He’s outlived his hard times, outrun his demons, and found a semblance of peace, even at the risk of losing his sanity. “Joys less simple seem to feel like child’s play now.” In the cosmic, karmic world of Ryan Davis, it seems inevitable that, by the end of the song, this character will wind up in jail. It also seems inevitable by now that Davis can tell the story without any sense of judgement or sentimentality. All three of those lyrics come from “New Threats From the Soul,” the album’s nine-plus-minute opener, and each feels representative of the record’s irreverent strengths. He is, in other words, a lyrics guy, and a previous generation of lyrics guys were pleased to anoint him.