Day 310: It is hard to believe that is has been over 10 months since I deployed this project from a hotel room in Japan. It is even harder to believe that I have only a few months left in my 30s. It is time to start winding things up a little bit. It is time to Bring In The Closers. As I mentioned yesterday, the final song on a album should have a certain feel. In those pre-CD days, it was literally the last new note or lyric that you would hear from the band until their next offering, which was likely at least a year away. It was like saying, "See you later," to your fans, but at times the song also should have an air of finality, like the last chapter of a good book. With this chapter, I would like to celebrate those Closers which hit all the right chords. Once I again, I thought that I would open a chapter with a song from R.E.M. Today's song, "Untitled," is the closing track from their 1988 album Green, which if your memory is *really* good, you will recall is the first tape I bought with my own money. Even with such a small tape collection back then, I think that I knew this song was a little bit special, and I think that it was with this song that my love of Closers first began. The whole song just has the feel of a love letter to fans to keep close to our hearts while we waited for their next album: "This song is here, To keep you strong. I made a list of things to say. But all I want to say, all I really want to say is hold her and keep him strong while I'm away from here." The interchange of lyrics between Michael Stipe and Mike Mills is beautiful and the whole song just puts a smile on my face. The song may never have been given a real title, but it is certainly one to remember.
08/06/2015
Day 311: Back in the chapter on my some of my favorite female driven acts, I mentioned one of my favorite albums of all time, 1991's "The Real Ramona" from The Throwing Muses. The Closer at that particular album is today's song, "Two Step." As I take a look at the very simple lyrics to this song... they actually do not make any sense to me at all: "Two step behind the rest. One fingertip too long. A hole, a hole in the box they carry. Pours sugar in the road. Pour dimes in diamond, Jim. Two months to fill him in." That is pretty much the whole song. But, it is the feeling that this song always conveyed to me that is so special. The song has a slow burn quality to it, and it acts as a sort of cool-down lap for this particularly awesome album. The feeling I always get is that after running the race of the album, with it's emotional highs and lows, at the end we are still "Two step behind the rest." It gives the feeling that hard work has been completed, but there is still more to do. It is like a benediction, like all good Closers should be.
08/06/2015
Day 312: Ani DiFranco has a lot of albums. I mean A LOT. Wikipedia tells me she has 18 studio albums, so that means there are also 18 Closers. For me, the only one that matters for this discussion is the final track from her very good 2005 album "Knuckle Down," and the song is called "Recoil." The whole album is a bit dark, and many of the songs seem to focus on her anger over a failed marriage, but this final track hints to the loneliness that sinks in once the anger has subsided. It is basically a song about trying to move on by oneself and dealing with the frustration of not quite being able to (among other things). It is a sad little bow that ties the album together. The whole song is literally quite quotable, but I will just mention the chorus: "To all the people out there tonight, who are comforting themselves If you should happen to see my light, You can stop and ring my bell. I'm just sittin here in this sty, strewn with half written songs. Taking one breath at a time. Nothin much going on." So, in the end it is also a bit of a call for help. Don't worry Ani, if you knuckle down, I am sure that you can bounce back.
08/06/2015
Day 313: It appears that one common thread in this chapter is that good Closers are commonly closely tied to really good albums. Today's song, "Smog Moon" off of the brilliant 1995 Matthew Sweet album "100% Fun" is no exception. Like any other good Closer, this song just has the *sound* that is a perfect ending to the album. Once you hear the entire album and then this song, you just feel like you have taken a journey and the end of this song is the destination. Or, you feel like you have eaten a great meal and just finished off the night cap. I really am not even sure what a Smog Moon is. What I do know is that, "There's a smog moon coming I can always feel it. The cartoon trees cannot conceal it. When it's high up in the sky, it almost looks like it is white." Yeah... I have no idea, but whatever it is, once I hear it, I know that I have had 100% fun.
08/06/2015
Day 314: Some Closing songs seems to know that they are Closers, so much so that they are given an official post script. Today's song, "{P.S.} Millionaire" from Michael Penn's 2005 pseudo concept album "Mr. Hollywood Jr., 1947," is just such as example. The funny thing is, that album almost has two Closers. Track 12, the high energy, "On Automatic" feels like a happy goodbye, but then Penn decided to slip in a little P.S. in the form of Track 13, "Millionaire," which is a beautiful acoustic gem than seems to bring the whole album back to earth as a kind of final reality check. The song sounds like a tragic poem of man who has just about run out of gas: "Sitting there behind a desk, (Very Greco-Romanesque). And I'm bringing out the guns, battling the evil ones. Well I used to fly, the clouds below, but my superpower's running low. Shoot the moon and gasp for air. Miracles don't have a prayer! The weatherman says freak for rare and gives the highs and lows. I'm damaged way beyond repair. It's too much pressure brought to bear. Who wants to take this on a dare? Who wants to be a millionaire?" It sounds like "Death of a Salesman, The Musical" in the most awesome way imaginable. Who wants to be a millionaire indeed.
08/06/2015
Day 315: It is no secret by now that Morrissey is one of my favorite singers, and with over 10 studio albums, he has had plenty of chances to put up a good closer. As I look through my collection, he has quite a few good ones ("Disappointed," "Tomorrow," and "Satan Rejected My Soul," are good examples), but today I would like to highlight my favorite Morrissey Closer, "Speedway," from the under-rated 1994 album "Vauxhall and I." I think what makes this such a great Closer is that it has the feel of the climatic scene in a twisty crime film. It sounds like an interaction where another person is about to destroy the singer, possibly due to some past deception, "All of the rumors keeping me grounded. I never said that they were completely unfounded." But as the song reaches the end, Morrissey crones, "and all those lies, written lies, twisted lies, well, they weren't lies... I could have mentioned your name I could have dragged you in. Guilt by implication; by association. I've always been true to you. in my own strange way." So, despite the deception, perhaps the singer's motives were "pure" after all? Or were they? It all ends like a thought provoking mystery for us fans to ponder... at least until the next album.
