Life of a Showgirl (2025) “is the 12th full-length studio album from, I guess, the biggest songwriter on the planet, Ms. Taylor Swift,” (The Needle Drop). “What can be said about Taylor Swift that has not been said a million, bajillion times already, or would even be widely agreed upon by everybody.
Continually, I find the strangest thing about Taylor to be that there is just so little agreement on her despite her immense fame and exposure. She’s almost like a Rorschach test for pop fans at this point … because not only are there just such vastly different reads of her and her music in terms of if it’s good, if it’s not, if it’s deep, if it’s shallow, so on and so forth, but often many of these takes say more about the person giving them than Taylor herself.”
Featuring her intermittent touring companion Sabrina Carpenter, “Life of a Showgirl” starts in G major. The second verse, a Sabrina Carpenter feature, shifts up to C major (1:19), but the next chorus reverts to the original key at 1:46.
“Damiano David’s … second solo single (is) ‘Born With a Broken Heart’ (2024). A soaring, synth-pop tinged offering, the new track follows ‘Silverlines’ – Damiano’s first release independent of the Eurovision-winning band (Måneskin),” (DIY Mag). “‘When I wrote this song I was getting out of a very dark place, I was feeling emotionless and I was afraid that I had lost my ability to feel things, either good or bad,’ the Italian star has shared. ‘This was happening while I was starting the most meaningful relationship of my life and the fear of not being capable or ready was big. I think the song was a way to make myself make sense of what I was feeling and look at it from a less scary prospective. I’m happy to say that today I don’t feel like this, but I think a lot of people can relate with the feeling of not being good enough.”
The track hit top 100 status in several dozen countries, but climbed to the top 5 in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Finland, Japan, Poland, and Spain. Built primarily in B major, the tune shifts up a whole step to C# major at 2:39 after a post-bridge grand pause.
“B+B Project” is a Ukrainian ensemble named for its instrumentation (button accordion and bandura, an instrument which combines qualities of the zither and the lute). “The bandura is a traditional Ukrainian instrument … the B+B Project is bringing back the popularity of this fine instrument!” (EthnoCloud). “The group was created (in) 2015. They play a diverse repertoire: original songs, cover versions, rock, classical music, dubstep, Ukrainian music, and many others … The collective has toured extensively in Ukraine and around the world.” The B&B Project is now one of the most famous instrumental groups in Ukraine.
The group released “Cheremshyna” in 2022. After beginning in A minor, there’s a shift up a full step to B minor at 1:53. At 2:27, the tune returns to the original key.
Composer/singer/songwriter Gabriel Kahane’s “To Be American” is a track from his from his 2022 album, Magnificent Bird. “Kahane both mines and interrogates nostalgia in the song, which he wrote during the roiling, national tumult of October 2020,” (Nonesuch.com). “‘It’s fitting,’ he says, ‘that a song preoccupied with the past would feature musicians who are some of my oldest friends. This song, as much as any on the album, is a showcase of my musical community.’ The elegiac anthem features an all-star band of Andrew Bird, Caroline Shaw, Punch Brothers’ Chris Thile and Paul Kowert, and percussionist Ted Poor.
Magnificent Bird, Kahane’s fifth solo LP … chronicles the final month of a year spent off the internet … Kahane revels in the tension between quiet, domestic concerns, and the roiling chaos of a nation and planet in crisis … In October 2020, the final month of his tech sabbatical, Kahane set out to write a song every day. ‘I wanted to create an aural brain scan at the end of this experiment,’ he explains, ‘and to give myself permission to write about small things, rather than trying to distill the enormity of the moment into grand statements … My internet hiatus grew out of a belief that at root, our digital devices reinforce the fiction that convenience and efficiency have intrinsic value. That has implications with respect to climate crisis, to inequality, to our (in)ability to see ourselves in each other, to build the kinds of coalitions necessary to make a more just world. I wanted to leave it all behind not as a further expression of techno-pessimism, but rather in search of a positive alternative.’
… Hailed as ‘a stunning portrait of a singular moment in America’ by Rolling Stone, the album chronicled an 8,980-mile, off-the-grid railway journey in the aftermath of the 2016 presidential election. ‘I wanted unmediated interaction with strangers, so I took that trip without my phone. Somewhere in New Mexico, I remember thinking, Wow, this is really transformative. I should do this for more than thirteen days.’”
