I'd better preface this by saying it's a Saturday night, and I've had a couple of drinks, so excuse any waxing-lyrical ....!
For me a lot of the impact is simply very personal: for me, NMA have always spoken, about as eloquently as it's possible to, of love and loss and realisation and understanding - in essence, the too-many thunders and consolations of being here and now. BDAW, for me, adds to that by looking back at the same time.
And, again for me, the musical context is important - possibly just because of how I expect emotion to come through in music. Would the lyric "if I could only choose one moment to last forever, I would be here with you" sit happily in a jazz-funk track? I reckon I'd spew my dinner.
Favourite BDAW lines:
BDAW: "If I could only choose one moment to last forever, I would be here with you". Because of a great love lost.
Did You Make It Safe: last chorus, the way Justin sings "they'll never understand why you had to go, why you had to go" really strikes deep for me. I've left too many people on the wayside, none of them understanding why. Why it strikes deep is cos I don't really understand why myself, when I now look back.
Pull The Sun: "Me, I've got a black place in my heart". 'Nuff said.
Knievel: that moment of f&ck-you-all bitterness in the line "you only get from me what you pay me for" is priceless.
And maybe an oddball side-note but instantly when I listened to 'Summer Moors' I heard 'just another setting SON' rather than 'just another setting sun' - don't know if that was deliberate or happy coincidence but that's how it worked for me. Regardless, that instant (mis)reading nailed Summer Moors really deep for me.