Tag: 2000s

MGMT | The Youth

“At some point in the last decade or so, public opinion, among those who still give thought to MGMT, began quietly shifting to accommodate the notion that they are a much stranger band than their career might initially have suggested,” (Pitchfork).

“More than just one-album wonders who never recaptured the magic of their indelible early hits, or even misunderstood tinkerers who found the spotlight in a fluke accident and quickly retreated—though both descriptions are true enough—they are artists whose work addresses the very sort of glitzy mass appeal that those early hits still command. Even ‘Time to Pretend,’ one of the singles that earned them slots opening for Paul McCartney and soundtracking the season finale of Gossip Girl, was itself a grimly funny satire of rock stardom.”

The band, whose core members met while attending Wesleyan University in Connecticut, released its debut album Oracular Spectacular in 2007. “The Youth,” a track from the album, spends most of its 3:45 length in F major. But at 2:35, there’s an unprepared trapdoor shift downward into E major — certainly as compelling as any half-step key change, but in this case, perhaps moreso before of its direction.

Juanita Bynum | I Don’t Mind Waiting

“Juanita Bynum and Jonathan Butler … took the stage to bring fans Gospel Goes Classical (2007), an event of praise, inspiration and encouragement,” (CrossRhythms). “Anointed minister, author, and singer Bynum was joined by contemporary jazz and gospel artist Butler to share new songs and fan favorites in classical music splendour.

The orchestra and choir were led by renowned arranger/conductor Dr. Henry Panion III (Stevie Wonder, Dionne Warwick, Aretha Franklin, The Winans). The extraordinary live performances of Bynum’s ‘One Night with the King’ and ‘Holy Lamb,’ and Butler’s ‘Falling In Love with Jesus’ and ‘Don’t You Worry’ were capped off with a very special duet … ‘I Don’t Mind Waiting.'”

Starting with a gentle, straightforward statement of the melody from Bynum, the arrangement grows in intensity throughout. Half a dozen half-step key changes cascade past us before all is said and done.

Frank Ticheli | Earth Song (Young New Yorkers Chorus)

American composer Frank Ticheli on his 2004 work, Earth Song: “‘ … the music … first appeared in a work called Sanctuary, for wind ensemble,'” (FredBock.com). “‘As I worked on that piece, I just kept thinking this music is just begging to be sung by a chorus. The music is so vocal in and of itself. It was also written during a time when we were sort of stuck in the Iraq War when everyone – regardless of what political side they were on – was tired of that war, and so Earth Song was written to be very pro-peace. I guess you could also say anti-war and anti-violence. It was a cry and a prayer for peace.

Earth Song means different things to different people. I know for me, it sprang out of an intense weariness of war and a wish for peace. The second half of the poem talks about music as a comforting force and a refuge. When I was bullied as a kid, music was my refuge. I often thought about bullies in relation to this piece as well, because that’s where violence starts. But music is a place where people can find acceptance and love – and it can often be their saving grace. And it’s not just choir that people can find that comfort – it’s band, it’s orchestra… it’s just people coming together to make music.'”

This 2025 performance by the Young New Yorkers Chorus was conducted by Justin Duckworth. Earth Song is built primarily in F major. But at 2:50, a soft-spoken but profound G major chord breaks the spell; a repeated E major chord then upends the tonality yet again as the piece draws to an end.

Many thanks to longtime contributor Mark B. for this beautiful piece — his fourth submission to MotD!

Sing, Be, Live, See.
This dark stormy hour,
The wind, it stirs.
The scorched earth
Cries out in vain:
O war and power,
You blind and blur,
The torn heart
Cries out in pain.
But music and singing
Have been my refuge,
And music and singing
Shall be my light.
A light of song
Shining Strong: Alleluia!
Through darkness, pain, and strife, I’ll
Sing, Be, Live, See…
Peace.

21 Guns (from “American Idiot”)

“When young dirtbag punk trio Green Day signed to a major label in 1994, their first album, Dookie, captured the small pleasures of a disconnected working-class youth that was fast running out of options,” (The Guardian). “Their songs about getting high, jerking off and defiantly refusing to participate in the system were relatable and catchy – pleasingly melodic with 1950s doo-wop influences, coupled with California punk-style bass and drums. Pop-punk would later explode as a genre, in part to emulate Green Day’s singable raucousness.

Their ideas back then were scattershot, more informed by feeling than sociopolitical thought. But 10 years later, the band found their political voice and released their manifesto: American Idiot. Billed as a “rock opera”, the album was a sophisticated, horrified portrait of America in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the conservative Bush presidency, and rapidly disappearing opportunities for those living close to America’s poverty line. American Idiot was a smash, selling 15 million records – and in 2010, a stage adaptation landed on Broadway. The album’s driving rock structure was coupled with songs from Green Day’s next album, 21st Century Breakdown, and caressed into soaring, edgy vocal arrangements and new orchestrations by the band and composer Tom Kitt, whose musical Next to Normal picked up a Pulitzer prize that same year.”

The original “21 Guns,” released on 2009’s 21st Century Breakdown, was written in one key throughout. But the Broadway version, while built around the same repeating melodic phrases and lyrics-forward delivery, features several changes in tonality. Starting in G minor, the tune shifts (after two verses and a chorus in the relative Bb major performed by female vocalists) to D minor as Green Day’s lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong takes the reins. For the second chorus, the key flips over to the relative F major at 2:34. More key changes follow throghout.

The original video by the band is included after the cast version from the 2010 stage producion, below.

