I’m still catching up on music of the past decade, so I’m a bit of a faulty narrator. Still, I’m going to call it. The best song of 2025 is “End of Beginning” by djo, i.e. Joe Creery, i.e. frickin’ Steve from “Stranger Things.”
It’s a pensive, reflective sing along anthem. I’m a huge fan of parallel structure and so the lyrics to this music festival jam kill me.
In verse one, it’s “Enter troubador.” What a gallant way of announcing that this is a ballad about love or an elegy or at least a stolen moment of bittersweet bemusement.
In verse two, it’s “Enter Caroline.” There’s our heroine. This phrase is preceded by “a major sacrifice, but clueless at the time.” Oh no, I feel it in my gut. It resonates. That moment when you look back, with 20/20 hindsight and cheap sunglasses, on a moment that was the beginning of the end.
Or do I mean the end of the beginning? You see why the song is compelling. It yo-yos from the past to the present, enlarging the song with a bit of liminal space.
And then there’s that verse where the song’s protagonist talks about returning to Chicago, a place he lived before, and realizing he’s been a different version of himself at every age and every stopping point.
So now the listener is questioning identity and exploring the possibility that each of us is slaloming down a hill zigzagging back and forth through adjacent dimensions.
I know. I’m taking it too far. I should review the song in manner of a member of the Suburban Lawns who, when asked about the band’s hit single “Janitor” said, “It’s just a rag.”
–Sarah Torribio
Listen to more songs of the day curated by Sarah Torribio HERE
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