Mod of the Day

Gal Costa | Esquadros

“Following a US-backed military coup in 1964, many young artists in Brazil – disillusioned with the apolitical nature of bossa nova – searched for a music that would speak to their contemporary world,” (UDiscoverMusic). “By the late 60s, a group would answer the call through a movement known as Tropicália. These artists – chiefly Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Os Mutantes, and Gal Costa – sought a ‘universal sound’; a merger of local and international styles that was both cosmopolitan and distinctly Brazilian. Their fusions of bossa nova, psychedelia, and rock ’n’ roll remain totally unique.

Costa began her career as a bossa nova singer before joining the ‘tropicalists’ in 1968 … Atop soaring string arrangements, Costa’s voice holds a powerful tenderness. Depending on one’s interpretation, it’s either unashamedly sentimental and detached from its political context, or an intentionally saccharine, ironic rebuke to consumerist society. Veloso’s lyrics are typically oblique, allowing for either reading to make sense … If there was one guiding principle of the Tropicália movement, it was the freedom to be many things at once. Their music was both popular and avant-garde, politically principled but undogmatic, distinctly Brazilian but syncretic, lyrically piercing but ambiguous.”

After a sunny start in B major, “Esquadros” (Squares), released in 1999, shifts to the parallel B minor from 1:11 – 1:23, bolstered by beefier groove, before returning to the original key. The key alternates many more times throughout, but the increasingly unsettled, unresolved instrumental outro (starting at 3:20) erases any memory of the tune’s major key sections!

William Bell | This Is Where I Live

“Bell, who had his first hit in 1961 with the song ‘You Don’t Miss Your Water,’ brings his trademark compassion and tenderness to his new album,” (NPR). “Critic Ken Tucker calls 2016’s This Is Where I Live a triumph.

Bell first had a hit with the song ‘You Don’t Miss Your Water’ in 1961. Bell co-wrote the classic blues song ‘Born Under a Bad Sign’ and recorded R&B for Stax Records in the ’60s and ’70s … William Bell sings with a warmth that remains undimmed more than 50 years after his first hit. He was never a huge star, but for anyone aware of his work he’s been a constant, steady source of pleasure, a singer whose sense of intimacy with his audience forms a direct connection. At his best, William Bell can seem to be inside your mind, articulating hopes, fears and doubts you may have had yourself.”

During “This is Where I Live,” an early half-step key change hits at 1:07. Occasional emphasis on the relative F# minor scroll by, but overall, the tune strongly resides in A major.

Nik Kershaw | What the Papers Say

“After releasing two albums in the space of barely six months, Kershaw took his time over the third,” (Moving the River). “He settled in to North London’s Swanyard Studios for most of 1986 to work on the self-produced Radio Musicola (1986), employing the cream of the English session scene (The Kick Horns, Charlie Morgan, Mark Brzezicki, Wix, Andy Richards, Simon Phillips, etc). Yes, Musicola was Kershaw’s chance to take on the Trevor Horns of this world and deliver a big-budget, endlessly-fussed-over studio ‘project’… Perhaps unsurprisingly, given his meteoric rise to fame, the main themes of the album are press intrusion and tabloid sensationalism.

… An interesting album which clearly fell between the stools of art and commerce, Radio Musicola reached a barely believable #46 in the UK album chart, just over a year after Kershaw had played Live Aid. It disappeared without trace in the US … 18 months is a long time to leave between albums when you’re hot, though Kershaw didn’t seem bothered about his new ‘selective’ popularity; in fact, he seemed genuinely relieved, but wondered how MCA were going to sell him now that he was focused on being a musician rather than a pop star.”

“What the Papers Say” begins with an intro in A minor, followed by an unprepared jump to F# minor at 0:15 and a shift to Bb major at 0:30. But as the chorus begins at 0:45, despite the percolating tonality shifts, the return to A minor somehow still (sort of) feels like home. The unsettled pattern continues throughout, all the way to the off-kilter, unresolved ending — entirely appropriate for the tone of Kershaw’s lyrics:

I saw it on the newsstand, it shouted at me!
It said, “We are all good and they are all bad”
Well drive me to the clinic ’cause it’s driving me mad

James Taylor | Line ‘Em Up

“He’s seen fire, he’s seen rain,” (Santa Barbara Independent). “He’s seen sunny days he thought would never end, and lonely times when he could not find a friend. And James Taylor is in the ongoing journey of a career spanning six decades and stoking a reputation as a pioneer singer-songwriter known for hiring a good band and putting on an engaging live show.”

At a show in Santa Barbara this month, “He also joked, ‘From the beginning, I’ve been writing end of my life in show business songs.’ Thankfully, those were not self-fulfilling prophecies. He has also been writing songs taking on many subjects, not just recovery or romantic concerns: his tune ‘Line ‘Em Up,’ for instance, takes as its thematic angle Richard Nixon’s fateful departure from his White House tenure. Introducing the song, Taylor half-joked, ‘I never thought I’d hear myself say, I miss Richard Nixon.”

