Tag: 2010s

Ben Bram + Quartet | Smile

Written by comedian Charlie Chaplin for his film Modern Times (1936), lyrics were added to “Smile” in 1954. The tune has been covered by many artists, including Nat “King” Cole and Sammy Davis Jr. Perhaps the most iconic of these performances was by Judy Garland on the Ed Sullivan Show (1965).

According to his website, arranger Ben Bram is “a two-time Grammy Award winning vocal arranger, producer, and engineer” who has worked with a capella powerhouse Pentatonix, and productions including “Pitch Perfect, The Sing-Off, and Glee, providing expertise as an arranger, coach, vocal producer, on-set music director, and studio vocalist.”

Here, Bram and his SATB a cappella quartet present his stunning arrangement of Chaplin’s classic tune. Unexpected 3/4 sections take center stage at 1:34 – 1:50 and 3:15 – 3:40 and a beautiful modulation hits at 1:48. But the stars of this performance are the often super-close voicings, the effortless passing of the melody from part to part, and the quartet’s gorgeous blend and balance.

Tori Kelly | Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing

Stevie Wonder‘s “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing” was originally released in 1973 on his album Innervisions and exudes a positivity that we could all use a little bit of right now. The performance here features Tori Kelly in a cover included in the 2016 animated feature Sing Movie. Beginning in Eb minor, the tune kicks up one half step at 2:16, and then another at 2:32.

Louis Cole | Tunnels in the Air

More often than not, electronica/funk/pop artist Louis Cole writes uptempo tunes about downer subjects. AllMusic calls him “a left-field pop musician whose energized material often puts an ebullient spin on everyday pitfalls.” Louis Cole is the co-founder of Knower, has written for Seal and co-written with Thundercat, has played with Snarky Puppy, opened (along with Genevieve Artadi, the other half of Knower) for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and collaborated with celebrated jazz pianist Brad Mehldau on a recent track “Real Life.”

Pitchfork‘s review of Cole’s 2018 album, Time, can’t be improved upon:

“The mark of a great chord progression is a peculiar mixture of surprise and inevitability. On first listen, you find yourself confused by the way that one chord follows another, refusing to follow the well-trodden path: jumping when they should step and bounding when they should glide. Eventually, once the song has burned itself into your brain—once its course has remapped your own neural pathways—you’ll have trouble imagining a world where these curious patterns didn’t exist. But even then, even after no matter how many plays, that harmonic dodge-and-feint will still produce the tiniest frisson of wrongness. It’s among the sweetest dopamine hits that music is capable of producing.

Louis Cole’s instrument of choice is the drums, but he definitely knows his way around a killer set of changes. Time, his third album, is brimming with strange, counterintuitive progressions—chords that seem to slip sideways, tumbling into one another, jostling and pivoting just when you don’t expect. An unusual mixture of hard funk and soft pop, like Zapp and Burt Bacharach stuck in an elevator together, Cole’s is a sly, jubilant sound; it makes good use of the way funk also thrives upon a sense of wrongness, a screw-faced delight at things gone awry.”

“Tunnels in the Air” (2018) starts in G minor; at 2:26, the track modulates up to Bb minor. The outro gives us a space-age church pipe organ at 2:57 — right down to a traditional plagal cadence into a closing Eb major.

Organ Freeman | Go By Richard, Not By Dick

Here’s a submission from our regular contributor Carlo Migliaccio: “Go By Richard, Not By Dick” by Organ Freeman. The LA-based organ trio has been described as “Medeski, Martin + Wood, but about 20 years younger,” by ShowTheShow.com.

According to Carlo, “The tonal center moves around a bit, but the modulation that made me smile starts at about 2:45, then again at 3:10.” But harmony is hardly the only weapon in the trio’s arsenal: at 4:00, the tempo falls off a cliff, gradually regaining full force by about 4:50; in the interim, the funk groove remains as strong as ever, mixing in several ornate countermelodies. A Youtube commenter left this capsule review: “This starts off as the carwash music from Gran Turismo … and ends in the kind of energy that is used to create planets.”

