"DECADES" JOY DIVISION (1980)

You can get off to a fast start. You can sustain your opener with the main course, not filler. But can you end on a high note? Sometimes I wonder if recording a strong closer is the most difficult thing to pull off when it comes to album rock. When it comes to the cream of the crop in music, I can think of more strong openers than strong closers. Nonetheless, I still have my favorites which I’ll be featuring on Mental Jukebox all month.

Few bands can be described as monumental. But I’ll go ahead and say that Joy Division is truly monumental as pioneers and influencers. They were simply doing things no one else was doing. And no one else sounded like Joy Division. Much credit, of course, goes to the irreplaceable Ian Curtis. His tortured, almost catatonic vocals crawled under your skin. There are many monumental tracks in the Joy Division canon, and one of the premier examples is the closer to Closer. There’s a tactile quality about “Decades” that makes it stand out from all the other JD tracks.

Every musical component on “Decades” feels incredibly tactile, a huge credit to Martin Hannett. I don’t love everything he produced for the band, but I think he totally nailed this closing track. The synthesizer chords are like glass shards. The bass line isn’t your typical riff from Hooky, but it works as the listener feels the pluck of every note. The drum intro kicks off eerily similar to “She’s Lost Control”, only here Morris switches into a heavier, rock-like drum part at the 4:35 mark. But the hero once again is Ian. His voice sounds like a ghost that refuses to leave the premises.

“Each ritual showed up the door for our wanderings, Open then shut, then slammed in our face.”

"MOGWAI FEAR SATAN" MOGWAI (1997)

You can get off to a fast start. You can sustain your opener with the main course, not filler. But can you end on a high note? Sometimes I wonder if recording a strong closer is the most difficult thing to pull off when it comes to album rock. When it comes to the cream of the crop in music, I can think of more strong openers than strong closers. Nonetheless, I still have my favorites which I’ll be featuring on Mental Jukebox all month.

Mogwai is a band that made an impact instantly – and somehow seems to get better with each recording. There hasn’t been a single dud in their entire album collection. But interestingly, the best closer, in my opinion, is still from their debut record, Young Team. It sounds like something created from a band that’s been at it for years. It’s a magnum opus for Mogwai and for the post rock genre. While the band certainly didn’t invent the genre, you could argue that no band has done more to help get the genre out there than Mogwai – and it all started with “Mogwai Fear Satan”.

What distinguishes itself immediately from other Mogwai anthems is its length. Clocking in at over 16 minutes, it is truly a magnum opus. It’s a swamp of timbre, textures and distortion. The kind of music you can get lost in and yet also the kind of music that can lead you to discover something significant. The drums are one continuous fill that tumbles over and over again. And the guitars sound like sirens in the night – running parallel to a distant flute in the background.

"FORTRESS AROUND YOUR HEART" STING (1985)

You can get off to a fast start. You can sustain your opener with the main course, not filler. But can you end on a high note? Sometimes I wonder if recording a strong closer is the most difficult thing to pull off when it comes to album rock. When it comes to the cream of the crop in music, I can think of more strong openers than strong closers. Nonetheless, I still have my favorites which I’ll be featuring on Mental Jukebox all month.

The Dream of the Blue Turtles was my first experience hearing a former frontman turn solo, and it didn’t disappoint. Sting’s musicianship and songwriting, in fact, took a big step forward here. Sting’s debut solo album is full of varied themes, genres and personalities. and my favorite track was always “Fortress Around Your Heart”. I first discovered it on MTV and was instantly mesmerized by the music and lyrics. Then I got my Dream of the Blue Turtles cassette – and was blown away by its presence as the final track to an exceptional album.

It’s a love song written like an epic war story. This wouldn’t be the only time Sting would use a metaphor to describe the heart. Later, on Ten Summoner’s Tales, he would revisit the subject with a different metaphor, featuring a card player in “Shape Of My Heart”. Here, the imagery is epic – consisting of bridges, crumbling towers and battles. The melody is infectious, yet utterly unique, and contains one of Sting’s self-proclaimed finest choruses. and the instrumentation is impeccable, with the calculating guitar picking, prodding bass line and Branford Marsalis’ sly sax solo marching in sync.

