Ladies and Gentlemen, we proudly present The New Albion Radio Hour, A Dieselpunk Opera. It is live on Bandcamp as of now.
The album features the amazing (seriously, amazing) voices and talents of:
Lauren Osborn as Constance
Oliver Marsh as John
Courtney Ellis as Jacqueline
Act 1 guitar parts by Matthew Broyles
Cover art by Stefan Paris
Written and Produced by Paul Shapera
The biggest and best thanks to Mark Swetz, without whom none of this would have been possible and Kevin Hulburt, whose help in hashing out story ideas continues to be invaluable.
Additional thanks to Tess and Glen Osborn, Patrick Plonski and Nadia Adame & Leyna Swetz.
Naturally, i very, very much hope you all enjoy it. It streams online, but if you do enjoy it, please consider buying it as it really does allow me to eat food and stay alive another day. Enjoy, and we’ll see you all back in a year for the 3rd and final installment of the New Albion Trilogy: The Atompunk Opera.
Let's connect! Here is where you can find me:
@Armand That is a fantastic theory about Lloyd being a doll. I hadn’t even thought about that, but it would make sense. “Blood Red Dogs” has become a favorite of mine as well. Really gives it a rock ‘n’ roll opera feel.
I really enjoyed reading everyone’s thoughts and ideas.
Here’s something that caught my eye: In the beginning of the Dieselpunk Opera, the narrator has the lines of “Come with us, friends, back to a time that never was… The New Albion Radio Hour!” On a surface glance this would refer to New Albion, and indeed, it is called the “lost and fabled New Albion”, giving it a fairly mythic quality.
However, at the end of the Steampunk Opera, the narrator there practically swears that the events did actually happen, and call me what you will but I trust the Steampunk narrator far more than Lloyd. This led me to believe that the Dieselpunk narrator isn’t talking about New Albion in his line, but the Radio Hour itself. The Radio Hour is a “time that never was”, which would hint that there is no Radio Hour and never was. And the whole papaver thing would hint towards a sort of dreamlike effect being present.
I wonder if it’s the underground where Constance was had some sort of effect on her perceptions – maybe she stumbled upon the new drug by accident.
Just my 2 cents on a small but interesting tidbit I had thought on.
That said, I am absolutely enamoured with the entire album, and can’t wait for the third part!
@Curima, in the biographical snippets on this blog, it’s confirmed that Constance is Inanna – Inanna is just a persona she adopts while thieving, an alter-ego, after a fashion. The ‘papaver’ appears to be the opium poppy, so presumably that’s government-sponsored addiction.
@Armand: Thank’s for sharing your thoughts. I listened to the Opera yesterday again and came up with some ideas, too:
The connection between the Narrator and the characters: While Jackie talks to him about taking Thomas back to the surface, Thomas seems to hear the conversation, too, and asks Jackie what she has done. The only one who doesn’t seem to hear the narrator, is John.
“Storyville Station”: I think there’s a lot of meaning in the lyrics. “The play eats the player”, “dreamers lost in dreams within a dream”, “the opera she thought she starred in” – it all seems to be a hint that at least parts of the story are not real or have not really happended. On the other hand, the narrator and Jackie refer to the song as a cure for the population against the Vodoopunk-song.
The Inanna-part still confuses me. In “the bust” Jackie talks to her as Constance, but Thomas still calls her Inanna. I think that maybe Constance is the thief and Inanna ist just her cover?
I think that maybe there’s a connection between the radio show and the population of the city. I mean: The population is influenced by the MCG (is there an idea, what MCG means?) in act three, so they all start singing the vodoopunk song. Maybe the whole radio show is broadcasted by a similar device, making the people of New Albion a part of the radio hour? I don’t know.
Aaaand I think that the papaver cigarettes are an important part of the story. Not only did Paul suggest to google “papaver” in his newest blog entry, but also they appear to be more than a sponsor for the radio show. One of the advertisments even says that the civil war could be ended if all people smoke the cigarettes and relax. AND they are more or less for free and obviously promoted by the government. There could also be a connection between the cigarettes and the power generators that “exrete a dust” that leads to “a pleasing, dreamy high, thus it’s the new drug on the rise”. AND: the boss of the union of spies is called the “cigarette girl”. So I really think there is more to this cigarettes…
Well, it’s fun to speculate about the meaning of all this. Maybe someone else wants to share some ideas?
