The Scale: Guitar Solo

Several months ago, a reader commented that he thought the solo at the end of “The Scale” was one of Daniel’s best on Our Love to Admire, and wondered if I had any thoughts about it. You can see my mini-analysis of the song sketched out in the photo above.

As I’ve mentioned before, I believe context is everything when trying to understand the power of certain musical moments, and I think a lot of this solo’s power comes from how it contrasts with the opening guitar line, which I call the main guitar theme—it’s sketched out on the top left-hand side of the photo above.

The main guitar theme gives the feeling of a constant moving up and down, from A to E and back again, and it repeats throughout more than half the song. When I was transcribing this theme, it struck me how the rhythmic emphasis is on the first long note (the second measure of the theme), almost like the entire first measure is a “pick-up,” a feeling aided by Sam hitting the crash cymbal right on the beginning of the second measure. In this way, the main guitar theme is rhythmically disorienting, creating a forward-drive that begs for resolution. Furthermore, the main guitar theme manages to de-emphasize the tonic note (the main note of the whole song) “A”, by spending most of its time on “E” and “D”.

The guitar solo—which I’ve transcribed in the middle of the right-hand side of the photo—by contrast, creates clear, concise phrases (musical sentences), whereby the tonic note “A” is clearly heard as the goal of each of the phrases. This pairing of rhythmically stable phrases and an emphasis on the tonic note effectively provides the resolution that the main guitar theme has been begging for during most of the song. It’s a satisfying solo, and I think that’s where it gets some of its musical power.

Ok, that’s it for now. Stay tuned for another video analysis, this time of “Specialist”!

Cheers,
Meg

“The Scale”

intro

VERSE 1 (long)
0:18 I have a sequin for an eye
Pick a rose and hide my face
This is the bandit’s life
It comes and goes and them’s the breaks
Under a molten sky, beyond the road, we lie in wait
You think they know us now?
Wait ’til the stars come out
You’ll see that
1:00 Well, I made you and now I take you back
It’s too late but today I can define the lack
I made you and now I take you back
1:16-1:20 (vox out)

CHORUS
1:20 Sun, you sleep in clouds of fire
That’s all and that’s right
My sun, you sleep in clouds of fire
That’s all and that’s right

1:38-1:48 (interlude)

VERSE 2 (short)
1:48 I can still feel it when you lie
Pick a rose just to hide my face
Well, if there’s something I should know
I seek no science when there is no shape
Under a molten sky, let the days collide
Well, I made you and now I take you back
2:26-2:30 (vox out)

CHORUS
2:30 Sun, you sleep in clouds of fire
That’s all and that’s right
My sun, you sleep in clouds of fire
That’s all and that’s right

2:50 Gtr solo

Music Analysis: ‘Barricade’ [video]

Some notes from the video:

The Verse is in G major, and the Chorus is in E minor.  The modulation between the Verse and Chorus is deceptive because it goes from the V of the new key to the major version of the IV chord (which is unusual in a minor key), then to the minor version of the IV chord.  The progression is: Bmajor-Amajor-Aminor-Eminor.  The “normal” modulation would be: Bmajor-Eminor, or, Bmajor-Aminor-Eminor.  However, Interpol have added in Amajor, which gives the song an unusual sound.

Paul does a lot more with his vocal harmonies on this album than in previous albums.  In the “full speed” section (which occurs after the second and third choruses), he sings a melody, which he harmonizes with a lower, descending melody.  This vocal harmony line is interesting because it creates unusual dissonances with the melody, such as major 2nds and minor 7ths.

The opening of the song is clever, because Daniel simply repeats B to D on the guitar, so we don’t know at first which key the song is in.  B and D belong to the Gmajor, Bminor, and E(m)7 chords.  Then Carlos comes in with D down to G on the bass, at which point we know the song is in G major.  A cool way of telling us the key of the song without being too obvious about it!

That’s it for now, stay tuned for some B-side analyses, as suggested by Darko!