“I RECOGNIZED THE FIELDS WHERE I'D ONCE PLAYED. HAD TO STOP IN MY TRACKS FOR FEAR OF WALKING ON THE MINES I'D LAID.”

"WHATSERNAME" GREEN DAY (2004)

You can get off to a fast start. You can sustain your opener with the main course, not filler. But can you end on a high note? Sometimes I wonder if recording a strong closer is the most difficult thing to pull off when it comes to album rock. When it comes to the cream of the crop in music, I can think of more strong openers than strong closers. Nonetheless, I still have my favorites which I’ll be featuring on Mental Jukebox all month.

Before American Idiot, I had nearly written off Green Day. They had some solid songs over the years, but they all felt like these one-off expressions that were great for just a moment in time. American Idiot changed all that. It was the antithesis of everything that turned me away from the band. As a concept album, American Idiot presented the narrative of a disillusioned teenager following 9/11 and the Iraq War. These weren’t two-minute punk rock songs. It was a story. And the songs were often combined into longer pieces, taking on the form of an opera, not a traditional rock album, which closed with the oft-overlooked “Whatsername”.

American Idiot is full of great moments, like “Holiday”, “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”, “Wake Me Up When September Ends” and the title track. But “Whatsername” had this wit and charm to it that the other tracks didn’t. It’s a reminder that the simplest of chord progressions can still do powerful things in music when other dynamics within a song are shifting. It had this quiet-loud dynamic thing happening that launched the song out of its romantic daze into the bridge, almost out of nowhere. “Whatsername” is a modern-day punk rock song because it captured all these complicated states: anger, despondence, regret.

“THE REGRETS ARE USELESS IN MY MIND.”

"MIAMI 2017" BILLY JOEL (1976)

You can get off to a fast start. You can sustain your opener with the main course, not filler. But can you end on a high note? Sometimes I wonder if recording a strong closer is the most difficult thing to pull off when it comes to album rock. When it comes to the cream of the crop in music, I can think of more strong openers than strong closers. Nonetheless, I still have my favorites which I’ll be featuring on Mental Jukebox all month.

As a New Yorker, the music of Billy Joel has always resonated with me on a deeper level than with the average casual fan. My first show was a Billy Joel concert at Giants Stadium. An Innocent Man, The Bridge and Storm Front were the albums of my youth, but my favorite album from the Piano Man is Turnstiles. It is a quintessential New York album. A record that signals Joel’s return to New York after his time in Hollywood. Several songs reference New York, including the apocalyptic masterpiece “Miami 2017 (I’ve Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway)” – a prog rock anomaly and a hell of a closer from the Piano Man.

It might be my favorite Billy Joel song because even as it portrayed the downfall of New York City, it seemed to celebrate it with a sense of pride and nostalgia that can’t be fathomed with any other city. The song is narrated by a grandfather telling his grandchildren about the fictitious fall of NYC in the 70’s as he sits in his retirement home in Miami some forty years later. “Miami 2017” did something very few art forms are able to accomplish. It used a fictitious story to remind us of the things in reality that we really love and the things we might even die for.

“THEY SENT A CARRIER OUT FROM NORFOLK. AND PICKED THE YANKEES UP FOR FREE. THEY SAID THAT QUEENS COULD STAY. THEY BLEW THE BRONX AWAY. AND SANK MANHATTAN OUT AT SEA.”

"THIS MUST BE THE PLACE (NAIVE MELODY)" TALKING HEADS (1983)

You can get off to a fast start. You can sustain your opener with the main course, not filler. But can you end on a high note? Sometimes I wonder if recording a strong closer is the most difficult thing to pull off when it comes to album rock. When it comes to the cream of the crop in music, I can think of more strong openers than strong closers. Nonetheless, I still have my favorites which I’ll be featuring on Mental Jukebox all month.

Talking Heads is inarguably one of the quintessential music acts of the decade. They helped round out the new wave genre with songs that dared to mingle in the universe of world music. No else did this. Songs like “I Zimbra”, “Slippery People”, “Born Under Punches” and “(Nothing But) Flowers” were global in scope. No one else could’ve made those songs. Their recording studios and concert stages were strewn with instruments most bands have never touched. But, if I’m honest, my favorite Talking Heads anthem is almost the antithesis of what made them so unique. The song is the closer from Speaking In Tongues – “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)”, which also played on the closing credits of Wall Street.

