Songs that peak too early

[Spearmint Rhino]

Some songs really shoot their load in the first minute and a half, and then outstay their welcome for another two.

Exhibit A: "Word Up" by Cameo.

Now, it surely goes without saying that it's a fucking genius song, with those groundbreakingly brutal robo-funk beats, Larry Blackmon's clothes-peg-on-nose vocals and so many eminently shoutable lines ("Yo pretty ladies around the world!", "All you sucker DJs who think you're fly!", "We don't have the time for psychological romance!"...)

However, for the last two minutes it just sort of plods along with no new lyrics, just repeated calls of "W-O-R-D... up!" and "yeah yeah, the word!" and variants on that theme. There are no new peaks, no vocal hooks to keep you interested.

When you're dancing to it in a club, after the intitial excitement of the verses and choruses, it really drags. It's even worse when you're singing it in a karaoke bar (which I have, on a couple of occasions) because you're left standing there like a lemon with nothing to get your teeth into.

It's a song that badly needs another verse. (Or a sudden ending.)

Any others?

[Etienne]

Songs that peak too early

Good call.

I reckon Jeff Buckley's version of Hallelujah never lives up to the first verse.

[caja-dglh]

Songs that peak too early

What is the Problem - Graffiti. Excellent beat, unusual lyrical style. Then loop. Should end at the first drop, rather than making a big comeback.

[dalliance]

Songs that peak too early

Take Me Out by Franz Ferdinand.

The first 90 seconds are near perfect, the crashing intro, the great, solitary verse, the staccato riffs transitioning into the explosive chorus... fantastic stuff.

The problem is the song goes on just shy of 4 minutes and that gives you around two and a half minutes of endless repetition on the chorus ('I say don't you know, you say I don't show') and its twin 'I know I won't be leaving here..with you' before you get the killer 10 second outro.

[Purves Grundy]

Songs that peak too early

Setting aside my natural instinct to observe how much better nearly everything by T-Rex would be if it were half its length, I'll just add Yes by McAlmont & Butler, which comes out of the traps like nothing on earth and then gets better for the next 2 and a half minutes until they're spent. There's nothing to add, nowhere higher they can take it. The last minute or so are crying out for someone to sprinkle some fairy dust on the bastard, but the cupboard's bare and the returns start diminishing.

[RobW]

Songs that peak too early

I'm tempted to say 'Wide Open Road' by the Triffids, though I do love 'em. The first verses are just amazing and then it begins to fade away.

[Andy C]

Songs that peak too early

We've talked before about Stay With Me by The Faces, which starts out with a starshell-illuminated full-on derring-do rush towards enemy lines but just gives up and slinks off home before even the intro is through.

[Etienne]

Songs that peak too early

For 30 seconds, White Room by Cream sounds like it's going to be amazing. Then it isn't.

[E10 Rifle]

Songs that peak too early

Good shout by Dalliance on Take Me Out. It's amazing at the start, but fairly staggers over the finish line with clunking plods.

On a similar note, Radiohead's Paranoid Android

Purves is stupendously wrong about Yes, though - the crescendo at the end is glorious

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Songs that peak too early

"Smells Like Teen Spirit", which should at best have been as long as Blur's apparent tribute to it, "Song 2" (and even that was maybe 30 seconds too long).

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Songs that peak too early

Also add to this "Good Vibrations" and virtually everything else the Beach Boys ever did.

And similarly almost all of the Doors' stuff. I think in those days songs were deliberately produced to load the good stuff into the first 30 seconds or so, before meandering off into a lengthy apparent jam session in the middle before tailing off at the end? Was this to do with the need to "grab" listeners on the highly competitive deregularised commercial US radio at the time?

[Purves Grundy]

Songs that peak too early

E Ten van Raiffel wrote:

Purves is stupendously wrong about Yes, though

Imbecile.

- the crescendo at the end is glorious

When it finally arrives.

