“The audience was receptive and open to discovering new things,” Wilson said. It was an unusual pairing, a rock band and a group known for jangle pop, folk rock and comedy, but it worked in Semisonic’s favor. arena tour and invited Semisonic as the opening act. known for songs such as “If I Had $1,000,000,” “Brian Wilson” and “Be My Yoko Ono” broke into the mainstream that same year with the hit “One Week.” The band embarked on a U.S. That’s the only thing that’s hard - the song is bigger than we are,” Wilson said.īarenaked Ladies, the jokey Canadian band with an underground following in the U.S. “It’s some sort of crazy evergreen perennial that hasn’t gone away, and that’s an unusual kind of hit. Semisonic, which also features John Munson (bass) and Jacob Slichter (drums), will perform on June 24 at Fantasy Springs Resort Casino as part of the Last Summer on Earth Tour with Del Amitri and headliner Barenaked Ladies.ĭuring a recent phone interview, Wilson described “Closing Time” as “not just a hit song.” But Wilson told American Songwriter in 2022 the song is about fatherhood and was written while expecting his first child. Listeners had questions that were analytical and metaphorical.Īrmchair philosophers, aspiring songwriters and fanatics examined the lyrics, offering their own interpretations centering on life and death, relationships and other poignant subjects. It was a hit like Don McLean's "American Pie" was a hit. But it wasn't an ordinary hit along the lines of those songs such as "In A Big Country" by Big Country, "Take On Me" by A-ha or the "Macarena" by Los Del Rio. “Closing Time” remains esteemed in pop culture. It was also nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Rock Song category. 11 on Billboard’s Radio Songs chart and No. Even though it featured an edgier grunge-rock sound that radio stations were moving on from, it reached No. In 1998, the band’s song “Closing Time," seemingly about people leaving a bar in the wee hours of the morning following last call, became a hit. Semisonic frontman Dan Wilson knows all about that. Bunny keeps you guessing.Writing a hit song is a tricky and unpredictable task, and often happens by accident. The thrill of the song is wrapped up in how it skirts any pressure to lay out its intentions, how it moves at its own whims. She may be channeling the want to be immaterial, the ability to evaporate like a wisp of smoke, but when she sings “I’m so nonphysical,” it comes with embodied longing, as if she’s aching for touch. She enters a new dimension in the chorus, switching from narrator to first-person, trading a Drake-like rhythmic delivery for her usual lithe, crystalline singing. Meanwhile, as if recreating the slipperiness of Bunny, Polachek darts through various images (blazing fireworks, a wet palette, a cut check), never resting long enough for you to grasp what’s next. It’s a characteristic display of PC Music alum Harle’s impulse to simultaneously send-up and pay homage to popular forms, with results too deliciously crisp to read as a joke. –Puja PatelĬasting off the gossamer avant-pop of 2019’s Pang, Polachek and producer Danny L Harle opt for a sound that is both commercial and weird: a deep, juicy bassline befitting of the Top 40, a “ yoo hoo” whistle, a sample taken from Harle’s giggling baby, even marimba plinks that conjure an island vacation with Kygo. It’s a one-act play of existential malaise and a sardonic anthem for those who can't help but seek out the spotlight. There’s some humor to it all forlorn, she recognizes that the world never stops turning, and that it’s fine to lie to ourselves if it helps pass the time. The song unfolds as a balancing act of vulnerability and expectation, of altruistic self-expression and the vanity of wanting to be seen, or even adored. “Working for the Knife" is her brooding, melancholic first major single back from this respite, and acts as an incisive warning about how much of our identity we give to our life’s greatest undertakings, and who we’re giving it up for. After a long and grueling world tour supporting her breakthrough album Be the Cowboy, the singer took time off in 2019, saying she needed a break from the “constant churn” of performance. Mitski would like to have a word on that. The saying goes that if you do what you love, you’ll never have to work a day in your life.
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