Closer When She Goes February 26, 2009

I’ve always liked listening to this one, and it made perfect sense that it would appear on an EP rather than a regular album due to its length, but it’s just never felt like a real song to me.  It’s just verse-chorus-verse-chorus DONE!  The lyrics are all pretty good, and I feel like they were definitely onto something really cool.  I’m not sure why it was never made into a full-length album track, though.  I always think about that when I hear it, and I’d be lying if I said sometimes it makes me feel just a little bit shortchanged.  The Halloween EP has one pretty good song (“Halloween”), one really great song (“Funeral Marching”) and what sounds like a demo that they threw on for the sake of having three songs. 

A nice listen, but it always leaves me wanting more.  (And not in the good way)

Funeral Marching January 5, 2009

When I first got the Halloween EP, I was impressed by how good the songs were.  The first thing I thought was: “Why weren’t these put on an album?”  Well, I turned to our friend Google and found out that “Halloween” had been featured on Love Is Hell Pt.1 in the United Kingdom and “Closer When She Goes” was a b-side to the This Is It single.  But it was then I realized these are on an EP because they didn’t fit on the albums.  After the release of Halloween, his next solo album is 29, which wouldn’t work with any of these tracks.  The fact that “Halloween” was released with Love Is Hell is puzzling enough, considering it’s way too folksy and happy sounding to work.  “Closer When She Goes” has a very garage rock sound, but also has a country vibe that would be out of place on Rock n Roll.  So, to sum up this little wall of text: it was right for these songs to appear on an EP rather than albums. 

In my opinion, the strongest song out of the three is “Funeral Marching.”  The lyrics are, for the most part, just OK.  There are a lot of hooks, which makes me wonder why it wasn’t released as a single.  There’s a really nice, big chorus that sounds like an alt-country U2.  Every time he sings “Oh, you used to be beautiful” I imagine this could have been an rock radio hit.  Of course, Ryan Adams has never really been about singles, so it’s no surprise it wasn’t promoted this way.

What really makes the song, for me, is the music.  There are several electric guitar tracks that give it a very live feel.  There’s the rhythm section that just chugs along, the little bursts he’s grown to be so fond of, and the fills coming at the end of each verse.  However, those kick-ass chimes in the intro are what really do it for me.  It’s classy, it’s rocky, it’s brilliant…