Tag: 2010s

Bill Wurtz | Mount St. Helens Is About to Blow Up

“(Bill) Wurtz’s unique combination of absurd, surreal and non-sequitur lyrics and smooth jazz/pop/easy listening makes him quite difficult to classify as an artist, and I’m pretty sure he’s OK with that,” (TheProgressiveAspect.net). “Add to that his growing number of self-produced music videos featuring random imagery, signature neon text and careful synchronisation with the music and suddenly it feels like you’re in a different universe when listening to his songs. On an initial listen to one of his tunes, the bizarre lyrics really stand out: ‘Mount St. Helens is about to Blow Up’ (2018) features the lyrics:

‘All of these business suits that I’ve just purchased
Gonna have to throw them all away
And slip into something more reasonable and dance the night away.‘

The Beatles only wrote ‘I Am the Walrus’ once, John Lennon’s attempt to confuse listeners as to the meaning of his lyrics. Jon Anderson time and time again wrote faux-mystical lyrics about seasoned witches and sharp distances. But Bill Wurtz employs a different strategy, with lyrics that are grounded in reality, yet used in a non-sequitur fashion so that they resonate with nobody and everybody at the same time. You can spend hours puzzling over the patterns in his lyrics, which are generally positive but can, on a dime, evoke more unpleasant images: see ‘Outside’s’ Now I’m pregnant/With aliens. It seems that there are no rules, but Wurtz has managed to tread carefully and with precision to ensure that his lyrics are truly unpredictable and without any religious, political or any other sort of bias.”

Built in G major overall, the tune diverts to Eb major for the bridge at 0:49. At 1:12, we return to G major — a move that continues throughout, despite plenty of outright key changes and brief steps outside the key. For a much more detailed analysis of this tune’s 900-thread count fabric, we’re also including a video below from the brilliant and insanely fun theory wonk/educator Charles Cornell — very worth the time!

Say No to This (from “Hamilton”)

“I don’t mean to suggest that you’re unpatriotic if you aren’t moved by Hamilton … but in order to dislike it you’d pretty much have to dislike the American experiment,” (Vulture.com). “The conflict between independence and interdependence is not just the show’s subject but also its method: It brings the complexity of forming a union from disparate constituencies right to your ears.

It may confuse your ears, too: Few are the theatergoers who will be familiar with all of Miranda’s touchstones. I caught the verbal references to Rodgers and Hammerstein, Gilbert and Sullivan, Sondheim, West Side Story, and 1776, but other people had to point out to me the frequent hat-tips to hip-hop: Biggie Smalls, the Fugees, ‘Blame It (On the Alcohol).’ And I’m sure that historians in the audience (the show was “inspired by” Ron Chernow’s 800-page Hamilton biography) will catch references that the rest of us fail to notice. (“The world turned upside down,” a repeated phrase in a number about the Battle of Yorktown, is the name of the ballad supposedly played by Redcoat musicians upon Cornwallis’s surrender there, in 1781.) But for all its complexity — its multi-strand plotting and exploding rhyme-grenades — Hamilton is neither a challenge nor a chore. It’s just great.”

Synopses of the 2015 smash hit’s show’s plot are plentiful; suffice it to say that “Say No to This” shows the mix of rap and sung lyrics for which Hamilton is so well known. After a start in A major and a shift to the relative F# minor at 2:33, there’s a quick hop to Bb major at 3:00 before the tune settles into B major from 3:03 to the end.

Laura Mvula | Ready or Not

“Birmingham (UK)-born Laura Mvula is a soul singer-songwriter who graduated from the Birmingham Conservatoire with a degree in composition,” (National Portrait Gallery). “In 2013, she signed a multi-album record deal with Sony, and her debut album Sing To The Moon was released in 2013, reaching number nine in the UK albums chart. Guardian critic Paul Lester coined her music as ‘gospeldelia’. She won awards for Best Female Act and Best R&B or Soul Artist at the 2013 MOBO Awards. She received the 2017 Ivor Novello Award for her second album, The Dreaming Room (2016). She lists her influences as Nina Simone, Lauryn Hill and Jill Scott. In 2017, the Royal Shakespeare Company invited her to compose the music for their new production of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra.”

