I appreciate this thread so much. The Conductor is maybe my favorite track on the album, and one of my favorites in their whole discography. Maybe I’ll add more later, but I’ve noticed a couple of lyrical ties to other songs, albeit probably unintentional ones. The chorus reminds me so much of Of Greetings and Goodbyes (“Go kill the lights, we’ll glow 'til morning comes” relating to Davey hoping to share conductivity amidst draining life.) Also, “bleed into black clouds and I will lick them clean./Turn into a tourniquet and cinch yourself to me” parallels “your sins into me” in Davey’s relishing to connect via absorbing the sinful elements of another.
Also, I enjoy the drive in this song. Burials is full of such lament over loss, I like having a song praising the connection. As much as I like Burials, I think the album would have been stronger if we got more of a sense of Davey’s happiness or wholeness before the burial.
Holy shit… GOOD CALL-OUTS! I didn’t realize those relations at first…
I’m still currently on Burials… I’ve been avoiding listening to single tracks from other songs so that I get the full album effect. I’m getting anxious (depriving myself) to listen to STS possibly next.