Anonymity, Misery, Softness

And most pressing of all, is Smith simple enough to be, like, a star? "Lyrically, I don't know. I never think of them as being particularly dark," Smith says, musing on the ultimate fate of his songs. "I just think of them as being real. I look for songs that are sort of happy and sad at the same time, that have conflicting feelings coexisting. I think there should be more words that represent that kind of combination. Melancholyis the only one that people really use, and that one has a huge stigma. It's essentially used to mean dark, when I think what it's actually supposed to mean is that combination.

"What's the point in a one-dimensional song?" he asks. "There's gotta be a certain amount of darkness so the happy parts pop out. It's like a bright color. It won't look so bright surrounded only by other bright colors. It would just sort of be hard on the eye."

As Smith explains the title to his new album, it becomes apparent that whatever happens, he actually will be quite all right: "I like the idea of a twisted circle that represents some sort of interior pursuit that actually kind of leads nowhere, but is constantly going somewhere but not actually getting anywhere in particular."

And, yeah, that really is how it works.