“Baby Blue” wasn’t released as a single, but it’s one of the tracks on The Island – Part One that changes shape the most as it goes. It starts out as a low-key, three-part folk tune, and then gradually turns into a rockier prog landscape by the end.

A big part of that journey is in the playing: Håkon Gebhardt’s mandolin lines add this bright, restless energy, and Kriss Stemland delivers an absolutely killer guitar solo that lifts the whole track into another room.

Lyrically, it’s built around a few simple phrases that keep returning like a thought you can’t shake. There’s devotion (“I will do what it takes to protect you”), and there’s conflict—wanting to be believed, wanting someone else to take the blame, while “the pain is covering the shame” repeats like a verdict.

Stian