The Title Track

The joke is in the name — calling it "The Title Track" is a wink at the artifice of album sequencing and rock mythology — but the music itself takes that joke somewhere genuinely affecting. The guitars have a shimmer and propulsion that feels almost anthemic, and the production gives the song a spaciousness unusual for the band's typically dense arrangements. There's a self-awareness running through the whole thing, a consciousness of what it means to make songs about making songs, but it never tips into navel-gazing because the emotional core is too earnest. Ryland's voice here feels like someone standing at a slight distance from their own feelings, able to describe them clearly because of that distance. The drums push with a rolling, continuous energy that makes the song feel longer and more expansive than its runtime suggests. It's a track that rewards listeners who've spent time with the album — the meta-commentary lands harder with context — but it also functions on its own as a piece of bright, layered indie-pop-punk. This is music for people who think about music, made by people who love music enough to be funny about it. It's a song for drives alone, windows down, when you're thinking about something specific but want to feel like you're thinking about something vast.