Sunday, October 16, 2011

blog #4 song deconstruction

For the song deconstruction song I chose two songs by Local Natives.

"Wide Eyes" by Local Natives

Listening Phase One:
Tempo: Vivace (lively and fast)
Source: Drums, bass guitar, lead guitar.
Groove: The groove is definitely coming from the clicks of the drums constantly going throughout the song.

Listening Phase Two:
Instrumentation: Drums, two guitars, distorted bass guitar.
Structure Organization: The song gets more intense as it goes on.
Emotional Architecture: The song keeps building with more things going on as the song goes on.

Listening Phase Three:
Height: varies, the guitar is very high but the distorted bass is very low.
Width: no panning.
Depth: five layers of instruments playing different things at the same time, makes the song very loud.


"Who Knows Who Cares" by Local Natives

Listening Phase One:
Tempo: Adagietto (Rather Slow) 
Source: drums, bass
Groove: The groove is coming from the drums and keyboards.

Listening Phase Two:
Instrumentation: drums, two guitars, bass guitar, keyboards.
Structure Organization: The song gets more intense as it goes on.
Emotional Architecture: The song starts of very slow and then ends up rather fast towards the end.

Listening Phase Three:
Height: high
Width: no panning.
Depth: song starts off with very few layers then ends with a lot.

    Between the two songs, I definitely like Wide Eyes better because it has a lot more going on in the song, there are many layers, and there is a constant drive behind the song. I purposely used the live performance for the second song because it shows you how many layers they use and personally I like the live version better even though the song quality is less impressive than the real version of the song. Another reason I like the live version is because you can actually see the audience's reaction to the song and what the musicians are putting into the song while they are playing it.
     With both songs I don't think the lyrics are the main focus. I've been listening to these two songs for over a year now and still don't know all the words which is rare. Your attention is drawn more with what the instruments are doing. After looking up the lyrics, I like "Who Knows Who Cares" better because the lyrics are more relatable. The lyrics in "Wide Eyes" don't really make sense.
     I feel like "Who Knows Who Cares" is the anthem of Local Native's album. It's slower than most of their songs but it still has a drive to it. "Wide Eyes" is considered their single for their album and is more upbeat than the rest of the songs.
     My favorite parts of both songs would be the lead guitar. I like the clean sound it has opposed to the distorted bass in "Wide Eyes." Each song multiple guitars playing unique guitar riffs the whole time, both using the clean sound that you expect from Local Natives. Another thing I like in both songs are the drive of the drums. The drummer does not use typical drum patterns in any of their songs, so during the song you never tune-out the drums, they are always obvious and present whenever they are playing.
     Overall "Wide Eyes" would be my favorite out of the two. Using unique instrumentation and multiple layers of all instruments keeps my attention on the song and I haven't gotten sick of hearing it yet.

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