Thessaly Knox sheds the soft lullaby persona of her previous tracks for something sharper and more defiant in “Gilded Overgrowth.” This is a track about the vanity of holding onto a dead world. To Thessaly, the survivor sitting in a cellar polishing “tarnished silver” is the one who is truly poor. She redefines luxury as something that grows, rather than something that is manufactured.
The Radiation Rose
The lyrics are a direct challenge to the bunker-dweller’s nostalgia. She mocks the desire for “chandeliers” and “steaks,” pointing instead to the “sap that drips” and the “nectar from the trumpet vine.” By crowning herself the “Queen of the Briar” and “Lady of the Leak,” she claims a sovereignty that doesn’t depend on old-world structures. The “Radiation Rose” is her most striking metaphor—a symbol of beauty that has adapted to the toxins of the new world, thriving where “civilization” withered.
A Better Velvet
Musically, one can imagine a more percussive, tribal rhythm underlying her noir-silk vocals. She pits “woven willow” against “frayed silk” and “antler crowns” against “rusted golden rings.” Her message is one of radical adaptation: “The world didn’t die, it just changed its clothes.” While the “Old Lions” wait for the concrete to be rebuilt, Thessaly is already dancing in the clover, reminding us that the future is “the sprout within the pass,” not the plastic of the past.
GILDED OVERGROWTH
by: Thessaly Knox
You’re still polishing that tarnished silver plate
Sitting in a cellar, cursing at your fate You’re mourning for a diamond that’s buried in the soot
While the richest carpet’s growing… right beneath your foot.
You want a chandelier?
Look up at the pines
See the way the sap drips, see the way it shines
I’ve got a palace made of hemlock and of stone
And I wouldn’t trade a leaf of it to sit upon your throne.
I’m the Queen of the Briar, the Lady of the Leak
I find the silver lining in the secrets that I seek!
Keep your dusty records and your rusted golden rings
I’ve found a better velvet in the moth’s heavy wings.
The world didn’t die, it just changed its clothes
And I’m the only one who smells the radiation rose.
You’re starving for a steak, you’re crying for the wine
But have you tasted nectar from the creeping trumpet vine?
You’re shivering in silk that’s frayed and full of moth
I’m wrapped in woven willow… the finest kind of cloth.
My crown is made of antlers, my gems are dragonflies
I see the “New World” beauty with my unblinded eyes.
Stop looking backward at a city made of glass
The future isn’t plastic, it’s the sprout within the pass!
Your “luxury” was heavy, your “luxury” was cold
My kingdom’s getting greener… while yours is getting old.
I’m the Queen of the Briar, the Lady of the Leak
I find the silver lining in the secrets that I seek!
Keep your dusty records and your rusted golden rings
I’ve found a better velvet in the moth’s heavy wings.
The world didn’t die, it just changed its clothes
And I’m the only one who smells the radiation rose.
Let the concrete crumble…
Let the iron rust…
I’ll be dancing in the clover…
Long after you’re dust.