u/capybara123571

Welcome to a caretaker fan project a day. I've dedicated myself to listening to at least one caretaker project a day, and making a post about it. Today's caretaker fan project is Fading at the Speed of Light by ifthecodeworksdonttouchit. This fan project explores CJD, which is a rare form of dementia thats even faster than rapid onset Alzheimers. If you wish to listen blind, heres the link as ill basically talk about everything in it: https://youtu.be/-RiXWHQbvpY *the link Is sanitized!)

Stage one:

A1 is titled "The Good Times Will Roll". Its an easy to listen too jazz song, but from the start, I noticed how it sounded slightly eerie. Although it was lighthearted, the key it was in made it just sound off. The very next song i interpret as the patient noticing that something might be wrong. Its a lot less of a song, and it has one sample of a man starting to sing thats cut off. This actually scared me a lot, as this kind of thing really freaks me out. I was on edge all song. The next song was much more peaceful. As for the cover, it seems to be an old fan. Its colors look muddled out, giving the decay affect.

STAGE 2:

This sounds a lot more distorted. The best way I can describe this stage is dread. The project confirms that the patient is diagnosed at this point, which leads me to see this as the patients dread for whats coming up and refusal to believe it. There is a track that samples A1, titled "The Good Times Will Rot." It shows that the patient knows everything will rot quickly before their eyes. They dont have much time, as death is a few months away from diagnosis in the vast majority of cases. As for the cover, its a painting of a boy under a tree. It looks like a decaying painting, and is slightly unclear. Its color scheme also is muddled out.

Stage 3:

Fear and distortion is setting in. Theres another track sampling A1, titled "The Good Times Ain't What they Used to Be" anymore. It shows that CJD has ruined the nostalgic memories of the past and has sucked the happiness out of the patients present and foreseeable future. Both the patient and their family members miss the times before this disease struck. There are many more distorted tracks, which make you really feel the true speed of this disease. Just 20 minutes ago you were listening to clear music, and now this is what you have. That really helps one to see how devastating CJD is. After a song thats almost fully silent, the album cover becomes clearer and you get a wonderful track of clarity. One of the best elements of this project is the clarity. I felt real relief and happiness during clarity segments, and felt the terror of it being ripped away. This track calms you down, then shoves you into the 4th stage. The cover art shows a man, with the other side of him fading to dust. It shows that the patient as we know them is fading away, and will soon become unrecognizable.

Stage 4:

The music is nearly unrecognizable. Its just noise at this point, random noise with nowhere to go. Your brain tries to grab onto something, but it simply can't. The patient is no longer considered fully conscious. The clarity periods stuck out to me, with one even sampling heartaches, something EATEOT and fan project enthusiasts can recognize with ease. It felt like CJD had loosened its grip, just for it all to fall back into insanity, causing the feeling of a family member coming back and then slipping away again. The cover is something just slightly recognizable. It looks like a river, but it is clearly degraded. It shows how the patient is losing their grip on reality and what everything even is. Even then, there is some clarity. We can see something in the picture, but its going away.

STAGE 5:

This stage has a lot of unrecognizable voice samples. I see it as the patient losing their ability to speak and even hear other people. The patient is becoming unresponsive, and just staring out into space. It also makes it a lot more chaotic, which lets you almost feel the fear the patient feels. Clarity is short, but it feels heavenly when it does happen. The cover is now unrecognizable. Its a bunch of neon colors. It looks like a horribly distorted image of something, but you dont know what. The patient has regressed to a husk of who they once were, living in confusion and fear, unable to grip onto anything.

STAGE 6:

Stage 6 doesn't have the voice samples. No breakdowns, no "Who are you?!"s, just silence. Thats whats left at the end of CJD. The patient cannot communicate, eat on their own, or do anything, really. Their loved ones must mourn one that is still alive. The cover has none of the colors of the stage 5 colors, except for some red on the sides. There is nothing to make out anymore. The ending truly is the hallmark of this album. I see you reading this when you haven't even touched the link, so ill give you a chance to reconsider. Knowing the ending before you see it makes it not as impactful, in my opinion. I'll try to spoiler it but it may not work, so assume its not spoilered.

END:

&gt;| The cover changes. It now is an abstract painting, with blues and pinks and whites and blacks. I saw in it an ocean with a flamingo and a sheep. Then, a clear but slightly low quality song begins playing as a heart monitor is in the background. A few minutes in, the patients heart stops beating and sobs can be heard. As the sobs continue, the screen cuts to black, and it ends in a minute of silence. Because CJD doesn't have terminal lucidity, I take this as the patients loved ones remembering the patient. All of the obstacles they overcame, the memories they made, everything. As they remember this, they stare at the person they are remembering whos turned into a brain in a body instead of a person. As they think of this, the patients heart stops. This ending is creative and genuinely disturbing.<|

CONCLUSION

FATSOL is a very creative project detailing the progression of CJD. It is fast, around an hour and a half long, showing just how fast this disease takes someone away. It uses clarity periods very well, and has a heart wrenching ending. I very much enjoyed listening to this. A+! Make sure to go support the creator of this project for making this work of art, and tune in tommorow for another caretaker fan project analysis.