The Amazing Devil is headed by actress, singer, and living goddess Madeleine Hyland. Oh, and also that lovely guy from Netflix’s The Witcher. We joke, of course, but many have come to be adoring fans of this folksy, jazzy, fantastical band through Joey Batey’s captivating performance onscreen. On their most recent album, The Horror and the Wild, the duo takes the listener on a journey into the depths of haunted woods and howling mountains, and deeper still into our generational heartbreak and dreams. Many of the songs on this album are expressions of demons both literal and figurative while others are expressions of joy in madness and love. Come take a dive as Adri and Rebecca from the Basic Stuff team feel every feeling throughout nine tracks of the unique and universal mythos. This is not a review (it’s a love note). 

 

“The Rockrose and the Thistle”

All the pins inside your fretted head

And your muttered whens and hows

All your mother’s weaves and your father’s threads

Let me rob them of you now

 

Adri: The first track in the album sets the tone immediately by hitting home with its haunting acapella plea. The words reaching out to a loved one or a lover in distress strike home for someone who has experienced both sides of mental illness in friendships and relationships. This cry to help and be helped in one of the most isolating of situations tells us what kind of an existential ride we are about to embark on. 

 

I wake and hear you calling

And up those cliffs I climb

And I find you with a thimble weeping

May I, I ask, may I?

 

Rebecca: For me, one of the greatest gifts in life is having people in your life who will darn you back together. Who will see you sad and know to reach out; who will hear, “I’m fine,” and ask, “Really?” We all need someone prepared to scale the side of a cliff to check on us and, when we’re ready, let us share our burden.

 

 

 

“The Horror and the Wild”

Remember me I ask, remember me I sing

Give me back my heart you wingless thing

 

Adri: A breakup song, but it tastes like heroics and heartbreak. Truly, as someone who has come to appreciate that the breakup song is a genre of music not exclusively tied to romantic spite, “The Horror and the Wild” sounds like the many battles we fight when we are too far down the road to huddle in childhood but unable to reach the peaks of adulthood. We’re marching, not entirely sure where to, and quite angry about it. 

 

Day by day oh lord three things I pray

That I might understand as best I can,

How bold I was, could be – will be – still am, by god still am

 

Rebecca: Sometimes you just need a reminder that you are, in fact, the Wild. Whether you’ve wandered off to search for your path or have struggled with feeling like you’re “worth it” (at whatever subjective worth we place on ourselves), there is this boldness that you had, have, will have that the world deserves to see. “The Horror and the Wild” proclaims, loudly, that whatever expectations have been set of us, we are more than capable of exceeding them; all while having the specter of Time watching us grow and learn and be bold.

 

 

“Wild Blue Yonder”

Come and rip off my socks like you’re blasting the locks off of a bank vault. Halt!

 

Adri: Perhaps my favorite thing about the album is how it hops from a place of fantasy to a place of absolute realism. Both tones are speaking truths, but songs like “Wild Blue Yonder” take your bare feet from the moisty-crunch forest floor to cold kitchen tiles that are just this side of sticky. The wolves are ever present throughout the album, but in this particular song, they are outside while the lovers are contending with each other and their runaway youth. 

 

Every brick you hurled, I’ll use to build this world

This world This world This world

 

Rebecca:  It feels like a victory to take a socially distant walk while loudly listening to a song about hiding yourself away from the demons, ghosts, monsters, robot vampires (I dunno) that seem unavoidable in these turbulent times. But these two particular lines have always stood out to me, along with the earlier “[E]very stone you threw, I stood on to better see the view.” You’re going to try to break us down? We’ll use that to build ourselves up. Our demons may be out there, but when we do come out from under the covers, we’ll be stronger than ever.

 

 

 

“Welly Boots”

And I love you, don’t you know

That I’ll be with you all along, as long as you are kind

To those who are not strong and cannot find their scarlet welly boots

 

Adri: Growing up, my mother told me this very famous Cuban story/poem about a mischievous little girl whose mother warned her about ruining her fancy rose-colored slippers and who ended up giving them to an impoverished and sickly girl. The scarlet welly boots, much like the rose-colored slippers, are lessons on life and compassion for us to take on our journey with us, even when the people who gave them to us aren’t around. 

 

Just when you’re about to give up every hope you have you turn around

Perched by the stairs, someone’s gone and left behind

A brand new pair of scarlet welly boots

 

Rebecca: Even though you’re strong enough to do this on your own, you’re never really alone. Much like Time was watching over the Wild earlier in the album, we are removed from our typical view of the world and given an omniscient yet focused perspective. This song is for everyone who has ever felt a loved one right there with them, even when they weren’t. 

 

 

“Farewell Wanderlust”

Because Farewell Wanderlust, you’ve been oh so kind

You brought me to this party but you left me here behind

So long to the person you begged me to be

She’s down. She’s dead

 

Adri: Another song that straddles the realities between the fantastical and any place you might find yourself in on a Friday night. Is it a tavern on the edge of the world or a dark bar in the middle of the city? It doesn’t matter; what matters is that you have been dragged or lured to this part of your life by someone who drew you out of your shell and changed you…only to leave you without a road map or any idea about who you are. 

