New Monday #111
Happy Monday -
A bunch of you wrote in with ideas—good ideas. Mucho thank you! I’m always interested in thinking about thinking—metacognition or whatever one might call it. At the end of this NM, I’ll address a thought one of you sent me.
Here we go.
This Music May Contain Hope
This sprawling, flawed, 90 minute epic album by British pop singer Raye was released a few days ago. This is quite a record—really an achievement and worth a listen.
Raye is tossing around a heavyweight voice, with a range and power that is often wasted. On more jazz-inflected numbers, she channels singers from Ella to Amy, and her chops and imagination become evident. But often melodies are more about rhythms on one note—very contemporary, yes, but kinda boring compared to things like this:
https://youtu.be/RKCUiEpaahI?si=Ju3K4LqAKoh64m_J
Utterly insane! Spoken word! The Andrews Sisters! A nod to Hall and Oates! Check out the little percussion and ear candy. I love this one too:
https://youtu.be/BjqAX_cCNwY?si=Qy5eZPFDe5wQhRrl
Ya gotta love a title like The WhatsApp Shakespeare, which features mucho fun wordsmithing, but the voice seems wasted. It’s probably me: I’m out of the target market.
https://youtu.be/22JOUliNzxs?si=PZkCI01zp_7TySVp
There are so many ideas on this record, so many styles and moments. It’s full of cinematic arrangements. She collaborates with Hans Zimmer at one point. Orchestras are involved, in addition to a jazz combo, and tons of musicians and engineers and producers and cowriters. Most of whom she mentions by name in a verbal credit roll at the end of the album.
Listening to her speak, enthusiastic and grateful, makes me wonder why they compressed the living life out of her voice. Why compress happiness, especially when there’s a lot of acoustic separation over the background? Throughout the record, the voice has the dynamic range of a repressed yet pissed-off Uber driver most of the time, even when quiet. Why? Why do we have to perfectly hear every note? Why does everything have to be the same loudness? In the mix, why can't one thing mask something else? Why can't we kind of lose the snare drum a little?
But Not Micro Dynamics
Why are we throwing out dynamics as an expressive element? Not the dynamics of a song moving from section to section, but the dynamics of the melody line? The inner dynamics of a voice or a keyboard part or a bassline. Little felt things that aren't quite heard, like a whisper tucked under the rising tides of passengers' chatter on a train.
Here's Keith Richards stumbling through a vocal, wandering around the mic like a drunk in an alley. Which might explain the whole thing, but there's something wonderful about it.
https://youtu.be/zGFjF3qkOX4?si=1UE-K0sT8Frc7EKA
Another classic from Sunset Sound, mixed on the Sound Techniques A-Range. Our channel strip is a few weeks away. And if Beggars Banquet era Stones is too big a distance, the next link is for one of the biggest R&B hits of all time. Listen to that vocal rise and fall...
https://youtu.be/Kr4EQDVETuA?si=ybG5Z2JVq-jMTAPP
Less Expression or...?
Maybe it's perfectionism. Now that we gots digital tweezers to pluck and groom the eyebrows of our vocal lines, let's do that. And the drums, too. Screw, let's fix EVERYTHING until records sound like facelifts. The Beatles could use a remix. Michelangelo's David should have a bigger dick, don't you think? And his nose is too big.
Or maybe we can blame it on Social Media, and a generation or two of humans raised publicly, surrounded by cameras and filters, comments and likes. Has everyone become freshmen at their first school dance? Do we have school dances anymore, or is that too cringe?
Speaking of social media, this popped up. It's about Voice Acting, but it makes sense in a larger context regarding the cultural policing of emotional expression.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DWXLqNOElLV/?igsh=NjFjaTNqc2lmbnht
Might it turn out that ridiculous facial expressions are somewhat essential? Judge for yourself.
https://youtu.be/Y_JvJrT_2dA?si=f3QT7lONa7O3yqmh
Her's
Speaking of expressive bodies and faces, these guys:
https://youtu.be/O-B-BBwfAWU?si=zYkQQSY25_QpofeX
What Once Was was a minor hit.
Her's was two guys, singer/guitarist Stephen Fitzpatrick and bassist Audun Laading. They met at music school in Liverpool and Paul McCartney handed them their degrees upon graduation. The lightness of the music disguised the instrumental chops—these are not easy songs to play live and sing.
There's a transcendent quality to the guys, not in the lyrics or music, but in the transcending of limitations. Singer Fitzpatrick had an almost monotonous voice, restricted to a wobbly low baritone and a yelpy upper end. But there's something wonderful about it, especially when combined with the range of styles they plundered and poured into their songs.
https://youtu.be/3_tPdO7FZxs?si=uX75yXb78vHsCFjL
Read the top comment for the backstory on this song. It's a little lesson in happenstance and creativity.
On March 27th, 2019, while touring in a van in support of their first album, Stephen and Audun were killed instantly, hit head on by a speeding drunk driver on a highway in Arizona. Bleak.
WOW
We had a sale on our WOW Thing. If any of you missed it, send me a message and I'll cut you in on the savings action. Or, tell ya what, here's a New Monday Only coupon code good for 20% of any and everything.
NMWOW20
It expires on Friday night at 11:59pm (that's 23:59 EST for the exacting). Because I don't want to end this on such a bleak note.
Here's a video I did on the WOW Thing. It does a lot more than just big guitars.
https://youtu.be/n0KbC2D6mQE?si=EqSAVxBIiF_U29vQ
Letters
From last week, Tom wrote this: Hey there! Many (or most?) of the composers I know (myself included) feel like the good stuff comes from beyond the brain. I always think about it as a door that I can open if I happen to be in the right headspace. When that door opens sometimes entire pieces of music just show up.
Absolutely. I ended up writing close to 900 words on this. I’ve written a couple of longer answers to people, and not just in music. I’ve started compiling them on my Substack, in a section called Dear Bang Head on Wall. I have even more that I need to publish.
My answer starts like this:
Hi Tom—
I hear what you’re saying about ideas and creativity coming from outside of us. Not from leftovers in the fridge, but more from DoorDash. Like, who the hell ordered this?
Y'all rock. Have a great week.
Warm regards,
Luke