Both albums feature some of the best production of the year, but use different bases and themes to build off of. One, a wild ride filled with loop-de-loops and psychadelic cotton candy tones. The other, a nautical adventure into the depths of the unknown. Take for instance “Come Back To Earth,” the opener on Swimming. This is the beginning of feeling submerged. You’re not necessarily drowning yet, but as you lay there and listen, you know you’re floating. You feel weightless; a mere blip on the undiscovered oceanic charts.

Already from the start Miller has more than just your toes a little wet. You become the little diver man in the video, scouring every corner and inch of your mind, as your inner thoughts develop into the mass that is the ocean. The same can be said for the start of ASTROWORLD. “STARGAZING” is you entering the theme park and taking in everything around you; the giant metal monsters built up especially for you, the performers running wild, the smell and sight of color coated candy all around you. It’s a sugar, drug, and adrenaline induced rush wrapped all into one chocolate bar. It’s your golden ticket.

Other cuts off ASTROWORLD can clearly represent different theme park attractions, whether it’s matching the rhythm of a ride or the overall ambiance. “R.I.P. SCREW,” while an ode to a Houston legend, feels like you’re on an eerie and slow moving water ride that’s entering a long and dark tunnel, making “STOP TRYING TO BE GOD” the other half of the float as you leave the tunnel to see what the outside world has to offer. Other examples include chasing your significant other through a fun house on “WAKE UP,” catching the clown show on “5% TINT,” “ASTROTHUNDER” being the soundtrack to the cyclical yet relaxing pattern of a ferris wheel, and more.

Swimming offers us similar opportunities. “Jet Fuel” is you paddling along in a canoe that might have a few holes in it, trying your hardest to keep afloat while meandering through the scary backwaters. Eventually you can’t keep above water despite the effort, and the last one minute and 14 seconds is you letting the canoe drop, as your back finally meets the water while Miller croons with these tweaked out high pitches. It’s like the sensation you feel in the bathtub while slowly lowering your head back into the water, and all that’s left dry is your eyes, and then bam — you go under.

The following track, “2009,” is opening your eyes in the abyss you thought would be terrible and dark, but finding this incredible underwater world instead. It’s absolute magic.

Now, these are just the things that I can hear. Whether you can come to these same conclusions is neither here nor there. That’s what’s so beautiful about these albums; all the imagery scattered throughout the instrumentation allow our senses to be heightened to a different plane of listening. We can all feel something different. Scott and Miller have allowed these albums to become a live experience from the comfort of your bedroom.