other instruments, before he realised it would be better used as a counterpart to the guitars and Kasher's vocals. The band were aided by additional musicians: Chris Acker playing trombone on "Art Is Hard" and "A Gentleman Caller"; Jenny Lewis singing additional vocals on "The Recluse", "Bloody Murderer", and "Sierra"; and Mogis contributed vibraphone on "The Recluse", keyboard on "Butcher the Song", bells on "Bloody Murderer", and guitar on "Sierra". "Staying Alive" features a choir consisting of Clark Baechle, Todd Baechle, Julee Dunekacke, Rob Hawkins, Alisa Heinzman, Renee Ledesma Hoover, Alex McManus, AJ Mogis, Conor Oberst, and Sara Wilson. The album's opening track, "The Ugly Organist", is an ambient prelude, acting as the titular character's theme song. It opens with quiet sounds of conversations, alongside an organ, before ending with a carnival barker. In "Some Red-Handed Sleight of Hand", the character details his worries about making himself a martyr over songs about unrequited love. It opens with Cohn's cello as it synchs up with a distorted guitar part. "Art Is Hard" has Kasher criticize artists who think that art should come from a place of suffering. The first act concludes with "The Recluse", in which the character described being in bed with a woman be barely knows about. Kasher's restrained vocals evoke the sound of whispering in a bedroom, in an attempt not to wake up his companion. "Herald! Frankenstein" is a short mainly instrumental track consisting of a cello and guitars, concluding with one line of lyrics: "I can’t stop the monster I created." "Butcher the Song", which features timpani, is sung from the perspective of both the Ugly Organist and his previous partner. Kasher discusses the partner, and the way she ended up as the antagonist in his song writing. "Driftwood: A Fairy Tale" is sung as a fairy tale, which sees Pinocchio cast as a boyfriend who walks into water to his death. Cohn's cello earned the track a comparison to the work of Spoon. Kasher recounts a post-sex discussion in "A Gentleman Caller", and is followed by the story of a weatherman in "Harold Weathervain". With "Bloody Murderer", Kasher discusses being a serial killer, while in "Sierra", the Ugly Organist attempts to mend the relationship with a past lover. The closing track, "Staying Alive" is ten minutes long; it begins with guitar and cello parts, eventually leading to white noise and a choir repeating the phrase