Infinite (인피니트) | The Chaser

Infinite (인피니트) is a South Korean boy band formed in 2010. According to Billboard.com, the band’s single “The Chaser” (2012) made its list of “20 Best K-Pop Songs of 2012”, taking listeners “on a ride the second they start the track…proving risk and innovation in K-pop can trump all.”

The frenetic dance track’s accompaniment shifts throughout, cycling through varying patterns of syncopation in the sung and rapped verses before reaching the sing-along choruses. 2:34 brings an unexpectedly spiky modulation amid all of the glossy production and multiple hooks: the vocal line shifts keys a full beat earlier than the accompaniment!

Elvis Presley | If I Can Dream

Written by W. Earl Brown and originally performed by Elvis Presley in 1968 just a few months after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, “If I Can Dream” frequently quotes Dr. King directly in its lyric.

The song marked the rebirth of Elvis’ career after he had spent most of the 1960s recording mainly soundtracks to the movies he was appearing in. This was the final song he sang on Elvis, his 1968 NBC comeback special in the USA which was his first live performance in seven years. Key change at 2:02.

Tori Kelly | You’re Never Alone

Tori Kelly‘s “You’re Never Alone” won the 2019 Grammy for Best Gospel Performance/Song, and features legendary performer, choir director, and 15-time Grammy winner Kirk Franklin. The key change is at 2:52.

Some background on the song’s inception courtesy of Songfacts: “The track finds Kelly singing about the reassurance of not being alone during times of struggle since God is with her. She recalled to NewReleaseToday how the morning before her first writing session with Kirk Franklin she got anxious. She was going to write songs about God for the first time in her life and started whether she had the ability to do it. ‘I’ve always loved God,’ Kelly explained, ‘but could I articulate this in a song?’ On top of this, Kelly was in a new city, missing her friends and family back home, and just feeling lonely.

At that moment God ‘dropped a little reminder’ into her heart, in which he said, ‘remember I told you I’d never leave you? I’ve already gone before you and I am in control. Just trust me.’ Kelly immediately felt God’s peace and emboldened she grabbed her phone and typed out the phrase ‘I’m never alone.’ Later that day she sat down with Kirk Franklin to write their first ever song together. They started talking and she read the note to him from her phone. ‘Let’s start with this,’ she said, ‘I am never alone.’ Around that simple phrase their first song together was built.”

Lyle Mays | Long Life

We’re very saddened to hear of the death, at age 66, of keyboardist, composer, and arranger Lyle Mays yesterday. From the archive at University of North Texas, whose conservatory Mays attended: Starting in the 1970s, as part of the Pat Metheny Group, Mays “provided arrangements, orchestration, and the harmonic and metric backbone of the group’s musical signature.” Jazz Times reports: “While the band bore the guitarist’s name, Mays was a crucial factor in their success. He and Metheny co-wrote most of the music, including the 1985 score for the film The Falcon and the Snowman. Mays … was responsible for the synthesizer sound that gave their music its distinctive contemporary fusion aesthetic.”

The Metheny Group’s site features a tribute from Metheny: “Lyle was one of the greatest musicians I have ever known…From the first notes we played together, we had an immediate bond. His broad intelligence and musical wisdom informed every aspect of who he was in every way. I will miss him with all my heart.”

Mays’ solo albums Lyle Mays (1986) and Street Dreams (1988) branched out from the Metheny Group’s trademark sound; Fictionary (1993), a more traditional jazz trio recording, featured Marc Johnson on bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums. The enigmatic “Long Life,” from Mays’ final release Solo (Improvisations for Expanded Piano) (2000), features near-constant harmonic pivots. Starting in Eb major, the track goes on a profound yet meandering trip, returning back to its Eb “home” at 2:56 and 5:44.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Alla Turca, Sonata #11 in A Major (K. 331)

Wolfgang Mozart’s Alla Turca from Sonata #11 in A Major (K. 331) shifts back and forth between A minor and A major throughout. A piano sonata in three movements, the piece was likely written in Vienna or Salzburg around 1783. The first modulations are at 0:48 and 1:02.

Guster | Overexcited

According to Boston.com, the NYC-based/Boston-made band Guster is “a buoyant pop act formed by Tufts University students (which) has used its word-of-mouth popularity to hit the big time.” Apparently the “intelligently playful pop band” gives a bit of extra thought to its Boston appearances: “When the band last played the Pavilion, it arrived in a rubber dinghy. And once, at the Orpheum Theatre, band members came in from the ceiling.” Guster has cranked out college radio anthems for years, but none more quirky than 2019’s “Overexcited.” The video, an earnest homage(?) to modern dating, adds a few more smiles and cringeworthy moments to the simplicity of the lyrics and the earworming melody.

Modulation at 2:04. Many thanks to chronic contributor JB for this submission!!!

Roxette | Crash! Boom! Bang!

Many thanks to MotD fan Chris Larkosh for this submission: Swedish duo Roxette released the single “Crash! Boom! Bang!” in 1994, part of an album of the same name. AllMusic liked the release’s vocals and songwriting, but felt that the album was “too pop for rock listeners and too rock for mid-’90s pop fans.” The LA Times, however, enjoyed the album’s “deliciously overwrought ballads” and the New York Times praised Marie Fredriksson, the lead vocalist, as the band’s “main asset … a singer with a sob in her voice.” Fredriksson passed away in late 2019 at the age of only 61.

Starting in C# minor with on-and-off shifts to B major, the tune transitions strongly to E minor for the bridge at 2:24, then back to C# minor again at 2:49.

Wheels of a Dream (from “Ragtime”)

“Wheels of a Dream” is from the 1996 musical “Ragtime,” based on the classic E.L. Doctorow novel, and with an epic score by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty. Performed here by original cast members Brian Stokes Mitchell and Audra McDonald, the number features key changes at 1:33, 1:50, 1:59, 2:07, 2:20, and the big one at 2:30.

The Spinners | Cupid

Covering the original Sam Cooke #17 hit “Cupid” (1961) was not a task to be taken lightly; the beloved single weighed in at #452 on 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, by Rolling Stone. The track was described by AllMusic as a “perfect pop song.”

The Spinners re-made the the tune almost entirely in 1980, combining it with Michael Zager‘s “I’ve Loved You For a Long Time.” This updated version hit #4 (pop) and #5 (R&B). The modulation hits at 3:08.