The Well of Loneliness
The album opener, "Gone Under Sea" is sung entirely in French. The following song, "On Parade" was inspired by Radclyffe Hall's 1928 lesbian novel, "The Well of Loneliness". A large part of the lyrics in "The Valleys" come from Siegfried Sassoon's 1917 poem "A Letter Home" (from "The Old Huntsman"). The title of the fifth track, "Take The Bit Between Your Teeth," is another reference to The Well of Loneliness. The literary references continue on the sixth track, with "Oh Sombra!" The song's Spanish lyrics are a sonnet by 16th century Catalan poet Juan Boscán Almogáver. Finally, on "This Deed" the German lyrics are from Friedrich Nietzsche's "Die fröhliche Wissenschaft" followed by the inclamation "Hände hoch!" (or "Hands up!"). The lyrical content reflects a departure from the band's earlier album, which was almost entirely instrumental.