Most songs you pretty much sing along to by the time you've heard them once. Yet, the melodies, the production and the arrangements are so clever and well crafted, the songs keep pulling you back in (if you actually like them, that is )
I have to agree.... I woke up with so many refrains stuck in my head
There's a darkness at the heart of my love.... [...]
I'm with you always.... (the choir part)
In the Twenties.... TWENTIEEEEEEES!!!!Nothing ever lasts forever.... [...]
We will go softly into the night....Some more random thoughts:
- I'm still not sold on the unifying theme of the album. I know it's not a concept but, since it's been presented as an album about rises and falls of empires, I thought I would "feel" it more.
Let's take Meliora for example, even if the songs are disconnected, there's a consistent mood, a vibe - the antichrist announced in the debut and arrived in the second album is finally here, and is dominating the songs with an obscure presence. When you reach the end of the album, with Deus in Absentia, you really "feel" it -
the world is on fire, and the journey in a dystopic world dominated by the antichrist has ended.
Also Prequelle is very consistent in its theme - death and the plague in medieval times, death is all over the album and Life Eternal concludes with a bittersweet tone about letting loved ones go.
I don't feel (yet) this theme, this vibe with Impera. As I said - I know it's not a concept and I don't expect all songs about empires, but I had come to expect some sort of thematic continuity, even with subtle hints.... Kaisarion is the triumphant beginning, the "yeeeeh we're on top of the world" song, then in the middle of the album there's the wacky Twenties about being arrogantly drunk with power, but Respite on the Spitalfields does not give me the feeling of "wow, we've come at the end, another empire has crumbled". Yeah, there's the line "nothing ever lasts forever", also "we will go softly into the night", but it does not leave me feeling at the end of a journey like Deus in Absentia and Life Eternal did.
- Griftwood is a bit of a drag in that place of the album, not because it's a terrible song, but I feel it slows down the album too much. Let's take Prequelle as a comparison - after Dance Macabre we have a slower piece (Pro Memoria), a slow instrumental (Helvensomethingingerman) and another even slower piece (Life Eternal), BUT, in the middle of it all, we have Witch Image to spice things up and being a cool rocking song.
After the ballad (Darkness) and before a useless intro and a slower final piece (Spitalfields), a faster and heavier songs would have balanced the album much better than Griftwood does. It's not a terrible song per se, as I said - it just drags the album down too much.