08/06/2015
Day 316: I have always had a bit of a soft-spot for the British band Ned's Atomic Dustbin, I suppose you could say that I even named my son after then... sort of. But alas, are pretty much just a One-Album-Wonder (1991's God Fodder). They did put out an OK album in 1992 called "Are You Normal," but it fell pretty flat even in alternative circles. But for me the bright spot of this album was it's Closer, "Intact." It is a great little break-up / send off song which if done well is always a great way to close out an album. I just love some of the lyrics here, "Here I stand the self made victim. I know that you didn't mean, anything... You will kill me, someday, if you have to cash me in I will have to be okay. You'll fry the contents of my head. Pretend and bend the words I've said." It seems like even though things are falling apart, the singer ha as bit of a sense of defiance. He will "have to be OK." In other words, he is going to come out of this Intact. It was a great little song to end an album, but ironically, it also was essentially the last good song I ever heard from the band. I guess I will have to be OK with that as well.
08/06/2015
Day 317: Way back on Valentine's Day, I called The Candy Skins a One-Hit-Wonder. That was a wee bit of a fib, as they actually put out 2 pretty good albums in the early 90s. Their 1993 album "Fun?" even included one of my favorite Closers, today's song, "All Over Now." It is yet another break-up with a title that is just perfect for the last track of an album. The band does a nice job of building the emotion by adding on the instrumentation as the song marches on. The lyrics are clever as well, "So, what the hell is so wrong with me? If this is love then I disagree. We fall apart just too easily... Your latest flame wants to be my friend. So let's all drink to the bitter end." By the time you get to the end of this one, you know that both the relationship and this under-rated album are both "all over now."
08/06/2015
Day 318: As we have learned, quite often the last track on an album is a Closer because it is a sad break up song. But sometimes, a Closer can be an upbeat, high energy happy song, like today's selection, "Take A Bow," the Closer from The Connells 1990 album, "One Simple Word." The song is just a rockin' super-fun victory lap of a song. The lyrics are a bit vague, "somehow I knew it was impossible, and somehow I knew... this time is closer and somehow, now it's not what I wanted... in time you'll know, you've know it all along; to take a bow and leave them with a song." To me, it feels like this song is act of discovery where the singer gets close to something he has always wanted and suddenly realizes that his priorities are all wrong. As a results, he feels set free and ready to "bow out." It is almost like a prequel to "Let It Go" from Frozen in a super bizarre way. Think about that for a minute as I bow out until tomorrow.
08/06/2015
Day 319: Back in the first month of this project, I mentioned how in my early high school days I discovered the post Ian McCulloch version of Echo & The Bunnymen and their oddly Indian inspired 1990 album "Reverberation." As it turns out, one of my favorite tracks from that album is the Closer and today song, "False Goodbyes." It is a mysterious slow-burn song the wrapped up the enigmatic and under-rated album. Much like the other Closers in this Chapter, I enjoy many of the song's lyrics, "A problem shared is entertainment in your hands. Ain't life bland. What matter or what consequence in truth. All our lives strange honor in a realm of false goodbyes." Whether the goodbyes were false or true, the band didn't even release an album for the next 7 years and it was not with this album's singer Noel Burke. I guess some goodbyes weren't false after all.
08/06/2015
Day 320: In my tour of my favorite Closing tracks, I have hit most of my very favorite bands, but one group I have yet to mention is They Might Be Giants. They don't have a lot of great Closers considering the shear number of albums that they do have, but one track really does stick out, "The End of the Tour," from the 1994 album "John Henry". Much like any TMBG track, the more I look at the lyrics, the more clever the song becomes. In contrast to the sad songs from the past week, this one seems to be a love song. In this case, however, the love seems to need to be put on hold for a while until well, you can probably guess: "At the end of the tour when the road disappears. If there's any more people around when the tour runs aground, and if you're still around then we'll meet at the end of the tour." But by the end, they seem to have settled down, "And we're never gonna tour again." So you see, sometimes love does conquer all... even a tour bus.
08/06/2015
Day 321: Sometimes a Closer isn't really a Closer, except that it is. Ironically, today's song the iconic, "Closing Time" from Semisonic's 1998 album "Feeling Strangely Fine," is actually the *first* track on the album. But, I think that it is safe to say that in reality, it is perhaps the best "Closer" of all time. We all know the story of the song, which describes the simple action of clearing out a bar at the end of the night, but the music and lyrical imagery make this song really quite special. Perhaps my most amusing memory of this song took place when Jen and I were driving back from the UP and decided to shuffle the entire 36-song Semisonic library on the iPod as we rolled down I-75 towards home. When we drew closer to the end of the mix, I realized that Closing Time had not come up yet. I mentioned this to Jen and the anticipation grew as we counted the tracks down to the end of the mix. When we got to song 35 of 36 and it *wasn't* Closing Time, we high-fived. The iPod saved Closing Time for last. (Well played, iPod.) But, getting back to the song itself, one of my favorite lines in the song is the surprisingly profound, "Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end." Well, that is the case here as well as I close down this Chapter on my favorite Closer.
Tomorrow, there will be yet another new beginning, and it will be time to get down to business. There are less than 50 days left in this project, and I have saved some of the best for last. It was never my intension to have this project be a count-down of my favorite 300 or so songs, but a count down of my favorite 40 songs? Yeah, I think that I can do that. For the next 40 days, it will be 40 songs from 40 different albums and 40 different artists. So hold onto your hats folks, starting tomorrow, crap is about to get real!
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