Said, Unsaid
This album was conceived through a long and difficult journey spanning several years. It came from a creative drought that was brought on by years of inner turmoil and an unrelenting struggle to carve a path through a failed career with personal collapse, deep economic instability, and emotional upheaval, until the calling finally found us.
It wasn’t until sometime in early 2022 that we chose to finally unite. We decided to return to the songs we had once written. Some of these pieces, born near the end of the last century, were revisited, reworked, and rewritten. Others were blended with new creations and recorded together to reflect the deep anxiety we felt toward a society in decline, during an era that has yet to find its way forward.
Written and produced by the Color Set.
https://thecolorset.bandcamp.com/album/said-unsaid
Photograph: “The Safety of Fear” by Alyssa L. Miller, CC BY 2.0
Pretend All is Well
This song was written as a reflection of the personal storms and historic tragedies we recently watched unfold. With a deep haunting notion, this song captures the emotions of our dream for a fleeting moment of peace. We wish to calm the restless worries in our minds and hope to quiet our fears. We can only dream of this, knowing that the next generation will have to rise and confront the struggles passed down on them by today’s old, wounded egos that are set on destroying our future.
Photograph: Filming the police at fair housing protest, 1964” by Seattle Municipal Archives, CC BY 2.0
Never Forever
In our moments of disappointment, sadness, and shame, time seems to fracture, spinning endlessly in a cycle of dread with no end in sight (well, at least that’s how we felt when writing this song). Perhaps there is a faint hope, a brief pause in the cycle where we might turn inward to reflect on who we are and confront the emotions we carry. These remembered moments remain untouched by the cruel words of others, spoken with the intent to wound. Even as we accept our faults and choose to move forward, this song to us reflects the struggle to keep going, to persist through the uncertainty, never knowing if our efforts will hold meaning in the end.
Photograph: Casa França” by Roͬͬ͠͠͡͠͠͠͠͠͠͠͠sͬͬ͠͠͠͠͠͠͠͠͠aͬͬ͠͠͠͠͠͠͠ Menkman, CC BY 2.0
Post Empire
This empire will crumble and this empire will fall. It feels like we are both fortunate and cursed to witness the tragedy of this era in our lives as it unfolds, to watch the unraveling of empathy, peace, love, and justice, values we claim to hold together or perhaps never truly held at all. Each day offers a moment that we cherish, whether in our sleep, in our dreams, or in the quiet stillness of our minds, where we may never awaken. Maybe that moment lives forever within us, something we carry always, forever in our hearts, in our hearts.
Photograph: “Shima the business man” by Roͬͬ͠͠͡͠͠͠͠͠͠͠͠sͬͬ͠͠͠͠͠͠͠͠͠aͬͬ͠͠͠͠͠͠͠ Menkman, CC BY 2.0
A Halo That Glows
This song was written around the idea that life can be short-lived. What we learned from those we once believed in, we must now unlearn, breaking free from their hold and the false beliefs they placed upon us. There are those who would steal our lives and drain our time, using us to fill the void of their own emptiness. But they will never understand what makes us who we are.
As the world turns and the fire within us burns, let us move forward together, no longer swaying side to side in reaction to their chaos and their aimless noise. Instead, let us carry the light within us, and may we glow together for eternity.
Photograph: “drama at the birdfeeder” by woodleywonderworks, CC BY 2.0
Slip Street
It was from the last century’s closing and into the 21st that we shaped these melodies to represent our untamed frustrations. This song was carried through a decade of our failed creative attempts to live in a city of broken dreams where we wished we belonged, to work without pay, socialize with friends with no feelings, and to experience love with no depth. Now in our life’s second act, the world grinds on in ways we could never have imagined. Yet our times have become twisted just like our inner thoughts. As we move through unseen and mindless antics, we try to navigate through it all. What we have that’s good, we grasp tight before it slips away.
Photograph: “Wet Street | KL Street 2015” by John Ragai, CC BY 2.0
Saturn
Our universal inner thoughts have remained the same. It’s the outer construct, the words, the melody, the emotions, and the sounds that have been reimagined for a world we no longer know. Numbness and resignation can only glaze over the routine we see play out on our screens. So we wait to play again, outside the mental prisons that we’re forced to endure. We whisper to ourselves, which is the only voice left to hear. It’s the only speech that speaks to us. It touches our past, present, and future, forever drifting endlessly between space and time.
Photograph: “Film swap with Stephen Thorley” by Khánh Hmoong, CC BY 2.0
Double Exposure
The relationships we forge may not be known or seen by others as proper or whole. They may lack integrity, but they breed true honesty that can’t be ignored. That’s what we hope comes across with this song. At some point, we’ll discover that some connections are made not through love or lust but through money, power, and control. Let the strong handshakes talk, while the corrupt and corrupted kiss, dance, and fade. These connections will eventually cross paths and face their unknowns.
Photograph: “Guam US / AGFA VISTAPlus / SuperSampler Dalek” by Toomore Chiang, CC BY 2.0
A Shadow Life
Psychology is our belief system, shaping how we analyze the reasons for our being. Diving deep into the darkness, we continue searching for meaning, finding no truth, only the lies told beyond us. Written with anger and sung in solitude, this song descends into our emotional disarray, searching for balance among broken relationships built on lust and torn apart by an endless love of nothing.
Photograph: “DSC01843” by Anna M. Gonzalez, multimedia content producer, CC BY 2.0 uphillsnowballs.com/
Zero Mind
This song was written to capture the feeling of our collective broken minds. Some may agree; others may never know or care. In this forever fever dream, we somehow learn to live. We are forced to hear the tall tales, stories that serve only those whose aim is to win. Here, your knowledge is no good; your creativity is used to sell, stripped of its process and reduced to a colorful cent. It’s the smell of success that they desire. Zero is the only number to count. Zero is the number they’ll ever know.
Photograph: “Beach Directions” by Nick Page, CC BY 2.0
This Perfect Moment
The last song on the album was one of the first ever written, setting the tone and shaping the overarching mood of this journey. Though we carry anguish, we hold onto hope for a future untold. With optimism in our hearts, we believe we will arrive at a place of compassion for all living souls. This may feel unreal, like a past without a present, starting closer to the middle, but it’s nowhere near the end of what often feels like endless nihilism. As we close this album, we hope we have shared a creative experience that may never be perfect but might remain memorable, lingering beyond the moment we spent together. Until next time, when we meet again.
Photograph: “.” by Khánh Hmoong, CC BY 2.0