Eh, I like Regret #9 and understand if people don't like instrumentals, but it doesn't seem wasteful regardless cuz it's not like SW was desperate to fill disc space or anything. I think it packs an awesome punch given the generally melodic, musically timid feel of HCE. Compared to The Raven, at least, which basically had everyone showing how good they were for most of the album.
But yeah, album/album ending interpretation below for anyone who cares to read
(spoilers of course for anyone avoiding them..?)
The aliens idea is interesting, idk if I'd fly that way
It seems unlikely for Steven, but maybe likely at the same time. The space imagery in the blog just gives me that "disappeared" or "drifted away" sense, that she has ascended past the physical world and has simply disappeared or been "erased," ambiguously speaking.
In more non-ambiguous terms, I think she might've offed herself in Ancestral. The growing tension of the ending almost seems to represent suicide. Disturbing, dark, building up and ending on that final burst of action and then nothing, calmness (the clean guitar at the end). That's how I took it, at least.
I interpret Happy Returns as a look in the past of letters she wrote (and perhaps never sent) while she was isolated, perhaps the night before the events of Ancestral. It adds a sense of irony and sadness to wrap up as she says "I bet you thought I was dead, but I'm still here," "I have gifts for them," "I'll finish this tomorrow." Nothing's changed, the years just passed by, etc. etc.
It's really depressing if you look at it that way, that it seemed like she was doing better and planned on going back out and seeing her friends/family, before then declining again and ultimately ending her life the next day (the events of Ancestral). It seemed like in the end she could erase herself, but she could never erase the love she had for her family (hence the title/title track? ). And then Ascendant represents her fading life, and how she's now drifted off and is gone from the "living world," forever erased.
Topic: Steven Wilson v. To. The. Bone. (Read 372084 times)