“To Be American” begins with an intro and verse in Bb major, but shifts up to C major at 0:26; at 0:39, there’s a return to the original key. More key changes follow throughout. For all of Kahane’s skill in creating inventive textures as a classical composer, as well as his second career walking a complex line between classical and pop-adjacent contemporary music, this video sheds light further downstage — on his melody lines and lyrics.
for Steven
A video overview of Kahane’s cross-country 2016 rail journey:
“Ross Ainslie is one of Scotland’s finest traditional musicians and composers, playing pipes, whistles and cittern,” (artist website). “He is renowned for his highly acclaimed solo material, and as a skilled performer and prolific collaborator who performs regularly with bands Treacherous Orchestra, Salsa Celtica, Dougie Maclean, Ali Hutton, Jarlath Henderson, Charlie Mckerron, Tim Edey, Hamish Napier, Brighde Chaimbeul, Duncan Chisholm, India Alba and has performed with Kate Rusby, Blue Rose Code, Zakir Hussain, Trilok Gurtu, Capercaillie, Shooglenifty, Carl Barat, Papon, Karsh Kale, Flook, Breabach, Soumik Datta and Patsy Reid.
Born in Perthshire in 1983, Ross began his career as a member of the Perth and District Pipe Band before joining the Vale of Atholl Pipe Band, where he was mentored by piper Gordon Duncan. Hugely influenced by Gordon’s fearlessly innovative spirit and groundbreaking compositions, Ross began exploring his own abilities as a composer and writing his own tunes; in 2002 he was a finalist in the prestigious BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year competition. Ross has six solo albums to date: Wide Open (2013), Remembering (2015), Sanctuary (2017), Vana (2020), Live in the Gorbals (2022) and Pool (2024).“
“Threads,” from the 2022 album Live in the Gorbals, begins in D minor but shifts to C dorian by the 0:46 mark — followed by several other harmonic shifts, further enhanced with some metric shifts as well.
“Fifty (plus) years into a career that includes more than twenty solo studio albums, another ten with the band Utopia, plus production credits on albums by the Grand Funk Railroad, The Tubes, New York Dolls, Psychedelic Furs, and Meatloaf’s mega-selling multiplatinum Bat Out of Hell, among others, plus a tour with a post-Ocasek Cars, and currently touring with Adrian Belew performing an all-star tribute to the music of David Bowie, Todd Rundgren can pretty much do whatever he wants. And usually he does,” (TheFireNote). “When finally inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (in 2021) largely at the behest of his long-suffering fans, Rundgren came close to pulling a Sex Pistols-like rejection, ignoring the auspicious proceedings, leaving the producer of the online version of the Award show to pull an excerpt from a graduation speech where he offered the standard disclaimer, ‘if nominated I will not run, if elected I will not serve.’
So, here on his 24th album under his own name (Space Force, 2022), Rundgren takes the direction of his 2017 duets album, White Knight, to the next level. On that record, Rundgren wrote most all of the music with collaborators in mind, and then invited them to sing and play with him on the tracks. It worked well much of the time, especially on the single ‘Tin Foil Hat,’ written in the style of Steely Dan with guest Donald Fagen. Upping the ante for Space Force, Rundgren approached a variety of artists, some he’d worked with previously and others he’d hoped to work with, and asked them to contribute a piece of unfinished music or recording that they’d laid aside for one reason or another, offering to complete it and bring the duet to completion. The result is stylistically diverse, but with Todd, who described his role as “curator and producer” as well as performer, the album’s 12 tracks hang together fairly well, often pointing to different periods and styles in Rundgren’s long and varied musical explorations.”
“Someday,” a pop-centric collaboration between Rundgren and Australian musician Davey Lane, features quite a few metric hiccups to go along with its key changes. Starting in F major, the tune shifts to G major for its first chorus at 0:49 before returning to the original key for a short interlude and another verse at 1:08. More changes follow from there.
“Levi Schechtmann, born in 1999, is a German pianist renowned for blending classical music with modern genres like hip-hop, creating a unique fusion that has captured a global audience,” (artist website). “He began piano lessons at age seven and has since developed a reputation as an innovative performer. Levi is active on platforms like Instagram and TikTok, where he has gained nearly 600.000 followers in total, showcasing his reinterpretations of classical pieces by composers such as Bach, Liszt, and Chopin, but also his own arrangements and improvisations.
Schechtmann’s approach involves merging classical styles with elements of modern genres like hip-hop and house, a combination that has earned him numerous accolades. He has won awards at prestigious competitions, including the Steinway Competition and Hamburg Instrumental Competition, and has performed at renowned venues like Elbphilharmonie and Laeiszhalle in Hamburg and Flagey in Belgium. His popularity is driven by his ability to bridge musical genres, making classical music accessible and appealing to younger audiences through a modern, rhythm-heavy style.”
