Two of the best songs are old: "Spirit" and "Leap of Faith," with grand crescendos and ostentatious melodic transpositions, both come from his never-released 2002 album, "Love Land."

The songs were about fractured relationships and identity crises - "alone we stand, together we fall apart" - but determined, insistent guitars and grand crescendos provided the certainty the characters never had.

In the end, these plots and character groupings don't come together in any grand crescendo.

The songs seethe with hard-rock guitars or crackle with early-1970's funk; like the Smashing Pumpkins, the Afghan Whigs mobilize grand crescendos.

Rippling figures gave the music a European sense of metric uniformity; grand crescendos introduced the gradations of excitement that are the currency of the sonata and its related forms.

There are touches of the band's trademark fuzz-wah guitar, but it doesn't lead to any grand crescendo.

Through most of the set, Ms. Griffin turned songs into dramas, with grand crescendos and sudden hushes.

Travis's newer songs often sit calmly on a single chord, building tension about where and when they will move; they open into grand crescendos, then taper off before turning bombastic.

He draws on familiar rock and pop styles, from the grand crescendos of power ballads to the finger-picking delicacy of confessional songwriters to the gospel-tinged chugging of soul music.

They've named it Liberation Day, and everything on the planet is building up to it in a grand crescendo.