Ego Death

'Rat Kings are freaking awesome' - Rats and Rat Kings being a recurring theme throughout the album.

Ego Death is one of Jazz Emu's biggest projects yet, being a complete visual album with a full narrative.

Songs

• Prologue
• Why?
• The Same Thing
• I Could Get Into It
• Romanticise
• A La Mode
• Cake/Obsolete
• Easy For Me
• Fun Kitai Furai Dei
• Get You Cheek On
• Easier

Plot

Ego death starts with Jazz as a scientist trying to understand the meaning of life, all the while neglecting his wife and child in his pursuit of knowledge. He begins to become obsessed with Rat Kings after reading about them in a book, occupying his mind and distracting him when he attempts to reconnect with his family. The final straw is when Jazz drops his child, his wife then leaving -unknown if it is for good. Surprisingly enough, Jazz does not seem to have much of a reaction to this and instead becomes even more obsessed with his science and his work. (Why?).

With his family no longer keeping him from his experiments, Jazz begins to get more extreme with his obsession, robbing the graves of David Bowie, Flight of the Conchords and Mark Zuckerberg in the dead of night. He takes the body parts back to his lab, where he begins Frankenstein-esque experiments, creating an elixir called 'A New Thing'. Unfortunately, during the experimentation a rat accidentally falls into the mix, adding rat like properties to the mix. Suddenly, Jazz's main experiment wakes, a perfect clone of him (named Shadow Jazz in the credits). Shadow Jazz is aggressive towards Jazz, flipping him off, slamming him against a wall and knocking him out. While Jazz is unconscious, Shadow takes the elixir and begins to wander the halls of the building that the lab was in. (The Same Thing).

Shadow Jazz walks the halls of the building, seeing a number of doors with music and lights playing just beyond. A number of strangers greet him silently in the halls, wearing golden rat masks. Finally, he settles on a door that is playing thrumming club music behind it.

Entering the club, Shadow instantly connects with a woman there (revealed to be Venitia Sprinkles in the credits) and the two head back to her place. [yap about this one more later] (I Could Get Into It).

The morning after, Shadow wakes up and leaves silently back into the hallway. He wanders a little more, before finding a greyscale door playing classical music. Entering into this world, Shadow finds himself in a perfect greyscale field -and in a new outfit- and falls to his knees in joy. This is interrupted when a bird poos on his shoulder, snapping him out of it and bringing the world to widescreen colour. He trudges off dissapointedly to tidy himself up as the lyrics begin to play. Throughout the song, Shadow finds himself in multiple scenarios in which he tries to romanticise to make better: imagining his dingy apartment as a fancy stately home, getting hit in the face by rubbish and reimagining it to be a popular piece of art and unsuccessfully trying to impress women on the train by pretending to read James Joyce books. Eventually he cracks and begs the world to 'give [him] a break' after the woman rolls his eyes at him and leaves the train carriage. He begins to compete with other men in town who are also trying to romanticise life in the same way as him, by being as unique and whimsical as possible. This inevitably makes them all look ridiculous and causes Shadow to lose his balance and fall into a fountain, getting his arm wet.(Romanticise).

Storming back through the hallways while drying his jacket off, Shadow encounters a door that leads to a plain office. He spots a man looking sad and boring inside and begins to hatch an idea.

The fashion victim wakes up tied to a chair in a dark room, with a bright spotlight on him. Suddenly, Shadow appears in a brand new 'fashionable' outfit, alongside Shadow Ulla who has now joined him. The two insult the victim and his sense of style, claiming that he is 'disgusting' and that 'even a slug on the path would see him and run away'. The two work to make him more fashionable, while wearing increasingly more ridiculous outfits - all in the name of being 'A La Mode'. They watch the victim as he goes up and down the runway in embarrasment and harass him for not knowing certain designers such as Augustus Bleegan or Quæsean. Eventually, the victim falls into the groove of being fashionable, blowing the Shadow clones away. He comes up with the idea of 'cheese shoes', which they immediately love and promise to make him famous. He heads back to the office, with the new fashion magazine, hoping to see his name under the now viral cheese shoes. However, Shadow Jazz has taken all of the credit. (A La Mode).

His job now complete, Shadow Jazz continues through the hallways and comes across his own reflection wearing a golden rat mask. It performs a single dance move to him, which he copies.