Free Nationals | Apartment

AllMusic.com describes Free Nationals as “a smooth, funk-fluent R&B band” which has “recorded and performed extensively with Grammy-winning artist Anderson .Paak…The quartet became integral to (.Paak’s) progression on Malibu, a 2017 breakthrough nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Urban Contemporary Album.” In 2019, their debut self-titled album reached #3 on Billboard‘s Heatseekers chart. NME.com reports that the band “proudly wear(s) their influences on their sleeve – the band are long-term scholars of Stevie Wonder, Parliament-Funkadelic, Herbie Hancock and many more.”

Starting in B minor, “Apartment” features a syncopated intro which shifts into a settled C# minor groove at the first verse (0:28), then back to B minor at the chorus (0:52). The intro’s syncopated kicks and compound chords return to bracket verse 2/chorus 2 (1:39 and 2:56), leaving us hanging with an unexpected ending where the third verse should have been.

Yola | Faraway Look

Many thanks to Jonathan “JHarms” Harms for submitting this knockout tune!

UK-born singer/songwriter Yola (Yolanda Quartey) has performed as a backup vocalist with a wide range of artists, including Massive Attack, James Brown, and The Stax Band. AllMusic.com states that as she pursued session and touring work, Yola fronted the country/soul band Phantom Limb and “began crafting a set of deeply personal songs that pulled stylistically from Muscle Shoals-era country-soul, old-school R&B, countrypolitan, and classic singer/songwriter.”

The album Walk Through Fire (2019) and its single “Faraway Look” garnered three Grammy Award nominations: Best Americana Album, Best American Roots Song, and Best American Roots Performance.

Previewed briefly during the verse, the shift from the B major of the verse to the C# major of the chorus at 0:59 pales in comparison with the sheer power of the vocal and wall of sound production. At 1:27, the next verse reverts to B major. The composition style, reminiscent of Bacharach’s writing for Dusty Springfield, is belied only by the 21st-century audio production. According to Songfacts.com, Yola explains that the track “makes me think of a time in my life where I was encouraged to stay in my lane and be thankful for my lot…In a world that questions a woman’s every objection as well as every ambition, the faraway look is king.”

Shishamo | Ashita Mo (明日も)

Guest contributor Alejandro Espinosa (@wolfman1405) has submitted a song called “Ashita Mo (明日も)” by the Japanese indie rock band Shishamo. The band’s members met during high school and made their debut in 2011.

Alejandro reports that the tune “begins in Db major. At 1:15, the chord progression goes V7/vi -> vi (also related ii) -> V7/V -> IV -> bVI -> V7). The V7 (Ab) resolves deceptively as a sub V into G major. The transition back happens at 2:09; it’s just kind of sudden and unprepared and it feels great. G into F, and now we’re on a Db again.”

Max Embers | For Once In My Life

Max Embers, an LA-based singer/songwriter originally from Germany, has produced many original tunes, including “Lookin’ Up,” featured on the TV series Songland in 2019. On the series, Embers competed with several other songwriters to have a song chosen for a performance setlist by John Legend.

Here, Embers covers a 1967 classic by one of his musical heroes, Stevie Wonder: “For Once In My Life” (2019). The modulation is at 2:05.

Let’s Give Up (from “Portlandia”)

As its final season reached its end, the music-packed TV comedy Portlandia featured the tune “Let’s Give Up” (2017). The lightweight pop feel of the track is completely out of character for the personal musical style of vocalist Carrie Brownstein, who’s spent much of the past 25 years as a vocalist and guitarist for the punk-tinged indie rock band Sleater-Kinney. But it’s 100% on-brand for the series, which saw both Brownstein and her vocalist/multi-instrumentalist co-star Fred Armisen lightheartedly hop from genre to genre throughout.

From Stereogum‘s review: “The song flips through a series of major topics, like global warming and trying to tune out the news, before taking on the numbing convenience of social media and binge-watching TV.” Portlandia’s final seasons weren’t among its best overall, but you’d never know it from this glittery, cutting satire.

Starting in F# minor (the track starts at the 0:28 mark), the kicky funk/pop tune modulates up to G# minor for the chorus at 1:02, reverting to F# minor for verse 2 at 1:19.