Bruce Hornsby and the Range | Look Out Any Window

Bruce Hornsby created a unique Americana-inflected pop style through his early 1980s work with Bruce Hornsby and the Range. In “Look Out Any Window,” (1988) ” … Bruce chooses to highlight the concern of environmental degradation at the hands of big business,” (Bruuuce.com) “By pointing a broad, sweeping accusatory finger at ‘Far away, men too busy getting rich to care,’ he taps into a popular sentiment among young, concerned, (though invariably middle class) western teenagers.

The song was written at a time just before concerns over the Ozone Layer and ‘Greenhouse Effect’ were about to burst into major headline news stories … The lyrics also tap into a wider sense of regional discontent at centralist government, or urban/rural divide: The valiant, subsistence labourers – ‘There’s a man working in a field’ and ‘There’s a man working in a boat’ – against the likes of the ‘Big boys telling you everything they’re gonna do,’ and ‘Fat cat builderman, turning this into a wasteland.'”

An instrumental bridge (2:52 – 3:28) which modulates and then reverts to the original key as it reaches the final pre-chorus.

Ludwig van Beethoven | Choral Fantasy in C Minor, Op. 80

Thanks to George Fergus for contributing today’s post!

“The unprepared shift from C major to E flat major on the word ‘Kraft’ (‘Power’) at 17:38 signaled, to Beethoven, a fundamental shift in the relationship between text and music. The word is imbued with an extraordinary amount of power (pun intended) over the music itself, forcing an abrupt shift in tonality. This is a sort of prelude to Wagner’s Gesamtkunstwerk, or total unity of music, text, and action as a singular art (as opposed to three art forms combined).

Happens again at 18:23! This 1808 piece is also considered a ‘trial run’ for the Ninth Symphony! This same minor third motion (up a step, in D) is found in the larger, later work.”

Deborah Cox | Nobody’s Supposed To Be Here

R&B chanteuse Deborah Cox released “Nobody’s Supposed to Be Here,” the track for which she’s perhaps best known, in 1998.

“‘The song crossed my path in early ’98. I had taken a little time off — I got married in Jamaica — and was really searching for a direction for the second album,” (Billboard). “When Anthony ‘Shep’ Crawford and Montell Jordan (the co-writers) played it for me, I immediately knew the song was a smash. I just remember hearing it and going, ‘Oh my God, this speaks to me!’ I had just gone through the same thing: I was caught off guard with the love of my life, so it really resonated.”

This gospel-infused ballad builds to a big modulation at 3:00.

The Doobie Brothers | Minute By Minute

The Doobie Brothers‘ longstanding rock/folk/Americana sound expanded suddenly when the soul-infused songwriter Michael McDonald joined their lineup. 1978’s “Minute by Minute” features crazy amounts of syncopation, long instrumental-only breaks, and a modulation up two full steps as the bridge arrives at 2:28. The tune hit #14 on the pop charts, helping the album it appeared on to reach #1.

Christina Aguilera (feat. Demi Lovato) | Fall in Line

“Fall In Line” by Christina Aguilera (featuring Demi Lovato) is the second single from the album Liberation (2018). The New York Times calls the track “a defiant dirge addressed directly to ‘little girls’ … it insists, ‘You do not owe them your body and your soul.’” The key change is at 3:00.

The Apex Project | Home

The Apex Project, featuring vocalist Cheeyang Ng, covered “Home,” a tune made popular through Singapore Day. The event travels to cities worldwide with large numbers of overseas Singaporean nationals with the goal of helping them remain connected to their home country. This beautiful 2016 a capella rendition of the tune, which was also arranged by Cheeyang, modulates at 1:59 and 2:56.