It Can Get Worse
Masks and Monsters opener: Scoobert-doobert/youbert summon, dream that feel like nightmare: second summer inside, government keep me alive, pretty day through glass, say no.
Listen: Spotify·Apple Music
ISRC QZK6P2060446 (soundexchange)
Track one on Masks and Monsters: Luke solo, North Park lockdown, August 2020. The LP opens on its title thesis, a weather report rather than reassurance, before the cartoon bits arrive. The avatar even gets summoned to do pandemic labor and then waved off in a parenthetical (I didn’t know there was a youbert), the bit improvised mid-crisis.
From there it runs on dissociation, sunny cognition over a nightmare body, with the grammar slipping the same way the mind does: it feel like a dream, yeah, it feel like a nightmare. The rest is window versus wall, a pretty day outside and contact forbidden, fixed to its exact moment by one line: second summer spent inside, government, keep me alive. The state as lifeline while you’re still trapped. It ends on a refusal chant, exit denied.
Sets up the emotional spine the album essay names, before Snuggle With Shaggy turns the mask back on.
Written, performed, mixed, and mastered by Luke Francis Walton. Album art by Gentle Giant Illustrations.
Lyrics
Scoobert doobert doobert Where are youbert We've got some work to doobert (I didn't know there was a youbert) It feel like a dream Yeah, it feel like a dream Yeah, it feel like a nightmare Yeah It feel like a dream Yeah, it feel like a dream Yeah, it feel like a nightmare Oh, what a pretty day Can you let me out? I wanna get away Get together now Second summer spent inside Government, keep me alive Like Oh, wanna get away Can you let me out? Say, no No no no no no no no No no no no no no no No It feel like a dream Yeah, it feel like a dream Yeah, it feel like a nightmare Yeah It feel like a dream Yeah, it feel like a dream Yeah, it feel like a nightmare Oh, what a pretty day Can you let me out? I wanna get away Get together now Second summer spent inside Government, keep me alive Like Oh, wanna get away Can you let me out? Say, no No no no no no no no No no no no no no no No