2010s

I’m Not a Loser (from “Spongebob Squarepants”)

“SpongeBob SquarePants, the Broadway musical, has captured all the silly, goofy, broadly camp, good-natured fun of the Nickelodeon TV series,” (New York Theatre Guide). “And it is a rare feat to effectively translate style and comedy from one genre to another … More of a revue than a book musical, SpongeBob SquarePants aims to amuse, dazzle, and delight along the journey — topping each visual topper and playing with props in every imaginable way: glow in the dark neon rectangles that reconfigure to form shapes, dancing letters, and characters flattened to 2-dimensions when hit by a boulder that emerges from a Rube Goldberg-like device. The plot — and this really doesn’t merit a spoiler alert — is that the characters’ world may come to an end due to a volcanic eruption. Now strap yourselves in for the joy ride to armageddon.

Songs come courtesy of a lengthy list of prestigious pop and rock artists …SpongeBob SquarePants is not for those who might want a deeper (emotionally, not in fathoms) experience. It is for those who love non-stop creativity in costume, design, color, lighting, choreography, zany comedy, and madcap mayhem. If that is your cup of saltwater, prepare to be swept up in a tidal wave of bubbling entertainment.”

The “eleven o’clock number” of the 2016 musical, “I’m Not a Loser,” was written by John Flansburgh and John Linnell, collectively known as They Might Be Giants. After a start in C major, the tonality bubbles up to Db major at 2:32 — and largely stays there, other than plenty of quick shifts during the instrumental sections.

Snarky Puppy + Metropole Orkest | The Curtain

“Jazz has developed virtually since its inception through a close but often uneasy relationship between recorded media and live performance,” (UCLA Ethnomusicology Review). “Think of the ‘classic’ recordings that are celebrated as paragons of jazz artistry, but also of the common admonishment that any true experience of jazz is a live one, in which musicians and audience members commune with one another in a unique, never-to-be-repeated musical and social event. If recent trends are any indication, however, many jazz musicians do not view these modes of performance as irreconcilable … Snarky Puppy, led by bassist and composer Michael League … tour(s) the world extensively, introducing audiences to their exciting genre-b(l)ending style … They also invite an audience into the recording session, which sits among the musicians and listens through headphones. In this way, Snarky Puppy cultivates the intimacy and energy of live performance, but also retains the advantages of an outfitted recording studio.

Sylva … finds the band in the Netherlands to work with the Metropole Orkest, conducted by Jules Buckley … The theme of Sylva (2015) is the forest. … The album’s high point is ‘The Curtain.’ … this tune was the most challenging for the band, with sections featuring odd meters, multiple key changes, and forms with an odd number of bars … Jay Jennings’ flugelhorn solo is outstanding, his lyrical playing bolstered by the tasteful interactivity of the rhythm section and some beautifully building orchestral background figures. A new groove introduces League’s similarly impressive bass solo (well-deserved accolades for his roles as leader and composer mean he is sometimes overlooked as a stellar bassist) and a funky, virtuosic organ solo by Cory Henry. The musicians look on wistfully during Bill Laurance’s lovely, Chopin-esque piano cadenza, before joining him for a closing waltz.”

The piece begins with a strings feature in G minor, joined by building percussion at 0:51 and then going on to persist through various moods and meters. At 3:22, we hit uneven harmonic ground as the flugelhorn solo builds. The full instrumentation of the Metropole is then put through its paces until the 7:54 mark, where a calmer feeling prevails, along with a shift to F minor. By the ending, the piece has shifted back to a softer-spoken feel in G (major, minor, etc.).

Beach Boys | That’s Why God Made the Radio

“When the surviving members of The Beach Boys spoke of reuniting for a 50th anniversary tour and a new album in 2012, a lot of fans were unsure about how the conflicting personalities of members such as Brian Wilson and Mike Love would interact both on the stage and in a studio environment,” (Beats Per Minute). “However, one spin of That’s Why God Made the Radio (2012) is enough to suggest that while the band may have had their differences, they can still make engaging and unique music together that sounds remarkably fresh, despite the aging of its band members.

In fact, it’s quite a humbling observation that The Beach Boys are still capable of making music that sounds as eclectic as ever, and their commercial gravitas makes listening to the radio interesting once again. The Beach Boys are a breath of fresh air, because nobody is really making music like them nowadays … Brian and the band still sound brilliant singing together. Wilson has proven that his vocals are still on top-form with certain recent live performances, and on That’s Why God Made the Radio he’s hitting all of the right notes … There’s little doubt that this is one of The Beach Boy’s strongest albums since their 70s output, which really plays to their strengths and comes across as some minor miracle that they can still make music this good after five decades in the business.”

Brian Wilson, the sonic and creative core of the Beach Boys, passed away in 2025. While he released his final solo album, At My Piano, in 2021, That’s Why God Made the Radio was indeed the group’s swan song. The verses and choruses of the title track both contain quite a few brief keys of the moment, perhaps most noticeably at 1:01, when the end of the chorus gently grinds its gears as it shifts to the next verse. But at the end of the bridge (2:19), a lasting and unmistakeable half-step key change locks in for the final chorus/fading outro.

Laura Mvula | Show Me Love

“Taken from Mvula’s latest release The Dreaming Room, ‘Show Me Love’ is an incantatory, gospel-tinged art-pop hymnal that drifts from moments of deep personal introspection to fissions of out-of-body spiritual awareness,” (Pop Matters). “The climactic eruption of orchestration is startling in its intensity; over it, Mvula repeats the title phrase over and over and over again, trying to stretch it out, to discover its true contents and phonetic subtleties.

