Tag: pop

Laura Mvula | I’m Still Waiting

“The word ‘comeback’ is overused, but in Laura Mvula‘s case, it really does hold true,” (NME). “Though her impressive second album, 2016’s The Dreaming Room, earned her MOBO (the UK’s Musician of Black Origin award) and Mercury Prize nominations plus an Ivor Novello award, she was unceremoniously dropped by RCA Records six months after it came out. The supremely talented Birmingham-born musician later revealed that she received the bad news in a forwarded seven-line email.

Having dusted herself off – writing the music for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 2017 production of Antony & Cleopatra must have helped – Mvula is back on a new label, Atlantic, with an overhauled sound. Where her 2013 debut Sing to the Moon largely blended soul with orchestral pop and The Dreaming Room introduced a touch of funk and disco to the mix, Mvula has called Pink Noise (2021) an album ‘made with warm sunset tones of the ’80s’. She isn’t overselling it.”

“I’m Still Waiting,” was first a #1 UK hit released by Diana Ross on her 1971 album Everything is Everything. Mvula’s cover starts in C major; the second half of the first verse features an unprepared modulation at 0:18, settling into Eb major at for the duration. With an accompaniment full of sighing pauses and comprised only of keyboards and feathery layers of backing vocals, the focus falls all that more squarely on the storytelling of Mvula’s poised lead vocal.

Ross’ original, in Eb major, features no key changes and a gentle but more consistent groove throughout.

The Lemon Twigs | They Don’t Know How to Fall In Place

“Child actors turned gifted multi-instrumentalists, Long Island brothers Brian and Michael D’Addario formed The Lemon Twigs in their mid-teens,” (LouderSound). “Flamboyantly dressed purveyors of Baroque pop, power-pop and glam, they swap duties across guitars, drums, lead vocals, and more … Todd Rundgren, Justin Hawkins (The Darkness) and My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way are among their fans.” 

“Musical pastiche can be dangerous,” (The Guardian). “When you go beyond having influences to embodying those influences, artists can easily slip into self-parody. You need spectacularly good songs to pull it off … The songwriting never dips below classic … in an age of copyright lawsuits, there are still so many new and perfect songs waiting to be written. In love with the past but making the present so bright, the Lemon Twigs are, in the end, timeless.”

“They Don’t Know How to Fall In Place,” from the duo’s fifth album A Dream is All We Know (2024), settles into F major for its first verse. At 0:35, we’re led through a rapid cascade which finally gravitates to the terra firma of B major. 1:03 brings an emphatic C7 chord, dropping us back into the next verse in F major. The bridge brings some more harmonic shifts before returning us to the main form.

Sagittarius | My World Fell Down

Sagittarius was the “sunshine pop” pet project of songwriter and producer Gary Usher. He was a co-writer of some well-known Beach Boys songs, such as “In My Room” and “409.” He produced the English duo Chad & Jeremy, and later, the group Peanut Butter Conspiracy. Sagittarius released just two albums, Present Tense and The Blue Marble. Sagittarius wasn’t a band as such; its members were studio pros along for the ride, among them Beach Boy Bruce Johnston, his Bruce and Terry partner Terry Melcher, and Glen Campbell. Producer Curt Boettcher was involved with much of the material, although not on this track.

AllMusic describes the song “My World Fell Down” as “totally enthralling”. The lead vocal is by a well-disguised Glen Campbell. The orchestration owes much to the Beach Boys recordings of the Pet Sounds era — the bouncy chorus is awfully close to “Good Vibrations,” and the drum fills could have been copped from “God Only Knows” (in fact, Hal Blaine in both cases!). The song, written by John Carter and Geoff Stephens, was first recorded by the English band The Ivy League. Sagittarius’ single version, released in 1967, reached #70 on the Billboard chart.

After an intro in G# major, the verse shifts to G# minor, then to F# major at 0:25 for the chorus. More shifts continue throughout. A short passage of musique concrète (or psychedelia, if you will) begins at 1:48. Unusually, that snippet appears on the single edit only; it was replaced in the LP edit by an instrumental passage. The next section feels like a direct appropriation from “Good Vibrations”: a subdued vocal passage, to contrast with the ebullient chorus that follows. A keyboard coda takes us full circle to where we began in G# major.

Melissa Manchester + Kenny Loggins | Whenever I Call You Friend

“’Whenever I Call You Friend’ is a song written by Kenny Loggins and Melissa Manchester, which Loggins recorded as a duet with Stevie Nicks for his 1978 album Nightwatch,” (MelissaManchester.com). “‘Kenny and I kept meeting each other at award shows, and he asked if I wanted to write with him, and we met up and we knocked it out. It was great. As a writer, he knows what he wants. I’d rather be in a room with someone like that than not.’

When first released, (co-lead vocalist and Fleetwood Mac frontwoman) Stevie Nicks was not credited on the original 45 single, so this was officially considered Loggins’ first solo Top 40 hit.” The tune reached #5 on the Billboard Hot 100.

A brief a cappella intro, completely different from that of the original 1978 version, unexpectedly jumps up two whole steps at 0:16 before the start of the first verse. The tune’s winding path through many modulations is still in place; the key eventually shifts a full perfect fourth overall from the 0:16 mark to the end. A new key change up a half step also makes a prominent appearance at the 3:20 mark. Manchester seems to have the time of her life performing with her co-writer!

Many thanks to Todd B. for bringing this gorgeous cover to our attention — his first contribution to MotD!