Love,

Meg

Music Analysis: ‘The Man I Am’ [video]

Here are a few key notes from the video for readers whose first language isn’t English:

The first section of the song, which I call the “Always” section, is made up of 7-bar phrases (each phrase starts when Paul sings “Always”).  This is interesting, because the normal phrase length is divisible by 4 (4,8,12,16).

The second section, which I call the “man I am” section, features Paul singing in octaves.  That is, he’s singing the same note in both his high and low range.  Considering the lyrics, I hear Paul singing in octaves to portray an oppressive male stereotype. This section uses 8-bar phrases. The overall form of this song is: “Always” – “man I am” – “Always” – “man I am” – coda

I just call this section the coda.  The guitar takes a lead role in the texture.  This section also uses 8-bar phrases.

The chord progression Em – G – Ebm – Gb – Ebm – Bbm – Bbm – Fsus – F is the same one that’s used in the “man I am” section.  This chord progression is very odd to say the least, and further supports my belief that Interpol is driven by the line/melody on this album; “Always Malaise” is very polyphonic (many independent melodies stacked on top of each other).  Em & G simply shift down a half step to Ebm & Gb.

The mixing is much more nuanced on this album, which made transcribing the song much more challenging.

All of The Ways: Minna’s Questions

Hi all,

Here are some thoughts in response to the questions raised by Minna in the comments section of my last post. Minna asked about:

Paul’s singing on the new record…

1. I love how much more vocal harmony and counterpoint there is on this album — I agree, Minna, Paul definitely seems to have come into his own as a vocalist (I seem to remember him saying in an interview that his side-project, Julian Plenti, had a lot to do with this). He’s really creating his own lines, independent of the other instruments, and with all the vocal harmonies and counter-melodies he’s singing, he really creates a very interesting vocal texture at times. He’s also not worried about fitting in his notes perfectly with the background harmony; that is, by sometimes *not* fitting in with the harmony, he’s allowing his vocal lines to push and pull against the other lines, which makes them sound more alive and dynamic.

Interpol’s songwriting and ways to analyze it…

2. I think maybe people are having a hard time appreciating this album because it’s extremely polyphonic, meaning each instrument creates its own independent line, and all these lines stacked on top of each other create the song. Interpol have always leaned polyphonic, but this album is their best yet, polyphonically speaking. They’re basically the Palestrina of the rock world! I’ll just add that writing polyphonic music is no easy task, and listening to it can be challenging, but, I feel, oh so gratifying. I think you hit the nail on the head there, that it’ll be more advantageous to analyze these songs in terms of how all the lines fit together, rather than thinking about their tonal makeup.

And just to address ant’s question about other bands that use “inventive songwriting”: the other bands you listed, including The Go Find (unfortunately, Spotify hasn’t launched in America yet, but I was able to hear them on YouTube!), share with Interpol a tendency to write polyphonically — as opposed to homophonically, that is, music that is mostly just chords (for example, blink182 is pretty homophonic).

Contemporary music theory…

3. Whew, that’s a hard question to answer. I think I’ll answer that one on my other blog, Meg’s New Music Blog, since it’s a quite broad topic. I’ll let you know when it’s up!

‘Summer Well’: Deception on The Fly

Hello again,

Here’s an email I received recently from Interpol fan Minna :

[Interpol’s] new record have got pretty mixed reviews from the press and I thought it would be interesting if you could analyse either Barricade of Summer Well from the upcoming record. These songs are, according to Fly Magazine, more simple and poppier songs than the rest in the record, but to me they, or Barricade at least, sound quite complex.

I definitely agree that these two songs are more complex than they might sound at first. Because time is tight right now, I’m just going to discuss “Summer Well” for now (I’ll come back to “Barricade” next post).

First of all, like many of Interpol’s songs, the form of “Summer Well” defies any “pop” associations, in that it’s not really clear what to call each of the sections (verse, chorus, etc.). Thus, I’ve decided to called them Section 1, Section 2, and “It’s Alright” — see the end of this post for my breakdown. Secondly, this song very cleverly makes it feel as if there has been a key change between Section 1 and Section 2, when actually there hasn’t. (This is something I hear Interpol doing a lot throughout this album).