… She seems to channel the ethereal qualities of Bjork or Kate Bush. Her voice fits the gorgeous arrangement perfectly, and the lack of a consistent, thumping beat really works to the song’s advantage. Eventually, things build up toward the end, creating something unique and majestic. The vocals and production are constantly intriguing while enhancing the piece’s natural beauty. The mechanized vocals create a beautiful contrast with the lush strings and glorious brass sections near the end.”

Mvula’s career has taken more hold in her native UK than in the US, but she’d certainly be an intriguing addition to the US charts. Co-written by Mvula and Laura Pauline Amanda, “Show Me Love” (2017) starts in F major, but gently shifts to D major at 1:25. The original key returns at 1:50 as the momentum and volume begin to build. The keys continue to alternate throughout.

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.

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!

Leveret | Ricer II

“In the close-knit world of English folk music, Leveret boasts an impressive pedigree,” (NPR). “The trio’s Andy Cutting is renowned for his mastery of the melodeon, a type of accordion with a push-pull mechanism for intonation that imbues it with a wheezy kick. The band’s fiddler is Sam Sweeney, of the flamboyant nu-folk band Bellowhead, and its concertina player is Rob Harbron — both are deft and expressive musicians in their own right. (The concertina is yet another variety of squeezebox, a small hexagonal specimen with a pure, invigorating honk.) Within its respective milieu, Leveret might be considered a supergroup were the term not anathema to the band’s entire ethos: introspective, understated, minimalist.

… Leveret’s members have stated on multiple occasions that their music is not so much arranged as felt, operating without predetermined parts — a jam session. So profound is the trio’s communion that its players seem telepathic, charting a rippling musical terrain visible only to each other. Leveret’s (2017) effort features exclusively original material and is aptly titled Inventions. In an album overflowing with lovely melodies, ‘Ricer II’ is the most baldly euphoric. (The tune was composed by Cutting, who named it after a potato ricer, presumably one that brought him especially great joy.) The happy-go-lucky number skips along in accelerated triple-time; about halfway through, it even goes so far as to change keys, modulating triumphantly with the gusto of a Broadway finale. ‘Ricer II’ is neither difficult nor complex, just two short parts that circle round and round like a kitten chasing its tail.” The two keys in question are C major and (after 1:04) D major.

Eric Nam | Ooh Ooh

“Eric Nam might not be a household name to every pop fan in the Western World. And that’s kind of the point for him (as he talks) about his atypical start on the path to stardom, and what it means to navigate the K-Pop industry as an American,” (Rolling Stone Australia). “The Atlanta, US-born artist of Korean heritage found a voice in a country where he barely spoke the language (Korea), in a market that favors teenage groups and ballad-heavy rock bands. Then, he exported his sound to one of the most populous nations on Earth, and wound up on the cover of Rolling Stone India.

‘They wanted me to do power ballads and I can’t even do power ballads. Then I wanted to be in a group and [was told] I was too old. I was 23, and [they said] you’re way too old to be in a group,’ he says. ‘Then they said try to be in a rock band – rock bands don’t really work in Korea — or you could go and be a solo power balladeer … I can’t force you to think of me as not K-Pop. Whatever you want to think of me, just go for it, but I really want you to understand that there is a complexity within K-Pop where it’s not just these massive groups with massive numbers.'”

Nam’s track “Ooh Ooh” (2014) begins in G minor. Combining Korean and English lyrics, the tune shifts up to Ab minor 2:30 — just before a rap-driven bridge. Many thanks to our UAE-based contributor Ziyad for submitting this tune!

I Believe (from “Book of Mormon”)

“The Book of Mormon was developed by Matt Stone, Trey Parker, and Robert Lopez,” (Broadway World). “Trey and Matt infamously created the South Park animated series, and Robert Lopez helped conceive the puppet comedy Avenue Q. They took eight years to develop this one (small workshops that progressively grew larger), which finally opened on Broadway in 2011, launching the careers of Andrew Rannells and Josh Gad. These sublimely brilliant guys crafted an insanely fast-paced book that whips out impressive songs bordering on Sondheim in their narrative complexity and density of words.

But the twist is the lyrics and plot points are peppered with F-Bombs and jokes about Africa, AIDS, gays, Mormons, Christians, and pedophilia. The combination of well-sung songs about inappropriate observations is the genius of the show. And much like their other ventures, the material has smart things to say in an ultimately heartfelt way. That is why we are talking about this show as a ‘legacy musical’ today: at the core, it is a wonderful friendship that is incredible to watch.”

“I Believe,” one of the show’s best known tunes, states a laundry list of tenets of the Mormon faith with even more earnestness than you’d expect — and varying levels of sarcasm. The tonality shifts up from F major to F# major at 3:33.

IU | Good Day

“Arguably the country’s most popular singer-actor of her generation, IU steadily gained recognition after kicking off her career in 2008, but was still finding her musical footing at the start of the 2010s. Then came 2010’s ‘Good Day.’ Upon first listen, it’s a bouncy, sweet tune, bolstered with orchestral instrumentation and synths. Then the production shifts into funk-inflected pop, as bold horns and dulcet, layered vocals emphasize IU’s bright, bold, and candied sensibility. ‘Good Day’ glides along key changes and soars with the momentum of confessed love — hitting a three-note jump in IU’s voice so singularly spectacular that it instantaneously launched her into the realm of legendary Korean singers.”

Rolling Stone Australia rated the 2010 tune #3 in its collection of The 100 Greatest Songs in the History of Korean Pop Music. Many thanks to our contributor Ziyad for sending in this distinctive track!

Starting in E major, the tune shifts to G# major at the chorus (2:05). At 2:52, we land in the original key for the next verse. At 4:14, there’s a shift up to A major as the chorus repeats. The orchestration fireworks that take us from section to section are not to be missed!