Field Hospitals – Everyfire
It’s all math, they assure us. Once you get the hang of musical arithmetic, you’ll be able to add and subtract to your heart’s content and write precisely the kind of music that you desire to hear. There’s nothing more than that, they say.
Of course, all the greats in any field of work study throughout their career and attempt to improve. Sure, there’s nothing wrong with peeking under the hood, seeing what wire does what when it comes to a great song.
However, don’t get your hopes up. There are plenty of courses and teachers willing to tell you why a vocal melody, for example work, and what the math is behind one that fails. Yet how many of these teachers are responsible for glorious melodies themselves? How many respectable teachers can create something as powerful and life-affirming as the music of Field Hospitals?
I suppose that I could attempt to reveal what techniques and theoretical points sit at the heart of “Everyfire.” But that would be looking past what really makes the song as powerful as it is. Sure, those melodies are beautiful, and blending those jangly guitars with the retro indie sound is clever. Still, it’s the way that emotion, the way that tension is introduced into the song, that really turns this into a winner. It’s the happy end of a drama that we never get to see. And that’s something that all of the classes on melody somehow fail to mention.
You Citizen – Blue To Be Monday
Pop trends change more quickly nowadays than they ever did. However, the marketing tricks used to make them popular in the first place do not. I’m happy to tell you that if you bought a paperback copy of “How to Sell a Product in 10 Easy Steps,” you can hold on to the book for the rest of your life.
That’s because, as it turns out, most of us not just want the same things, but are hardwired to react to the same stimuli. The colours on advertisements, logos and slogans never change. The same words are used over and over again. And, all of them work to bring up the same emotion in you.
Pop music, even its more exotic and exploratory varieties, works by similar rules, and arguably those were written out in this art form’s infancy. For example, no matter the message, audiences are more likely to stop if great melodies are involved, a trick that You Citizen has learned how to use.
That’s not to say that terrific melodies and conventionally structured songs are meant to make you just feel happy and optimistic. In fact, little would thrill Bill McElnea, the man behind the You Citizen mask, more than to get you a little confused. “Blue To Be Monday,” while the work of a U.S. songwriter, has all the hallmarks of a great U.K. guitar single. The song’s melodies are pleasing to the ears, the lyrics are bittersweet, and the effect is a kind of overpowering melancholy that you want to live with for as long as possible.
