Hindalong explained this further, using the song "I Painted Mercy" as an example: "The winter sky can be a scary thing. God gives us mortality and we see the scariness of it. God gave us these things to draw us to Him. The element of fear draws us to God. But if we fear death, or if we go and drop a bomb on our fellow man because we fear the winter sky, we're missing the point." However, Hindalong did not intend for the lyrics on this album to be ambiguous. "I want to accomplish three things in almost every song we do: I want anybody to know what the essence of a song is lyrically; I want somebody who wants to read the lyrics and think about the song to find a lot more in it; and then there's a third level where you'd just have to ask me, because you wouldn't know because you weren't there. I think that provides intrigue, and all of those levels are important, and give something depth." Although Hindalong credited Daugherty with being "the sound of the band" and "the musical matrix," almost half the music on the record was written or co-written by Peacock. Additionally, the album was mixed at Surrey Sound Studios, where Peacock's self-titled release was also recently mixed, so Peacock's musical imprint on Diamonds and Rain was noticeable. Peacock himself would later say, "Diamonds and Rain is much more a collaboration between two gifted artists and a producer. I grew through the process as well, primarily learning that I did not like being such a discernable contributor." Even so, highlights of the Choir's work with Peacock would be "Render Love" and "Black Cloud," songs that "combined a bruised idealism with a sense of musical drama." The Choir would ultimately re-record both songs: an acoustic version of "Black Cloud" on the band's 2010 release de-plumed and "Render Love" for the soundtrack of the 2020 film Electric Jesus. Artwork and packaging Although bass guitarist Tim Chandler and saxophone and Lyricon player Dan Michaels were official members of the Choir, only Daugherty and Hindalong were featured in the album artwork and promotional materials for Diamonds and Rain. According to Hindalong, the band was "increasingly ashamed" of the photo on the front cover — which featured photo-retouched yellow and red spiky hair — and they would deliberately place the albums upside down on