Mirroring Albums
Structure tricks like mirrors/contrasts within an album fascinate me. For example, I love that both Antimai and Sunya feel like journeys to very different centers, one at the heart of a corrupt civilization, the other at the heart of a perhaps indifferent wasteland. The social commentary of Antimai has a nice contrast in the more spiritual and self-reflective commentary in Sunya.
This led me to think about other mirroring or inversions within the albums and even within tracks, like how many tracks have two distinct parts. Antimai definitely felt like each track started with a more external exploration of a social class and then ended with a more internal exploration. “Middle Class” is an easy example of this idea. The choir of voices seem grateful at first but later acknowledge that they’re buying their own chains.
I imagine I’m not the first to point out the mirrors and contrasts in these albums, so if someone has written extensively on this idea, please share or let me know about any other examples you’ve noticed.