Susan Boyle | I Dreamed a Dream

Scottish singer Susan Boyle rose to fame as a contestant on the third season of the reality singing competition Britain’s Got Talent singing “I Dreamed a Dream” from the blockbuster musical Les Miserables. Her debut album of the same name, released in 2009, quickly became the UK’s best-selling album of all time, and with over 10 million copies sold is now one of the best-selling records of the 21st century. Boyle has gone on to release seven additional albums.

The tune begins in Eb and dramatically modulates up a whole step to F at 1:44.

The Original Caste | One Tin Soldier (Theme from “Billy Jack”)

“Released in 1969, ‘One Tin Soldier’ became a popular song during the Vietnam War and was often heard as an anti-war anthem,” (CountryThangDaily). “It was first recorded by the Canadian pop group The Original Caste and was later on recorded by various artists,” including the band Coven.

“Interestingly, the song charted every year from 1969 to 1974 on various charts, not only in the United States but also in Canada. It went to #6 on the RPM Magazine charts … and peaked at #34 on the American pop charts in early 1970. The song was even a bigger Adult Contemporary hit, reaching #25 in the United States and #5 in Canada.”

The story-based song features a gentle start and a gradual build which is eventually led by a rich winds section in addition to the traditional rock instrumentation. A half-step modulation kicks in at 1:39. Many thanks to our regular contributor Rob P. for this submission!

Dream Street | I Say Yeah

“I Say Yeah” is featured on the eponymous 2000 debut album by the American boyband Dream Street. The group, which originally formed in 1999 and broke up in 2002, reunited last year and released a single this past June. It is unclear if or when they will release another full album.

This track begins in D and modulates up to E at 2:14.

The Shangri-Las | Leader of the Pack

“Mary Weiss, who in 1964 was the lead singer of the Shangri-Las’ No. 1 hit, ‘Leader of the Pack,’ extracting every ounce of passion and pathos available in a three-minute adolescent soap opera, died last week at her home in Palm Springs, CA. She was 75.” (New York Times).

“‘Leader of the Pack,’ the Shangri-Las’ second and biggest hit, was narrated by a young woman who falls in love with a motorcycle-riding tough guy without her parents’ approval — ‘They told me he was bad/But I knew he was sad’ — and is then left bereft when he dies in a road accident on a rainy night. Produced and co-written by Shadow Morton, the single featured call-and-response vocals, full-tilt teenage angst and motorcycle sound effects. It was excessive and melodramatic, requiring acting as much as singing, but Ms. Weiss sold it with her yearning performance. She was just 15 when it topped the charts.’

After a dialog intro and the start of the iconic heartbeat groove in a detuned Db major at 0:30, there’s a shift to the relative minor for the spoken bridge at 1:31. The next verse starts in D major at 1:47.

Mr. Mister | Broken Wings

“If you’re looking for reasons to make fun of ’80s pop music — the fashion, the keyboards, the blaring guitar leads, the almost disarmingly terrible band names — then (Richard) Page’s band Mr. Mister makes for a great target,” (Stereogum). “Mr. Mister didn’t rock. They made ultra-produced, vaguely worded expensive-digital-studio music, and they embodied a moment when that was what pop radio wanted.” After working with Andy Gibb, REO Speedwagon, Amy Grant, Al Jarreau, Neil Diamond and DeBarge, “around the time Mr. Mister got together, Page turned down some big job offers … he claims that he was recruited for lead-singer roles in some bigger bands — replacing Bobby Kimball in Toto, replacing Peter Cetera in Chicago. He turned both gigs down, and he may have regretted it” — perhaps not surprising, as Mr. Mister wouldn’t break big until the release of its second album, Welcome to the Real World (1985).

Regarding the album’s lead single, “Broken Wings:” Stereogum continues: “(the) level of drama is absurd, almost fantastical, and it pulls it off … The song is all ominous churn, and it never really kicks in. Instead, it captures a state of sustained anticipation. The synths drone and sigh. The guitars whine and howl. The bassline mutters dejectedly to itself. Little funk-guitar ripples glide across the surface. Even when the drums come thudding in, they’re off-kilter, never quite locked-in. ‘Broken Wings’ works as a five-minute digital gasp. It’s like the whole song is holding its breath, waiting to see if the whole ‘take these broken wings’ line is going to save this relationship.”

Central to that ominous churn is the use of sus2 chords, which keep the listener on the edge of her seat while somewhat obscuring the song’s tonality; all of the chords appearing before the 1:04 mark (the intro and verse 1) are sus2 chords. Sus2 chords were all over pop music during the 1980s, but “Broken Wings” is a particularly good example of the sound. After a start in G# minor, there’s a brief change of weather during the instrumental bridge from 2:31 – 3:10, when the keys of F# minor and its relative A major alternate. Unusually, this is a modulation which is more noticeable as it ends than when it begins, likely affected by the sudden change in texture as we move to a new verse (featuring yet more spartan sus2 chords)! All of the complex songcraft and meticulous production paid off — the tune reached #1 for two weeks and has become a true classic of its era.

Will Gittens & Bren’nae | I Wanna Dance With Somebody

Whitney Houston’s classic, originally recorded in 1987, is covered here by singer/songwriters Will Gittens and Bren’nae. Gittens, who boasts 60 million views on YouTube, grew up in Nashville and graduated from Berklee College of Music. Drawing his inspiration from Stevie Wonder, Prince, Michael Jackson and others, Gittens has released two albums of acoustic covers. Bren’nae Debarge was a contestant in season 8 of the NBC reality series The Voice.

The track begins in Eb and modulates up a step to F at 2:47.