I liked this song slightly better on a second listen, but it's still a fairly average track from them. I do like when the song changes key signatures for the pre-chorus ("Listen well, better listen well.") I like these key changes in pretty much all music in general, as remaining in one key for an entire song bores me to tears. The bridge after Kirk's laughingly sophomoric solo is neat, too. There's definitely more depth here than there is in the overly simplistic Lux Æterna.
In the end, these kinds of bluesy riffs to me equate to music with too few layers to dissect, which is suitable for daytime road listening (but only on sunny days) and not much else. I'm seemingly one of the few people in existence who thinks Kill 'em All is massively overrated, so I'm not crazy about this direction for Metallica. Writing a bunch of songs about being a child/teenager seems like a massive step back for them, but maybe that's the energy they need to tap into to prevent them from doing country again.
Kirk's flash of inspiration that led to his EP obviously burnt out before they started recording this album 'cause those solos were pretty lame.
Kirk half-asses everything. I've reached a point where I kind of tune the solos out and just imagine they're played by John Petrucci or something, with crazy runs and sweeping and such. It's this weird hybrid sound in my head that leaves me confused yet somehow satisfied.
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