Changing of the Guards

The words

A dense allegory of a long struggle, a lost lover and an old order about to fall.

A dense, dreamlike allegory that runs for more than six minutes and opens the album. It moves through images of a long struggle, a lost woman, merchants and thieves, and powers that seem ready to fall, without telling a straightforward story. The verses build toward the sense that an old order is ending and something new must take its place. The arrangement is big and full, with horns and backing singers driving it forward.