It lacked funk. There was not a single polyrhythm to be heard. No djembe. No congas. No surdo. It was almost all synthesizers, with Weymouth switching to guitar while Harrison played the bass lines off a Prophet synthesizer. And here’s the kicker. It was repetitive as hell. Almost monotonous. Which is the brilliance of the song. Truly a naive melody, the song hypnotizes you with its sameness. It always puts me in a good space. It always gets me good. Locks me in its groove. After hearing it, I know. This truly must be the place.

“HOME, IS WHERE I WANT TO BE. BUT I GUESS I'M ALREADY THERE.”

"THE PRICE YOU PAY" LOW (2021)

You can get off to a fast start. You can sustain your opener with the main course, not filler. But can you end on a high note? Sometimes I wonder if recording a strong closer is the most difficult thing to pull off when it comes to album rock. When it comes to the cream of the crop in music, I can think of more strong openers than strong closers. Nonetheless, I still have my favorites which I’ll be featuring on Mental Jukebox all month.

The harmonies of Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker are some of the most beautifully haunting elements of music ever uttered. When Mimi passed away from cancer late last year, the music world lost a great human being but also one half of the greatness that is Low. Even if Alan continues on, Low will never be the same again, which saddens me. As their last studio album release prior to Mimi’s death, HEY WHAT builds on the distorted, experimental sound of their more recent recordings. The album ends in epic fashion with the seven-minute anthem “The Price You Pay”.

The track contains large swaths of distortion where no lyrics are sung, where Alan and Mimi are locked in instrumentally. The engineering work of BJ Burton emphatically takes this track – along with all the album’s songs – to the next level. It even earned him a Grammy nomination. But the most powerful element of “The Price You Pay” is and always will be the bone-chilling vocal harmonies where Alan and Mimi sing together in their final studio recording. It feels so final and infinite at the same time.

“I put a lot of thought Into the price you pay To hear the morning come. Keep the ghost another day.”

"LEAVE ME ALONE" NEW ORDER (1983)

You can get off to a fast start. You can sustain your opener with the main course, not filler. But can you end on a high note? Sometimes I wonder if recording a strong closer is the most difficult thing to pull off when it comes to album rock. When it comes to the cream of the crop in music, I can think of more strong openers than strong closers. Nonetheless, I still have my favorites which I’ll be featuring on Mental Jukebox all month.

Power, Corruption And Lies is the album where New Order’s unique identity began to come to fruition. On their debut recording, Movement, they seemed almost chained up by the ghosts of Joy Division and Ian Curtis. After all, it was literally months after the death of both entities when the began headed back to the recording studio. Probably the two biggest changes that occurred on PC&L were the larger emphasis on synthesizers and the distinctly different vocal approach of Bernard Sumner, which was far lighter than Curtis, even whimsical at times. However, for the final track on the PC&L, New Order chose a song that still has delightful tinges of Joy Division.

This is the strength of “Leave Me Alone”, the fact that it straddles the fence between both eras without compromising artistically. In fact, it’s the influences of both bands’ sounds that make this track so good. Barney is no Ian and would never be mistaken for him. But this is also a far cry away from the dance rock approach that New Order would become famous for. In his depression, Ian often sounded detached from everyone. But with Barney, his own struggles seem much more relatable and within reach. The guitars on “Leave Me Alone” stretch upward to a more New Order-esque sound, but the song maintains strong roots to the Joy Division sound especially with Stephen’s drum finale.

“On a thousand islands in the sea, I see a thousand people just like me.”

"BLUE BUCKET OF GOLD" SUFJAN STEVENS (2015)

You can get off to a fast start. You can sustain your opener with the main course, not filler. But can you end on a high note? Sometimes I wonder if recording a strong closer is the most difficult thing to pull off when it comes to album rock. When it comes to the cream of the crop in music, I can think of more strong openers than strong closers. Nonetheless, I still have my favorites which I’ll be featuring on Mental Jukebox all month.

