Twisted Illusion return with a glorious new album, Upstairs to Optimism, this Friday. To celebrate this splendid release, we exclusively caught up to the ascending Brit prog rockers and asked them to give us this track breakdown of the album.
Analyse and Incentivise
This is an almost 10-minute introduction to the world of Upstairs to Optimism. It’s by far the most expansive track on the album and goes through a lot of motion and harmonic information in its run time. Lyrically it’s a song for all the over thinkers out there.
Gone Tomorrow
Nostalgia has always been an important part of TI’s output and Crash Bandicoot is a firm piece of childhood nostalgia that links Matt (vocals guitar) and Saxon (guitar). The song is about Crash realising he is a simulation inside a game. A fun premise wrapped up in a powerful dual guitar laden rock song.
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We Tried to Make It
“We Tried to Make It” is the ballad of the album essentially. A huge chorus, lush acoustic guitars and there is an almost gospel tinge to the vocals throughout. Lyrically it encapsulates dealing with failure and it’s a message any creative person could relate to.
Identity
This track was written solely by Matt and is the “prog” moment on the album. The song has a lot of time and mood changes throughout and is one of Matt’s most ambitious pieces. Lyrically it conveys the identity crisis I think any musician experiences. The need to be heard and never misunderstood.
Spotlight
“Spotlight” is a riff orientated song all about the thirst to be seen in the attention driven economy of social media. The reference to Limelight in the chorus is a nod to our heroes Rush and specifically our greatest lyrical inspiration Neil Peart. The word limelight rings across the final chord of the chorus, which is a particular chord most would recognise as the ‘Rush chord’.
Stay Your Course
This song was written solely by Saxon Davids, the musical foundation of “Stay Your Course” is the oldest of all Saxon’s input with TI. 10 years old and I stand by that riff as one of my all time favourites. I’m glad we chose this album specifically to bring it to life on. The lyrics were penned by Daniel Moran (Reaper) as it was originally intended as a collaboration. Matt sang the final vocal with his lyrics.
Tired
Next, we have “Tired” which is probably the most insular and lyrically a very difficult piece. Penned by Matt, it’s an exploration of suicide. It’s wrapped in a gorgeous folksy tapestry of acoustic guitars and extremely layered vocal harmony between both Matt and Saxon.
Totality
The lockdown song. The overarching premise that the rest of the album exist within. It was always going to be the album closer. Penned by Matt in 2020 amidst the first lockdown. It features everything TI is known for. Lots of vocal harmony, huge choruses, obnoxious musical passages and guitar solos. It’s the only TI recording to feature Matt playing bass too.
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