“Asturias,” released in August 2025, is built in E minor overall. At 2:05 (after a dreamy contrasting section unmarked by the unrelenting energy of the majority of the piece) there’s a shift to the relative G major just before the ending. Anyone who guesses that Schechtman might be a studio creation should also check the live version (posted below).
Many thanks to our contributor Mark B. for this distinctive submission to MotD — his third!
“Rob Harbron is a uniquely skilled player of the English concertina, described by The Guardian as a ‘concertina wizard’ and renowned for his highly individual and harmonic style of playing,” (artist website). “He is a member of Leveret (alongside Sam Sweeney and Andy Cutting), with whom he has toured extensively and released six landmark albums.
Known for his work with a wide range of artists including Jon Boden and the Remnant Kings, Emily Portman, Emma Reid, and The Full English, he has also worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company. His debut solo album Meanders was released in 2019 and was followed by a tunebook of original compositions.”
“Besinox,” from As the Days Begin to Lengthen (2024), begins in Bb major. At 1:20, a less stable middle section is announced by a prominent F minor chord. 1:53 brings a resounding shift to G major, which then falls in and out of focus a few times via compelling but fleeting harmonic sidesteps. The tune ends on a D major chord, with the key of G major clearly in effect.
“Saint Motel are a Brit-indie band trapped in the bodies of four svelte, stylish Californians,” (The Guardian). “Although when we say Brit-indie – and add that they specialise in Brit-indie-ish anthems – we’re not talking Kaiser Chiefs or Oasis as influences but rather groups like Pulp, Divine Comedy and the long-forgotten My Life Story, with a soupçon of the Smiths: indie with some glam pizzazz featuring a singer not averse to flamboyance, a suave croon and lyrics that verge on the literary.
We’re wondering how we missed them. Each of their songs announces itself with a flourish and no little élan, and there’s a light sprinkling of Caribbean rhythms, tropical flavours and lounge-jazziness throughout … their music has featured in HBO series Boardwalk Empire as well as an advert for Dewars Scotch Whiskey. Where were we? Truly, we are ashamed. To make amends, some facts: the band met in film school in Southern California, they recently played something called a Zombie Prom, and they write about everything from plastic surgery to ‘the taboo bonds of friendship within the Heaven’s Gate cult’. As frontman A/J Jackson says: ‘Many of the songs have various levels of subtext that I hope the listener will decipher with repeated listens.'”
“From 2007 to 2021, dream-pop band Saint Motelhas been making listeners move and groove to the soothing beats of their soft funk, both in person and on TikTok, where 2014 hit “My Type” went viral last year,” (Riff Magazine). “While their first album in 2012 didn’t grant them much popularity, “My Type” worked its way up various Top 40 charts around the world … An album, saintmotelvision, followed in 2016, and Saint Motel is now onto its third, The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.” The video for each of the album’s tracks has the look and feel of being part of a film soundtrack, but in this case the film doesn’t exist. After an ethereal intro and a substantial pause, “Save Me” (2021) begins in earnest at 0:28 in C major, then shifts into C minor for a brief bridge from 3:10 – 3:28.
“The Power and the Glory (1974) is, like Three Friends before it, a concept album featuring intricately woven arrangements … ” (Progrography.com). “You’ll also find quite a few ‘classic’ Gentle Giant songs … (including ‘Proclamation’) … Alternating between soft and harsh sounds, it’s an album of dreams and nightmares.
At this stage, there’s no denying that the band’s music had become, if not formulaic, at least idiosyncratic. There are the dizzying arrangements, classical excursions, heady subject matter and heavy rock all intertwined into four- and six-minute musical puzzles that are unique to Gentle Giant. I’d recommend you start with Octopus and Three Friends first, as they arrived earlier and achieved the same (or higher) highs … As the years have shown, albums about corrupt, power-hungry politicians are never out of fashion for long.”
The tune is built in D dorian until 2:07, when a huge unprepared shift to a Ab major chord drops like an anvil. But it’s not until 2:16 that we settle properly into the new key of F dorian. A few more harmonic shifts follow, but are often dwarfed by unexpected changes in meter, sudden instrumental/textural changes, imposing walls of tightly clustered vocal parts (3:25, for example), etc. As the extensive end credits of the video show, it took scores of fans of the storied UK-based prog rock band to create a cover version (2020) of this densely complex track!
From the video’s description: “This video marks the first time in 40 years that all members of Gentle Giant appear on screen and play together in a ‘virtual reunion’. Some notable contributors also make an appearance such as Jakko Jakszyk of King Crimson, Billy Sherwood of Yes, E.L.O. bassist Lee Pomeroy, Dan Reed of the Dan Reed Network, Richard Hilton of Chic, and Mikey Heppner of Priestess.”
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