OK Go | Here It Goes Again

“Dancing in a beautiful synchronicity has long been part of OK Go singer Damian Kulash’s life,” (The Guardian). ” … he recalls his formative years in Kulash Alarm System, with big sister (and current choreographer and video director) Trish Sie. ‘I was seven and Trish must have been 11,’ he says, ‘and every morning when we’d wait for the school bus, we’d do this heavily thought-out dance routine outside our house, shouting, KULASH! ALARM! SYSTEM! like Kraftwerky robots.’

2006’s ‘Here It Goes Again’ has been viewed a staggering (68 million) times. ‘We saw that by dropping our instruments in the middle of the show and breaking into dance, it completely broke that fourth wall of expectations in a rock show … I love cultural products where you can see the effort people have put in to make something weird and unlikely.’ … Kulash points out that the ‘one take’ operates in a unique position in the current climate. ‘In the hypermediated world that we live in, we immediately go into ‘suspension of disbelief mode’. Like we see so much impossible shit in commercials, on films, in music. We assume artifice in everything we consume.'”

“Here It Goes Again,” a tune whose popularity is driven by a video that is arguably the band’s best known, was the fifth single from the 2005 album Oh No. The tune is built primarily in C major and C mixolydian, but during the nearly wordless bridge (1:40 – 1:59), there’s a shift to Eb major before a return to the original key. Eb also makes another appearance for the closing chord.

Michael Brecker | The Nearness of You (feat. James Taylor)

“Listening to a note perfect song is one of the many small joys afforded us by life. Of course, it’s an entirely subjective experience because music comes in all different flavors and we listeners have a wide variety of palates,’ (HistoricAmerica.org). “Be that as it may, I would argue that the Great American Songbook ranks among this nation’s greatest gifts to the world, and within this wealth of tunes there’s an absolute abundance of musical perfection.  

… Hoagy Carmichael was a multi-talented man. A bandleader, singer and actor, Carmichael was best known as a pianist and composer. Originally from Indiana, he’s responsible for memorable songs like ‘Heart & Soul,’ ‘Georgia on My Mind,’ and ‘Stardust.’ For ‘The Nearness of You’ Carmichael wrote the music while the words were work of lyricist Ned Washington, who also gave us ‘When You Wish Upon a Star,’ ‘Wild is the Wind’ and ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darlin” (the theme song from High Noon).  Originally, the song was intended to be featured in a film version of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream but the production fell through and the song didn’t find wide release until it was picked up and popularized by the Glenn Miller Orchestra in the 1940s.” 

James Taylor did an admirable job as a guest among the stellar jazz quintet convened by the late tenor saxophone legend Michael Brecker for the 2001 album Nearness of You: The Ballad Book. The band: Pat Metheny (guitar), Herbie Hancock (piano), Charlie Haden (double bass), and Jack DeJohnette (drums). Starting in F major, the AABA-form tune shifts up to G major at 1:56 for a partial instrumental verse featuring Brecker, leading to Taylor’s return for the B section. But the last A section doesn’t quite arrive, at least not as expected: it leads instead to a slightly rubato feature for Brecker at 2:54, then a downward shift to Eb major — and a delayed final A section leading to an outro — starting at 3:04.

Deb Talan | To the Bone

“The Weepies’ Deb Talan … has been writing songs since she was 14 years old,” (MountBakerTheatre.com). “Granted, her style has changed a bit since writing the forever-unknown song, ‘Through the Window’ about feeling numb, like life was going on somewhere out there but not accessible to her. Talan learned to play the clarinet, wrote songs on piano, and later taught herself to play guitar in college.

I Thought I Saw You, Talan’s newest album released in February 2025,  maps her journey into a new life, love, longing, and letting go. The collection of lush, folk-pop gems is enriched by Iowa musicians Dan Padley on the keys and guitar and Jay Foote on the bass. Talan’s voice and writing urge the listener to lean into the whole range of feelings involved in making and accepting big life changes. Talan’s voice has been described as ‘intoxicating’ by NPR, ‘sugary and sultry’ by Paste Magazine, and ‘inimitable’ by the Boston Globe. Her songwriting, whether as half of the folk-pop duo The Weepies or as a solo artist, has earned her recognition on multiple ‘Best Of’ lists over the years and numerous placements in movies, TV shows, and commercials.”

Starting in F minor, Talan’s “To the Bone” features a lyric-dense chorus (2001) which shifts to Eb minor for the more spacious chorus (0:38) before reverting to the original key for the next verse (0:54). The pattern continues from there.

Shelby Lynne | Bend

“Following her somewhat belated Best New Artist Grammy award (six albums and 13 years into her musical career), Shelby Lynne’s follow-up to the truly heartbreaking and spectacular I Am Shelby Lynne finds her reaching out to a more rock-oriented audience with mixed results,” (AllMusic). “After some last minute retooling from the record label, Love, Shelby proves Lynne can still write a hook, but much of what makes or breaks the finished results ultimately falls in the hands of her producer.

… In all honesty, this would actually be a more successful album if her previous work hadn’t been so strong. It seems as though the singer had such artistic success with her ‘rock-tinged’ record that she thought it would be a good idea to push the envelope further into an almost strictly rock environment … The few songs that embrace her rough, soulful edge are pretty terrific, and (hopefully) smarter choices in the future will bring about another strong album along the same lines as I Am…“

“Bend,” a non-single album track from Love, Shelby (2001), is built around a polished shuffle feel. This mid-tempo track provides an attractive showcase for Lynne, who covers both lead and backup vocal duties. Starting in C major, the chorus (first heard from 0:42 – 1:04) shift into Eb major.

Many thanks to Ari S. for yet another wonderful contribution!