Tag: 2020s

Sure Fire Soul Ensemble | La Fachada

“If you are a fan of the organ (and we know you are), gritty funk, and beautiful original soundtracks, these guys are for you,” (Cole Mine Records). “The SFSE is a heavy, original, instrumental soul band based out of San Diego, CA that released their debut self-titled album on Colemine Records in June of 2015.”

“The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble rock an instrumental style of soul and funk with a long history, drawing upon contemporaries like Budos Band and El Michels Affair, then going back through a lineage that includes Poets of Rhythm, The Meters, and The Bar-Kays … It’s a gritty and raw style of funk …” (Scratched Vinyl). “SFSE is a large group, with three percussionists, three horn players, keyboards, bass, guitar, and drums, which gives them a nice full sound. Of course, it only makes sense to rock a group this big if you can be tight enough to make it worth it … SFSE lay(s) down grooves that will have you bobbing your head and making stank face …”

The SFSE’s 2022 track “La Fachada” begins in Bb minor, shifts to a strings tremolo feature section in Gb major at 0:28, and then drops into a horns-driven section built on a spicy Cb augmented chord at 0:50. These sections alternate until a bridge section in C major appears (1:59 – 2:20) before returning to the regular rotation.

David Lanz | Valentine Hill

American pianist and composer David Lanz has released dozens of albums, and this is the title track from his latest record, which came out last February. It begins in D minor, modulates very briefly up to Eb at 1:33, and returns to D minor at 1:42. There is a return to Eb at 2:18, followed by a shift to G minor at 2:28 and a final return to D minor at 2:38.

Building Momentum (from “How To Dance In Ohio”)

Composer Jacob Yandura and lyricist/bookwriter Rebekah Greer Melocik adapted the 2015 HBO documentary How To Dance in Ohio into a musical of the same name, which premiered on Broadway late last year. The story follows a group of autistic teenagers as they prepare to attend their first spring formal. It was the first Broadway show to cast autistic characters with autistic actors. A UK production is planned for next year.

“Building Momentum” comes near the end of the show. It begins in Ab, shifts up to A at 1:04, and modulates again to Bb at 2:05.

Third Reprise | Somewhere That’s Green (from “Little Shop of Horrors” feat. Sarah Hyland + Andrew Barth Feldman)

Third Reprise, a band founded by Daniel Rudin to cover musical theatre showtunes, recently released a funk arrangement of “Somewhere That’s Green” from the 1986 musical Little Shop of Horrors by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman. “The key to Third Reprise’s early success,” the group’s website says, “has been pairing the virtuosic, luminous artistry of the best singers and instrumentalists in NYC with a highly specific body of songs that mean a lot to people, while never losing the joy and sense of humor that’s core to the concept of a musical theater cover band.”

Sarah Hyland and Andrew Barth Feldman are currently playing the leads in a revival of the show running Off-Broadway in New York. The track starts in C and shifts up to Eb for the second verse at 0:40. There is another modulation up a step to F at 1:32.

Lizzo | 2 Be Loved (Am I Ready)

“(2019’s) Cuz I Love You (was) an album that drastically shifted Lizzo’s career,” (The Guardian). “It turned the lauded leftfield hip-hop artist into an inescapable part of the mainstream pop landscape, spawning one TikTok-boosted hit after another. The twin challenges of coping with sudden success and deciding what to do next evidently hung heavy. There’s a lot of stuff on Special (2022) about healing – for Lizzo this involves ‘twerking and making smoothies’ – while, by her account, she wrote 170 songs before whittling them down to these 12.

The results are impressively varied. The world hardly wants for 21st-century disco pastiches, but “About Damn Time” is a spectacularly good example – buoyed by a Nile Rodgers-esque guitar line, it sounds like the greatest Chic track Chic never recorded … What Lizzo has, and in abundance, is personality, a rarer commodity than it should be in pop. Indeed, she has so much of it that she’s capable of transforming flimsy material into something else. In anyone else’s hands, the synthy, new wave-ish pop of ‘2 Be Loved (Am I Ready)’ … might sound boilerplate. But more often than not, the music is built to match the woman behind it … “

After a start in C major, the track’s dense percussion suddenly shifts to the background for a vocal break at 2:02. The groove returns in full at 2:15 as a key change to D major kicks in.

