2010s – Page 17

Postmodern Jukebox | We Can’t Stop

Founded by arranger and pianist Scott Bradlee in 2011, Postmodern Jukebox is a music collective, featuring a rotating group of instrumentalists and vocalists, that is known for reworked and inventive takes on popular modern songs, focusing particularly on swing and jazz. The group originated with Bradlee jamming and shooting videos in his basement with his friends, and took off with the release of a cover of Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ “Thrift Shop,” featuring Robyn Adele Anderson on vocals, which clocked a million views the first week after its release in 2012.

“We Can’t Stop,” originally released by Miley Cyrus, was given a doo-wop treatment by the group in 2013, again featuring Anderson on vocals as well as the NYC-based TeeTones. “I think everyone on some level loves doo-wop,” said Bradlee when discussing why he thought his cover was so successful. “It’s feel-good music. It’s easy to listen to. It has a strong melody. It’s simple…And sure, it’s funny that the lyrics are ridiculous by ’50s standards, too.”

The track modulates at 3:09.

Childish Gambino | Sober

“Donald Glover doesn’t need your approval. He has always had plenty of admirers, be it through his standup, TV work, or his music, which he makes as Childish Gambino,” Consequence declares in its review of his 2014 EP Kauai. “Fans of his comedy routines and 30 Rock and Community episodes followed him to the mixtape circuit, a world which rewards humor but not necessarily Gambino’s particular brand of pop culture-dissecting kind. In turn, depending on who you ask, he’s one of hip-hop’s smartest MCs or a short-shorts-wearing outsider who’s unable to see why he’s unwelcome.”

Glover’s come a long distance since 2014. As Childish Gambino, he’s been extremely prolific, releasing multiple albums, EPs, and “mixtapes,” growing in prominence as he goes. His track “This is America” (2018), which went to #1 in the US and many other countries, was released with a single-take music video which Time described as “laden with metaphors about race and gun violence in America.”

After starting in a F major, 2014’s “Sober” drops a break (2:50) comprised of only scant background vocals, the buzz of heavily distorted electronic bass, and percussion, which somewhat obscures the whole-step modulation to G major at 3:09. The break’s contorted landscape continues until 3:29, when there’s a return of Glover’s clear, seemingly effortless falsetto over pulsing eighth-note synths and major 7th voicings at just about every opportunity.

Many thanks to Mark L. for this submission — his first!

Sia | Free Me

Australian singer/songwriter Sia released “Free Me” as a single and music video in July 2017. The video, narrated by Julianne Moore, depicts an expecting mother (played by Zoe Saldana) who is told she is HIV-positive after going in for a routine check-up. The mother’s emotional journey is communicated through choreography, set by Ryan Heffington. “The HIV/AIDS epidemic is one that can affect anyone, particularly child-bearing women around the globe,” Sia said upon the song’s release.

“I’ve proudly joined forces with the Abzyme Research Foundation and the #endHIV Campaign for the release of my song, ‘Free Me,’ to help raise funds and awareness for a potential breakthrough cure of the epidemic.” All proceeds of the song support efforts to eliminate HIV/AIDS. A half-step modulation from Eb to E occurs at 4:02.

For Forever (from “Dear Evan Hansen”)

Pasek & Paul’s 6-time Tony Award-winning, blockbuster 2016 musical Dear Evan Hansen opened in London in November 2019 before closing the following March due to the COVID-19 pandemic; it is scheduled to re-open this October. English actor Sam Tutty plays the title character in the production, and is featured here singing “For Forever” with three other Evans: Andrew Barth Feldman from Broadway, Robert Markus from Toronto, and Stephen Christopher Anthony from the national tour. The show’s music supervisor Alex Lacamoire produced and arranged the vocals, Dillon Kondor wrote the guitar arrangement, and Tim Basom and Ethan Pakchar accompanied for this performance.

A film adaptation of the musical, starring Ben Platt who originated the role of Evan, will be released this September. Key changes at 2:47 and 3:49.

Christopher Tin (feat. Soweto Gospel Choir) | Baba Yetu

If you enjoy turn-based strategy video games, then you are likely familiar with the Civilization franchise, and if you played Civilization IV, then you may have spent a significant amount of time staring on the main menu screen, enraptured by today’s tune and forgetting entirely that you’d settled down to conquer the digital world. American composer Christopher Tin‘s composition “Baba Yetu” arranges a Swahili translation of The Lord’s Prayer into a masterful piece for choir and orchestra.

