The Ghost of Billy Royalton evaded my confidence to write about it for a while. I don't usually find myself too attached to bands to feel the kind of parasocial grief and sadness that most fans do when someone has an untimely passing, but this song was so undeniably in tribute to Tim Feerick's life and the part he played in Dance Gavin Dance, I couldn't help but feel that secondhand bittersweet celebration of his legacy whenever I heard this song.
It is a great song, don't get me wrong. Songwriting alone, it's one of the best tracks they've put out in the past six years. The chorus is unbelievably divine, I haven't heard a Tilian/Jon vocal combo this perfect since the ending of Evaporate. I love that everyone got to say some words, it's been a while since Will threw down some bars in a Dance Gavin Dance song, and Andrew's part is just so touching that I think I teared up the first time I heard it. The instrumentation remains as unique as ever, Will cooks up some new sounds as well with whatever he's doing with pedals these days, and Matt's drumming is on point as always. Sergio taking over bass duties in Tim's absence, he does well in doing Tim's legacy justice.
I think the most heartwarming thing about this song is how they've decided, a year or so after Tim's sudden passing, that they've finally started on the road to healing from the grief and celebrating his life. The title of the song itself is probably an inside joke, but it's clear that it was written about Tim. The lyrics are bittersweet but they are positive, which is not a common thing for them to do. Not really sure what Tilian's lines on the chorus are about, though. It seems the most out of place, but maybe it's about the haters? They do talk a lot about the band in this song too, about keeping it going even after almost two decades of music.
I don't want to say that the tributary nature of this song is integral to its sound, but it's definitely a weight that is impossible to overlook. It's hard not to envision the passion in their voices when they're singing about someone that they lost like this, and it is an emotional experience at its core. It's always been a key aspect of the band that when they decide to tug at the heartstrings, they tug at it hard. The intensities of every part of the band just translate so vividly into emotional capacity.
I'm glad they put this song out, because it many ways it serves as closure for the band and the fans. And if not for anything else, isn't it a great way to be remembered, with an amazing song written by the people you used to take the stages with? It's great to see the band starting to move on and writing music again, and equipped with this new emotional heaviness (and new members), I'm definitely expecting them to sound a bit different for the next album. We're already seeing it with War Machine, but the next album cycle is about to come by soon given their usual two-year cycles, so I'm waiting to see what's new in store. Exciting.
Rating: 4.5/5