The longest song on the album has to be the last, I don’t make the rules. “Paperboy” was a case of ReMi lyrics hitting me way deeper than I anticipated and feeling compelled to take it further and tweak it and add to it. This protagonist of the paperboy, and the nostalgic callout of growing up, wondering where your dreams have gone, and if you’re happy, I started seeing this paperboy character as like my inner child, and wanting to hold onto what he stood for. And with the Bridge or the Outro, this really meaningful and hopeful line just paints this picture of like, a couple that grew up together and evolved and changed so much along the way, and are trying to get back to who they were. Which feels really cool given the little pieces of duet earlier. The last 2 minutes of this song is one of my favorite parts on the whole album, the switch to this stripped down acoustic part that keeps building and building until it’s being belted like a Circa Survive song, it just feels so cathartic and powerful. I knew as soon as I made it that it would have to close out the album. Hope you enjoyed the album, thanks for listening to me ramble, and let me know what you thought along the journey! Okay, uh, IO signing off.
