Tag Archives: end

#1218: The Futureheads – Skip to the End

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Goddamn it, it’s been nearly 20 years since this song came out, and I vividly remember watching MTV2 when its music video was showing on the regular. That places me at the age of 11, nearing the end of my days in primary school. ‘Skip to the End’ was unveiled as the first single from what was going to be the new second album by The Futureheads, News and Tributes. It was something I wasn’t expecting because 1, I wasn’t reading up on music like that back then, and 2, another song by the band had been released some months prior that had been announced as a standalone thing and nothing more. But none of it mattered. The band were officially back, back. And owning the band’s debut album on CD like I did, and still do, it was an exciting thing.

I wouldn’t be able to specifically remember the very first time I watched the video/heard the song, but I do recall at least thinking initially that it maybe wasn’t as immediate as a ‘Decent Days and Nights’ or ‘Area’. The verses hopped along with clicking cross-sticks and stabbing guitar chords. Guitarist/singer Barry Hyde delivers his vocals, unusually without the notable backing vocals that were ingrained in the Futureheads DNA. But then the chorus comes in, those backing vocals arrive with it and everything felt all right again. It took a while to get there, but that familiar Futureheads feeling was established. And after hearing it probably almost every morning before school in that time, it made sense that it would stick in my head and I would add it on a phone so I could write my feelings about it nearly two decades later.

The lyrical matter is pretty simple. The narrator here states that if there was a chance to somehow go forward in time and witness the end of their relationship with someone, they would do so to see if there was any point in starting it in the first place. Whether it’s a happy end or a broken heart is the main factor with which they would make their decision. There’s no answer to how the relationship in question goes because obviously it isn’t something anyone’s able to do. It’s just a song to say if they could, they would. But if the second verse is anything to go by, Hyde sings about “going through the roof” (getting very upset) when his lady makes sense, it may be fair to say that things could be going a little better.

#655: R.E.M. – It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

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If I were to take a guess, I think I sing this song the same way that the majority of people who know it do. The first three lines are easy as pie, then every verse that follows is just a lot of words smushed up together into a one note melody which is then followed by the very memorable chorus.

‘It’s the End of the World’ is one of R.E.M.’s most well known tracks, one of their most played too – to the point that it may be overplayed for some people. But I only started properly listening to R.E.M. last year. I had heard the song maybe two… three times before? I’ll say five at most. And that was when its video was shown on TV. And in Chicken Little. Actually listening to it with headphones was a very different experience.

‘End of the World’ is the sixth track on R.E.M.’s fifth album, Document, released in 1987. It is not my favourite album of the group’s but this song right here is one of its highlights. The uploaded video above takes all the weight out of the audio quality though which is a shame. When those thunderous drum rolls come in at the beginning, the energy never dips from there. It’s four minutes of relentless, driving momentum. And though I never succeed in enunciating every syllable in the quickfire verses, it’s always fun to try. As said earlier, it doesn’t really matter because it has a hell of a chorus that’s not related to what goes on in those verses in any way.

Going through R.E.M.’s discography (which I had to when I found out they were actually very good) there were a few things I picked up on, especially in their earlier albums. They had a knack for great melodies. And the triple vocal harmonies of Michael Stipe, Mike Mills and Bill Berry added a layer that made the band’s songs even better when they were utilised. Melodies and harmonies are present on this track… a few countermelodies too. There’s always something new to pick up on in this track every time I hear it. It’s such a thrill. It’s quite disappointing when it starts to fade out at the end, wish it could go on for ages.

#627: Green Day – In the End

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Sorry for the wait for any of you eagerly anticipating a post from here. I was at Lovebox Festival on Friday and Saturday. Have been gradually recovering since. I’m almost there.

‘In the End’ is the third track in that four-short-song-suite (as only I like to refer to it) that appears towards the end of Green Day’s 1994 breakthrough album Dookie. Preceded by ‘Coming Clean‘ and ‘Emenius Sleepus‘, ‘In the End’ concerns Billie Joe Armstrong’s feelings when his mother started dating a man who he wasn’t very fond of, as you can see in the song’s lyrics. It seems that he’s disappointed by his mum’s choice in choosing this person as opposed to practically anyone else and tells her straight that if this new boyfriend lets her down, he hopes he won’t be there to pick up the pieces.

I never properly appreciated the song until it was playable on Green Day: Rock Band. Next year that game turns 10 years old and I would be surprised if anyone remembers it. I reckon it’s quite easy to play on the guitar as its mostly based on two power chords with a bit of variation during the choruses but Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool are bossing it on the rhythm section, particularly on the instrumental section that separates the second chorus from the final one. It’s not very long so there’s not much to say about it; it is thoroughly enjoyable nonetheless.

My iPod #327: They Might Be Giants – The End of the Tour

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“The End of the Tour” was a track I heard around the same time as I heard “AKA Driver“, “Dinner Bell“, “Ana Ng“, “Destination Moon“, and many other They Might Be Giants songs for the first time. And that was when, if you’ve read my posts on those few songs you will know, when I was on Yahoo’s Launch site.

I’ve never really cared to think about what this song is about, or what it could mean. I feel very sentimental when I listen to it. Even though I wasn’t alive when this song first came out in 1994, it somehow makes me want to reminisce about friends from the past and other unforgettable moments.

This song is about the end of something…. not just a tour. I think the whole ‘tour’ is a metaphor of life, actually. Whatever. Nothing to care that much about.

It’s a very relieving and comforting way to end the hour-long smorgasbord that is “John Henry”, especially as it comes after the monster “Stomp Box” where you wonder where the album could possibly go afterwards.

My iPod #326: Blur – End of a Century

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Have you ever gone on casually going about on your daily routine knowing that something big and life changing was on the horizon, but you’re just that person too wrapped up in your own life or what’s happening on the television to realise it? Well, I think that’s what Damon Albarn was thinking about when he was writing the lyrics to “End of a Century”, the third track and last single from the 1994 album “Parklife“.

If I was a little older in 1999 – maybe ten or eleven (around those ages) – I would probably be able to tell you how much people were going crazy for the start of the new millennium. I can’t because I was about four and I can barely remember living in the nineties anyway. The only thing I remember vaguely around the start of 2000 was the “Millennium Bug” where all the electricity was supposed to go out and there would be no more power. Even now, I have no idea what it was about.

While there was obviously a large majority of the world who did care that the world was entering a new era, you can’t say that there weren’t some people existing then who didn’t. Thought it was ‘nothing special’. Saw it just like any other day, and were more interested in carrying on with their lives.

So listen to this track, because it’s coming from a guy who was very much aware of what was going on at that time. Well, six years before anyway.