Wednesday, November 27, 2019

"Magic"

I listened to Keys of the Kingdom yester-day, and this morning I figured out the chords for "Magic."  In doing so, I discovered something I wouldn't have found otherwise.  The song is in E major, but under the line "I'm in a state of permanent confusion," the chord progression moves to an F# major, which contains an A# accidental.  This foreign tonality musically mirrors that "confusion."

Thursday, November 14, 2019

"Nervous"

I listened to Long Distance Voyager on Tuesday and noticed a small feature in "Nervous."  In the lines "Would you turn away" and "Would you walk away," the "away"s are sung with a melisma (E E F#), musically giving a sense of movement.

While I don't really have anything to say about it, I also want to point out the nice parallelism in the lines "Don't question faith / Don't answer lies."

Tuesday, November 5, 2019

"What Am I Doing Here?"

I listened to Caught Live + 5 to-day and noticed a small thing about "What Am I Doing Here?"  In the line "Ev'ryone's dream is deep within," the three syllables of "Ev'ryone's" are all sung to different pitches (C B A), musically giving a sense of the breadth of "ev'ryone."