 

I promise you I’m not broken

I promise you there’s more

More to come, more to reach for, more to hurl at the door

 

Goodbye to all my darkness, there’s nothing here but light

Adieu to all the faceless things that sleep with me at night

This here isn’t make up, it’s a porcelain tomb

This here is not singing, I’m just screaming in tune because

 

Rebecca: Let’s be honest—none of my scream-singing is in tune. But by the time I get to these lyrics, I have amped up the volume so loud that no one can hear me singing along anyway. Existing in the world seems like an exercise in conforming to expectations. Have your kids, achieve things your family can brag about at parties, make sure you don’t gain too much weight. I once read a book with an entire chapter dedicated to telling female job candidates what the “best” amount of makeup is to wear to an interview. This song takes all expectations and strides away from them with its head held high.  

 

 

 

“Fair”

It’s not fair, It’s not fair how much I love you

It’s not fair cos you make me weep when I’m just trying to watch The Office with my yoghurt

 

Adri: We don’t know the technical term for that honest and breathy thing Joey Batey does that hits you in the solar plexus with the feeling of being completely knocked out by your love for someone (see also I’m weak my love, and I am wanting). Anyway, we don’t know what that’s called, but, yeah, that. 

 

Oh how, oh how unreasonable

How unreasonably in love I am with everything you do

I’ll spend my days so close to you cos if I’m stood here

Then I’m stood here

And I’ll stand here

I’ll stand here with you

 

Rebecca: The thing that is probably the most unreasonable is the expectations I have for love after listening to this song. But honestly, there is an enviable level of comfort in the love described here; that it’s the everyday things that make you realize you’ve found the perfect partner. Even when they’re distracting you from your favorite television show or making “that’s what she said” jokes during a romantic moment, there is no one you’d rather have by your side.

 

 

“That Unwanted Animal”

You turn the telly on

To drown out your fear

You make the bed up silent on the floor

So no-one will hear us

You try so loud to love me

I cannot seem to hear

 

Adri:  Years ago a sweet older woman wearing a mumu and possessing a PhD in Psychology told me and a room full of other 15-year-olds, “Every one of us is an animal capable of murder.” I think about that…mmm…about ten times a year. This song reflects that absolutely terrifying truth with the kind of despair that makes me ignore it for the rest of the year. Our loves, the bonds we form, the families we create, they are what stands between us and the animals we are. 

 

Cos you, you touch

My skin peels off like paint

But beneath all of our panting

There’s this noise I cannot shake

 

Can’t you hear that scratching?

There’s something at the door

 

Rebecca: Remember when we were all feeling so jaunty and bounding along to “Wild Blue Yonder” and there was just a hint of scratching?  Yeah, our demons are here now. We’ve hidden from them and ignored their presence. They will not be ignored any longer and the way Madeleine Hyland’s voice builds makes sure you know that something is right around the bend. The demons grew stronger and stronger and stronger and now those prayers you’re saying to keep them at bay are so sudden and rapid you might as well be applauding. Not sure who they’ll help, but, no, no, not I.

 

 

 

“Marbles”

And now, even though you’re mad and these memories won’t stay, it’s okay

Cos now I get to meet you for the first time every single day

 

Adri:  The Notebook can get absolutely wrecked, this song does it better and faster. 

 

You’d swoon, you’d sigh, working shifts till we cried

Oh if one more guy calls me darling then I

swear to you and to god I will murder them all, all the bastards applaud when I show that I’m flawed

You’re not flawed darling, you’re just a little under-rehearsed.

 

Rebecca: Picking a favorite line in this song is an almost insurmountable task. The last line of the above lyrics has always resonated deeply with me, though. I’m a perfectionist. Whether it’s writing a three-line email, playing a sport, or meeting new people, I hate doing things that I am not immediately good at. Clearly, there must be something wrong with me if I can be good at everything all of the time. Even worse? Not being perfect when other people can see me fail. But that’s not being flawed — it’s just being new to something. It’s being human. Also — how freaking cheeky is calling someone darling after they’ve just said they’ll murder the next person who calls them darling? Love it.

 

 

 

“Battle Cries”

I’m going to binge watch a box set, drink wine, reminisce

This isn’t a break up dear heart, it’s a season finale

 

Adri:  This song is a story about the album and a story about lovers and a story about taking control of the narrative of your own life. So much is out of our control when we love other people that when it ends, we try to regain some of that control. But because we don’t have time travel (yet), the only thing we can control is how we hold that story in our heart and mind, how we present it to other people, how we choose to remember it, and how we take it with us into the next part of our lives. It’s a season finale.  

 

And as I walk away I know I’ve been through the wars,

But that creaking you hear in my bones is not pain, it’s applause

 

Rebecca:  This song takes me on another personal detour as I am writing this on my grandmother’s 103rd birthday. Though I know this song’s lyrics have primarily breakup connotations, these particular lines, as well as, “And these lines aren’t wrinkles dear heart / They’re just dollops of paint on a new work of art,” always make me think of her. I have heard stories of her living through over a century of joy and her fair share of hardship. Those creaking joints of hers?  They are filled with memories of helping raise her siblings during the Great Depression; of casting her first ever vote for FDR; of being born in the midst of World War I and living through every subsequent conflict; and of always, always reminding me that this too shall pass. Every struggle faced and survived by anyone is a victory, and one that should be celebrated.

 

Adri’s Fave: “Battle Cries”

Rebecca’s Fave: “Wild Blue Yonder”

 

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The Horror and the Wild, as well as the Amazing Devil’s first album Love Run, are available to stream on Spotify and for purchase on Bandcamp. You can catch Joey Batey as Jaskier in The Witcher on Netflix.