiscord

I'll be honest, I looked at this on the 22nd and wished I hadn't made all those posts about Battle Cries already :')

So instead I want to look ahead to the new album. So far, all 3 albums have shown a different stage in a relationship. Love Run is the beginning, finding someone and choosing to run towards their feelings embracing them and the power it grants them. THATW is the collapse of the relationship, the fire and fury and madness that tore them apart. Ruin is the aftermath, looking around once the dust has settled and finding the parts of you that are, in fact, still you.

So where will this new album take us? Will we have a new adventure, finding out new things about yourself and becoming a new person in the process? Will we go back to the start, beginning the cycle anew without learning anything? Will we find someone new, leading towards a happier ending? Will it be something altogether different? There are so many direction this album could take, and I can't wait to see where we end up.

(And I'll probably end up crying because lets be real, it's TAD, they always make me sob.)

TADvent Day 29 - Holiday Blues

@theamazingdevildiscord

Little Miss Why So really does encapsulate that awful feeling of knowing you should be happier. It's Christmastime, there are decorations and lights and people filled with cheer everywhere you look, and you don't know why you can't feel that way too. You try, God knows you try to be happy, but it just doesn't work. And you start to wonder if you're broken, if this is how it's going to feel forever. You're all grown up, there's no magic left in the holiday season, but deep down you're still a little girl who wants to believe in flying reindeer and magic fairy lights. You miss being young, when a hug and a piece of chocolate could banish your dark moods. You miss leaving treats out for a man in a red suit who leaves you gifts under a beautiful tree. You miss the days when you could feel the festive spirit. Now there's nothing but a hollow, empty feeling as you look at the tree you couldn't afford in the first place and realise it isn't going to fix you. It won't bring back the joy. It's just a sad pile of twigs and sparkly plastic, taking up space in the living room you barely see because you can't face getting out of bed in the mornings. And you start to wonder if you'll ever feel better, or if this is how things are now. Maybe you used up all your joy as a child, and now there's nothing left. Just toilet roll tubes and tinfoil in a pathetic imitation of happiness.

TADvent Day 28 - Fire and Hearth

@theamazingdevildiscord

Today I'm thinking about the story that spans New York Torch Song and Secret Worlds. The way that "you asked me for a lighter mate, I gave you my fire" is the memory of "light me a New York torch, my boys". NYTS is about being young and wild and free, and Secret Worlds is about growing up, despite your best efforts. New York is modern and built-up, concrete and tarmac, full of love and energy. The appeal to young people is undeniable, but in Secret Worlds they wish they hadn't ignored the trees' advice. They're old and boring, and maybe they can't remember what it was like to be young but as you grow up, you see what you were missing by neglecting them. NYTS lives in the moment, and Secret Worlds wishes more than anything it could have stayed there.

TADvent Day 27 - Winter Fun

@theamazingdevildiscord

This might be a bit of a cop-out response to the prompt, but honestly doing TADvent has been so much fun! I've absolutely loved finding lines to analyse and having these prompts has helped focus on elements I never would have thought to consider before. It hasn't always been easy (I've been struggling to stay caught up since the 10th when I caught a sickness bug of some kind and couldn't think straight for 3 days!) But as of writing this I haven't missed a single day which feels like quite an achievement.

So I suppose today's piece simply boils down to this: thank you. Thank you to everyone involved in running TADvent, thank you to everyone who read and interacted with my posts, and thank you to The Amazing Devil for not only creating music that changed my life but also for creating a community that allows for events like this. My Decemberhas been a little warmer thanks to all of you 💜

TADvent Day 26 - Star(s)

@theamazingdevildiscord

As of scheduling this post, it is December 19th and I've just learned that fundament, as in what the stars hurl, can mean a person's buttocks and I have to ask - did they know? Did Joey and Madeleine know that their beautiful poetry about time and space and destiny can also be interpreted as throwing it back??? Tbf this is the band that gave us a " that's what she said" in the most romantic song of all time, so maybe? God I hope so

TADvent Day 25 - Togetherness

@theamazingdevildiscord

There's something truly spectacular about the live versions on YouTube. Not Yet/Love Run is particularly wonderful. Don't get me wrong, I love the Spotify versions beyond belief, but the live versions, with the group all performing together, just them in a room with music are something else altogether. Its such a beautiful representation of the community this band has created.

