November 9, 2018 - Comets on Fire - Hatched Upon the Age (2006)

One of my favorite albums from the 2000s was Comets on Fire's Avatar. The final track, and the one I like best, is called Hatched Upon the Age. It is an epic that twists its way from elegant piano to epic, end of the world guitar.

I love some of the chord layouts on it. The opening pattern and first verses is Ab - Eb - Cb - Db - Dbm - Cb - Eb. Guess it's in Ab major. I capo at the 4th fret, then pattern-wise it's E - B - G - A. It has a tender arrangement that reminds me of a couple of lighter 60s tunes: The Monkees' Porpoise Song, and Marmalade's I See The Rain. However, lead singer Ethan Miller sounds lost or shipwrecked, not all warm and fuzzy like the other two. Dark shadows abound.

The next section is also excellent, although I am not positive about these lyrics:

Persuasion of a different kind
Hatched upon the age
Covered its weight
Grandeur betrays the kind

Huh? Well, your guess is as good as mine. This time the chords go Ab - Db with a 6th in there - Ab - to something like a Db/Fb -2nd position thing. It adds a little light jazz touch. Then Gb - Cb - Eb. Interesting to me.

Ben Chasny gets a sweetly discordant little guitar solo at 1:43, then back into the verses we go. At some point, anything coherent that Ethan Miller is singing is completely lost on me.

Breakdown at 3:23 for the piano to get moving on a sort of Funeral for a Friend Elton John section. A bit of phasing sucks us into the final movement that hits around 4:18. It's all tumbling drums and chords for a bit, some elegiac piano and organ, Pink Floyd-ish. The guitar breaks loose its chains at 5:13 and creates all sorts of swirling chaos until the end.