Blog #5: Song Deconstruction

LISTENING FRAMEWORK
Blur - 'Good Song'
LISTENING PHASE 1 (Rhythm) Tempo -The tempo is definitely at a medium pace.
Source - The rhythm is being held by the drums, and bongos in the background.
Groove -The groove of the song is very easy-going, relaxed, and smooth.
LISTENING PHASE 2 (Arrangement) Instrumentation -The instrumentation is made up of drums, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, vocals, and bass guitar.
Structure/Organization -Starts with bongos, then the drums and guitar kick in, with vocals following after.
Emotional Architecture -The song has a rather simple architecture, but still manages to build at moments and then drop again.
LISTENING PHASE 3 (Sound Quality) Balance

• -  Height -Starts out medium and goes pretty high at a few points during the song.
  
• -  Width -None
  
• -  Depth -It is pretty complex, with a layered instrumentation.
  

LISTENING FRAMEWORK
Blur - 'Mellow Song'
LISTENING PHASE 1 (Rhythm) Tempo -The tempo is medium.
Source -Mostly from the lead guitar. 
Groove -Mellow, psychedelic, smooth.
LISTENING PHASE 2 (Arrangement) Instrumentation -Keyboard, vocals, guitar, melodica, drums.
Structure/Organization Starts out with keyboard, then adds guitar and vocals. Near the end, drums and electric guitar is thrown in, as well as the melodica.
Emotional Architecture -The song definitely builds from the beginning, adding more and more.
LISTENING PHASE 3 (Sound Quality) Balance

• -  Height -The song has a good balance of high and low frequencies.
  
• -  Width -Some panning used during the guitar solo.
  
• -  Depth -Instrumentation is layered very well.
  
  
  -I chose to compare and contrast two different songs from the band, Blur.  The songs are 'Good Song', from the album Think Tank, and 'Mellow Song', from the album 13.  Being from the same artist, the songs have a similar vibe to each other, but are very different in areas like structure and organization.  'Mellow Song' starts out with a small piano piece, then goes to guitar and vocals.  Later in the song, drums and electric guitar are thrown in.  With 'Good Song', drums and guitar are played immediately and stay until the end.  This shows how 'Good Song' does not build in emotional architecture as much as 'Mellow Song' does.  The songs' lyrics are also different in structure, but similar in meaning.  The lyrics in ‘Good Song’ are rather straight-forward and flow together coherently, while in ‘Mellow Song’, the lyrics are more metaphorical and take much longer to understand.  Both songs are about dealing with the loss of someone, whether it’s a breakup or death of a loved one.  The melodies of the two songs are very different.  In ‘Mellow Song’, the melody has a pretty big range of sounds and even changes halfway through the song.  The melody in ‘Good Song’ is really laid-back and stays pretty much constant throughout the entire length of the song.  Both are somewhat medium-paced, but in terms of intensity, ‘Mellow Song’ is much more heavy near the end than ‘Good Song’ is.  The songs also have similar range of pitch and overall a similar use of instrumentation.  They both have multiple guitar parts, vocals, bass guitar, and drums.  I would say that I enjoyed 'Mellow Song' more than 'Good Song' because it starts out with less instrumentation and slowly builds, adding more and more layers.  This really helps to create emotional architecture within the song and makes for a more meaningful listen.