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Last of the Better Days Ahead

Charlie Parr
Last of the Better Days Ahead 2021 CD cover artwork.
Last of the Better Days Ahead, 2021 CD cover artwork.
Last of the Better Days Ahead 2021 LP cover artwork.
Last of the Better Days Ahead 2021 LP cover artwork.

Charlie Parr’s newest album, Last of the Better Days Ahead, is a collection of powerful new songs about how one looks back on a life lived, as well as forward on what’s still to come. Its spare production foregrounds Parr’s poetic lyricism, his expressive, gritty voice ringing clear over deft acoustic guitar playing that references folk and blues motifs in Parr’s own exploratory, idiosyncratic style. When it comes to what it all means, Parr says it best:

Last of the Better Days Ahead is a way for me to refer to the times I’m living in. I’m getting on in years, experiencing a shift in perspective that was once described by my mom as ‘a time when we turn from gazing into the future to gazing back at the past, as if we’re adrift in the current, slowly turning around.’ Some songs came from meditations on the fact that the portion of our brain devoted to memory is also the portion responsible for imagination, and what that entails for the collected experiences that we refer to as our lives. Other songs are cultivated primarily from the imagination, but also contain memories of what may be a real landscape, or at least one inspired by vivid dreaming. The album represents one full rotation of the boat in which we are adrift—looking ahead for a last look at the better days to come, then being turned around to see the leading edge of the past as it fades into the foggy dreamscape of our real and imagined histories.”

Track Listing

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101
Last of the Better Days Ahead Charlie Parr 03:14
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102
Blues for Whitefish Lake, 1975 Charlie Parr 03:51
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103
Walking Back from Willmar Charlie Parr 04:18
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104
Anaconda Charlie Parr 03:46
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105
Everyday Opus Charlie Parr 08:03
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106
On Fading Away Charlie Parr 05:14
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107
817 Oakland Avenue Charlie Parr 04:19
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108
On Listening to Robert Johnson Charlie Parr 05:56
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109
Bed of Wasps Charlie Parr 03:44
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110
Rain Charlie Parr 06:07
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111
Decoration Day Charlie Parr 15:53