“It’s a bold move to cover The Delfonics’ ‘Ready or Not Here I Come (Can’t Hide from Love)’ — especially when considering The Fugees did so years ago with huge success — but British singer Laura Mvula has created a version that does it justice,” (Cool Hunting). “Mvula’s iteration modernizes the song, while remaining faithful to the original: it’s vibrant and danceable, while keeping a bit of the creepy, stalker darkness. With layer upon layer of background vocals, Mvula’s honeyed voice and delightful accent, this version takes on several different lives before its over.

Mvula’s 2016 version lacks the earthy hiphop factor of The Fugees’ 1996 smash hit cover, but keeps us on the edge of our seat from the opening seconds via some odd meters. A larger difference yet is the shifting tonality of Mvula’s version (absent from the Fugees’ version, but present in the Delfonics’ gentle, diminutive 1968 original, which features a run time of only two minutes). Mvula’s cover starts in B minor, shifts improbably to F minor at 0:30, then visits D minor at 0:52. At 1:12, we’ve returned to the opening key of B minor; the pattern continues from there, running at top intensity until the groove drops out for the unresolved ending.

Postmodern Jukebox feat. Puddles Pity Party | Royals (Lorde cover)

Scott Bradlee, the primary force behind Postmodern Jukebox, remembers working with international clown phenom Puddles (of Puddles Pity Party) over a decade ago: “I first met Puddles when I was working as the music director at Sleep No More, the immersive Off-Broadway show in NYC … Puddles was one part Andy Kaufman, one part Tom Jones … Puddles wasn’t too familiar with Postmodern Jukebox or YouTube in general at the time, but he let me know in his own way that he was happy to contribute his talents.  

Initially, I had picked ‘Mirrors’ by Justin Timberlake (I imagined him singing to his reflection), but then a new contender began climbing the charts: “Royals” by the critically-acclaimed New Zealand singer/songwriter Lorde. It was almost too perfect: a song written by a 16 year old girl about being an outsider, sung by a giant sad clown.  There was irony in the title — sure — but beyond that, Puddles was the perfect character to convey this message; after all, he was the ultimate outsider … In some ways, Puddles was made for the modern Internet age. He’s a reflection of all of our loneliness and confusion in a world that sometimes seems to have grown increasingly lonely and confusing. At the same time, he reminds us that there is greatness inside of each of us, and we needn’t be afraid to show it off.”

Unlike Lorde’s original, Puddles/PMJ’s 2013 cover features a key change. After a short bridge at 2:55, a shift from Bb to C hits for the final chorus — all the more striking because it’s not quite complete, cutting off before the final line of lyrics and leaving an unresolved bVII chord ringing in our ears.

Eitan Kenner | Call Me Maybe

“Eitan Kenner is an award-winning keyboardist, composer, and music producer,” (Nord.com). “Born in Tel Aviv, Eitan began studying classical piano at the age of 6. After dropping out early from Jazz high school, he attended and graduated from Berklee College of Music before relocating to New York City. A versatile musician described as a musical wizard, Eitan has become one of the leading young forces both as a band leader of a highly praised genre-bending project named Kenner and as an in-demand sideman in the NYC Jazz scene.”

Kenner’s 2013 cover of the Carly Rae Jepsen’s 2011 hit “Call Me Maybe,” written by Jepsen, Josh Ramsay, and Tavish Crowe, is an intriguing instrumental expansion on the original track. Filmed on and around the Berklee College of Music campus in Boston, the video focuses on the lighter side of life at a college centered around music study. Starting in G major, the track goes through a few transformations along the way, including a prog rock interlude that transports the tonality up a whole step to A major at 2:23.

Free Nationals feat. Syd | Shibuya

“Stepping out of Anderson .Paak’s shadow would be a difficult feat for anyone,” (The Standard). “Thankfully for the Free Nationals — the LA prog-soul quartet who’ve backed the rapper and singer for years — they’re some of the most sublime musicians in the game, with a handy knack for laying down perfect hip-hop, R&B, and funk-inflected jams. Their long-teased self-titled debut features a host of guest stars, including .Paak himself, but sees them approach things at their own speed.”