Sabrina Carpenter | Please Please Please

“Sabrina Carpenter was recently released from Swift’s Eras tour juggernaut, having supported the superstar on her dates in Latin America, Australia and Singapore … (The Guardian). “(Her) career is already a decade long, though she only turns 25 next week … Carpenter signed a five-album record deal when she was 12 with the Disney-owned Hollywood Records. From 2014 to 2017, she also starred in the Disney Channel comedy Girl Meets World, while steadily releasing music … After opening for Ariana Grande and the Vamps on their 2017 tours, and a stint as the lead in Mean Girls on Broadway (cut short by the pandemic), Carpenter signed with Universal Music Group’s Island Records in 2021.”

“Please Please Please” was released in June 2024. Although the tune has a lightweight feel overall, the lyrics warn against the danger of ignoring romantic red flags (this live performance is a “clean” version; the original version amps up the red flag quotient yet further!) Built in A major overall, a single verse shifts to C major (1:30 – 1:49). The closing section, an oddly-placed bridge, starts at 2:25.

Tamsin Elliott | Emerging/Full Squirrel

“Tamsin is a folk musician, composer and film-maker based in Bristol, UK,” (TamsinElliott.co.uk). “With roots in the dance tunes of the British Isles, her interests and playing styles extend to European and Middle Eastern musics as well as experimental and ambient sounds. Her ‘beautiful, filmic compositions for accordion, harp, whistle, and voice’ (The Guardian) are rooted in tradition, whilst pushing boundaries and exploring minimalist, neo-classical, sound art and other non-traditional formats. 

Her debut solo album Frey (2022), which features the playing of Sid Goldsmith and Rowan Rheingans … explores themes of limbo, pain, healing and acceptance, reflecting on the microcosm of her personal experience of chronic illness alongside wider themes of societal disconnection and environmental grief. ‘One of the most accomplished debut albums we’ve heard in a long time… the influence of tradition pulses through every track,’ (Tradfolk).”

After an extended rubato intro in A minor, an accelerated waltz section begins at 1:48. A shift to A major begins at 2:08, returning to A minor at 2:25. More transitions continue from there.

The Song That Goes Like This (from “Spamalot”)

“Would anyone have thought years ago that one of Broadway’s hits would be based on a wild and wacky Monty Python movie? Don’t be silly,” (TalkinBroadway). “On second thought, do. That’s what it’s all about … Certainly both fans and foes of big (meaning very big) Broadway musicals will relate to references to their excesses. ‘The Song That Goes Like This’ … mercilessly mock(s) de rigueur big, dare-I-say-pretentious, bombastic love ballads designed in their pre-fab way to press the emotional buttons and win applause … skewer(ing) the genre while illustrating and recreating every by-the-numbers recyclable cliche (‘I’ll sing it in your face/ While we both embrace/ And then we change the key’ … ).

Broadway can stand a self-inflicted piercing as sharp as one from the sword of a Round Table Arthurian … But just in case you’re distracted by just the jests and jousts, even in the CD’s lyric booklet it is pointed out that in the overblown key-changing ‘The Song That Goes Like This,’ there’s a character dramatically coming downstage on a boat and a chandelier descends! But it’s all for an evening’s amusement …” With music by John Du Prez and original Monty Python’s Flying Circus cast member Eric Idle, combined with lyrics by Idle, the musical debuted on Broadway in 2005 and saw a Broadway revival in 2023, with many national tours in the interim.

As the intro leads into the verse at 0:09, the first key change drops down two whole steps. At 1:20, we hear another modulation (this time up a whole step), duly announced beforehand in the lyrics. 2:02 and 2:24 continue the trend with more upward whole step shifts.