The tune won the 2011 Grammy award for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists — the first ever piece of video game music to win. Just as impressive, it’s featured on an album which itself won the 2011 Grammy for “Best Classical Crossover Album”: while the piece debuted with the game in 2005, Tin also released a recording of it on his first album, Calling All Dawns, in 2011.

Tin begins the song with a rousing call and response in G major. The voices gradually build and merge into a modulation to D major, which begins at 1:00. 20 seconds later, the chorale drops away, and the tonal center begins to shift until the voices triumphantly return and modulate squarely to E major while proclaiming “Ufalme wako ufike utakalo. Lifanyike duniani kama mbinguni, Amin.” (Thy kingdom come, thy will be done. On earth, as it is in heaven, Amen). With the verse finished, tonal certainty once again fades, until at the 2:25 mark the final chorus brings us back to G major to finish out the tune. I hope you enjoy this moving arrangement, along with the visual accompaniment of some truly high-definition 2005 video game graphics!

The Struts | Where Did She Go

“Where Did She Go” is the final track on the 2014 album Everybody Wants, the debut release by the English rock band The Struts. The group, comprised of vocalist Luke Spiller, guitarist Adam Slack, bassist Jed Elliot, and drummer Gethin Davies, count Queen, Aerosmith, The Rolling Stones and Michael Jackson among their influences; they released their third album, Strange Days, last fall. Key change at 3:11.

Anthem Lights | Love You Like the Movies

Chronic MotD contributor JB, in submitting 2018’s “Love You Like the Movies” by Anthem Lights, notes that the tune features some chatter from the band (including a short debate about whether or not to change keys!)

The quartet is best known for its Christian pop, but this track finds the band inhabiting the pop side of the equation. The key change is at 2:58.

Frida Elsa | Sway

“Sway” is a 2018 single by Swedish singer/songwriter Frida Elsa. While Elsa has yet to release a full album, she signed with PRMD Music & Publishing in 2017, and has a clear sense of herself as an artist. “I love being part of the creative process and above all to express myself in text and melody,” she says in her profile on Spotify. “I try, in a world of misery, to focus on all the positive things I get out of life. My lyrics focus on love, passion and hope for a brighter future.”

“Sway” modulates up a half step at 2:09.

Kelly Clarkson | Don’t Rush

Written for Kelly Clarkson‘s first greatest hits album, released in 2012, “Don’t Rush” also features singer/songwriter Vince Gill and incorporates country and rock influences. “People have been wanting me to release something specifically for Country radio for years, but I didn’t want to just release something that has a steel guitar on it,” Clarkson said in an interview with Billboard magazine. “I wanted to release something I’m proud of, and we finally found that song. It’s my favorite kind of Country music; it’s like ’80s, ’90s Country music, that throwback, two-steppin’ style. And I’m freakin’ stoked I got Vince Gill to sing on it with me, so I win ’cause he’s like one of my favorite people.”

The track reached the #23 slot on the US Hot Country Songs chart and was performed at the Country Music Association awards in 2012 (featured here.) Key change at 2:55.

Duncan Sheik | How It Feels

Duncan Sheik is perhaps best known for his 1996 hit “Barely Breathing” and a cerebral, meticulous style AllMusic describes as “Adult Alternative.” He went on to write the music for the 2006 Broadway smash hit Spring Awakening. A few years later, Sheik continued his writing for musical theatre with Whisper House (2010), featuring a book and additional lyrics by Kyle Jarrow.

Playbill reports: “‘It’s set in and around an isolated lighthouse in Maine during World War II,’ Duncan Sheik says. ‘There’s a young boy named Christopher whose father was shot down over the Pacific by the Japanese. His distraught mother has been taken to a sanitarium, and he has been sent to live with his Aunt Lily, who is not so great with children, to use a bit of [an] understatement.’

Also at the lighthouse is a Japanese servant named Yasujiro. ‘Christopher,’ Sheik says, ‘is incredibly mistrustful of Yasujiro because his father was killed by the Japanese, and he begins to suspect that the servant may be a spy. In the middle of it all, it appears that the lighthouse may be haunted by ghosts — all of whom were members of a band playing on a ship that went down in 1912.’ … Because the ghosts’ ship sank in 1912, the Titanic comes to mind. Is there a connection? ‘Not really,’ Sheik says, and laughs. ‘I guarantee that Celine Dion will not be singing this material.'”

Set in an off-kilter G major where inverted voicings are more the rule than the exception, the chorus begins at 1:27 with a prominent E major chord, whose G# third degree (further underlined by G# in the bass) briefly but profoundly displaces the original key. This small harmonic collision provides energy to a track so ethereal that it might have otherwise floated away entirely.