"When one of the remaining members of the crew-Adam, his name a wicked twist on biblical allusion-walks into the sea and drowns himself on "Rocks in my Pocket," the pathos is wrenching: "Some people name their cars or their guitars," he comments on the eponymous stones, "Some things are too fragile to name." Ditto when the album's unnamed, 16-year-old protagonist asks Peter Balkan, "Will you lie still while I reapply your bandage?""
"We're made to think of how global warming-related disasters instantaneously transform hum-drum lives into mortal battles with nature. "It's time for you to go/But you never lost your glow," Darnielle laments in the stirring "Your Glow," which he expands to encompass the whole globe: "If there's nothing left but water/Then let water be enough." The human spirit preserves, just as the world will keep turning in the absence of people."
An album narrative follows a 16-year-old protagonist and remaining crew members through an apocalyptic landscape, including Adam's drowning and the protagonist's intimate caregiving. Global warming–related disasters abruptly convert ordinary lives into mortal battles with nature, while songs like "Your Glow" expand personal grief to a planetary farewell: "If there's nothing left but water/Then let water be enough." The music alternates between wrenching pathos and a sense of surface-level execution; emotional stakes sometimes feel less developed than previous works that explored aging counterculture and abusive domestic abuse. Instrumentation occasionally echoes rock influences and the civilization-versus-preindustrial motif resonates powerfully.
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