“The Wheel” is the perfect closer for Laura Stevenson’s Wheel, and it was apparently added as an after-thought — a spirited but futile attempt to answer the album’s many open-ended questions. Stevenson’s desperation is strikingly human as she belts out her frantic conclusions, naively undertaking to define her apathy: “Understand that I am only as he made me, a faithful servant to all of the noise, all of the lights, all of the flashing in my head.” Much of “The Wheel” alludes to refrains and phrases from earlier in the album, lending the song a warm, familiar feeling and reinforcing the lyrics’ brave struggle to speak to the record’s overarching themes. As “Wheel” builds to its majestic final climax, Stevenson’s voice rises above the mix, beautifully clear (naturally), to helplessly repeat one final promise: “I will be real, real, real. I’ll turn over like a wheel.”
Gotta get out, before my heart explodes. Candy Says - Not Kings