Dan Wilson’s lyrics come across as if he’s singing them to a private audience of one, and on the album his voice often takes on a quietness appropriate to the material. Interestingly, what succeeds about Feeling Strangely Fine (and I would argue the rest of Semisonic’s catalog as well) is the intimacy of the songs - and herein lies the paradox of Semisonic’s success. And the rest of the world, particularly the screaming girls, clued in to what Semisonic fans already knew: the low-key charm of the band was ready for the big time.
When “Closing Time” hit the airwaves in spring 1998, it didn’t seem like it would ever go away. All that changed, of course, with a little single called “Closing Time”. Although Rolling Stone declared Great Divide one of the best albums of 1996, the band had never had much commercial success (with minor exceptions like “F.N.T.” gathering occasional radio play). Since rising from the ashes of the classic art-pop band Trip Shakespeare, Semisonic had shown their promise with earlier efforts like Great Divide and the Pleasure EP. Who would have guessed that from the frozen Minneapolis winter would come the hottest pop album of 1998?
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