Everything So Far - Blog Posts

This is my first actual post on tumblr and I wasn’t entirely sure what to do, but I kinda just decided I’d do whatever I felt like and this stupid pinegrove album, Everything So Far, has been on my mind for weeks.

I have a problem with this album- it’s that it’s actually an amazing piece of art and I love it, but the ENDING. It’s a tragedy, truly.

I was recommended the album by a friend and they explained that in the beginning all the songs are shorter and almost feel incomplete, and then after & it explodes and the songs become longer and more colour is brought into the album with the tone. Once I had a listen for myself I 1000% agreed, but I couldn’t get behind the last few songs (which they hadn’t actually listened to).

The whole album leading up to the song Recycling builds in a really powerful way and then Recyling comes on and it’s perfect. Sunday is right after Recycling, and while it’s a good song, Recycling feels like a finale, if I could change the song itself for it to be written as a conclusion I’d extend it to be something like 7/6:37 instead of 4:37.

The last two songs, On Jet Lag and Days play and the end of the album is fully spoiled for me. Personally, On Jet Lag is only mid, and then Days is just not good. Days isn’t a conclusion. It’s possible this was intentional, however there are ways to make songs feel open-ended and still have them serve as a good conclusion, for example, A Matter Of Time in the album Let Live & Let Ghosts by Jukebox the Ghost is a conclusion that gives the listener the question, “Well, what happens next? Where do we go from here?” (This is another amazing album I’d definitely recommend listening to, it’s amazing and I will for sure be doing a separate post for that one at a later date). We can also see great examples of open conclusions in books too, where even though it’s open for the reader to think about what might’ve happened, it’s a satisfying conclusion.

Unfortunately, Everything so Far doesn’t have this satisfying conclusion and it really bothers me as this album is so good and *almost* all the songs are amazing on it and the order of which they are played is well-organized.

For a more complete album, I think switching the placements of Sunday and Recycling and placing On Jet Lag after Sunday. just not having Days. I originally thought that the album could do without On Jet Lag, but after re-listening to the song I found it only sounds mid by association with the last song, it’s honestly just an okay song on its own, but I think it’s a good transition song into the finale.

If I could rearrange the album but I had to keep all the songs, I’d keep it the same for the ending, but put Days somewhere before &.

It’s essential that an album have a killer intro song (New Friends sets the tone so well!! It’s so gooooddd) and a satisfying conclusion (Recycling but slightly longer, please believe me).

I could go on for days about the individual songs in this album, but I will not bore you with that, so I leave you with this.

I love this album to bits, but the ending was atrocious, imo.

Hooray for my first rant/post!