Some songs put it all upfront. The first 10s of Stop! In The Name of Love are so perfect and thrilling you really should stop listening then and there, the next 2:43 can’t help be an anticlimax. But others take a different route, holding back the good stuff for as long as possible. Just when you’re convinced that’s it, a chorus or a melodic line swoops in and the previous five minutes all make sense. As a dyed-in-the-wool Delayed Gratifier I love this.
Dance music is particularly good at this – so have a listen to this track from the excellent LTJ Bukem compilation Earth Vol 1. For 5 mins Pablo assembles the standard textures of late-nineties D and B – clattering biscuit-tin drums, slow and deep looping basslines and liquid washes of synth – layering in the distance a snatch of horns here, a female vocal there – then at 6:54 everything comes together to reveal a Gamble and Huffesque layered soul song filtered through drum and bass. Just wonderful, and all the more wonderful IMHO for being so slowly built towards. So your suggestions for songs that keep the best stuff back until the last possible moment.