The song uses all the notes of the A major scale (with the exception of a few passing chromatic notes), but because of the chords Interpol chooses, it’s hard to say exactly which key the song is in. Section 1 uses F#minor and Bminor chords, which makes it sound like the song is in the key of B minor. Then, in Section 2, we get Bminor – Amajor – C#minor – Dmajor — all chords found the key of A major (because the Amajor chord does not technically belong in the key of B minor). Similar to Section 2, in Section 3 we have Bminor – Amajor – C#minor – Dmajor/E – Dmajor. Because the bass line “circles” Dmajor (C# – E – D), and they hold Dmajor two times longer than the other chords, Section 3 seems as if it’s in D major! Lastly, the very last chord in the song is Bminor.

This is the brilliance of this song, that Interpol manages to break free of the standard rock chord progression (I IV V I, or, e.g., D G A D), liberating “Summer Well” from the need to establish one specific key, without making the song sound weird or unfamiliar. That’s no easy task! In the end, “Summer Well” is a song that hovers around the keys of B minor, A major, and D major, giving it a unique sound that Fly Magazine considered more pop-like than the other tunes on the album!

Well, I must stop here for now. Off to go dive into “Barricade”!
And look to the future for an analysis of “Always Malaise” for ant!

Love,
Meg

P.S. It’s interesting all this talk about the “new” Interpol, but I feel like we’re not going to truly hear the new Interpol until they make an album without Carlos D. I’ll be very interested to hear how their new songs sound.

“Summer Well”
0:00 Intro (keys enter 0:08)
0:12 Section 1
0:57 Section 2
1:18 “It’s alright”
1:43 Section 1
2:29 Section 2
2:51 to the end “It’s alright”

.

Insidious Rhythm in ‘Lights’

Greetings,

Well, there’s a lot that I’d like to write about “Lights,” but the transcription is taking me a bit longer than I expected, so here’s one interesting thing I’ve noticed so far:

I don’t know about you, but I thought the guitar simply repeated the same phrase (or musical “sentence”) throughout the song.  However, there are actually two guitar phrases, similar yet surprisingly different considering how inconspicuously the second one pops in.

The first guitar phrase is of course the one that starts the song: E-G/C/C/C/C-A/D/D/E/E (the slashes indicate the barline).  Thus, we have a 9-bar phrase, a pretty unconventional length in music (multiples of two being most common for phrase length).

The second guitar phrase comes in at 1:43: E-G/C/A/A/G/G/D/E.  I’ve bolded the “C” bar, because it’s in the time signature 2/4 instead of 4/4 like the rest of the song (that is, there are 2 beats in the bar instead of 4).  Thus, we basically have a 7.5-bar phrase, which is even more unusual!  This phrase also appears at 1:58, and then again towards the end (“We’d like to take the sights”), where it replaces the first phrase straight through to the end.

Restraining myself here, I’ll just point out: notice how the opening of the second guitar phrase seems to be mimicking Paul’s vocal line at the beginning of the song.  That is, Paul’s melody for “All that I see” at the beginning is E-G/C/A.  He gets to the “A” much quicker than the guitar at that point, which Daniel mimics in the second guitar phrase.

OK, back to transcribing this fascinating song!

Love to all,

Meg

Turning The Lights Back On

Hi all,

Heard “Lights” yet?  If not, definitely check it out, and get ready to hear an incredibly bold move from one of the most cohesive indie-rock bands out there.  What is apparent listening to this song is the band’s unshakable confidence in their own style.  Anyone who’s heard “Specialist” can’t deny that Interpol, starting down such a complex, original path, have hit their stride with “Lights.”  What other band is willing to spend 35 seconds (a significant amount of time, considering the average “rock” song is 4-5 minutes) on such a sparse and naked guitar melody?

I have a lot more to say on this excellent song, but I want to finish my transcription of it first!

Click here to download the Lights mp3 from the official site

Also, look for some thoughts on “The Scale” in the near future

Love,

Meg

Revised: NARC analysis (Part 5)

Hello everyone, here’s the fifth and final installment of my NARC analysis:

Coda:

If E aeolian is the “fantasy” key, then B aeolian/phrygian is the “reality” key.  In the coda we hear the protagonist calling out for his lover, implying that he his still alone, and that no “poses” or “holdings” were actually made.  Instead, B aeolian returns, and the protagonist is brought back to reality, crying out on B’s and D’s his frustration that his lover “should” be with him.

