Gepetto

If "Feed the Tree" carries quiet resolution, "Gepetto" is where Belly let the strangeness breathe more freely. The arrangement is fuller, guitars layered with a shimmer that suggests depth without collapsing into murk, and the production has a slightly echoic quality — sounds caught in a room with interesting acoustics. The tempo is bouncy in a way that feels almost skewed, like a waltz with a slight wobble, and that rhythmic character gives the song a distinctly fairy-tale quality. Tanya Donelly's voice here has a brightness, almost playfulness, that contrasts with darker lyrical undertones — the song takes the Pinocchio premise and finds in it a meditation on the complications of unconditional creation, of making something and releasing it into consequence. The guitar work is consistently inventive without being showy, favoring texture and surprise over technical demonstration. This belongs to the moment when college rock was absorbing literary and surrealist influences and producing music with genuine intellectual depth alongside genuine pop appeal. There's something in the production that feels sunlit but not naive — optimistic about melody while being honest about the costs of things. You'd reach for this in the middle of a creative project, when you want music that celebrates making things while acknowledging the beautiful uncontrollability of what you've made — music that feels simultaneously earnest and knowing.