According to its website, Fourth Moon “were born in 2014 from the meeting between two French musicians (Jean-Christophe Morel, violin; Jean Damei on guitar), an Austrian (Geza Frank, bagpipes and flutes) and a Scot (Mohsen Amini, concertina) … In 2016 the line up changed, introducing David Lombardi from Italy on violin and more recently Andrew Waite from Scotland on accordion.”
The Edinburgh TradFest noted: “The result feels fresh and often exhilarating … showing how traditional musicianship and instruments can be used to produce a truly original sound, Fourth Moon take a mixture of tunes, many of them self penned, and put together sets that play around with styles and tempos and deliver the unexpected.”
The Herald of Scotlandreviewed the Glasgow-based band as giving “thought to texture, tone and tempo that can call to mind a chamber music group in terms of sound quality and tonal range.” The ensemble’s seamless handling of tempo changes is clear on 2018’s “The Vale,” where the band is joined by vocalist Ainsley Hamill, a Scottish singer and songwriter who performs in English, Scots, and Gaelic. There are key changes at 0:54, 1:12, 1:30, 1:49, and 3:17.
Many thanks to our regular contributor JB for this tune!
Hands On a Hardbody is a little-known but cleverly crafted musical set in 1990s small-town Texas, where the local Nissan dealership decides to sponsor a contest: the contestant who keeps their hand on a showroom-new truck the longest gets to keep it! Described by The Hollywood Reporteras “a low-concept Hunger Games,” the 2013 theatrical adaptation of the 1997 film is a heartwarming comedy featuring complex musical compositions. “I’m Gone” is a duet between characters Kelli and Greg, who share a romance throughout their time in the competition as they dream about making it out of their weary Texas hometown.
Although relatively unpopular in its time, Hands on a Hardbody debuted and had a short run on Broadway, featuring an array of performers who would go on to do great things. The original Broadway cast included Keala Settle, who later performed in Rent and The Greatest Showman, as well as Dale Soules, who went on to act in Orange is the New Black. The New York Times reports that co-composer Trey Anastasio, best known as songwriter and leader of the funk/jazz/bluegrass jam band Phish, compared the experience to “parallel parking a cruise ship.”
The song features a variety of modulations, including a classic whole-step key change at the song’s climax. However, clever composers Anastasio and Amanda Green use their knowledge of vocal range wisely, modulating the tune down a few steps during a short interlude before Greg takes over the lead from Kelli. The song’s chordal structure is dreamy, featuring a classy use of modal interchange as a V7 chord sets up the progression, only to be replaced by its major chord as the song moves to its more hopeful sections.
Perhaps most importantly, the song modulates as it transitions into the hook (1:00, 2:02). The composers take listeners up a major fourth with a classy V/IV progression that brings sparkle into the tune, creating an uplifting transition into the song’s hook. Bringing a sleek pivot chord into play makes listeners feel a hopeful shift while still saving the “big key change” for the number’s finale (4:30).
All of these factors make “I’m Gone” a fabulous showcase for acting and vocal technique — and a song worth listening to.
Maya Wagner is a singer/songwriter and music producer currently studying at Berklee College of Music. Maya is passionate about sharing her experiences with mental illness and her LGBTQ identity through her music. She blogs about all things music production on her website and has established a broad web presence as an artist, performer, and producer.
Maya, MotD’s first intern, is shifting over to our our regular contributor team in April 2021, so look for more of her posts! Welcome, Maya!
KNOWER, an enigmatic American duo with a sound somewhere between funk, pop, and electronica, is long on action and a bit short in the written bio department. Instead, its online presence features short posts of a few sentences, plenty of videos, and download links. Multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and songwriter Louis Cole and vocalist and songwriter Genevieve Artadi met while studying jazz in Los Angeles. When they’re not collaborating, they often feature each other on solo projects. The duo has collaborated with Youtube titans Pomplamoose, performed with jazz/rock drummer Nate Wood and jazz/funk standard bearers Snarky Puppy, and opened for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Knower was presented by legendary producer Quincy Jones as part of a LA-based concert series, whose program attempted to pin down the band’s sound as “an indescribable mix of virtuosic musicianship and pop sensibilities.”
“Gotta Be Another Way,” originally released by Knower in 2011, was arranged for big band for this 2019 performance with the WDR Big Band, whose story AllMusic summarizes: “A top European jazz group, Germany’s WDR Big Band is a sophisticated ensemble, featuring an evolving line-up of some of the country’s best musicians. A function of the German public broadcasting institution Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln based in Cologne, the WDR Big Band are musical ambassadors charged with promoting jazz and culture at home and around the world … featuring such guest artists as Ron Carter, Paquito D’Rivera, Arturo Sandoval, and others.”
The tune’s original version blossoms out into a lushly orchestrated big band collaboration. But despite the added textures from the expanded orchestration, the frenetic groove remains at the center of both renditions. Starting in B minor underneath Artadi’s opening rap, there’s a change of key mid-phrase between 0:55 and 0:57 as Artadi begins the sung melody. After that, it’s more or less a question of returning to the B minor section or just holding onto your hat for the rest.
“Groovin'” was written and first released in 1967 by the American rock band The Rascals (formerly known as The Young Rascals.) Its Afro-Cuban groove and relaxed vibe quickly led to the tune becoming one of the band’s signature songs, and it has since been covered by numerous other artists. This performance, by the British/Irish boy band The Overtones, was featured on the 2012 album Higher. Key change at 2:16.
We briefly covered this tune in January 2018. We hope you’ll enjoy this expanded post by our intern, Maya.
