[Octillus]

I don't know if I can really explain it (chord progression and some subtext in the lyrics I guess), but when you remove the trappings of the puppets and space opera, there is a really cold depressive blue feeling that ZTO brings. Physicist had a bit of this, as well, but there's just something that sounds... defeated in every track besides ZTO and Ziltoidia Attaxx.

Not to over-intellectualize, but is Ziltoid not about the delusions of grandeur?

I guess that's why, I'm not sure how I feel about the sequel, etc. etc.

I mean, I love Ziltoid as a fun mascot, I don't doubt the album will be crushing and fun but there's really something to be said about the feeling this album evokes in me. The Greys is my #2 song he's ever done, after all.

Am I crazy?

Honestly I've never thought about it that way.. I've been meaning to give ZTO another listen recently anyway, I'm going to have to think about this when I do and tell you what I think. Either way I don't think you're crazy.

Upon thinking just in my mind without listening, I do recall the somber tone of Solar Winds, especially the beginning.

I can see your point, as there are plenty of frustrated and melancholic themes, though if we were to read too deep this one would be a close tie with Terria, which was him expressing his hardships while juxtaposing beauty into the songs.

You're absolutely not alone, I feel the same way. Behind all the fun and heavier parts (I don't really feel anything desperate in the Planet Smasher for example), this album imho contains some of the most desperate tracks I know of Devin.
Solar Winds basically screams loneliness and insignificance in the beginning;
Hyperdrive gives me some kind of "being lost" feeling;
N9 represents to me something you personally enjoy, but that only lasts for a moment and actually isn't doing any good. As I personally have to deal with social anxiety and depressions, I always could connect to that song pretty well in a sense of moments where I completely shut myself in and just play games or listen to music or whatever. It isn't helping in any way, but for the moment I'm simply happy and can leave all bad things behind;
Color Your World even tells a story without words, as it shifts from a kind of desperate-aggressive tune to a pure over-self-conscious "fuck you all" one and then breaking apart to an absolute weak-sounding melodic part, as if realizing how fake the self-consciousness was;
Last but not least the Greys. To me, this refers not to actual aliens, but other humans you don't understand or don't know anything about. If you always think about how other people judge you, it will absolutely "tear you apart", as the lyrics state. Still this realization doesn't really seem uplifting, it's more like an "I'm not sure if I can anymore, I wish I realized this earlier".

Again, this is just personal interpretation for me. I've heard an interview somewhere where it sounded like the album was actually something very personal for Devin, so it might be connected to fan expectations. However, I'm not the biggest fan of looking for personal feelings of the writers. Maybe I'm also just reading too much into it, but as long as it works to me personally, I'm fine with that.

Perhaps Devin was conveying a sense of genuine dread. I mean, it is easy to see silliness in the album and the characters, but perhaps Devin method acts the feeling of someone who knows we are vulnerable and can experience almost any fresh hell at any time. That is what I feel comes through the music, a genuine sense of absurd dread. That is how deep I think this dude goes when he creates. Or maybe I play him up because I don’t have enough fellow bald dudes to call heroes