[Wyatt Earp]

Songs that peak too early

"Sweet Child O'Mine" comes into this, I think. There's a long, long, long lull in the middle of that, before it winds up reasonably satisfactorily with that "Soo-ee-ee-chaye-ee-aye-ee-aye-ee-aye-ee-aye-ee-aye-ee-AYE-ee-aylluhmaye-ee-ay-aye-uh-huhnnn." Rock out for two minutes, go and put the tea on, back in time for that.

[Disco Child Ballads]

Songs that peak too early

'Gimme Shelter'

[dalliance]

Songs that peak too early

Rough as a badger's arse pub rock it might be, but Catatonia's International Velvet is a good fun, shouty record for 90 seconds.

The climax is pretty big and powerful and as the chorus fades with loads of discordant voices singing along and whooping and cheering you think it sounds like it's ending there. But it doesn't. It does the whole cycle again, twice, spinning the track out to 4 minutes with the solitary and unwieldy addition of a Hawkwind like effect over bits of it.

[dalliance]

Songs that peak too early

Everything interesting about Step On by The Happy Mondays has been royally achieved by the 3 minute mark. Instead they chose to unnecessarily copy and paste much of what went on before to spin things out to 5mins 20 seconds.

[steveeeeeeeee]

Songs that peak too early

"Trip inside this house" by the 13th Floor Elevators goes on waaaay too long, overstays its welcome by about 3 and a half minutes.

"Rappers Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang is another one, the second it drops you're ecstatic, 5 minutes later and you're begging for mercy.

Finally "Enter Sandman" by Metallica. One of the best riffs of recent times, the song is over after about 3 minutes, but keeps going because Metallica songs can't last 3 minutes.

[RobM]

Songs that peak too early

May seem a strange one given that it's something like a two and a half minute charge through amphetamine fuelled etc etc. but The Damned do really annoying things live with Neat Neat Neat.

Starts off as a thunderous battering bass driven intro as it does on record till they get about a minute and a half in and then it veers off into some bizarre slowed down cod-psychedelic mush with Vanian murmuring bollocks over the top of it (and occasionally inserting lines from Break on Through by The Doors) before heading back into a fairly faithful representation for the last little bit.

I can understand that Vanian and Sensible feel the need to fuck about with things to keep it from getting boring for them but Neat Neat Neat does not fucking need a middle eight (or however many bastard bars they stick in there).

[Guest]

Songs that peak too early

Born Slippy by Underworld. The full version is nine minutes long and the last third or so might be good for mixing, but three minutes' worth isn't needed.

[caja-dglh]

Songs that peak too early

dalliance wrote:

Rough as a badger's arse pub rock it might be, but Catatonia's International Velvet is a good fun, shouty record for 90 seconds.

When I read this, I really hoped dalliance was actually writing about the album.

[Wyatt Earp]

Songs that peak too early

Disco Sea Shanties wrote:

'Gimme Shelter'

Nah, I'm not having that. I agree it's an astonishing intro, whereas the song is merely superb, but that's not really the same thing...

[E10 Rifle]

Songs that peak too early

"Rappers Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang is another one, the second it drops you're ecstatic, 5 minutes later and you're begging for mercy.

Ah no way. The lyrics just riff joyously all over the place in the latter stages of the song: all that stuff about going over your mates for a shit meal and stuff, it's great.

[WOM]

Songs that peak too early

Seven And Seven Is by Love. It's only 2:15 long, but it's completely out of ideas by the halfway point.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Songs that peak too early

Finally "Enter Sandman" by Metallica.

Kind of, of its 6-minute full length version, but not really in the context of this thread.

The first three minutes of that song really build up to a huge crescendo, so it's not like it's all over in the first minute.

[George]

Songs that peak too early

Souvenir by OMD. The fairlightish build up of harmonies and a pretty great synth riff at the beginning before the vocals start and the rest of the song is an anti-climax.