There are many great Sufjan Stevens albums – and great they are for different reasons. But the ones I keep coming back to are the albums that are focused more on the simple songwriting and melodies than instrumental experimentation. Seven Swans does this. The famed Illinoise album does, too. My third favorite album on the simpler side of the spectrum within Sufjans’ catalog is Carrie & Lowell – an intensely personal album full of anecdotes and confessions as if they’re told from an old friend. Every track is a minimalistic songwriting wonder, including the closer “Blue Bucket Of Gold”.

A song for the dead of night, “Blue Bucket Of Gold” resides in the quiet, in the darkness. Sufjan sings like he’s speaking softly on the other end of the phone – and every single word is visceral. It is achingly honest, vulnerable and intimate, framed by the artist’s unique chord structures emanating from an echoey, chilling synthesizer. The synth sounds swirl solo for the last minute and a half, like the remnants of the words uttered. A perfect track choice to wind down Carrie & Lowell.

“Search for things to extol. Friend, the fables delight me. My blue bucket of gold. Lord, touch me with lightning.”

"SONG OF SAND" SUZANNE VEGA (1992)

You can get off to a fast start. You can sustain your opener with the main course, not filler. But can you end on a high note? Sometimes I wonder if recording a strong closer is the most difficult thing to pull off when it comes to album rock. When it comes to the cream of the crop in music, I can think of more strong openers than strong closers. Nonetheless, I still have my favorites which I’ll be featuring on Mental Jukebox all month.

99.9F is a great album, but it’s not a typical Suzanne Vega album. Her signature acoustic guitar-driven approach comes with harder, rougher edges here with tinges of industrial rock and grunge. Which is why “Song Of Sand”, the album closer, is so significant. It’s all acoustic, a reminder and a return to form in terms of the songwriting and instrumentation found on albums like Solitude Standing.

Those dissected minor chords in “Song Of Sand” are highly reminiscent of older Suzanne Vega songs like “Night Vision” and “Language”. Genres come and go, including grunge. But this track is a stalwart signal to the fans. You can create different styles and sounds. But at the end of the day, it’s all about the songwriting – the way in which the words combine with the melodies to create something memorable and timeless. This is the strength of “Song Of Sand” and of Suzanne Vega’s overall body of work.

“If sand waves were sound waves, What song would be in the air now?”

"THE MORNING FOG" KATE BUSH (1985)

You can get off to a fast start. You can sustain your opener with the main course, not filler. But can you end on a high note? Sometimes I wonder if recording a strong closer is the most difficult thing to pull off when it comes to album rock. When it comes to the cream of the crop in music, I can think of more strong openers than strong closers. Nonetheless, I still have my favorites which I’ll be featuring on Mental Jukebox all month.

What a joy it was to see Kate Bush finally break through to the masses in the U.S. with the resurrection of “Running Up That Hill” nearly 40 years after it was released, thanks to Stranger Things. Bush’s earlier albums had more classical undertones, but Hounds Of Love is where she masterfully melded progressive with pop. “The Big Sky”, “Hounds Of Love”, “Cloudbusting” and the closer “The Morning Fog” are some of my favorite songs from her catalog.

“The Morning Fog” musically and thematically is perfect as the final track on the album. It sounds like a reprise, as if it’s a continuation of the tracks that precede it. Listening to it in isolation just isn’t the same experience. Everything about “The Morning Fog” – the lyrics, the smoldering bass line, the piano arpeggios – feel like a new dawn filled with a sense of clarity and hope even as this tremendous pop album winds down to its final moments.

“The light. Begin to bleed, Begin to breathe, Begin to speak.”

"WE SINK" OF MONSTERS AND MEN (2015)

You can get off to a fast start. You can sustain your opener with the main course, not filler. But can you end on a high note? Sometimes I wonder if recording a strong closer is the most difficult thing to pull off when it comes to album rock. When it comes to the cream of the crop in music, I can think of more strong openers than strong closers. Nonetheless, I still have my favorites which I’ll be featuring on Mental Jukebox all month.

