Guest Post - 2014 Closers

Jeremy's Top Ten

The Selfie from the 2014 Academy Awards

We love a guest post on The Run Out Grooves, and I’m pleased to welcome

Jeremy Shatan

, who writes AnEarful, to kick off August and our month looking at the 2010s. Here are ten closers from 2014 that Jeremy is still digging almost a decade later…

1. Hiss Golden Messenger - ‘Drum’ (from Lateness of Dancers, Merge Records) Originally closing M.C. Taylor’s second album, Bad Debt, in 2010, on his sixth album, ‘Drum’ is transformed into a high-spirited, fiddle-filled country-gospel delight, seemingly evangelising for his music in a way that makes you want to listen to the album all over again.

2. Beck - ‘Waking Light’ (from Morning Phase, Capitol Records) On his 12th album and first in six years, Beck revisited the string-laden, reflective folk sound of his sixth, 2002’s Sea Change. Wisely, rather than letting the album float off into the ether, he closed it with ‘Waking Light’, the most dynamic song on the album. The soaring track builds to an apotheosis on the wings of Jason Falkner’s psychedelic guitar solo, which crashes and burns before your ears. Grammy voters took note!

3. Spoon - ‘New York Kiss’ (from They Want My Soul, Loma Vista Recordings) Perhaps seeking some of the late-night “you don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here” vibe of ‘Closing Time’, Britt Daniel co-wrote this track with Semisonic’s Dan Wilson. Whatever the nature of the collaboration, the song’s repetitive structure and rainswept atmosphere bring Spoon’s eighth album to a close in a stylishly sleek manner.

4. Debby Schwartz - ‘All To Become Somebody’ (from A Garden Of My Own, Twin Lakes Records) Debby is a friend from SUNY Purchase who had near success in the “college rock” market of the early 90s with her band The Aquanettas (get to Love With The Proper Stranger if you’re unfamiliar) and then released one somewhat unfocused solo album in 1998. In 2013, however, she connected fully with her talent and power as a singer and songwriter, putting out one of the decade’s best albums. Although technically a “bonus track,” this song uses the structures of British and Appalachian folk to create her haunting bildungsroman, underpinned by the droning hurdy-gurdy of P.G. Six’s Pat Gubler. Extraordinary.

5. The Ghost Of A Saber Tooth Tiger - ‘Moth To A Flame’ (from Midnight Sun, Chimera Music) Even though his father’s band rarely missed in this regard, it would be unfair to say that Sean Lennon’s abilities to pick the perfect album closer are in his DNA, as that would dismiss his talents. It would also obviate the enormous contribution of his partner in crime (and in life), Charlotte Kemp-Muhl. In any case, they create a nightmare circus of a closer here, drenched in Lennon’s epic guitar and with a wordless refrain that seems to linger in the air after the song ends. Sadly, with Sean and Charlotte pursuing other avenues, The GOASTT has been quiet ever since, but at least they didn’t go out with a whimper!

6. Hamilton Leithauser - ‘The Smallest Splinter’ (from Black Hours, Ribbon Music) “Hit me again 'cause I've been sewn up/Give me the lion's share of your love,” Leithauser demands, as Richard Swift’s drums beat on implacably and Paul Maroon’s guitar picks out a bitter phrase, bringing the standard edition of his debut solo to a close. The deluxe edition took things even further, with his persona declaring, “I’ll never love again,” but the message of heartbreak was loud and clear in ‘The Smallest Splinter’.

7. Freddie Gibbs and Madlib - ‘Piñata’ (feat. Domo Genesis, G-Wiz, Casey Veggies, Sulaiman, Meechy Darko and Mac Miller) (from Piñata, Madlib Invazion) What better way to end what Gibbs described as “a gangster Blaxploitation film on wax” than with an overstuffed posse track? Everyone spits fire over Madlib’s hypnotic, sitar-driven track, with Gibbs’ verse having some brutal highlights worthy of Mobb Deep: “Let's go kick in the door and strip 'em naked, leave 'em stinking/No witness, no weapon, my n****, the case is over/The reaper snatched him, closed-casket, his family need some closure.” The track extends into a film scene and then, as Gibbs says, “Turn the song off, though, he recording,” what sounds like someone’s drunk uncle does their K-Ci & JoJo imitation, lightening the mood considerably.

8. Scott Walker + Sunn O))) - ‘Lullaby’ (from Soused, 4AD) “It’s absolutely brutal,” Walker said of his approach to singing the excerpts from William Byrd’s My Sweet Little Darling (1588) woven throughout the final song from his final album, “I’m absolutely screaming it so there’s no vocal quality at all in it.” The contrast makes the crooning of his lyrics, “The most intimate/personal choices/and requests/central to your/personal dignity/will be sung,” that much more queasily seductive. As the guitars of Greg Anderson, Stephen O’Malley, and Tos Nieuwenhuizen grind, gnash, and wail away in the background, Walker seems to attempt to sing the human race to sleep…forever.

9. Angel Olsen - ‘Window’ (from Burn Your Fire For No Witness, Jagjaguwar) The final song on Olsen’s breakthrough sophomore release is a stunner, presenting her voice - tremulous but with the power of banked flames - at the forefront as she sings, possibly to herself: “Are you dead already? Are you alive?”

10. Tweedy - ‘I’ll Never Know’ (from Sukirae, dBpm Records) The one album from the family band of Jeff and Spencer Tweedy (with Samuel as “Executive Producer”) is a masterclass in songwriting. The final song is no exception as Jeff, accompanying himself on guitar and piano along with the spectral vocals of Lucius, evokes nights on the couch, watching TV with his chain-smoking mother: “I loved to watch the ghosts/of cigarette smoke turning lithe and blue/And I loved the time we spent alone/That you never knew.” The circular melody seems to ask more questions than it answers, perfectly reflecting all that is unknown between parents and children.

Thanks again to Jeremy for his list - I thought we could do something different based on a year look rather than an artist. A comment under another guest piece inspired this article - If you have any suggestions or offerings on a guest piece, feel free to let me know.