OR: KIND OF LIKE THE OPPOSITE OF AN AERIAL VIEW:
Unifying the conceptual approach to Day Glow Freaks is the particular use of names. The album’s title is borrowed from the “Kid Charlemagne” lyric “all those dayglow freaks who used to paint the face / they’ve joined the human race…” and is tied conceptually to the song titles on the album. I interpreted the “freaks” as a group of people with whom you were once familiar but have since become estranged. Likewise, I saw Day Glow Freaks as an opportunity to tell the stories of Steely Dan characters we know little about–the supporting cast in the band’s catalog of narratives. Each song on Day Glow Freaks adds a new, abstract dimension to a personality that was never fully defined. The details of these characters are free to be imagined by listeners…
— from Gabe Is the Devil, Day Glow Freaks
Video here.