"Conditions Of My Parole"

Conditions Of My Parole follows Billy D. as the main character. Billy D. is portrayed by Keenan in music videos and such. But when it comes to the song itself, it is fascinating. As I was trying to research and see different people's takes on what they think the song's meaning is, there are so many different interpretations. But I do believe that many people are complicating it. It is honestly just a song about a drunk who is out on parole. Getting so drunk, he blacks out and thinks he even committed murder to something truly evil and will come back for him. Because he thinks this, he carries a gun with him and gets arrested. He even admits to the "murder" and tells the police where the body is. Still, they find nothing because he did not do any of that. He is just blackout drunk. As for the instrumentals, I enjoy them a lot, has a great guitar riff at the beginning. And it has some electronic stuff in there that makes it sound unique. The instrumentals are loud and chaotic, fitting what the song is about. Even throughout the music, they have some parts where it's just vocals, and the instruments come back in, which sounds fantastic.

Another track from this album is called Green Valley. This song is much different than Conditions of My Parole, being more calming and less chaotic. It's one of my favorite songs; you can interoperate it in many ways. One interpretation is more of a personal one towards Keenan trying to figure out his journey with his Vineyard, where he has to learn that he can't do this on his own and to not fight nature's flow. An interpretation I enjoy a lot is about people going to new places they aren't familiar with. And their journey on how they try to get used to the flow of things and to learn from it and what that land has in store for them. I like the lyrics, "No direction, but to follow what you know. No direction, but faith in her decision" As for the instrumentals, it starts with a very soft and calm guitar, but about two minutes into the song guitar becomes harsher and more sudden when the lyrics, "Weigh your worth before her majesty, the Verde River" showing that coming to a new place can be wonderful. Still, there will be obstacles you must overcome if you want to stay there.