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Yeah, the more I think about it, the more lyrics help to shape the feel of a song. I just realized that in addition to "summer is miles and miles away," there's "step out of the rain." I do still think that I would get the summer/rainy feel to the album even without those lines. I certainly wouldn't say lyrics define the atmosphere for me. Case in point would be two of the three albums I listed in my inital post -- one which has no lyrics at all, and one which is sung in Norwegian, which I do not speak.

And yes, I'm also really looking forward to the new album.

While we're on the subject of Opeth, I'll add another album of their's that has some good imagery; Blackwater Park. I get an extremely autumn feel from this one, and it's probably intentional. Track titles include Harvest and Dirge for November, very fall oriented words being used there. I'll break it down a little more for a couple of the songs:

Harvest gives me this feeling of rolling motion. The autumn vibe is really strong on this song too. I get a picture of an orchard (lyrics involve an orchard) with leaves falling and a light wind blowing them about. This is all from the perspective of a man laying on his deathbed.

The Drapery Falls. I don't know why, but this song feels "yellow" to me. Not like piss yellow, but a glorious golden shimmering light of god kind of yellow. It's broken up heavily by really dark colors, maybe a very deep purple. The end of the song (when the heavy section comes to an abrupt stop and the little singer/songwritter kind of strumming comes in) is where I get the most vivid imagery. I picture a man who strongly resembles Mikael (what freaks me out is that I got a very similar image before I knew what he looked like) in a dark room, looking out a window, pondering lost loves and all that shit he's singing about. When the main riff comes back for the outro, I get that sense of rolling motion again like in Harvest, and visualize spinning up into the sky through a cloud of cigarette smoke, looking down at the ground, which is covered in fallen leaves.

Dirge for November is easily one of my favorites as far as imagery is concerned. The music and the lyrics are a perfect compliment of each other. It's about suicide, but doesn't seem to be in a cliche kind of way. I feel like the narrarator has contracted some sort of awful disease, and as a result has torn apart and ruined the lives of his loved ones. To sort of gain redemption or contain the disease he carries, he sets fire to his house, then stabs himself to death while it's burning down around him. I'm not sure why I feel like he's burning the house down too, it might be how fucking dissonant it all sounds, but the lyrics make no mention of it. I wonder if any other Opeth fans ever got this feeling too?

In the title track, I get this really disturbing image of a town that's been torn apart and people lay dead and dying through the streets, fields, everywhere. There's also a really, really big, gnarly tree that's sort of the "focal point" of it all, if you will.


I guess those might sound like some pretty fucked up songs, but there's something very beautiful about it all.


I've never heard of Talk Talk. What sort of music is it? It sounds pretty damn good from what you've described.

Edit: I just read a couple reviews for Laughing Stock and Spirit of Eden on Amazon.com and it sounds right up my alley. I'll certainly make it a point to check those albums out.