Maybe this is generalizing, but on the whole I feel like Amazing Devil music is for lonely people. The magic and the fantasy appeal to people who feel alone, who want an escape from their own lives and simultaneously feel represented as Madeleine and Joey sing all the emotions that we could never hope to put into words. A community of the lonely, brought together by music so that for a brief moment, we see how we are part of something bigger. Though we might be scattered across the globe, when we hear The Amazing devil we are, briefly, together.

Also, happy Christmas to everyone who celebrates that today!! Wishing you all a happy and peaceful festive season, whatever that may look like to you 🎄🎁🎉

TADvent Day 24 - Evergreen

@theamazingdevildiscord

I think the flowers mentioned in Elsa's Song are really interesting. You can, of course, look at the meanings they all carry (sage - health and wisdom, liles - purity, innocence and rebirth, roses - love and passion, forget-me-nots - faithfulness/fidelity, true love, and memory). In forgetting the forget-me-nots, Elsa has admitted to moving on, finding someone new and forgetting about her lost love. What's really interesting about this, though, is the type of plant each of these is.

Sage, roses and (some!) lilies are perennial. Year after year, they will come back. They might fade and wither over the colder months but as long as they are properly cared for, come spring they will return and flower again.

Forget-me-nots are considered semi-perennials, meaning they may well come back for a few years but will ultimately die. If you plant a forget-me-not in your garden, you do so knowing that in a few years you'll have to replace it. It lives on a limited timeframe, and nothing you can do will change that.

Elsa tries to promise to remember her love, but he knows she can't. The flower will die and she will move on. He will die and she will live. She can try, she can water the ground and prune the leaves, she can do everything right, but in the end it just won't matter, because the plant is doomed to die and take his memory with it. Despite her best efforts, her promise is a lie and cannot be anything else.

TADvent Day 23 - Magic

@theamazingdevildiscord

It's the way magic is so intrinsically weaved into every TAD song. It's the talking trees and The Wild and the ghosts and monsters and robot vampires. It's creatures sneaking around in the night, earth a-tumbling and a lonely King in a crumbling cliffside castle. It's Saints dancing through fire and Foxes howling over frozen rivers. It's the way that every piece of magic is felt deep in your soul. It's the way that the magic is what brings forth the humanity in the music. It's beautiful and mysterious and fantastical and wonderful because that's what it is to be a human. It's The Amazing Devil being the most perfect representation of human life.

TADvent Day 22 - Light

@theamazingdevildiscord

Now this wind feels so warm on the back of my neck, as we walk with the Sun hand in hand from the wreck.

I know I've already made a TADvent post about how Battle Cries is a beginning and not an end, but I think this line needs more appreciation.

The relationship is over. It's crashed and burned, damaged beyond repair. They are done, once and for all.

But they're walking out of it together. Hand in hand, the two of them and the Sun, warmth and light and hope uniting them by way of their separation. The end is good, the end is right, the end is warm breezes and sunny days. Their grand season finale is ine last act of kindness to each other. In letting go, they granted each other the freedom to be happy. The greatest act of love for this couple was accepting that there was none left between them.

TADvent Day 21 - Dark

@theamazingdevildiscord

If I'm completely honest, the first time I heard Marbles, I wasn't that impressed. It was a nice enough song, but off the back of such intensity as Pray, Not Yet, and The Horror and The Wild, I just found it forgettable. And forget about I did, for several months, until it came up by chance on shuffle. I wasnt paying much attention, until one line suddenly stood out to me:

I'm scared of the dark.

It was so vulnerable, almost plaintive, and yet filled with trust for the person being sung to that I had to go to the beginning and listen again, paying attention this time. Now, when I tell you it devastated me, I'm not exaggerating. I listened several times in a row, and let me tell you on second listen it hurts even more.

The first time around, it's a lovely, classic story of a normal couple which then takes a turn when they get older. It's emotional and lovely and touching.

