“The Last Mall”—first song on Everything Must Go (2003)

It’s a jarringly “lite” song, which directs you to take the lyrics in their breezily literal sense rather than the many doom-heavy metaphorical possibilities. It’s barely over three minutes long and feels like more of an intro—to set up what is a surprisingly excellent album. I say “surprisingly” because, when a band records a record after 20 years of retirement, it’s usually not great—though, that was their previous record, Two Against Nature, which was also surprisingly good—and this one is better. I didn’t expect that. In fact, I admit, I didn’t listen to them when they came out. (It seems crazy that this record is now 20 years old.) Anyway, Everything Must Go certainly announces the end—whether or not that was intended as a gallows humor joke—but the fact that there wasn’t another one, and won’t be (at least with Walter Becker)—well, who knows. Anyway, this song sounds lite, to me, with the noodley guitar throughout, and the horns—and I’m sure that’s intentional. So that you think, ha, funny song about the weird phenomenon of malls ceasing to exist. So you overlook the metaphorical meaning about the song setting up an album about the end of a band (“The Big Adios”). And which you can take further (and probably should—“tools for survival,” and “when the going gets tough,” and “beneath the blood orange sky”). If you’re so inclined. As in, the end of consumerism, capitalism, Los Angeles, America, the Empire, the human race. And… old white guys. Like I said, lite.

—Randy Russell 6.18.23