However, all is not lost, as the return to reality is undermined by the continuation of the E aeolian guitar hook, and also by the guitar’s elision at the cadence into the coda, disrupting a firm return to B.  The protagonist acknowledges these disruptions of B aeolian in his last line “you could be in my space,” singing this last word on an E, and though the other instruments cadence on B in m. 117, it is a weaker plagal cadence, and the guitars persist in the repetition of the E-minor guitar hook.  The ending of the coda therefore leaves NARC in a state of suspended conflict, with reality winning the last cadence, but fantasy having the last word.

And finally, if you’d like, click here for the full analysis in one go. A link is also available to the right for download anytime.

Until next time, yours very truly,

Meg

Revised: NARC Analysis (Part 4)

Greetings all!  Here’s Part 4 of my analysis of NARC:

Verse 3:

In the bridge, NARC moved from B to E aeolian, and there was a feeling of disorientation, evoked by a pan from left to right in the guitar, and a synth sound.  Nowhere else in the song does the music venture beyond a B-centric key, nor does such a dramatic pan occur.  Likewise, the synth sound is the only occurrence of a non-pitched artificial sound so far in the song.

As we enter Verse 3, the lyrics change, and the protagonist’s tone becomes subtly more manipulative, as in the phrases “You know me,” and “this is all right.”  By using the wrong conjugation of the verb “step” in the phrase, “We steps into the bedroom,” Banks seems to be evoking some childlike or maybe primal state; either way, the protagonist’s use of the language has altered in preparation for the “holdings” and “poses” he’s about to make with his lover.  Also, the persistent quarter notes of the vocal and guitar lines lend a creeping quality to Verse 3, as if the protagonist is being very careful and methodical.

The disorientation before Verse 3 and the change to a different key, plus the change in the lyrics, all seem to point to a change in scenery—it’s as if the protagonist is now describing his fantasy, in which he and his lover finally are together, no longer separated by the telephone wire.  But there’s something wrong with the musical backdrop of this scene, making it even more plausible that it is a fantasy, and not reality: though Verse 3 is firmly in E aeolian, Banks’ vocal line remains diatonic to B aeolian, and in m. 92 the synth keys enter on a long-sustained B, disrupting the primacy of E aeolian.

Up next, the 5th and final installment of the NARC analysis.

Until then, yours ever,

Meg

Revised: NARC Analysis (Part 3)

Happy New Year, everyone!  Here’s Part 3:

Verse 2:

However, the original guitar hook returns in m. 45, and the protagonist regains his footing as he returns to his robotic demands.  In the secure, static sonic world of the hook and B aeolian, he tells his lover exactly how she should treat him, declaring that her “history’s like fire from a busted gun,” i.e. her past experiences and knowledge have as much effect as a bullet from a broken gun; only he knows the right way to proceed.

Pre-Chorus 2 and Chorus 2:

The drama intensifies once more as the bass pulls the music back to B phrygian (m. 61), but is cut four bars short this time, returning to the chorus after the demand “don’t give up your lover tonight.”  The chorus returns and brings back with it harmonic ambiguity and cryptic statements in the lyrics.  This time, however, the desperate confusion of the end of the chorus shifts abruptly into the bridge.

Bridge:

Here the guitars move the song into a new world with an E-minor hook on beats 2 and 4.  The bass re-enters in m. 84 and establishes E aeolian.  This is in preparation for Verse 3, whose lyrics seem to indicate that the protagonist and his lover are finally making physical contact.  Four bars before the vocals come in, the rhythm guitar plays a swirling 4-note repeated pattern that gradually pans from the left channel in m. 89 all the way to the right channel in m. 92.  The movement of this pattern from ear to ear is slightly disorienting, and this disoriented feeling is further highlighted by the synth sound in mm. 91-92.

Until next time,
Meg