This song is a blast from my past, reminding me of my days in Philadelphia.
The post title is somewhat inaccurate. Traditionally, an album closer is one of the artist’s stronger songs from the recording session, since they don’t want to leave a bad parting impression. With indie bands, the requirement is more optional. You’ll see a lot of bands in that scene do a longer and/or quiet(er) song to finish out albums, and to me they’ve always come off as an acoustic b-side than an actual album track. “Happiness By the Killowatt” only skirts this idea: it’s not as hectic or truncated as the rest of the tracks on Watchout!, and at times when it seems like they’re going to go full-on again, they kinda hold back. The singing vocals are more the focus here, as you can hear from the piled harmonies on the chorus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsvlbwJwxI8
Some interesting bits of trivia: Watchout! was released a week prior to genre-brothers Underoath’s They’re Only Chasing Safety, although Underoath flaunted a more major-key pop sound—Alexisonfire had Rise Against’s punk rock urgency. Both albums really pushed their respective bands into the limelight, and both albums have the same kind of closing track. Both albums, too, still hold up very well over a decade since.
And more: Alexisonfire’s guitarist Dallas Green does a piano-only version of this song. Goodness…ponderous and haunting.
2 Comments
That was a good song – love the chorus and those quick drums. I enjoy “Sharks and Danger” and “It Was Fear of Myself That Made Me Odd” from that same album. 2004 was a great year for this post-hardcore, whatever you might want to call it, kind of music. Showbread, Dead Poetic, He Is Legend…if only more bands (or any, really) were playing this kind of stuff.
Though I like some City & Colour, it really fits the stereotype of the emo to hipster (indie) transition. I’d take the AOF sound any day personally …
I think that year I saw all those bands you listed live, too, when I was in Philly.
Never really checked out C&C, but I hated it when bands broke up and members went acoustic or electronic. That was big back then, too, and it felt like they were killing rock a little but each time.