Template:Cool stuff/album/The Power and the Glory

• Rumor has it that most of the songs on this album were recorded in one take! (Thanks to Phil at InternetMCI.com; however, recordings from the studio sessions on Under Construction cast some doubt on this claim.)
• Each of the first four songs contains the word "hand." (Thanks to George Seaman.)
• There is much symmetry between the first piece, Proclamation, and the last piece, Valedictory. Musically, the vocal melodies are the same. Also, the main guitar theme that begins Valedictory comes from a small keyboard part found in Proclamation at 2:16. The theme in Valedictory is then interleaved with itself on bass and organ (sort of a stretto, if you are into musical terminology). Lyrically, some of the lines in Proclamation ("It can change, it can stay the same") are reflected backwards in Valedictory ("Things must stay, there can be no change").
• In So Sincere, the guitar solo before the first chorus is the same as the synth countermelody to Kerry’'s piano in the second chorus…. (Thanks to Émile Dallaire.)
• The third piece, Aspirations, contains the line "Please make your claims really so sincere." The word "claims" is surely a reference to Proclamation ("I will make my claim"), and "so sincere" is the title of the second piece, So Sincere.
• In the middle section of Cogs in Cogs, the two vocal parts are in very different meters. The first part to enter ("The circle turns around, the changing voices calling...") is in 6/4, but the second one ("Circle turns around the changing voices") is in 15/8. This means that the two melodies "line up" differently in five different ways. The phrases "meet" every 60 eighth notes. (Thanks to Michael Beauvois and Mark Wendt.)
• Also in the middle section of Cogs in Cogs, after the repeating vocals ("Circle turns around the changing voices") have settled in, a slow, flutey-sounding synthesizer line is repeated. This is a very slowed-down, slightly rhythm-altered version of the lead melody in the first 2 measures of the song. (Thanks to Steve Lottich.)
• The seventh piece, The Face, contains the phase "play the game": surely a reference to track four, Playing the Game.
• In the last verse of The Face, the drums are several beats out of sync with the vocal part, compared with the other verses. (Thanks to Michael Beauvois.) Aldo Brucale says that the drums actually keep their normal time, but the bass and violin play ahead of the beat.
• The last ten seconds of Valedictory is the sound of a tape rewinding. In fact, it's the tape of Valedictory itself. If you play it backwards about 10 times slower than normal, you can hear the music. (Thanks to Greg Hajic and Aldo Brucale.)