This is an attempt to condense all that is known about the clipping album "Splendor & Misery" into one comprehensive document.

Every album release by clipping so far, with the exception of the EP Wriggle, has had a track called "Story". On "midcity", Story, on CLPPNG, Story 2, and on "Splendor & Misery", Story 5. In addition, they have released a remix of the Alt J single, Hunger of the Pine, which they titled, Story 4: Sleeplessly Embracing. Story 3 is noticeably absent.

Story is about Randy, a police officer on his first day of patrol. He witnesses a gruesome car crash, and at the end it is implied that his sister died in the crash, and that he indirectly caused her death by telling her to "catch a cab". After this, he falls into deep depression and alcoholism.

Story 2 is a seemingly unrelated story about an implied arsonist walking home from his dead-end job at a bar. He shows remorse for the people he had killed. There is mention of him being in therapy under "Doc Clark". As he walks home, he sees a cloud of smoke in the distance, and he comes home to his home burned down with his family nowhere to be found. He tries to commit suicide by jumping into the fire, but is held back by someone. Story and Story 2 seem to have no apparent connection, but interestingly they both start with the word "Godsmack", which is the name of an alternative metal band.

Story 4 tells the story of James, who sexually abused his baby cousin Katrina, who grows up to become a drug abuser. It ends with James commiting suicide, overcome with guilt. At the end, it fades out to a metallic feedback noise.

Story 5 is the song on "Splendor & Misery" and tells the story of a woman named Grace, though it in some ways seems to tell stories of separate Graces, one going to war and one dying in an orchestrated taxi cab crash. This is confirmed to be the same events as those in Story, as there is morse code in the background of the song True Believer, which spells out "Grace is Randy's brother". This also seems to indicate "Splendor & Misery" is directly intertwined with the stories, as references to these have not occurred outside of their respective tracks on other albums, which is also strengthened by the fact that "Splendor & Misery" is telling a narrative across all tracks. A possible connection between this album and "Story 2" is found in the track Interlude 02 (Numbers), which replicates the sound of a number station, spelling out "DLQFEIQIFUWRWCOXEIU". This seems like pure gibberish, right? Well, on the song Air 'Em Out, Daveed says the lyrics "The keyword is Kemmer, that's what your ass need". As discovered by Genius user TheRingShifter, if we try to decipher the phrase "DLQFEIQIFUWRWCOXEIU" in a Vigenère cipher with the keyword, "Kemmer", we get "THETARGETISAMYCLARK", "The target is Amy Clark." This might be a reference to Doc Clark from Story 2. There is also a loose connection to Story 4, as the noise at the end of Break the Glass fading into Story 5 is the same noise Story 4 ended on. Thus, the album contains references to all previous stories.

A theory put forth by Genius user SeanKM:

I know this is a bit of a stretch and I don’t have all the details hammered out, but bear with me. On Interlude 2 (Numbers), we hear the NATO code spelling out “DLQFEIQIFUWRWCOXEIU” which, as noted by user TheRingshifter, when paired with the keyword “kemmer” (from Air ‘Em Out) translates to “thetargetisamyclark.” The therapist in Story 2 is named Doc Clark, who fails to properly rehabilitate Mike Winfield’s psyche after the terrible things he’s done. (This is where we take a bit of a jump). Since [Story 5] presents a jarring tonal shift, it’s almost like it doesn’t belong on the album. Could Splendor and Misery take place in the mind of Mike Winfield after he goes crazy upon seeing his family die? The violence he once perpetrated is now re-framed in positive light (a rebellion against oppression) but he still blames his struggles on the Doctor who SHOULD have helped him come to terms with his past. Now he is slipping further into delusion and blames his personal Hell on Doc Clark. In Story 5, just as it seems he is more down-to-earth and accepting of his reality, we get the stark and jarring transition into Baby Don’t Sleep that seemingly beckons him back into his dream world. Then Mike contemplates that “there must be a better place to be somebody else,” trying to create another false reality because his new one is imploding, just as he notes in Story 2 that “he wishes it would take him to another place.”

This theory does not, however, explain how this is connected to the characters Randy and Grace.

There are several missing links:

How does Story 4 tie into all this?

Where is Story 3?

Some clues might be in Wriggle.

In A Better Place, the lyrics "Four-hundred and twenty-three by a hundred and twelve by fifty-one" are found, resembling coordinates. This is a possible Star Trek reference, though that seems pretty implausible to me, because that would be completely out of context.

In Baby Don't Sleep, there are the lyrics "Space is wavy, follow form it, analyze it spectrally", which seem like a clear signal that there is a spectrogram image hidden somewhere in the album.

On Air 'Em Out and Break the Glass, there are references to Morse code as along with binary and ASCII, “you stuck on Morse code, bitch this is ASCII” and "The life binary in Morse code" respectively. This alludes to the Morse code found in True Believer, though the solution to that doesn't have anything to do with binary.

The vinyl of the album has "340 253 3N 118 194 15W" written on it, which seem to be coordinates. This can be interpreted as 34° 02' 53.3"N 118° 19' 41.5"W, which corresponds to Capitol Burgers in Los Angeles. Considering Clipping hail from Los Angeles, this might not be too far fetched.

Story 4 can be listened to here: https://soundcloud.com/alt-j/story-4-sleeplessly-embracing-a-remix-by-clipping

Clipping's discography can be bought here: https://clppng.bandcamp.com/

Midcity, CLPPNG, Wriggle and Splendor & Misery can all be streamed on Spotify, Apple Music or Tidal.

Credits:

https://genius.com/10320773 (Vigenère cipher)

https://genius.com/10435214 (Theory)