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Reality's Talking was written melodically in early 2002, though the lyrics remained incomplete until January 2003. Rich was originally playing around with Aretha Franklin's 'Say a Little Prayer for You' and loved the melody, so with guitar in hand he played chords E to G#m, C#m, F# and sang 'Reality's Talking but I won't be listening'. The original idea was to turn your back on reality, life is better than what's been ordained for you, basically the grass is greener. In original guitar demos the verse was shorter but after suggestions from Sarah it took its finished form. Rich wrote the bridge melody around the words he came up with. The chorus chords were written by Ben while they were in France in July 2002, and Rich came up with the melody when walking into the room and hearing the chords. The words for the chorus were written later by Ben & Rich whilst on holiday in New England. Originally a guitar tune, Marco came up with the fantastic piano arrangement and Rich and Ben listened to it constantly in America that year. Marco, Rich and Ben spent quite a few evenings working on the chords to what ended up as the 'what else could I do' part and there were a few arguments about which chords to use! The melody & words for that section came later courtesy of Ben whilst at a session in Ricky, though initially they were both worried about the line being a bit 'soft'. Lyrically the song was quite painstaking work and a lot of attention was paid to tense and to detail while keeping the theme quite vague. The 2nd verse was a Ben & Rich verse, completed in one session in a motel in Vermont. For the remainder Sarah helped out, and the verses and bridge lyrics were fleshed out over a period of months. We always had the premise that this song would be amazing so no expense is spared, hence the 2 years from conception to finish! The band enlisted the international talent of Marco's brother Danny (www.tarantulamusic.com) who, if you listen carefully, fills out verses with some haunting cello. From New York, Danny wrote a whole counterpoint melody for the song and sent it by email! The entire cello melody could survive on its own, but after countless discussions and tears, we decided to cull a lot of it or the song would have been too crowded... The crazy end was worked on later in one session, and represents the exasperation of lifes futility. Crazy!