“I Wanna Get Better,” released in 2014, was the debut single of the indie band Bleachers, fronted by Jack Abramoff. ” [I see this song as] the story of my existence so far and a lot of the things I struggled with,” Abramoff said in an interview with Rolling Stone. “A lot of things on the album, including this song, are about loss…It feels joyous, but for me it’s very desperate.”
Abramoff recorded all the instruments himself in addition to singing the lead vocal. The track was critically acclaimed and remains the group’s #1 song. It begins in E and modulates very briefly up a step to F# major at 1:52 before returning to E at 2:02.
Goodnight Goodbye is a progressive indie band comprised of three brothers: Sam, Joe and Nate Woollard. The group has over 22K monthly listeners on Spotify, and count The Beatles, ABBA, Fleetwood Mac, and Prince among their influences. “Dad Dancing” is the lead track on their 2020 EP Rose Garden, and modulates from D up to E at 2:53.
“It has been a challenge keeping up with Portland, Oregon’s Blitzen Trapper over the past two decades,” (American Songwriter). “From their indie rock beginnings through a catalog that includes twisted folk, laid-back West Coast vibes, art-pop, country-tinged sounds, a rock opera and even a children’s album — all with a handful of label changes thrown in — it has been a head-spinning yet never boring ride.” Their album Holy Smokes Future Jokes was released in 2020.
Contributor Galen C., who unearthed this track for us, adds: “Blitzen Trapper has blended genres like rock, folk, blues, country, and psychedelia. Their genre bending is on full display with this song, ‘Don’t Let Me Run,’ which takes the listener for a spin as the song switches style and key from folk-rock to a slight jazz vibe.
At 2:00 the song switches from F major to A# minor for a few seconds; around 2:06 the key changes to G# minor; finally, at 2:11, there’s another shift to E minor, where it remains for the rest of the song.”
Switchfoot, a Grammy-winning band based in San Diego, CA, have released twelve studio albums. “Hometown Christmas,” which also features the rock band Needtobreathe, is the final track on the group’s first Christmas record, This is Our Christmas Album, which was released last month. The tune begins in C, modulates up to D at 1:59, and returns to C at 2:44.
“Julian Lennon achieved stardom with ‘Valotte’ and ‘Too Late for Goodbyes,’ a pair of Billboard Top Ten hits from the mid-’80s,” (AllMusic). “At that point, the tragic death of Julian’s father John was still fresh in public consciousness and, from a certain angle, the son resembled the parent: the piano ballad recalled such John classics as ‘Imagine.’ As Julian Lennon’s career progressed, such Beatles comparisons didn’t disappear, but they did fade as Lennon built a career as a classicist pop/rocker.”
“Jude is Julian Lennon’s seventh studio album, and his first album of new material in over ten years,” (Spill Magazine). His last album, the brilliant Everything Changes, noted a change in Lennon’s music, which became more complicated, and grappling with a great many internal and external issues lyrically. Jude is the same. This is a much more mature, content, and reflective Julian Lennon.”
For all of the adjectives “Breathe” might conjure up, “Beatle-esque” likely wouldn’t make most listeners’ top 10; Lennon seems to have broken away from his father’s songwriting palette in favor of some sonic territory of his own.
The 2022 track features verses built on a relentless barrage of short melodic phrases. The phrases are only three or four words each, employing only a few repeating melodic shapes. Starting in C# minor, the spare accompaniment often uses colorless suspended chords, allowing Lennon’s prominently-mixed lead vocal to fill in the blanks. At 0:43, the pre-chorus alternates between C major and C minor. After pacing back and forth in a small space for what seems like an eternity, the track is transformed at the chorus (reverting to C# minor at 1:12) by the introduction of a insistent percussion track, longer phrases with more space between them, and finally — “breathe.”
“Brutal Love” is the lead track on the 2012 album ¡Tré!, the third and final installment of a series released by the American rock band Green Day (who today make their MotD debut.) According to Billboard, the track “marries glam-rock, doo-wop and soul music. Part of the melody is lifted from Sam Cooke’s 1962 hit “Bring It On Home To Me,” leading him to be credited as a co-writer.
