Possibly My Favourite Options

[Andy Partridge]

How about you?

[Chrestus]

Something that stands out with Andy's songs, stands out because you hardly see it elsewhere these days, is his (thier) ability to craft a song experience that slowly builds into something dramatic or colourful. "The Last Ballon" (and "Stupidly Happy" also) is a prime example. Starts off kind of dirge-like and it appears to be rather repititious through the first and second verses. Yet...the instrumentation starts to fill out with each repitition and the song is finally fully realized with the final stanza of "You should drop us all..." and that lovely meloncholy trumpet coda.

"You should drop us all..."

That line carries so much weight to it. It really is incredibly sad to me that someone would have to write that, and that we all instantly get it when the singer goes there. It's one of the saddest and most prophetic lines in the whole catalogue. Andy was never one to shy away from the darkest elements of the human story and this line always makes me want to choke up. I would be in tears writing a line like that.

Something else interesting about that, too:
Andy is an athiest, and yet...

He has so many allusions to God or a God-like figure or Judaeo-Christian culture in his work. Not implying that Andy is a closted believer, not in the slightest. But I do appreciate his willingness to go there for the sake of a point.

"Scissor Man"
"Will you tell them how a child to the virgin came..." from "The Everday Story Of Smalltown"
"Reign of blows has washed away the corpse of Abel, Cain is now the king in every Babel" from "Reign Of Blows"
"You should drop us all..." WHO should drop us all?

Still, I like that he'll go there. All these examples are very powerful moments in those songs.