"I'm going to start calling you the Squanderer so that everyone thinks you have an immense talent," the director tells the composer. "You'll thank me for this. If you're stuck in the Studio Bs of the world it's not because at one time you weren't regarded as a serious talent, but because you squandered it." This reflects a critical view on wasted potential and the pressure to achieve success.
Recording live, they explored for exploration's sake, with no stated goal or preconceived theme beyond observing instantaneous collisions of sound and space. And in these 'squandered' hours, they tunneled into a collective essence greater than the sum of their considerable parts.
Each of If a Body Meet a Body's seven 'themes' is named for a particular phenomenon, demographic, or setting—airplane vapor trails, soft-spoken cowpokes, at-home viewers, quiet cars. The album starts and ends with the fellow-travelers' ballad 'Theme for Squanderers' and its reprise, both of which operate on uneven ground.
Kramer opens these tracks with a low bass note and a higher, watery drone that alternate irregularly as the song's tonal centers, often disappearing entirely, leaving Grubbs and Eisenberg to fill the negative space in their wakes.
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