Yay here we go...for the THATW song ask game, Battle Cries for questions 1, 2, and 8?

What was your first impression of this song (and has it changed)?

oooo god I really really wish I could remember! I was listening to the album on shuffle when I first listened to TAD (blasphemous, really, I have to tell everyone I recommend this band to now to listen in order sdfdsfds), so I don't remember when exactly I heard it first or what I thought about it. I know that I heard it before I heard Pruning Shears, so it was my first exposure to the brilliant double vocals. I think, like a lot of THATW songs, it took a moment to grow on me, but now it's one of my top 3 on the album. Battle Cries my beloved 💜

2. How does this song make you feel?

Is "everything" a viable answer? 😅 Tbh, I think it's hard for me to pin down a specific feeling for this song, cause I've yet to truly process all of it. I feel fatigued alongside Madeleine's character as she sings "I'm dolled up love, don't I deserve to just walk away?" but also invigorated by "this isn't a break up, dear heart, it's a season finale," yet also fond and nostalgic over "We were gods, we were kids," and every time Joey whispers "I'm doing fine" at the end, I feel like all the tension in my body is gone. In general, this song just makes me feel some kind of positive.

8. Do you visualize any colors, images, or scenes when listening to this song?

Oooohhh... the most prominent visualization for this song for me is probably an art gallery—both just in the lyric "from the back of the gallery," but also because one of the strongest trains of thought I've had about this song is how it talks about performance (applause, plays, fictions, "sing your notes, play your part, then we'll leave). The idea of being looked at by people, growing up on the "stage of life" and never really being able to duck behind the curtain. I see the characters in this song both as people in the crowd at this art showing (idk why I see Madeleine as the artist and Joey as a friend coming to support her? "You've a knack for applause from the back of the stalls" maybe), and also as the people inside of the paintings. They're like mirrors of a sort that allow the characters to reflect on who they've been, who they are now, and who they have the potential to be.