I love how you put it with the explosions! They absolutely do feel like punctuation throughout! I'm really glad to hear that the nostalgic vibes are getting through as well! I've been wondering how to be more intentional about creating that emotion lately and the use of harmonies definitely sounds like a big piece of the puzzle! The section that starts at 1:09 is actually the first part that I came up with lol and I kind of struggled at first to expand off of it. Still my favorite part too!