The song begins in Ab and modulates up to A coming out of the second bridge at 3:45.
Jean Claude and the Eclairs is a Kansas City-based indie/ pop alternative band that has been active since 2018. The group, which includes Garrison Krotz, Quinn Maetzold, Ryan Pollock and Cooper Scott, will release its first EP next month. “Crazy For You” was released in 2018, and modulates from Ab up a half step to A at 2:30.
“An homage to the surf music the Beach Boys helped make so popular, this song is certainly one directly from the depths of Gin Blossom Jesse Valenzuela’s heart,” (Songfacts). “Jesse’s original role with the Gin Blossoms was as lead singer. He switched to guitar with the introduction of vocalist Robin Wilson to the band. Yet he was – and is – one of the band’s most prolific songwriters. While some artists may have a rough time of it allowing someone else to sing their words when they themselves are perfectly capable of doing it, Jesse says it doesn’t bother him.”
InnerEarMedia‘s review of the band’s 2006 album Major Lodge Victory has this to say about “California Sun,” the album’s closing track: “The easy-to-the-ears pop of the Gin Blossoms is like a warm blanket surrounding you and keeping you safe. That blanket only gets warmed more by ‘California Sun’ as the sweet pop song brings this great album to an appropriate end. Gin Blossoms leave us with a folk/pop song that could’ve come straight from the 70s (Eagles, America, etc.) and it makes you smile.”
Starting in E major, a bridge at 2:03 begins with a vocal section but then settles into a guitar feature. We’re led into a key change at 2:49 with an emphatic, extended V chord in the new key of F major, complete with richly textured backing vocals echoing the Beach Boys’ style. At 3:00, the final chorus is firmly established in the new key.
“Knife Edge” is featured on Telluric, the 2016 debut album of Australian singer/songwriter Matt Corby. The title, which translates to “of the earth,” informed Corby’s songs. “It’s the concept that runs through the record,” Corby said in an interview. “The idea that through nature and human activity we are all connected.”
Reviewing the album for Paste magazine, critic Saby Reyes-Kulkarni wrote “Corby, Hume and the band (whose contributions here cannot be overstated) have come up with a fresh, resplendent take on soul music. Spiked with muted touches of rock and other intangibles, Telluric establishes Corby as far more than a genre stylist and even stamps him as a visionary to watch right out of the gate.”
The track begins in D minor and shifts downwards to B minor in the third verse at 2:44.
Owsley was born William Reese Owsley III in 1966 in Alabama. According to his website, “he was raised in a musical household; his mother was a singer and stage actress, his father the drum major for the marching band of University of Alabama, his sister a classically trained pianist and his brother a rock guitarist.”
In his early 20s, he moved to Nashville to work as a touring guitarist. At the same time, he worked on writing his own material. In seeking a record deal, he made sure to emphasize that he didn’t want a record label shifting the emphasis of his work: “I had heard the story of Tom Scholz of the band Boston recording his first album and taking it to the record company, where he told them that it was finished and they could take it or leave it. And I thought, ‘What a cool idea!’ I didn’t want anyone else coming between me and what I was trying to accomplish.” Owsley also worked as a guitarist, backing vocalist, songwriter and producer with artists including “Charlotte Church, Kenny Loggins, Amy Grant, Michael McDonald and Rodney Crowell. He also wrote and produced for many Disney stars – among them Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, and the Jonas Brothers – and went back on the road as a guitarist for Amy Grant’s touring band. He once described himself as having moved ‘not up or down in the music industry, but sideways.'” He died at the painfully early age of only 44.
After a start in C minor, the chorus for “Coming up Roses” (1999) shifts to C major at 0:29. At 0:55, verse 2 reverts to C minor. The pattern continues throughout, with strings and a catchy wordless sing-along hook joining the mix as the fade ending leads us down a Beatle-esque path.
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