My coolness barometer, aka Allison, forced me to listen to this album by insisting on driving places a few times (apparently she was sick of listening to my Goo Goo Dolls CD which was stuck in my car).

Eventually she wore me down to where there were songs I liked, and I asked her to burn me a copy. Listening through the album, I discovered the final track had an incredible final portion that was essentially raw spoken word poetry. It begins about three minutes in, as I remember.

The language he uses is so elementary, but so detailed. Anyone who has ever ridden a bus at night knows exactly what he’s talking about.

The words aren’t particularly enlightening, but what they invoke are images just as raw as the emotions that 13-year-old felt 15 years ago. I especially like the line about summer camp’s end meaning the end of summer, no matter what the calendar says.

This album is full of awesome songs, so you should definitely check out some other tracks, especially Bonfire.