However, it was the musicians' sophomore effort, Feeling Strangely Fine, that marked their major breakthrough in 1998. Full-length debut The Great Divide followed in 1996, garnering favorable critical reviews for its simple but sparkling take on modern pop. The group bounced back in 1995 by signing with MCA and releasing a self-produced EP, Pleasure. However, before the band could record, management reorganization at Elektra's headquarters resulted in the termination of Semisonic's contract. It didn't take long for Semisonic (which had initially formed under the name Pleasure) to secure a record deal with Elektra.
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While Trip Shakespeare had spent years amassing a loyal audience with artistic harmonies and unexpected guitar counterpoints, bandleader Wilson took Semisonic in an entirely different direction, embracing a tightly crafted sound that proved to be more appetizing to mainstream audiences. In the late 2010s, '90s nostalgia brought the band back together after nearly two decades, resulting in the 2020 EP You're Not Alone.įormed in the early '90s after the breakup of alt-rock outfit Trip Shakespeare, Semisonic were started by bandmembers and Minneapolis natives Dan Wilson and John Munson, who later recruited drummer Jacob Slichter.
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Jones is secretly about the Nancy Kerrigan’s knee.American rock trio Semisonic injected post-grunge grit into harmonic power pop, a catchy formula that helped them score an enduring radio hit with 1998's Grammy-nominated "Closing Time." That single featured on their breakthrough sophomore effort, Feeling Strangely Fine, which helped them peak in the mainstream before they went on indefinite hiatus in the early 2000s after the release of their third album, All About Chemistry. Next week: Perhaps I can examine whether the Counting Crows’ Mr. Verdict: It really might be about childbirth, with a few serious red herrings thrown in. Sure thing, makes sense, pregnancy ends, life begins, lightning crashes.Īnd from here on, it’s just the chorus a few more times and a few repeated lines. Makes sense for twins, perhaps? Otherwise I’m not sure this works in the macro picture.Ĭlosing time, every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end. Although I’m not sure that this line is really spectacular in the bar OR pregnancy contexts. The womb wasn’t available until the other siblings got out of there. Makes more context in the childbirth sense than the bar sense actually.Ĭlosing time, this room won’t be open till your brothers or your sisters come The baby wants his parents to take him home? This feels a little insecure, like Dan Wilson was worried his baby might’ve rejected him for one of the guys from Better Than Ezra.Ĭlosing time, time for you to go out to the places you will be from I know who I want to take me home / I know who I want to take me home / I know who I want to take me home / Take me home So this is quite definitively the child being bounced from the womb. Gee, wonder why people thought this was really about a bar? Is whisky and beer like one last quick suck of nutrients from the umbilical cord?Ĭlosing time, you don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here. And I guess this line refers to hospital lights? Unless it’s a metaphor on top of a metaphor and is referring to the beginning of human consciousness or something.Ĭlosing time, one last call for alcohol so finish your whiskey or beer The “boy/girl” stuff makes more sense now. We’re off to a smashing start.Ĭlosing time, turn all of the lights on over every boy and every girl So let’s go line-by-line through Closing Time and try to interpret it in its alternative context.Ĭlosing time, open all the doors and let you out into the worldĭoors = the vagina. They think it’s about being bounced from a bar but it’s about being bounced from the womb. Millions and millions of people bought the song and heard the song and didn’t get it. Semisonic’s lead singer, Dan Wilson, explained during a performance at his 25th reunion at Harvard… It turns out the entire song was actually a metaphor for childbirth. No one reazlied Semisonic had a little of that Robert Frost mojo in them.
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Closing Time was immediately and permanently the go-to song for the end of the night at bars, weddings, bar mitzvahs, parties, quinceaneras and Semisonic concerts.īut here’s the thing. It would be Semisonic’s only hit - but what a hit. The song featured lyrics (ostensibly) about a lonely person’s experience during last call at a bar. In 1998, a song called Closing Time came out as the debut single from a band called Semisonic. A line-by-line examination into the lyrics must be done. The lead singer of Semisonic says he wrote the song as a metaphor for childbirth.