Of Monsters And Men occupy that beautiful space where nature and adventure collide with human emotions. It’s a rather unique style of music for unique moments. The debut album gave us a taste of this. But it’s second, lesser known album Beneath The Skin is where this formula came to full fruition. There was a time when my own lack of adventure as a busy adman / dad caused me to seek out this record over and over again for solace. I listened to it incessantly when it was first released, and right away the songs seemed to bleed into each other, rounding out the experience with “We Sink”.

The dual vocals from Nanna and Raggi are one of the most distinct qualities of the band, giving Of Monsters And Men’s music a campfire song aura that draws you in. On “We sink” they sing through the verses and chorus in resolute unison before the driving drumbeat and glistening keys lead us into the bridge. One of the easy characteristics to overlook on “We Sink” are the lyrics. The band’s flair for a good metaphor serves them well here.

“We are the sleepers. We bite our tongues. We set the fire. And we let it burn.”

"SOME GIRLS ARE BIGGER THAN OTHERS" THE SMITHS (1986)

You can get off to a fast start. You can sustain your opener with the main course, not filler. But can you end on a high note? Sometimes I wonder if recording a strong closer is the most difficult thing to pull off when it comes to album rock. When it comes to the cream of the crop in music, I can think of more strong openers than strong closers. Nonetheless, I still have my favorites which I’ll be featuring on Mental Jukebox all month.

I’ve written a few times before about the impact that The Queen Is Dead has had on my experience as a music fan. Hearing it for the first time was transformative. It was an album that I had to listen to from beginning to end from the moment I picked up my cassette at Tower Records that fateful Saturday evening. This is very much attributed to the strength of every track and the sequence in which they appear. The Queen Is Dead starts out with a banger and then takes the listener on a rollicky journey of mid-tempo, slow ballads, bangers and then culminates unexpectedly with the iconic closer “Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others”.

The track picks up here where Morrissey left off with the historical references earlier in the album. With Keats, Yeats and Wilder in “Cemetry Gates” and Joan of Arc in “Bigmouth Strikes Again”, The Smiths rewrite the textbooks one more time in “Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others” – this time with Anthony and Cleopatra. The lyrics are powerful in their witty, imaginative state. The music is unexpected with fade-ins and fade-outs on the volume and as expectantly jangly as we want it to be with Marr’s melodic guitar riff. It’s not my favorite Smiths anthem, but it is my favorite closer from these Manchester boys.

“As Anthony said to Cleopatra As he opened a crate of ale: ‘Oh I say, Some girls are bigger than others’.”

"ETHIO INVENTION NO. 2" ANDREW BIRD (2013)

You can get off to a fast start. You can sustain your opener with the main course, not filler. But can you end on a high note? Sometimes I wonder if recording a strong closer is the most difficult thing to pull off when it comes to album rock. When it comes to the cream of the crop in music, I can think of more strong openers than strong closers. Nonetheless, I still have my favorites which I’ll be featuring on Mental Jukebox all month.

The celestial presence of I Want To See Pulaski At Night makes it my favorite Andrew Bird album. But it’s worth stating, I don’t think there’s even one weak album in his entire catalog. His folky foray into beautifully crafted string arrangements, whistle refrains and wry lyrical explorations never gets old for me. From this album, “Pulaski At Night” is the track that has the most awareness and appearance on Bird’s live set lists. But the closer – “Ethio Invention No. 2” is just as much a thing of beauty.

As the song descends on your earbuds or speakers, I feel simultaneously lifted up into the ether when I hear it. As I mentioned before, there’s a celestial aspect to the entire album. With this closing track, in particular, Bird introduces us to a new galaxy of wonderment. It’s like he was holding out on us the entire album until this last track comes on. The plucks are like flickering stars and the violin interludes are like dazzling comets darting every which way. The track is a journey you take with your mind’s eye, not just your ears.

"STREET SPIRIT (FADE OUT)" RADIOHEAD (1995)

You can get off to a fast start. You can sustain your opener with the main course, not filler. But can you end on a high note? Sometimes I wonder if recording a strong closer is the most difficult thing to pull off when it comes to album rock. When it comes to the cream of the crop in music, I can think of more strong openers than strong closers. Nonetheless, I still have my favorites which I’ll be featuring on Mental Jukebox all month.

