Seven Minutes in Heaven (The Epics)

In light of procrastination I've compiled my 10 favourite 7 minute epics. Special mention to Sigur Ros, Broken Social Scene, Explosions in the Sky, Bright Eyes, Dredg and City and Colour. ready, set, 

10. Mae's The Sun and Moon ( The Everglow) With 17 seconds to spare, Mae pulls together a melodic ending to The Everglow with the help of a piano (and you know how I'm a sucker for the piano.) Unlike most lengthy tunes, redundancy is not an issue, which I appreciate.

9. Anberlin's (*Fin) ( Cities)- This song wraps up their most recent release ever so effectively. The build up to the end of the song can be only

 be described as satisfying.  

8. Jimmy Eat World's Goodbye Sky Harbour (Clarity)- This song comes is as an eight on the epic-ness level and a one on the length level. J.E.W really pushed it with 16 minutes, but luckily they pull this song together exceptionally. This song is an effective completion of one of, if not their best album.

7. Death Cab for Cutie's Transatlanticism ( Transatlanticism) - An eight minute title track is original to say the least, but what I truly enjoy about this song is the simplicity of both the lyrics and piano.  Sad, but not to sad. Mellow, but not too mellow. And of course Ben Gibbard never fails on the feel-good tunes.

6. Of Montreal's The Past is a Grotesque Animal ( Hissing Fauna, Are you the Destroyer?)-I got into this song on the way to New York last summer, after realizing that I had skipped over this song every time I listened to the CD. Clearly a mistake. Of Montreal. 12 minutes. Need I say more?

5. mewithoutYou's The Cure for Pain ( A->B Life) Oh, the joy of finding hidden tracks. mwY threw in a bonus acoustic track " I Never Said I was Brave" about 7 minutes after The Cure for Pain. The completeness of this track (nevermind my life) is compliments of Aaron Weiss and his brilliance. Screaming and acoustic guitar, and you don't even have to change the track. 

4. The Decemberist's The Island: Come & see/ The 

Landlord's Daughter/ You'll Not Feel the Drowning ( The Crane Wife) - As clearly indicated by the title, the Decemberists one-upped mewithoutYou with the three song wonder. Summer never sounded so good. 

3. As Cities Burn's Of Want and Misery: The Nothing that Kills (Son, I Loved You  At Your Darkness) I was quite disappointed that this wasn't played when I saw them at St. Andrews, though the fact that it is almost 7 minutes may be a reason. When ever I listen to this song I feel so sad at about 4 minutes in because I always think its over. Lucky for me, Cody and the gang continue this epic for another 3 minutes and conclude the album. This by far is one of the best album closers I've heard. I wish it was an hour long.

2. Neutral Milk Hotel's Oh Comely (In an Aeroplane Over the Sea)-NMH did 7 minute epics, and they did them right. I had this song on repeat for about 2 hours yesterday, and that in itself should be enough reason for the number 2 spot on this list. How appropriate that this song was the influence for mewithoutYou's We Know Who Our Enemies Are. Incredible.

1. Lovedrug's It Won't Last (Pretend You're alive)- Lyrically brilliant. Dramatic. Instrumentally genius. If I never had to shut off this song, I wouldn't. For the past 4 years Lovedrug has been my favourite band, and this album has yet to let me down in any way. It Won't Last is the closer of the CD ( basically) and is certainly the best closer I've heard. Michael Shepard underlines the brilliance of this album with dramatic his guitaring and his philosophical lyrics. I'm lost for words.