Despite having no lyrics, the album is said to follow the story of the Great Leap Forward in Mao Zedong-era China, more specifically recounting the Great sparrow campaign, a mass killing of sparrows (along with rats, flies and mosquitos) that fed on a portion of the harvest and were seen as pests. Peasants were encouraged to bang pots and pans to scare sparrows into continuing flight, eventually killing them from exhaustion.
Whilst the harvest of the year after the campaign was larger, there was a massive rise in locust numbers in the late 50s, as a result of the significantly lower population of sparrows, a major predator of the locust.
The great sparrow campaign and other programs of the Great Leap Forward caused widespread famine where, between 1959 and 1961, 30 million people died of starvation.
Personnel:
Tim Green – Audio engineering, audio mixing and production
01. The Great Leap Forward Poured Down Upon Us One Day Like a Mighty Storm, Suddenly and Furiously Blinding Our Senses
02. We Stood Transfixed in Blank Devotion as Our Leader Spoke to Us, Looking Down On Our Mute Faces With a Great, Raging, and Unseeing Eye
03. Like the Howling Glory of the Darkest Winds, This Voice Was Thunderous and the Words Holy, Tangling Their Way Around Our Hearts and Clutching Our Innocent Awe
04. A Message of Avarice Rained Down Upon Us and Carried Us Away Into False Dreams of Endless Riches
05. 'Annihilate the Sparrow, That Stealer of Seed, and Our Harvests Will Abound; We Will Watch Our Wealth Flood In.
06. And by Our Own Hand Did Every Last Bird Lie Silent in Their Puddles, the Air Barren of Song as the Clouds Drifted Away. For Killing Their Greatest Enemy, the Locusts Noisily Thanked Us and Turned Their Jaws Toward Our Crops, Swallowing Our Greed Whole
07. Millions Starved and Became Skinnier and Skinnier, While Our Leaders Became Fatter and Fatter
08. Finally, as That Blazing Sun Shone Down Upon Us, Did We Know That True Enemy Was the Voice of Blind Idolatry; and Only Then Did We Begin to Think for Ourselves