The Bends has stood the test of time as my favorite Radiohead album mainly because of its collection of muscular, guitar-driven bangers. They seem to come relentlessly one after another. “Planet Telex”. “The Bends”. “Bones”. “Just”. “My Iron Lung”. “Black Star”. And “Sulk”. But by shifting down the gears, the quiet wallow of “Street Spirit” was an anthemic closer on an album full of monster riffs. And it’s probably my favorite Radiohead song.

“Street Spirit” is a slow, meandering downward spiral. It’s a song that you cannot escape from. It sucks you in with its cascading arpeggios on guitar and symphonic whole notes hovering over you on synthesizer. The pain and emotion can be felt in every note Yorke sings. The lyrics, gripping yet not fully understandable. The music, overtly chilling and isolating. The sequence, perfection. “Street Spirit” was created to be the closer - on The Bends and on the band’s set lists.

“ROWS OF HOUSES, ALL BEARING DOWN ON ME. I CAN FEEL THEIR BLUE HANDS TOUCHING ME. ALL THESE THINGS INTO POSITION. ALL THESE THINGS WE'LL ONE DAY SWALLOW.”

"THE CHAUFFEUR" DURAN DURAN (1982)

You can get off to a fast start. You can sustain your opener with the main course, not filler. But can you end on a high note? Sometimes I wonder if recording a strong closer is the most difficult thing to pull off when it comes to album rock. When it comes to the cream of the crop in music, I can think of more strong openers than strong closers. Nonetheless, I still have my favorites which I’ll be featuring on Mental Jukebox all month.

My childhood isn’t complete without this album. Few recordings are as connected to my early musical discovery years as Rio. This was an album that a family friend introduced my brother and I to. He raved about the singles. He went on and on about the ballads. And he paid proper homage to “The Chauffeur”. Rio was full of radio-friendly songs that paired nicely with elaborate and exotic video shoots. The album is sugary and sweet, which is what makes the final track a bit of a pleasant surprise. “The Chauffeur”, a fan favorite, is the indisputed anomaly on the album.

“Hungry Like The Wolf”, “My Own Way” and “Rio” grab you, but “The Chauffeur” grows on you. The closing track from Rio revealed a darker, more mysterious side to the pop band. “The Chauffeur” put Duran Duran’s versatility on full display, with a moodier synth experiment from Nick Rhodes and even Simon Le Bon on the ocarina. The track is atmospheric and even visual. I can picture a long, aimless drive by the chauffeur late at night every single time I hear it. It’s not just a great Duran Duran anthem, it’s one of the greatest closing tracks of the eighties.

“WITH A THOUGHT TO STIFFEN BROODING LIES. AND I'LL ONLY WATCH YOU LEAVE ME FURTHER BEHIND.”

"TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT" THE STROKES (2001)

You can get off to a fast start. You can sustain your opener with the main course, not filler. But can you end on a high note? Sometimes I wonder if recording a strong closer is the most difficult thing to pull off when it comes to album rock. When it comes to the cream of the crop in music, I can think of more strong openers than strong closers. Nonetheless, I still have my favorites which I’ll be featuring on Mental Jukebox all month.

I’ve written before about my initial discovery of Is This It, The Stroke’s tour de force of a debut album. It was inside a friend’s car on a ride up to Lake Tahoe from S.F. It was the best album we heard on the way to our ski trip. The album was loaded with assurance that rock music was thriving. The unique way in which The Strokes took old school elements of garage rock and combined them with a post-punk outlook was brilliant. It was derivative, yet fresh, powering all the way through to the closer, “Take It Or Leave It”.

It’s one last track to kick you in the ass and onto the floor. Written almost like a finale on a concert set list, the song just flat out rocks. The guitars are manic and relentless – and Casablancas sings and screams in repetition like he’s drilling into our heads that we’re not paying attention. Look, no one ever said the lyrics were brilliant. But the juvenile approach captures the emotions just right. And that’s the genius of the album and what makes The Strokes, The Strokes. Sometimes it’s just exactly what you need.

“Leave me alone. I'm in control. I'm in control. And girls lie too much. And boys act too tough. Enough is enough.”

