We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

End of Greatness

by Kowtow Popof

/
1.
Life As Hobby 04:09
buy track
2.
Thought You'd Come Around 03:37
buy track
3.
On the Run 04:41
buy track
4.
Things That Aren't Comets 04:00
buy track
5.
Oblivion 04:12
buy track
6.
Exalted Headband 03:22
buy track
7.
Tribute 2 Mice Elf 02:55
buy track
8.
Amazing Tales 03:07
buy track
9.
Gone 4 Good 03:04
buy track
10.
Slim Jims & Tab 04:10
buy track
11.
Empty Orchestra 02:58
buy track
12.
End of Greatness 04:12
buy track

about

If you think "End of Greatness" is a term coined by Harvard scientist Robert Kirshner to describe, as Wikipedia puts it, "an observational scale discovered at roughly 100 MpC where the lumpiness seen in the large-scale structure of the universe is homogenized and isotropized as per the Cosmological Principle", you could be mistaken. It depends on what universe you inhabit. In Kowtow Popof's alternative cosmos, End of Greatness is the title of his 2006 release on Wampus Multimedia.

The new release is a break-up album of astronomic proportions, or possibly a personal view of the disintegration of love on a universal scale. But whether you are sobbing in your microbrew over a Dear John text message, scrutinizing with some solicitude the threshold of infinity, or simply trying to get through the day, End of Greatness is for you.

From the time-capsule everyday existence of the guitar-driven lead-off "Life as Hobby" to the acoustic pop title track, an ode to the final throes of a relationship, Kowtow gives the listener a lift through the heartbroken ether, playfully pointing out roadside attractions and distractions ("Things That Aren't Comets"), including the occasional aging god ("Oblivion"), a warehouse of inner strength on the outer limits ("Tribute 2 Mice Elf"), and the convenience store of the apocalypse ("Slim Jims & Tab").

If only break-ups were this much fun, or at least this interesting . . . While contemplating his navel with Hubble-like perspective, Kowtow sings plaintively with his acoustic guitar, weaving blues-inflected electric guitar with machine-click rhythms, tinkling piano, swirling samples, and warbling synths, creating a sound both familiar and strange. From this resonating rocket ship, the listener hears a jilted space monster's forlorn cry ("Thought You'd Come Around") morph into a fine-tuned, down-to-earth, pop rock kiss-off ("On the Run"), then observes the Milky Way from outside the galaxy in the driving sci fi theme song "Exalted Headband," only to be pulled back home by the tune's rueful reprise, "Empty Orchestra."

Underlying the tragicomic, trans-mundane goings-on is a thread of hopefulness that anchors the record. Against the when-worlds-collide backdrop of "Amazing Tales," as the song fades into sirens, a crowd sings somewhere in a downtown bar, "everyone walks on/in shadow or in sun/looking for the thing they lost just after the dawn." When Kowtow reaches his conclusion in the finale title track, he's found something in the nothingness, aspiration rather than despair. So for all you pessimists and doomsayers who'd take a physicist's end of greatness pronouncement to mean Armageddon, take heart instead. In the musical universe, it's the name of an album by Kowtow Popof.

credits

released December 12, 2006

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Kowtow Popof image

Kowtow Popof Washington, D.C.

Kowtow’s forthcoming album is A Punk’s Garden of Versus.

The new record is a follow up to his 2020 release Action Figure, which features the songs "Funksucker” and "Mayor of Geneva.”

Previous collections include 2017’s 13 Daze of Xmas, compiled from his annual singing xmas card, and 2012’s Mayan apocalypse party record, Tastes like Armageddon. ... more

contact / help

Contact Kowtow Popof

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Kowtow Popof, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Beans joins the show to discuss his album release, "ZWAARD".

listen now