… “Shibuya” (2019) boasts the talents of The Internet’s Syd on vocals,” (Stereogum). “It’s a smooth, sensual, characteristically groovy ode to staying in bed with your romantic partner on the weekend: “You should stay until Saturday / ‘Cause you ain’t gotta work tomorrow anyway / Do you babe / Sweet Saturdays/ I got you all to myself on Saturdays.”

Starting in B minor, “Shibuya” shifts to an alterating C major/Eb major vamp during the chorus, first heard between 0:41 – 1:02, before returning to the original key for the next verse.

Young Gun Silver Fox | Midnight in Richmond

“Soulful pop-rock combo Young Gun Silver Fox … the brainchild of British singer/musician Andy Platt and prolific London-based American expatriate producer and multi-instrumentalist Shawn Lee, the project first came together in 2012,” (CBS). “Both men already had well established careers, with Platt fronting the acclaimed soul-pop group Mamas Gun that he had co-founded, while Lee has put out dozens of albums and break records since he began his professional career in the ’90s … Drawn to each other by their mutual love for the warmth and melodicism of ’70s pop, soul and rock — Steely Dan, Hall & Oates, and latter-era Bill Withers were touchstones — the two talented musicians began working on original material … YGSF showcased their knack for crafting immaculately produced, breezy soul-pop confections driven by taut drum grooves and Fender Rhodes electric piano licks that wouldn’t have sounded out of place on AM radio during the late ’70s.”

The duo’s music is “timeless in one sense, while also referencing a very particular era,” (Grammy.com). “Over four albums, YGSF reflect ‘an apex of analog record-making’ that occurred between 1977-1982. ‘One of the things that was unusual about that whole West Coast scene was that you had these really talented people, but they all worked together in different capacities. One day they were working on a Michael Jackson record and another day they were doing their own record — or maybe sometimes the same day,’ says YGSF co-founder Shawn Lee, an American multi-instrumentalist with credits the length of some of his idols. ‘That’s why the music sounds so money, because everybody was at the height of their powers. Everybody had craft.'”

Released in 2018 on the album AM Waves, “Midnight in Richmond” starts in A major with a keyboard hook. 1:23 – 1:40 brings a short bridge in the closely-related key of B minor before the next chorus returns us to A major. Between 2:12 and 2:28, we head into another short bridge — this one in D major but leaning into its relative B minor at times. The sections alternate to the end as the hook continues to haunt the choruses.

Mama’s Gun | Cheap Hotel

“Cheap Hotel (2014) is UK band Mama’s Gun third album,” (Soul&Jazz&Funk). “The Andy Platts-fronted outfit debuted with Routes To Riches and its pleasing, soul-slanted pop won underground acclaim, though the set went to 3 in the Japanese album charts! The band’s second LP, The Life And Soul, was (as the name might imply) a much more soulful affair and one of the tracks, ‘Pots Of Gold’ won the affection of real soul fans worldwide. For Cheap Hotel, the band … have reunited with their first producer – Julian Simmons (who’s recently worked with Ed Sheeran and the Guillemots) and not surprisingly the overall sound of the set reverts back to a poppier flavor, albeit a very classy kind of pop with, yes, a touch of soul still about it.

Group leader Platts, we’re told, has eclectic tastes. He cites Motown and funk as amongst his formative influences, but he admits to a huge passion for ELO (Electric Light Orchestra) — and it’s that Brummie based outfit’s sound that dominates Cheap Hotel … Dip in almost anywhere here and you’ll be reminded of ELO – maybe garnished with a hint of the Beatles or the sounds of a little gentleman called Prince, but it’s almost all that slick, polished ELO pop sound … Cheap Hotel is a great pop album with just a touch of soul about it.”

The title track begins like a particularly funky day on Sesame Street, complete with a hook doubled between whistles and a tinny toy xylophone. But after the verse starts at 0:18, occasional extra beats and a Prince-like high lead vocal on the chorus confirm that this isn’t a theme from a children’s TV show. At 0:53, the second verse brings an upward half-step key change, but at 1:09, the tonality deflates back to the original key. It’s tempting to wait for another key change at some point during the tune, but other than some quick shifts during an instrumental break (1:29 – 1:53), it never arrives!