Album: Suicaine Gratifaction
Year: 1999
One of the ironies of Suicaine Gratification being my least favorite Paul Westerberg album was that it contained not one, but two songs I well and truly lived. We already discussed yesterday how “It’s a Wonderful Lie” was his best ballad in well over a decade, but I also loved “Lookin’ Out Forever,” which didn’t have a great riff or fuzzy guitars or even a particularly fast tempo.
That said, I think I responded to it because it felt like a classic Paul Westerberg song, albeit one that takes its time to reveal itself as such, but once it does, sticks in your head forever.
It mostly centers around the chorus, which seems to come out of nowhere at first, and where he continually switches his words.
I’m lookin’ out forever now
I love you now forever now
I love you now forever now yeah
I’m lookin’ out forever now
I’m lookin’ out forever now
I’m lookin’ out forever now yeah
I love you now forever now
I love you now forever now
I love you now forever now yeah
I’m lookin’ out forever now
I love you now forever now yeah
I really kinda love both the juxtaposition of “lookin’ out forever” and “love you now forever” and how you have to listen to figure out which one he’s singing at any given point. Which is important because it’s a hook-filled singalong chorus, so you wanna make sure you’ve got it right.
After that there’s a bridge filled with squealing guitar and a quick classic solo from Paul, and noise factor introduced in the bridge sticks along for the final verse and final chorus, getting closer and closer to the good old unhinged days without ever going completely over the top — nearly impossible when the other musicians on the track are Don Was, Josh Freese and Benmont Tench — but compared to most of the other songs on the album, it positively cooked.
For me, it was a reminder that he could still bring it, at least on individual songs, but at the same time, it was clear that his major-label days were numbered. Obviously, the TRL / rap-rock days of 1999 were completely different than grunge era of the early 1990s, and equally as obviously, his chance at massive stardom was pretty much over: not even a song as great as “Lookin’ Out Forever” made any kind of dent on any kind of chart.
So he decided that he was done with all of it, and took some time off, coming back as a DIY crank who specialized in weirdly conceptual homemade albums. And in doing so, kinda rejuvenated his career.
“Lookin’ Out Forever”
“Lookin’ Out Forever” performed live in Minneapolis, 2002
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