"MYSTIC RHYTHMS" RUSH (1985)

You can get off to a fast start. You can sustain your opener with the main course, not filler. But can you end on a high note? Sometimes I wonder if recording a strong closer is the most difficult thing to pull off when it comes to album rock. When it comes to the cream of the crop in music, I can think of more strong openers than strong closers. Nonetheless, I still have my favorites which I’ll be featuring on Mental Jukebox all month.

I could’ve picked any number of closing tracks from the immense catalog of this progressive and chronically misunderstood Canadian three-piece band. But I chose this one from Power Windows because this is an album that I always felt never got its due. Yes, Alex’s guitars take a bit of a backseat to Geddy’s synth musings. But to write off the album because of that is a grave mistake. These songs collectively are some of Geddy’s best melodies from the eighties. I love just about every one of them, especially “Grand Designs”, “Territories”, “Middletown Dreams” and the last track, “Mystic Rhythms”.

Rush purists might quickly dismiss this track which was also the second single from the album. Peart uses electronic drums here in favor of his “traditional” kit. Far from a banger or even a mid-tempo jam, “Mystic Rhythms” hovers in a slow, mystic haze. But the synthesizers, drums and Lifeson’s guitar riff that transition the song from the chorus into the second verse are some of the band’s best examples of power in restraint. It’s an acquired taste. I think I dismissed it when I first heard it, but it has become one of my favorite Rush anthems in more recent years.

“We sometimes catch a window. A glimpse of what's beyond. Was it just imagination Stringing us along?”

"LITTLE EARTHQUAKES" TORI AMOS (1992)

You can get off to a fast start. You can sustain your opener with the main course, not filler. But can you end on a high note? Sometimes I wonder if recording a strong closer is the most difficult thing to pull off when it comes to album rock. When it comes to the cream of the crop in music, I can think of more strong openers than strong closers. Nonetheless, I still have my favorites which I’ll be featuring on Mental Jukebox all month.

What was the first thing you thought of when you heard Little Earthquakes for the first time? I thought of Kate Bush. Not that their voices are that alike. Not that the music sounds strikingly similar. What’s undeniable is that both Bush and Tori Amos have demonstrated an incredible amount of maturity in their sound and craft from the very beginning. The debut album “Little Earthquakes” is almost astoundingly consistent and demonstrates exceptional breadth in terms of the songwriting. The singing is nothing short of angelic, too. It all culminates in “Little Earthquakes”, the album’s epic closer.

It’s hard to overlook the quality of lyrics and storytellling when you hear the song’s title. “Little Earthquakes” are like tremors inside our bones. The bass vibrates with bravado below your feet. The piano interludes leave fault lines sprawled across a classical-inspired landscape. And Tori’s vocals cause seismic shifts to the listener’s pulse. Any time you’re compared to a pioneer like Kate Bush, well, that’s a pretty big thing. In this case, it’s no exaggeration. This solo debut is worthy of the esteemed comparison.

"VANDERLYLE CRYBABY GEEKS" THE NATIONAL (2010)

You can get off to a fast start. You can sustain your opener with the main course, not filler. But can you end on a high note? Sometimes I wonder if recording a strong closer is the most difficult thing to pull off when it comes to album rock. When it comes to the cream of the crop in music, I can think of more strong openers than strong closers. Nonetheless, I still have my favorites which I’ll be featuring on Mental Jukebox all month.

The experience of listening to High Violet for the first time was incredibly gratifying. They did it. They somehow managed to get even better, following two exceptional releases: Alligator and Boxer. This is not the last great National album, but it’s probably the band at the height of its powers. Every song brimming with Berninger’s unique flair for a killer lyric. Every song managing to incorporate experimental motifs without ever overdoing it. Every song is fantastic, and right up there with the best of them is the closer “Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks”.

I’ve seen The National a few times in concert – and one of the highlights of set lists has always been this track, often slotted in as the final track in the encore. It’s a reminder just how good this band is at making somber, reflective ballads that leave you practically breathless. Most bands have to end albums and concerts with a banger. But The National have found a way to pack enormous power with a slow tune. The piano, artfully understated. The guitar, insidiously potent. The strings, hanging by a thread. The vocals, full of sweet, sweet remorse.

“Leave your home. Change your name. Live alone. Eat your cake.”