Heavenly stands as a moving, bruising deep dive into Chrissy’s existential battle not just for the band but her own happiness. Perhaps the most visceral representation of the strain and sorrow faced by the singer over the past few years, however, is Dead Man Walking, which also best surmises how numbing the aftermath of turmoil can feel.
Additionally, it acts as a nod to her love of fictional worlds and fantasy, pulling inspiration from The Lord of The Rings.
“At the end of The Return Of The King, the hobbits are back from their journey and they’re sitting in The Shire in their local tavern and they’re looking at each other because everybody’s so normal, just drinking and having fun. The hobbits are like, ‘This is weird. We have just been to literal Hell, to Mordor and back, and everything’s just normal now.’
“Frodo realises that even though he made it out, he’s not really there anymore. He is a dead man walking, his soul died on that journey,” she continues. “I really resonated with that feeling of, ‘All of these things have changed, I’ve gone through these trials and tribulations and I feel like I have died, and everyone thinks that everything’s the same.’ It’s just not the same, and you feel weird.”
Chrissy says she “had it out” with Dan and Will quite a few times before discussions began to feel effective again.
“Dan and Will and I had a lot of conversations and came out so much stronger on the other side of it, and with new relationships with each other,” she explains. “I think I’ve learned a lot more, not just in Against The Current, about how to communicate what I want, but also when to put up boundaries.”
It was in these fiery depths when she realised that their trip to Mordor and back was necessary to protect something so sacred to their lives.
‘Don’t know why I still need it, but I always do,’ she sings on The Moth, a love letter to Against The Current.
‘Some nights I stare at the ceiling, can’t live without you.’