The release of Dangerous Woman, Ariana Grande’s head-bopping 2016 album, marked the start of the singer’s transition from innocent Nickelodeon singer/actress to full on pop idol. The album is full of dangerously sexy hits, but one song in particular ties up all of Grande’s sass and style into one stellar track.
The A.V. Club captures the essence of the tune with its review: “The horn-peppered “Greedy” is an exuberant R&B-pop earworm on which (Grande) has a blast indulging her inner gospel diva.”
The song features a brilliantly arranged horn section which enhances and reinforces the songwriting and production genius of Max Martin. It isn’t surprising that Martin also happens to have co-written and produced Brittany Spears’ hit, “… Baby One More Time,” as well as P!nk’s dance party must-have, “Raise Your Glass.”
On “Greedy,” Martin takes an epic sing-along chorus and transforms it into a wall of sound which hits listeners from the moment the song begins. The tune has that “early 2000s dance floor” sound, but also includes some 2016 trademarks such as the lush vocal stacks that are featured in the song’s hook. With funk undertones in the bass, gospel-style vocal stacks, and a disco groove, the song is appealing to a wide audience and really takes synth-pop to the next level.
The song is just repetitive enough for the modulation at 2:37 to pull the listener back in as the song explodes into a final chorus, sprinkled with Grande’s whistle tone adlibs and breathy riffs.
Maya Wagner is a singer/songwriter and music producer currently studying at Berklee College of Music. Maya is passionate about sharing her experiences with mental illness and her LGBTQ identity through her music. She blogs about all things music production on her website and has established a broad web presence as an artist, performer, and producer.
Maya is MotD’s first intern. Watch this space for her continuing contributions!
Written and originally recorded by Whitney Houston, “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” won the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 1988 Grammy Awards, and was Houston’s first platinum single in the US with over a million copies sold. This cover, performed by singer/songwriter and Broadway actress Shoshana Bean with Troy Laureta on keys, features some subtle reharmonization and a key change at 2:52.
A musical adaptation (updated for the 21st century) of Greek playwright Aristophanes’ 411 BC comedy Lysistrata, Lewis Flynn (music & lyrics) and Douglas Carter Beane’s (book) Lysistrata Jones opened on Broadway in 2011 and ran for 30 performances. Reviewing the production for Backstage magazine, critic David Sheward said, “Each of the characters starts out as a broad stereotype—just as Aristophanes’ figures are—but Beane turns the cultural expectations inside out, creating complex people within a comic context.”
“Where Am I Now” is performed here by Patti Murin, who played Lysistrata in the original Broadway cast. The key change from Eb to D at 3:09 is preceded by the sustained vocal D changing function from the 3rd of the Bb major chord to the root of a D major chord. Murin then sets up the new key a cappella before the orchestra dramatically re-enters.
Sabaton is a Swedish band comprised of “heavy metal military historians,” according to The Guardian, which describes a recent pre-COVID gig: “A vast crowd of people are singing raucously, raising large beer tankards skyward and grinning like they have just won the lottery. In this small and sweaty venue, a Swedish heavy metal band are opening their set with a song about the exploits of Field Marshall Rommel’s infamous 7th Panzer Division in the second world war. They follow it with a number about the horrors of Passchendaele in the first world war.
By the end of the night, we will have had exuberant hymns to Lawrence of Arabia, an all-female Soviet bomber squadron and the military genius King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. Everyone in the room, the vast majority of whom are wearing Sabaton shirts, sings along with absolutely everything. Meanwhile, the venue gently rocks from side to side, because we are on a ship in the middle of the Baltic Sea. Welcome to the 10th annual Sabaton Cruise: The Battleship, where passions for military history and Olympic-standard drinking collide.”
“To Hell and Back,” released in 2014, focuses on the Battle of Anzio (referenced in the chorus), part of the Italian Campaign of World War II fought in January 1944. Starting in D minor, the guitar solo (2:30 – 2:47) rises up into E minor before a reprise of the hook. At 3:06, the outro climbs up to F minor. Many thanks to first-time contributor Erik Lofgren for this submission!
“Sarah” was a single first released by Dublin Ireland’s Thin Lizzy in 1979; it reached #24 on the British pop charts and #26 in Ireland.
The Academic, a band from just west of Dublin, met while attending the same secondary school during the 2010s. AllMusic reports that the group ” … rode a series of punchy, melodic singles to national success when their 2018 debut album topped the Irish charts. They soon netted a deal and followed up with a couple of dreamy singles … “
“Sarah” was apparently a live one-off for the band; the track wasn’t included on either of its studio releases. This performance was live on Today FM, an Irish radio station. After starting in A major, 1:48 brings an instrumental bridge, followed by a shift to Bb major at 2:08.
Expatica.com notes that the French composer and lyricist Hubert Giraud, whose works were recorded by vocalists from Edith Piaf to Tom Jones, “started out as a musician playing with the likes of Django Reinhardt’s jazz group the Quintette du Hot Club de France in the 1930s and on Ray Ventura’s big-band tour of South America.” He also wrote the theme for the 1951 film Sous le Ciel de Paris (Under the Sky of Paris); the song was later recorded by Edith Piaf, Yves Montand, Juliette Greco, and more. Giraud died in 2016 at the age of 95.
Starting in E minor, the waltz progresses to E major at 1:03, reverting back to the original key at 1:49. Utilizing rubato as more of a rule than an occasional flourish, Palma throws in a last-minute whole-step modulation at 2:20 — quickly leading to an unexpected ending.
Many thanks to our frequent contributor JB for this submission!
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