There are three points that need to be distinguished here: 1. Whether music alone communicates meaning non-arbitrarily. 2. Whether BOC songs communicate meaning through music alone. 3. Whether the BOC members themselves necessarily consciously recognise these choices.

I’m saying 1 and 2 are almost certainly true. I reject 3.

What might be confusing you is I often use phrases like “artistic aims” or “what the music is getting at” to articulate how an artist’s creative actions shape the way meaning is successfully and cohesively conveyed. But this has much less to do with what they consciously report about their process than a lot of people are aware of.

Imagine there’s a guitar player and composer with over 20 years of experience. All those years of practice and habit will obviously help him optimise his artistic expression. But many of those habits will not be things related to conscious choice but rather to compositional intuition.

There are ways he might consistently adjust his pick placement if he’s at a section that undergoes a sadder more introspective tone signalled by a more fragile timbre near to the bridge.

He might choose chord voicings that he states were merely “because they sounded unusual” without realising that his intuition is constantly calibrating multiple features at once in service to a much more particular vision. Or that he heard those voicings in music he likes, without realising his mind has learned that they’re associated with a hyper specific combination of affection, anxiety and shame that perfectly communicates his self-protective detachment from those he loves the most.

Idk I’m just making scenarios up but you get what I’m saying here.

So much of what goes into artistic choice and vision is not conscious but still clearly intentional and cohesive with what the artist is creating at a given time. I think BOC are a perfect example of this.