Song of the Week: Dipped

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! Now that we're well into the new year, it's time to get back to our regular schedule. This edition of Song of the Week is a tad late - my humble apologies for that but I was waylaid by a virus, then shortly after awful flu and several other health related issues. Hopefully it'll be worth the wait. If it's not, no refunds, sorry!

Ok, let's get to it. As you'll have guessed from the title, this week our focus is on Dipped. Zac once again expertly presents us with a seemingly simple package but guides us through complex layers containing themes of mental agony alongside desperation and defeat.

There are some familiar Skinner Brothers tropes in this song (depression, loneliness) but they're presented much differently. Instead of being full of gritty realism (as in Lonedon for example), Dipped leans into the darker side of escapism, leaving much open to interpretation.

Musically the song begins like a lullaby but gradually descends into a sound akin to experimental rock, verging on the psychedelic. Does this illustrate a slow descent into madness? It feels that way to me. I kind of like the implication that experimental rock is where insanity lives!

Have you ever felt so down
Your heart skips beats and your feet drag on the ground
Say you never will again
Just one last time don't kid yourself it's

The accompanying notes to the first couple of lines of the first verse almost feel like a lullaby - they're very gentle and soothing. They reinforce the lyrics very well to invoke a sense of empathy or sympathy toward our narrator. Don't get too comfy in that spot though. The drums kicking in on the third line of the verse begin our gradual descent into the dark side of the moon. It feels a bit like a much slower version of the Scooby Doo ripple effect.

"Ruh-roh!"

As the music gradually shifts from that deceptive lullaby into the heavier, distorted space of experimental rock, we hit the chorus. This is where the escapism takes a sour turn.

Please don't let this beast defeat me
I wish I never took the venom

The "beast" here feels like a visceral representation of depression or self-doubt; a predatory monster that the narrator is pleading with. By the time he mentions "the venom," the lullaby is a distant memory and the music has become the very "beast" he’s fighting.

Zac's vocals so cleverly reinforce this idea in the following lines, specifically with "I'm falling down / I'm Satan's clown" - those two lines are sang in a much higher pitch and emulate what we can easily imagine a tortured soul might be feeling.

I'm Satan's clown
Harlequin a torture

These last two lines of the chorus gave me a slight headache. Is "Harlequin" a typo? I suspect that it is, and Zac actually meant Harley Quinn. Though it's possible he intended both and it's a nice bit of wordplay.

If we think about the Harley Quinn lore: she was "dipped" into a vat of chemicals, a moment of no return that shattered her identity and birthed a "clown" devoted to a dark master. If Zac is referencing her, then our narrator is being positioned as someone who has been submerged in their own "venom" (be it a lifestyle, a substance, or a mental state like depression). Which would lead us to the conclusion that he isn't just a victim. He’s given himself up to the madness and is swimming around in it as though this ocean is his natural habitat.

Even if we stick to the traditional definition of Harlequin, the meaning remains tragic. The Harlequin is a servant character, a "trickster" in a mask. To be "Satan’s clown" is to perform a role of forced joy while internally enduring "a torture" (quite a good description of what it means to battle depression, too).

Whether it’s 16th century theatre or a modern comic book / movie tragedy, the sentiment is the same: the narrator is wearing a mask that's starting to melt.

Thinking about it, that masked aspect is an obvious nod to Zac himself, so I'm leaning into the conclusion that both interpretations are valid and "Harlequin" is a play on words.

Yeah I'ma rip
Angel and a devil on my shoulder tip
Come find me if you need a bit
Send my love to your brain it DIPPED

Here's another bit of duality for you: "Angel and a devil on my shoulder tip".

This isn't just a cliché, it’s a representation of the hyper-aware internal monologue of someone experiencing mental agony. One side is screaming for the lullaby to return, the other side wants to "rip."

When Zac sings "Yeah I’ma rip," his vocals give the impression of a violent tearing away from reality. It’s the moment the brain finally "dips" out of the room: a sudden, impolite departure. A psychic exit of sorts.

Having experienced some of these feelings via depression myself, I can't emphasise enough how much I'm continually floored by the way Zac represents these things so artistically. Not just lyrically either, both the music and vocals seem to hit just the right note, pace and structure at exactly the right times. Though not always literal, it feels accurate.

Never felt so alive
As when I'm falling from the sky again

These lines from the final verse give us the ultimate contradiction. There's a strange, terrifying adrenaline in finally hitting rock bottom. The experimental rock sound at this point has reached a chaotic frenzy. Our narrator has stopped looking for a "city full of people" to know his name. Instead he's accepted the freefall, the descent into madness. By the time he concludes that "people lie," he's stripped away all the social pretences. In the context of the song, the "lullaby" was the lie and the noise is the honest, naked truth.

Again, referencing my own depression, this feels so accurate. I've lived with it for around 25 years and every single time an episode arises it somehow takes me by surprise. To equate those beginning stages with a lullaby is genius. You know the depression is beginning to emerge but it's somehow a comfortable, familiar feeling that lulls you into thinking that it's not a threat. Until it's too late that is, at which point the lullaby has turned into that frenzy of experimental / psychedelic rock and the "noise" has completely engulfed you.

On a lighter note: you may have noticed the bits of dialogue woven into the song. It's been bugging me where that voice is from since I first heard it months ago. I was fairly sure it was the voice of Cliff Steele from Doom Patrol, but I was completely wrong.

Jill: "That was close. Thanks, Barry!"

Barry: "Don't mention it. What a monster. I can't believe it. What the hell is this place anyway?"

When I did my research into this (months ago) it turned out that the quote is actually from the video game Resident Evil. I'm an avid gamer but I've never played that one so didn't recognise it (anything requiring being even half accurate with a gun is beyond my skill set, I lean more toward strategy and RPG games). Aside from being a third-person shooter, it's also a survival horror game. Which seems to me another great, if dark, way of describing what it's like to do battle with your own pysche.

The altered voice reminded me so much of Cliff that I really thought it was him. I won't lie, I was a tiny bit disappointed, especially as "What the hell is this place anyway?" sounds exactly like something he'd say. I'm not complaining too much though as my research did lead me to this endlessly amusing compilation of Cliff saying "WTF" over and over again.

In a way, the character of Cliff could be described as a spiritual match for the term "Satan's Clown" so it wouldn't have been out of place either. Just saying.

To bring this thing to a close before I send you to sleep, Dipped doesn't give us any happy endings. Nor does it return to the safety of that lullaby. Instead it leaves us in that chaotic feeling experimental / psychedelic space where insanity resides. Zac has very cleverly shown us that once you take that venom and the brain "dips", the world never quite sounds (or looks) the same again. Yet another accurate description of my own experiences.

I adore this song. It's so well written and portrayed. Zac's vocals are beautifully exquisite on this, and so accurately bend to match the lyrics that it's downright spooky in places. When I started writing this I was struggling a little to piece together some kind of cohesive meaning. I didn't find this an easy one to write about but maybe that's fitting. We are dealing with a slow descent into insanity, after all.

I don't know about you, but I give this one a score of 1000/10.

Dipped is part of the album Soul Boy V, which you can buy from Bandcamp by clicking the button below. Or you can grab a copy on vinyl from the official merch store.

Buy the album on Bandcamp