Hourglass, Taylor’s 1997 album, saw strong commercial success, reaching #9 on the Billboard 200. The album also won Taylor a Grammy (best Pop Album, 1998), his first since the 1977 smash hit JT. Built primarily in G major, the tune shifts to D minor for its early bridge (1:37 – 2:09) before reverting to the original key.

Tradition (from “Fiddler on the Roof”)

“Winner of nine Tony Awards when it debuted in 1964, Fiddler on the Roof is the brainchild of Broadway legends Jerome Robbins and Harold Prince; songwriters Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick; and bookwriter Joseph Stein,” (Music Theatre International). “Touching audiences worldwide with its humor, warmth and honesty, this universal show is a staple of the musical theatre canon.

Set in the little village of Anatevka, the story centers on Tevye, a poor milkman, and his five daughters. With the help of a colorful and tight-knit Jewish community, Tevye tries to protect his daughters and instill them with traditional values in the face of changing social mores and the growing anti-Semitism of Czarist Russia. Rich in historical and ethnic detail, Fiddler on the Roof‘s universal theme of tradition cuts across barriers of race, class, nationality and religion.” The original Broadway production of the show, opening in 1964, was the first musical to surpass 3,000 performances and held the record for the longest-running Broadway musical for almost 10 years until it lost that record to Grease.

This recording features the 2004 revival of the show, which starred Alfred Molina as Tevye. After opening in C mixolydian (flat 6), at 2:04, there’s a shift to D mixolydian (flat 6); more shifts follow as each group within the village is introduced.

The Supremes | You Keep Me Hangin’ On

The Supremes’ “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” (1966) is “a brisk, urgent, desperate song, and it absolutely snaps into gear the second we hear that itchy morse-code guitar riff panning between speaker channels … (Stereogum). “‘You Keep Me Hangin’ On’ sounds easily 10 years ahead of its time, and listening to it, you can immediately hear why Diana Ross thrived in the disco era while so many of her ’60s peers flailed.

‘You Keep Me Hangin’ On’ was Holland-Dozier-Holland’s attempt to write a rock song … The guitar, from Funk Brothers ace Robert White, is foregrounded, going back and forth between that ticcing intro and deep, resonant strums. The drums and percussion work together in lockstep, pushing forward the song’s urgency. The bassline is another James Jamerson wonder, busy and complicated but never so showy that it detracts attention from the rest of the song … Holland-Dozier-Holland parted ways with Motown soon afterward, only giving the Supremes one more #1 after ‘You Keep Me Hangin’ On.’ As it turns out, the Supremes were fine without them. But listening to this, it’s still hard not to wonder what might’ve happened if they’d stuck around, if their genius had even more time to develop within that peerless Motown thrill-delivery system.”

The form starts with the chorus in Ab minor. As the tune shifts into the first verse at 0:36, B major (with a big emphasis on a compound A/B chord) goes into effect; the major key feels restful by comparison, not least due to the lack of the percolating “news bulletin theme” guitar part that skitters over the top of the rest of the tune.

Michael Bolton | How Can We Be Lovers

“Released in 1989, Soul Provider, Michael Bolton’s sixth studio album firmly established him as a powerhouse in the adult contemporary and pop-rock genres,” (Subjective Sounds). “Known for his raspy yet soulful voice, Bolton delivers a collection of songs that balances power ballads with upbeat tracks, showcasing his vocal prowess and passionate delivery.”

“Michael Bolton is no fool, and when he broke through to platinum sales with The Hunger, nobody had to tell him to record a follow-up devoted to more of the same,” (AllMusic). “Bolton produced most of the record himself, and he teamed with the cream of the era’s romantic rock ballad writers, people like Diane Warren (who gets five co-credits here) and Desmond Child … the result was five Top 40 hits and millions of albums sold … ” Songwriting for “How Can We Be Lovers” was a group effort among Bolton, Warren, and Child.

Starting with a C minor chorus upfront, Bolton’s vocal intensity is turned up to 11 right off the bat. The tune then shifts to A minor for the beginning of verse 1 (0:35), but at 0:42, the initial chorus phrase repeats in C minor. 0:47 brings a shift to C major for the pre-chorus, leading us back to the C minor chorus at 0:57. Later, 2:01 marks the beginning of the obligatory guitar solo during the instrumental section of the bridge, which features a key change of its very own. As Bolton’s vocals return at 2:20, the backing vocals fight for superiority via a catchy sing-along countermelody. At 2:38, we step up to D minor, prepared only by a terminally processed single-beat synth solo. Throughout, viewers’ gears will likely be completely stripped by footage of Bolton’s day-glo band alternating with black and white scenes of Bolton being So Very Earnest. In other words: pure, unapologetic, bombastic ’90s.

