Or maybe time is just an illusion. It sure feels that way right now during a global pandemic with no promise for future gigs or future anything. Broken Bride is one of those records that effortlessly creeps back into my life from time to time. Introducing Broken Bride to someone new usually means I will listen to it a handful of times in a row and try to reimagine the record as a newcomer.
The EP consists of just five movements: Pt. As a rock opera, Broken Bride possesses a variety of sounds ranging from the traditional rock vibe to a western rock sound complete with bandit whistling and comes to a dramatic, tearful end with a piano ballad. It tackles grief and has a shimmer of hope. The mayor feels hopeless in this battle and inadequate to lead his people, so amid the discussion, he shoots himself in the head.
You read that correctly—a time machine. The wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey goodness of a time-traveling story. The world is going to shit and the only thing that would help ease his troubles would be to hold his wife again.
He decides that night to try and open the time portal that will transport him back to the day his wife died. It serves as an internal monologue for Michael, who explains to us that his wife died in a car accident back in May Oh baby, baby, how I lost my mind Time is quite the killer when you're left behind The airbag held you 'til the engine slept At home your pillow cooled while the willows wept.
Throughout this record, Michael battles all kinds of monsters from zombies to dinosaurs, and later on, a dragon. I think the most jarring thing about this scene for him, though, is the fact that his crash site reminds him of the car accident that took his wife. Like motor oil down my throat, I couldn't speak, I dropped the phone The burning flares, the steam, your hair, bits of glass, they sparkled everywhere Like winter nights, the stars, the ice all intertwined to hold and keep Like petals pressed in sheets, making love to moonlight in our sleep And now above the pits of tar, in a cave I hide That massive, screaming thing with wings of reaper's cloth It's standing just outside I must get to my machine, I will bring you back to life Fix your ruined lungs, I'll undo what time has done.