Back at the lab, Jazz has begun to wake up and is panicking because his clone and his 'new thing' elixir are both gone. He switches on the news and discovers to his dismay that Shadow Jazz has started to become far too popular and is taking over his own life. A key thing that lead to Shadow Jazz's fame is the new dance move that he has created, sending him completely viral. Jazz decides that he can't let Shadow take over his life and get popular like this, especially because he has the elixir. Jazz hunts down Shadow and finds him getting into a limo, surrounded by fans. He tries to get through but can't, instead having to watch as Shadow taunts him with the elixir by showing off the elongated rat teeth that it has given him. Jazz decides that the only thing he can do is beat Shadow at dancing, so heads back to the lab to sew together a Morriss dancing outfit. Jazz finds Shadow in another bar surrounded by groupies, and confronts him. Shadow flips him off again and then they engage in a dance battle which Jazz fails embarrassingly, leading to Shadow leaving the club totally unfazed by Jazz's existence.(Cake/Obsolete).

Shadow stumbles back into the hallways after taking another swig of the elixir, his vision becoming blurry and crazed. He blacks out.

Waking up, Shadow is in a white void with office furniture and anothe new outfit, also appearing considerably more rat-like. The song begins abruptly as he begins to complete a series of tasks quickly and easily, including saving an old woman from a theif and impregnating a nun with consent from God himself. He also visits therapy, where the Therapist claims that '[he's] never seen a mind quite as healthy as this'. Despite appearing on top of the world, Shadow begins to waver, seemingly struggling with lonelieness and the need to keep one upping himself in his acheivements. Before he can continue reflecting, the elixir takes over and transforms him into the Hench Rat, a huge, muscular rat form that towers over the town. He begins to wreak havoc on the town and hunts down Jazz and almost squishes him.(Easy For Me).

A spaceship distracts him just as he is about to crush Jazz, leading him and Jazz to the window of a small house.

An alien appears in a small child's room late at night, towering over him. Instead of anything bad happening, the alien introduces itself as Kroeoeo and begins to tell the child a story of his home and why he has appeared so suddenly. Apparently, the alien has arrived so that he can experience something it calls Fun Kitai Furai Dei (Funky Tie Friday), describing it as being an event of 'purest gladness' and joy. He has come because his home planet of Oeoeo has been destroyed in a war, and he just wants to seek out some happiness. The child leaves for a moment, making Kroeoeo think that he has been abandoned, but is surprised when the child comes back and gifts him his very own 'Fun Kitai'. The alien experiences a flashback, where he and his father are running from an enemy blast. They only just make it out, however, Kroeoeo's dad has been hit badly and has begun to die. In his final moments, the father gifts the son a tie which transports Kroeoeo away from the planet and towards safety. Now donned in his own Fun Kitai, the alien visits a joyful office where a Fun Kitai Furai Dei is taking place, and spots a sad looking man (the fashion victim) who sits tie-less. In an act of generosity, Kroeoeo gives the man a tie to enjoy, brightening up the fashion victim's day. Back in the room, the alien finishes up his story and Jazz and Shadow -who had been watching the whole time- come to a realisation that they should not fight anymore. (Fun Kitai Furai Dei).

Returning back to the lab, Jazz has begun reflecting on himself and his own science. He is interrupted when Shadow -back down to his usual size- enters, donned in a white cloak. He flips Jazz off, and this time Jazz understands, responding with an 'ok' symbol with his own hand. Shadow interlocks his hand with Jazz's and pulls, ripping his own finger off - apparently painlessly. Blood begins to spatter everywhere, but Jazz seems unfazed - happy, even. Then, Shadow rips his own arm off and hands it to Jazz, completely drenching him in blood. Finally, Shadow sits and rips off one leg. using it to spray more blood at Jazz, engaging in a blood fight. Eventually, Shadow has ripped too many limbs off and goes to Jazz, holding his heart in his hands and placing it against Jazz's. They touch foreheads and with that, Shadow Jazz is gone. Jazz appears sat in the blood-less lab, holding a human heart and seeming to understand much more about himself and the meaning of life and love. (Get Your Cheek On).

Trivia

• Many references to past videos can be seen in Jazz's lab, including (but not limited to): Crimpsy Dimpson's disco ball helmet and the Hœrgüpjelly chalk board

Gallery

insert pictures of character, if any