Perfect Light

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Written by Ric Albano Song Length: 4:26
Listen to the Song: Purchase the MP3:
[audio:PerfectLight.mp3]
Lyrics
You march down your narrow street
To the rhythmic drums that your master beats
With pretension that this tune is one that you’ve authored
Quickly shuffle past the water rats
Who gave you comfort when the Krins attacked
And deserve acknowledgement now but you just can’t be bothered

It’s alright, it’s alright, the beautiful people will all be there tonight
To toss and fish for praise that is not deserved
It’s alright, it’s alright, the burdens of fame that tend to make you uptight
Will nicely fuse into indigenous curves

Indigenous curves, with no more stress on your nerves
Bellowing out your new verbs

Your smile was painted on too thin
And has slowly dissolved into a stressed-out grin
Because deep down you know that you want and need more
Covertly detour to your private suite
Garnished with fresh orchids & fine imported meat
But all that you desire is within that cabinet drawer

It’s alright, it’s alright, the Hollywood press will provide cover tonight
And will dutifully drench you in the perfect light
It’s alright, it’s alright,
You surely won’t be bothered by the phantoms of life
So you can preach left and still be so right

Alright! (You are so correct, sir) So right
You’re so right, so right, so right, so right, so right
You can never be wrong!

Composition © 2004 Ric Albano
Publication © 2005, 2009, 2011 Cygnus Wave Music

Song Info
Composed on June 23, 2004
Recorded starting on May 9, 2005
at Saturation Acres, Danville, PA
Produced by Ric Albano
Engineered by Paul Smith
Mixed and Mastered in 2005
at Silver Spring Subterranean
Original Release: October 10, 2005
on Imaginary Lines I
This Release: September 9, 2009
on Imaginary Lines 33

Performers
Ric Albano
Harpsichord, Keyboards, Bass Guitar, Vocals
Bret Alexander
Acoustic and Electric Guitars
Ron Simasek
Drums

Listener Guide
Grade

Analysis: The layered soundscapes enrich this song as it migrates from section to section, in a gloomy and fatalistic creed.

Song Trivia
“Perfect Light” was written in response to a pathetic, “puff piece” version of The E True Hollywood Story on an established mainstream actor.

Please offer your own analysis of Perfect Light by leaving a comment in the box below.

Good Friday

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Written by Ric Albano Song Length: 7:50
Listen to the Song: Purchase the MP3:
[audio:GoodFriday.mp3]
Lyrics
An excrutiating dose of harsh reality
On this dreary, dark, cold March afternoon
A reputed chunk of my personality is ground to dust within this airtight room
I summon the ghost of the Ancient One, her name is on the tip of my tongue
And brace for a sharp ratiocination but unmercifully that blow never comes

So while I’m dancing on the head of a stick
Awaiting your distinction between “Joe Hero” and “Jack Convict”
I’ll fight the urge to quench the thirst
Of our ancestor’s cravings by not behaving so burned and conned

As my illusion of grandeur slowly crashes
One underlying discourse starts within
Will today’s holy palms become the ashes –
That will accompany tomorrow’s changing hymns?
And so that brings us to Good Friday;
“We both knew this day would someday come”
Although fasting from meat may make you hungry
I’d have never believed you’d eat your young

In a room off pothole infested roads we’d play
Those relative games of black & white & shades of gray
While fueling the urge to fill the void
In our ancestor’s yearnings without concerning this new paragon

Forsaken descendants, mechanical offspring
You’ll never have children while the burden consumes you
Forsaken ancestry – tear down the Temple wall, firebomb the pyramids,
Level the twin towers, then run!

But no one reminds me like you do
Of the ideals and ambitions that have been lost
Of all those naïve conclusions where we’d arrive, fooled
That the best things in life must harbor cost
And so we return to Good Friday, a verge that we’ve expected all the while?
Can either of us see beyond today? May Saturday’s dawn yet be compiled?

Harmoniously singing the songs of yesterday
In an attempt to fabricate those verbal games we play
Our aria is composed of tunes of our ancestor’s likeness-
Too polite to seize our day – Carpe diem!
I want it all and I want it right now!

Forsaken opportunity, situation unforeseen
You never did prepare for this day as reality
Forsaken opportunity – tear down the fortress walls, back-fill your foxhole,
Good Friday has come and now has gone!