The second time, you listen to them bickering about their flat and holding each other through the difficult moments, and you know that all their comfortable domesticity is going to be ripped away from them. It already has been, they just don't know it yet.

And then Madeleine says, so weakly, so desperately, that she's scared of the dark. Childlike in her fear, you know that there's nothing that can bring her back. Still, he loves her, still, he's there, but it will never be the same. The dark isn't coming, it's already here, and no amount of love can pull her out of it. All he can do is hold her, all he can do is wait and hope. And it won't be enough to save her.

Alternatively:

Me: *having a normal day*

Marbles: I'm scared of the dark

Me: *violent sobbing*

TADvent Day 20 - Comfort

@theamazingdevildiscord

The Old Witch Sleep offers comfort akin to death. To be comfortable is to give in, to stop fighting, to let her win.

The Good Man Grace offers life with the price of pain. To live is to suffer, to be slapped across the face again and again in the name of love.

You can make your own offer to yourself. An existence ruled not by apathy, nor by suffering, but by choice. To choose is to know your own mind, to reject those that would sway you and instead stand alone, facing what has been and what is yet to come. In this fight, it is better to be alone than with false allies. No more borrowed strength. This courage is all your own.

TADvent Day 19 - Love

@theamazingdevildiscord

I've said before that Pruning Shears is the sound of falling in love, but really I consider it to be one part of a whole beautiful love song.

It start with Drinking Song for the Socially Anxious, a chance meeting at a party by two people who would rather hide amongst the coats than attend a party. Fast forward a while, and we're at Pruning Shears. Another party that neither of them want to be at, bit this time they can lean on each other, telling stupid jokes and laughing at their accents. They've found a kindred spirit, someone who understands them despite all their differences. We move into Fair, a love that so beautiful because it is so mundane. The couple are so painfully, wonderfully normal, and they still adore each other as much as when they first met. They grow old together, until we reach Marbles. She is fading, her memories slipping away with every passing day, and still, still he loves her. Every time he looks at her, he sees that beautiful girl who played D&D, who laughed at his jokes and saw through all his disguises. And somewhere, in what remains of her mind, she loves him too. She loves him enough to call out in any way she can, to the Inkpot Gods, that she loves him now, then, forever. If she doesn't make it back from the dark place her mind is slipping to, she has loved him all along.

TADvent Day 18 - Winter Animals

@theamazingdevildiscord

The Fox is always there. You might not be able to see it, or pinpoint exactly where the howling is coming from, but you'll know it's there. The pawprints in the snow will trail off in the woods, leaving you stranded on cracked rocks on the shore of a mirrored lake, reflecting back everything you can't, won't see, and the Fox will be there. It lingers at the edges of your awareness, slipping through the gaps in your consciousness until you can't tell if it was ever real, cant remember a time when it wasn't. It will fade in and out of existence in time with your heartbeat, but always, always, you'll hear the howling in the back of your mind, and know it will be there. Through your memories, you hopes and your fears, your past and your future and every moment in between, until the end when there is nothing left but The Fox. Watching. Waiting. Your company, your persecutor. Chasing you down, helping you up. All, and only, The Fox.

TADvent Day 17 - Adventure

@theamazingdevildiscord

Something special about all 3 TAD albums is how the final songs never feel like an ending so much as the start of something new.

Not Yet/Love Run (Reprise) is the start of choosing to chase something. It's knowing what you want and deciding to go for it, however hard it may be. It's the beginning of becoming.

Battle Cries is the start of a new life by yourself. The relationship may be over, but rather than mourning what's gone, it's about the adventure you had getting there, and the new one you're about to have on your own.

Inkpot Gods is the start of the healing process. She's might be gone, she might have given up, but she loved you all along. You can take that with you as you find your way through this new chapter of your life. Maybe you'll be alone, maybe you'll find someone else to share it with, but what's important is that you're still here. You surviver what was, and now you can embrace what is.

There's no finality to any of it. Even if something has ended, something else has begun and that's worth paying attention to. That's worth singing about. Not the ending, not the loss, but the new world your walking into. You're not leaving the past, you're entering the future, because it isn't really over. Nothing ever is.