Tag: 2010s

Josh Groban | Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving to the MotD community! We on the admin team are grateful for your continued support of the page. Today, we feature Josh Groban‘s “Thankful” (2017), which features a key change at 3:42. Tomorrow we begin our holiday season at MotD, extending through December 25. If you come across any key changes as you listen to your favorite holiday albums, please share them!!

Fitz + the Tantrums | L.O.V.

According to AllMusic, LA-based Fitz & The Tantrums plays a “hooky, danceable brand of pop infused with retro soul and ’80s new wave influences.” The band is probably best known for its 2013 single “Out of My League.”

“L.O.V.,” a track submitted by MotD frequent flyer JB, was released on the band’s 2010 debut album. After verses in D minor and choruses in C major, the groove drops out (at first) for a largely instrumental break which alternates between Ab major and Bb major (a bVII major -> I major vamp) from 2:00 to 2:31.

Vulfpeck | Outro

Another suggestion from R&B/funk fan Aaron Martin: From Jambands.com‘s review of the keyboard-driven funk quartet, Vulfpeck: the Ann Arbor, Michigan group features “a rhythm section in the vein of The Meters…without much in the way of press or blog buzz, the band has built a growing cult thanks to hook-driven, toe-tapping, laid back jams recorded with an analog sheen and performed by a band that is, as one commenter put it, ‘so deep in the pocket, they just found your grandfather’s watch.'”

Hard to say if the many modulations on 2014’s “Outro” were created by the musicians, recording engineers, or a combination, but we can’t argue with the result. One thing’s for sure: this is the best-sounding spinet piano in recent history.

Zedd + Kehlani | Good Thing

American singer, songwriter, and dancer Kehlani is a familiar fixture on the US R&B and HipHop charts. In 2016, she was nominated for the Best Urban Contemporary Album Grammy for You Should Be Here. Her 2019 track, “Good Thing,” a collaboration with German/Russian producer Zedd, charted worldwide, including Australia, Canada, Belgium, Singapore, and the US.

Built around a relentless 12/8, the tune modulates after a grand pause between 3:40 to 3:50. The music in the video starts at 0:45.

Jacob Collier | All Night Long

Vocalist/arranger/multi-instrumentalist and overall musical wunderkind Jacob Collier released a cover of Lionel Richie‘s 1983 hit “All Night Long” this month, featuring a cappella legends TAKE 6 and the cutting-edge Metropole Orkest.

Starting in F major, a bridge at 3:16 lands us in Ab major at 3:54; lastly, we transition to A major at 5:58. But modulation is really the very least of the special effects here. The rollercoaster bridge, saturated with quick key-of-the-moment progressions and exotic harmonic tensions, illustrates Collier’s any tone/any time practice (not just those in a diatonic scale). The sheer variety of the lush arrangement is striking — and worth every second of this seven-minute listen.