Composition © 2002 Ric Albano
Publication © 2005, 2009, 2011 Cygnus Wave Music

Song Info
Composed on March 22, 2002
Recorded starting on April 8, 2005
at Saturation Acres, Danville, PA
Produced by Ric Albano
Engineered by Paul Smith
Mixed and Mastered in 2005
at Silver Spring Subterranean
Original Release: October 10, 2005
on Imaginary Lines I

Performers
Ric Albano
Piano, Keyboards, Bass Guitar, Vocals
Bret Alexander
Electric and Acoustic Guitars
Ron Simasek
Drums and Percussion
Sinclair Soul
Background Vocals
Listener Guide
Grade

Analysis: This was upon its release, and remains to this day, the best Imaginary Lines song. It the longest song in duration and contains the most complex arrangement of instrumentation, yet deceptively sounds so easy going and simple. The lyrical content is complex and hard to decipher as it draws from several sources – poetic, spirtual, and real-life, while the instrumental “coda” section is a deliberate artistic statement on its own.

Song Trivia
Much of the song was written in a writing lab where Ric tutored while he was a senior at Bloomsburg University in 2002. Although it was actually a “dreary, dark, cold March afternoon” which happened to be a Friday, it was not Good Friday, as that was observered a week later.
The “coda” section was recorded separately from the song proper and it builds to included three piano tracks, three lead synthesizers, three guitars, and two full drum perfomances, along with the one simple, repeating bass line.

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The Phoenix

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Written by Ric Albano Song Length: 3:56
Listen to the Song: Purchase the MP3:
[audio:ThePhoenix.mp3]
Lyrics
It appeared you found a new direction, heading down towards the mines
Where you would pick for gold in dire perplexion
Disregarding all alternative signs
To a future wrought by burrowing down, you’d resigned

Then sometime came some eccentric stranger
Seemed quite familiar, but yet not quite
Who would harass until you’d ogre the danger
Until finally you’d step out into the light
Those derivatives of naïveté you’d now fight

Your millstone is that of one self-carved and with gaiety
But this lusus naturae must now be collapsed through rumpus mutiny
The rain falls down but there’s no comfort in the cool
The wretched heat cannot be dampened by the pool

You break down, disintegrate, and break down
Refined into diminutive shapes
Ordained reality, from this flame no escape

It appears you found a new direction, pointed towards the sky
Puissant with refreshed predilection
Black elbows, white lightning in your eyes
From the serrated, glassy desert floor you now rise!

Composition © 2004 Ric Albano
Publication © 2005, 2009, 2011 Cygnus Wave Music

Song Info
Composed on December 10, 2004
Recorded starting on May 9, 2005
at Saturation Acres, Danville, PA
Produced by Ric Albano
Engineered by Paul Smith
Mixed and Mastered in 2005
at Silver Spring Subterranean
Original Release: October 10, 2005
on Imaginary Lines I
This Release: September 9, 2009
on Imaginary Lines 33

Performers
Ric Albano
Piano, Keyboards, Bass Guitar, Vocals
Bret Alexander
Electric Guitars
Ron Simasek
Drums

Listener Guide
Grade

Analysis: Although this was an excellent “kick-off” song, it is probably the weakest song on Imaginary Lines I. It does nicely build tension before releasing energy during the bridge and outtro sections, but suffers from weak vocals and a muddled overall mix.

Song Trivia
This auto-biographical song was written by Ric Albano on his 36th Birthday.
The lyric “It appears you found a new direction, pointed towards the sky” is influenced by the rare dystopian song by Pink Floyd called “Point Me At the Sky”, which contains the lyric “And if you survive ’til 2005 I hope you’re exceedingly thin / For if you are stout you will have to breathe out while the people around you breathe in”.

Please offer your own analysis of The Phoenix by leaving a comment in the box below.

Princess of Pearl Avenue

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Written by Ric Albano Song Length: 4:22
Listen to the Song: Purchase the MP3:
[audio:PrincessOfPearlAvenue.mp3]
Lyrics
Just to see you dance ignites a fire deep inside my heart
The essence of true romance that perseveres even when we’re apart
So why not just take a chance, remove constraints that inhibit this start
Please let me see you dance, I’m well aware of the difficult circumstance
Just can’t compare any other woman with you
Princess of Pearl Avenue, Princess of Pearl Avenue

Just to hear you sing that sweet song will be worth the wait
The prospect of this happening
Must soon begin to unfold towards this fate
We’ve just begun to progress, would be now rash to evacuate
Away from the song you’ll sing or towards excessive worrying
About the risk that this faculty does come true
Princess of Pearl Avenue, Princess of Pearl Avenue

