A song cycle about grief, regret, loss and eventual hope, the album is thematically framed by three tracks, ``(Manifest)'', ``(Hospital Vespers)'' and ``(Past-Due)'', which set three different sonnets following a terminally ill hospital patient into the aftermath of his death to the same melody. Other songs examine the album's themes from different angles: ``Plea from a Cat Named Virtute'' is written from the perspective of a depressed person's cat, ``One Great City!'' is about Samson's love--hate relationship with his hometown of Winnipeg, and ``Our Retired Explorer'' imagines a dinner date between philosopher Michel Foucault and a hopelessly nostalgic member of Ernest Shackleton's expedition to Antarctica.
Michel Foucault
Ernest Shackleton