Wednesday, January 02, 2008
#2 The Weakerthans - Reunion Tour
One of my favorite bands FINALLY releases another album after roughly 3 years of touring. I can't believe I have another album ranked above this but this has been a great year for music. JK Samson is quite possibly the best lyricist I have ever heard. He can take an everyday situation and pick a random person out of it and have them tell an amazing story, such as the bus driver in Civil Twilight. He has also written multiple songs from the point of view of a cat named Virtute and the one on this album is an amazing example of what JK is capable of. I could have just filled in the favorite quotes section of this entry with the lyrics to the whole album. The music on the other hand isn't quite up to par with what I had come to expect from The Weakerthans. Not to say it's bad but it just didn't hit me as fast and took some time to grow. Luckily those lyrics were there to always keep me interested. I had the pleasure of seeing these guys live again and it was one of the best shows I went to all year. Listen to the lyrics of "Utilities" and try to tell me Samson isn't a gifted song writer.
Highlights:
Civil Twilight
Relative Surplus Value
Virtute the Cat Explains Her Departure
Favorite Lyrics:
“Every other hour I pass that house,
Where you told me that you had to go
I wonder if the landlord has fixed the crack,
That I stared at, instead of staring back at you;
My chance to say something seemed so brief, but it wasn't.
Now I know I had plenty of time
Between the sunset and certified darkness
Dusk comes on and I follow the exhaust from memory up to the end
The civil twilight”
“And the pause feels like an extra year
of high school
The CEO takes me aside
I'm down 12 points
and they're selling.
The graphs in the board room show
by the time that the market
opens in Tokyo
I'll be worthless
So, what I'm trying to say,
I mean what I'm asking is,
I know we haven't talked in a while
but could you come get me?”
