Hope Floats

As a signal of his feelings about the album, and a kind of statement-of-intent, Clyne bookended it with the sounds of firecrackers exploding. But even with such a briefly heard detail, it was important to him that the firecrackers not sound too impressive, that they not misrepresent what he had in mind.

"Firecrackers are usually some sort of declaration of independence," he says. "I deliberately recorded little firecrackers, Black Cats and bottle rockets, instead of the big stuff, because I wanted it to feel like the beginning of a personal revolution, and not something institutional."