Saturday, April 14, 2012

Analysis 1: We are Young, by Fun Feat. Jonelle Monae

Theme Variety:  Total of four themes:  First is the opening theme, with just light drums, light piano, and solo voice.  Second is the chorus, with louder piano, heavier drums, some electric guitar and bass, and voice.  This time there were multiple singers.  Third is the second and third verses:  similar to first, but shorter and more electric guitar.  Fourth was the bridge with voice and light drum background, and solo voice.  Special note on the bridge:  there aren't many songs that rely that much on voice, and for that, I must commend Fun.
Stars:  8

Music Complexity:  Good movement between chords.  Much better than simple I IV V or I V VI.  For the chords it does use, it uses them very well.  Very nice melodies and use of suspended chords.
Stars:  7

Dynamic Variety:  Soft in the beginning, getting louder until the chorus, softer again, another chorus, the bridge, on final chorus, and then soft for the outro.  Overall, decent movement, but somewhat lacking between transitions.  Each part of the song - verse, chorus bridge - had its own volume, and there were good loud moments and good soft moments, but there wasn't much movement within a part.
Stars:  7.5

Singer Talent:  He was pretty good.  He was able to sing in a not inconsiderable range.  The lyrics were all comprehensible, and there weren't any noticeable breaths.  On the "tonight" bits, wonderful control going down.  As for Jonelle Monae, of the eight measures she gets, they were well done.  I thought I heard a touch of auto-tune, but not much.
Stars:  8.5

Perceptible Auto-tune:  I couldn't hear a whole lot of auto-tune in this song.  There were the isolated spots now and again, but overall, this seemed very natural.
Stars:  9

Lyrics:  Wonderfully devoid of cursing, alcohol, sex, and other things you wouldn't want your 10 year old picking up on.  I can live with a passing mention of drugs.  Besides my strict christian opinions, the lyrics were clearly well thought out.  It was, in essence, poetry put to music.  Not just poetry, good poetry.  A bit repetitive at times, but other than that, well done.
Stars:  9.5

Overall:  A good song, much better than most I hear these days.  Beyond the analysis, it was fun to listen to, which is really the point of music.  It made me want to sing along.
Stars:  8.25

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