I know that I’ve made my bed, spent way too much time inside my own head
But now I feel that the base has been bore
The eagle will leave this floor and will soar like never before

It’s all in your control, my wish on you bestow, enchanted glow
No tragic Vince Van Gogh nor tragic Edgar Poe, just cool old flow
We surely took it slow is it not time to go on with the show?
No? No. No! I’m not gonna let it go

Just to feel you rock shoots white lightning all through my veins
Every time I hear you knock,
It’s as if nothing in life is yet mundane
But after an ocean of talk,
Is it not time to finally get into the game?
Just to see you rocked is jubilation of the highest stock
Imagination can hold nothing against the real you
Princess of Pearl Avenue, Princess of Pearl Avenue

Composition © 2006 Ric Albano
Publication © 2009, 2011 Cygnus Wave Music

Song Info
Composed on June 7, 2006
Recorded starting on April 13, 2007
at Saturation Acres, Danville, PA
Produced by Ric Albano
Engineered by Bret Alexander
Mixed and Mastered in 2009
at Cygnus Wave Studios
Original Release: September 9, 2009
on Imaginary Lines 33

Performers
Ric Albano
Piano, Keyboards, Bass Guitar, Vocals
Erik Trabert
Guitars
Ron Simasek
Drums

Listener Guide
Grade

Analysis: A fun and upbeat rocker sliced in half by a slower and more methodical mid section, with a few issues with overdubs and timings.

Song Trivia
This song originated as a frivolous tune entitled “Things” when it was created in 2006.

To offer your own analysis of Princess of Pearl Avenue, please leave a comment in the box below.

Crimson, White, & Indigo

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Written by Ric Albano Song Length: 4:13
Listen to the Song: Purchase the MP3:
[audio:CrimsonWhiteIndigo.mp3]
Lyrics
Need I be a hero man to admire what true heroes have done?
With deepest valor they put it on the line in their fight for freedom

They’re bred in ordinary towns, yet take their posts along the fringes
Of the wilderness so that the city may thrive in peace

An extraordinary leap of faith that something better is yet to come
All things equal, I think that I would rather be glazed upon with colors…

Colors that encapsulate the future (Colors that captivate)
Let the person determine it himself
The colors that evoke both hope and envy (Colors initiate)
From that person left on the world’s shelf

Across the sea are sown the seeds of a brave new world
Where history turns to stroll along a blazed new path
And the window opens, lets a fresh breeze blow
That loosens up the knots, that animates the cloth
Donned crimson, white, and indigo

Need I be a righteous man to appreciate what the founders had done
Self preservation bowed to principle when it came to freedom

From palaces of enlightenment, the doctrines of self determined
Citizens, colonists no more, for sure they were never going back…

Back to the stale feudal system (Back to the feudal lord)
Overlords dictating terms of self
Nor back to colonial old world missions (Back to the whipping board)
Native peoples subjects of someone else

East of east, you’ll find the western fringe of western thought
A magic link that binds the world together as one
One of innovation, democratization, prosperous and fulfilling long lives

Crimson, white, and indigo
That’s where I’ll go, that’s what I’ll show, what my wind will blow

Composition © 2006 Ric Albano
Publication © 2006, 2009, 2011 Cygnus Wave Music

Song Info
Composed on February 3, 2006
Recorded starting on October 5, 2007
at Saturation Acres, Danville, PA
Produced by Ric Albano
Engineered by Bret Alexander
Mixed and Mastered in 2009
at Cygnus Wave Studios
Original Release: September 9, 2009
on Imaginary Lines 33

Performers
Ric Albano
Keyboards, Bass, Lead & Backing Vocals
Janet Rains
Lead & Backing Vocals
Ron Simasek
Drums and Percussion
“The Freedom Singers”
Backing Vocals

Listener Guide
Grade

Analysis: The riff is simple and catchy. The verses are a bit rough vocally but give way to a much more melodic feel due to the vocals of Janet Rains. There is some awkwardness towards the ending, as well as muffed lyrics.

Song Trivia
The song is obviously written about the U.S.A. The title comes from Grateful Dead song called “Standing On the Moon” with the lyric – “old glory standing stiffly, Crimson, White, & Indigo”. THe Grateful Dead later (after the release of Imaginary Lines 33 released a live compilation with this same title.
“Crimson, White, & Indigo” was to be the first song on the now-defunct Imaginary Lines III.

Please offer your own analysis of Crimson, White, & Indigo by leaving a comment in the box below.