After having listened to this effectively on repeat since it was released, I’ve begun wildly theorizing about the importance and character of Lloyd, AKA the Narrator or Announcer.
From what I can tell, during the First Act, he doesn’t interact with the characters at all, and serves the more traditional role of a narrator.
In the Second Act, he introduces us to Constance in a manner which seems to imply she’s physically present with him in the studio, but three songs later, she’s forgotten she’s in a play and only half-recognizes him as she’s in the Underground of New Albion. He reminds her not to break character (in what are possibly the creepiest lines of the play), but the interaction between the two seems to indicate that he’s physically present in New Albion with her.
Then, in the Third Act, Jackie openly defies him and addresses him directly, refusing to hand Thomas to the Voodoopunk cultists for execution, and in response he gets oddly angry about “changing the narrative” and tries to tweak events so that Constance will be killed by the Blood Red Dogs, almost out of spite for Jackie’s rebellion. There’s no indication that any of the other characters hear him, except for Jackie and Constance (who shows no indication of hearing him at all throughout Act III).
Then we come to the hidden subtext in some of the songs… Storyville Station, after a couple of re-listens, seems to be a summary of the entire play wrapped up in a symbolic song. Constance is the girl who chose to be a wolf instead, the Prince who gives orders to the General is Lloyd, and the General is John. The King who the Prince defies is also Lloyd, and in this verse, the Prince has become Jackie.
In short, it seems that the Narrator had planned a rather different story than what we ended up getting in the play, and appears to be somewhere between an Omniscient Being and a Greek Chorus.
As for theories… Well, I recall that the Dolls of the first album couldn’t speak, except in mimicing the voice of the radio. And Lloyd is the voice of the radio. I’m beginning to wonder if “Lloyd” isn’t just a single (or collection of) angry ghost seeking to bring New Albion down on itself by manipulating events.
Either way, I’m finding it a fascinating script and I love the re-use of certain musical cues from the first album (“On the day we come it’s over!”, the screeching of the Dolls/dead), and “Blood Red Dogs” has by far become my favourite.
I personally had a different idea. I thought Lloyd and some other people were re-enacting New Albion’s destruction over the radio. Lloyd probably got bored and decided to improve the story but, the other players (especially Jackie) did not like that and argued against it.
I like your theory a lot better that Lloyd was a dead doll that wanted revenge for killing the dolls. I also agree with you about the reuse of songs from the previous opera. I really hope Paul will reuse some songs from this opera into the next.
Dear Mr. Shapera,
the Dieselpunk Opera is amazing! It’s so much fun to listen to it and the story is great and I love the music. The choirs are awesome and even better than in Dolls of New Albion. And I really fell in love with Courtney Ellis’ voice (Lauren and Oliver are great, too).
Question: Are the parts beside of Constance, John and Jackie all sung by yourself? (Lloyd, Thomas, etc.)
And: I’m still trying to figure out what’s going on with the narrator and Jackie and what is really happening. It’s quite tricky. Will you tell us something about this someday?
Anyhoo – Dieselpunk Opera is awesome and I love it! Thank you so much for creating it.
Wow, amazing! I loved the Steampunk Opera and am so glad the next installment is out! I can’t say I got it all but so far it’s really great! I have to listen to it a lot more to really understand what happens. Thanks for creating such an awesome album!
Love it! The third act blew my mind!!!
It is simply amazing! Even more than I was expecting it to be. I hope to see more from you soon. 😀
I absolutely love it. Wow…just wow. *applause*
Purchased it right away, of course.
Courtney Ellis is fantastic as Jacqueline!
10/10, would cry and listen again.
This is absolutely amazing. It is a large improvement over the 2 demo acts I have heard.
I was going to post this on Reddit for more publicity but, someone beat me by one hour. I was listening to the performance instead.
Just bought it and downloaded; and it gives me shivers just like the previous album. I could listen to it for years everyday.
Already purchased it! Oh, goodness. I didn’t think it could get better from what you previously posted, but it’s fantastic!