Fish Pond Fish

2020 release. Where Birds Say reminisced on the past and Extralife looked to imagined futures, Darlingsides album Fish Pond Fish concerns the claustrophobia of the here and now. Some of the most consistent themes on the album are the desire to return to past states (Keep coming home, take me back to south of Denver) on one hand and change on the other. In some cases, repetition and return are a desirable way to deal with uncertain times; in others, the stagnancy of the present is overwhelming. Much of the album lives in the space between repetition and change, and considers how those two pieces complement one another how either one can be a stress or a salve depending on the circumstances, and how even change itself predictably repeats. As the band sings, things will change, and change again.