Maaya Sakamoto (坂本真綾) | Hotchpotch

Maaya Sakamoto (坂本真綾) is a well-known seiyuu and Japanese pop singer-songwriter … Maaya got her break at the age of 15 when she lent her voice to Hitomi Kanzaki in the anime series Tenkuu no Escaflowne,” (Sputnik Music). “Her debut single, ‘Yakusoku wa Iranai,’ was the opening theme for the same anime. The release was a beginning of a longtime collaboration between her and composer Yoko Kanno. In that time, she also started to write lyrics for her songs. Sakamoto also appears in a television drama and musicals; she is known for her role as Éponine in the Japanese adaptation of the musical Les Misérables.“

Sakamoto’s 2010 release “Hotchpotch” features an intro and verse which are predominantly in D major, but which make brief steps outside of the key nearly constantly. The chorus (heard for the first time at 0:47) limits itself more closely to the boundaries of F# major. The pattern continues from there.

Many thanks to regular contributor Julianna A. for submitting this tune to MotD!

Silk Sonic | Put On a Smile

After fiddling with the R&B of the 1980s and ’90s to great commercial success on 2016’s 24K Magic, Bruno Mars has assigned himself a more challenging project: Silk Sonic, a fidelity-obsessed act in which he and onetime tour mate Anderson .Paak recreate the rhythm and blues of the ’70s. The duo sought out particular drum skins to better replicate the sounds of the studio during the heyday of Gamble and Huff, when those songwriter-producers polished soul music to an extravagant sheen. With period-specific instrumentation in place, the exuberant pop hitmaker and the acclaimed rapper-singer-drummer with underground cachet recorded as their ancestors did, with just one or two mics for the entire room of musicians … (the) splashy interplay between male vocalists is perhaps the record’s strongest selling point: there are virtually no male R&B vocal groups of note these days, though the power of layered harmonies is the catalyst for much of the genre’s finest records, most notably the entire body of work of Marvin Gaye.

… Co-written by the singularly talented Babyface, the (2021) album’s big ballad (‘Put On a Smile’) digs as deep emotionally as Mars and .Paak are willing to go on a project that keeps the stakes low by choosing humor over sincerity at just about every turn. (Guest star Bootsy) Collins’ rhyming intro mentions ‘begging in the rain,’ and the subject matter doesn’t stray far from the Temptations’ ‘I Wish It Would Rain’ or the Miracles’ ‘The Tracks of My Tears,’ perfect songs about trying to mask your busted heart. Structurally, ‘Put on a Smile’ teases massive catharsis with its first chorus that it smartly holds back until the second refrain, when the drums finally crescendo and Mars leaps to the top of his falsetto. The song is played entirely straight, as the level of emotion calls for.”

Starting in C# minor, the ballad’s vocals-forward mix showcases Mars’ powerhouse delivery during the first verse, then shifts to .Paak’s raspy, heartfelt technique in the second. At 2:55, a half-step key change takes effect, nestled on all sides between compound chords. Mars continues to ascend to the stratosphere from there, until the tune returns to earth with both singers’ voices moving in close harmony.

Edward Elgar | Enigma Variations

“Elgar was born on 2nd June 1857 at Broadheath, a village some three miles from the small city of Worcester in the English West Midlands,” (Elgar.org). “His father had a music shop in Worcester and tuned pianos. The young Elgar, therefore, had the great advantage of growing up in a thoroughly practical musical atmosphere. He studied the music available in his father’s shop and taught himself to play a wide variety of instruments … Elgar was very largely self-taught as a composer – evidence of the strong determination behind his original and unique genius.”

“Premiered in London in 1899 … the Enigma Variations consist of a theme followed by 14 variations … apparently created when, during a spot of pianistic doodling after a long day teaching, Elgar was prompted by his wife Alice to develop a tune which she had enjoyed amidst the tinkling,” (Edinburgh Music Review). “The variations developed into representations in music of various friends and colleagues, some whimsical, some deeply moving, and Elgar hinted at some deeper profundity, and also at another hidden theme, hence the name, ‘The Enigma Variations.’ For me, the mystery is much less interesting than the actual music, which is sublime.

Variation IX, ‘Nimrod’, is justly famous. The title is a clever allusion to Elgar’s friend and editor, August Jaeger, whose name means ‘hunter’ in German. Nimrod was the ‘Mighty Hunter’ in Genesis, the first book of the bible, and this magnificent slow movement, dedicated to Elgar’s close companion, reveals the depth of their friendship.”

At 14:45, there is a prominent shift from G major to Eb over a hushed section — nearly a complete pause — at the beginning of the “Nimrod” theme.