REVIEW: The soundtrack of finals
There’s something about spring semester that is just difficult. You come off of the lethargy of Christmas break and have to wake up and actually study. Not to mention it’s 20 degrees below zero and there’s four feet of snow outside. Then you hit spring break and get one week of bliss. Unfortunately, spring break doesn’t improve the situation when you come back to school, it just makes everything worse. The warm spring weather lasts about three hours before it snows another two feet – which makes that uphill battle you’re fighting seems like it’s an incline of 45 degrees for the last six weeks of the semester.
Then you have finals.
So it’s good to have something to cheer you up before everything hits the fan.
At the end of this semester, it is fitting that I talk about something that can make or kill an album, not unlike finals week. If you’ve got a great album but the last song sucks, it leaves you feeling unsatisfied, as if someone served you a steak dinner with all the trimmings and right as you’re finishing, they throw a rotten apple in your face.
On the other hand, a good ending song can leave you wanting more, yet finding peace in the fact that it’s over. Sure, the earlier songs of an album may be so good that you may not ever make it to the last song, but there are some ending songs you just put on repeat until your roommates tell you they can’t take listening to a single song in a row more than 12 times.
Or maybe that’s just me.
So here are the top “last songs” on Colin’s iPod:
“Thanks That Was Fun,” from the Barenaked Ladies’ “Disc One: All Their Greatest Hits.” This song was the only one on the album that was previously unreleased, so it’s true home really is on this album. It perfectly describes the feeling that you get when you think a relationship is ‘just for fun’ until it’s over and you realize that you were a lot more invested in it than you had assumed. There is some great word play in the song, such as “I’m learning / I’m yearning / I’m burning all your stuff,” and “Deflated / and jaded / I hate it when you call, which isn’t at all.”
“Road to Joy,” from Bright Eyes’ “I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning.” This song would make the list just for the fact that the melody is taken from “Ode to Joy” from Beethoven’s ninth symphony, hence the title “Road to Joy.” Genius pun, Mr. Oberst, genius. The song is an angst-filled, folked-out punk song speaking out against war, the highlight of which is probably everybody in the band just going crazy while Oberst screams “I’m wide awake, it’s morning.”
“Several Ways to Die Trying,” from Dashboard Confessional’s “A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar.” Dashboard Confessional has put out some truly great albums, of which this is definitely the best. The danger of those great albums is that, of course, if you screw it up you give the listener that metaphorical rotten apple to the face. Dashboard does no such thing here. Something about the simple guitar lines, the soulful lyrics and of course, Chris Carrabba’s voice make this song one of the greats. The highlight of the song is when Carrabba half screams one note for 15 and a half seconds. I timed it.
“Two Weeks in Hawaii,” from Hellogoodbye’s “Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs!” This album is just one of those fun albums that is full of mushy love songs that for some reason get stuck in your head for hours on end. This song makes the list for its great use of dynamic variation, but mostly for the line “I felt so bad when your mom caught us eating ice cream in your room at three in the morning.” Awesome.
“Amsterdam,” from Coldplay’s “A Rush of Blood to the Head.” A great end to a great album. It is one of the most heartfelt song you could ask for. The simple yet beautiful piano line accentuates Chris Martin’s voice wonderfully, as well as the rest of the band when it joins in towards the end. The music is very intense, but calms down as Martin sings “Stood on the edge, tied to a noose. You came along and you cut me loose.”
I hope this list gives you a little hope for finals week, that good things can and do end well. Sleep well, study hard, and party long afterwards. See you next fall.
– Colin is a sophomore music major emphasizing in cello performance. He comes from Vernon, Utah, where his family runs a cattle ranch. He can be reached at rex.colin.mitchell@aggiemail.com.