The story helped me shape the record and it gives it some over-arching structure. As far as execution goes, it's closer to Grandaddy's last record in that it has a thematic sameness, but not a coherent story. All of these flirt with pretension and self-indulgence, but the payoff for a successful narrative is worth it. Well, it's more cohesive. MSOF was pulled from the last MK Ultra sessions we did with John Croslin and my first stabs at solo stuff.
Time travel is Lonely is also a lot stranger.
I had a lot of time to experiment in the studio and add odd sounds and harmonies this time. The most important thing I learned since MSOF was the importance of erasing tracks. After everything was layered and dense beyond belief, I went in and ruthlessly erased five to 10 tracks at a time. So that accounts for some of the odd imagery. I remember Liz Phair saying she wrote songs to express the things she couldn't say out loud.