Favorite Song: Everybody's Changing

It's hard for me not to gush for hours about the band Keane. I'm satisfied that If I had tried forming a band and wrote pop songs instead of going to college, the songs would sound like what Keane produces. Anyone will tell you how easy it is to get bored with songs heard on the radio. Keane's songs have enough depth and emotion to keep me coming back for another listen. I'll give one example in the song Everybody's Changing from the album Hopes and Fears. Give it a listen...

Awesome, huh? When I first heard the chorus, I was floored. I had to listen to it over and again to understand what effect it had on me. Follow me close, because I'm about to dissect me some art.

The tune sounds halfway between a sigh and a sob. You can hear it in the singer's voice: "You're aching, you're breaking..." What makes this (and many other melodies) work so well is the careful way it repeats itself. Listen again to the melody and you can hear each phrase begins on a different note (You say you wander...When I think about it...). That protects the tune from monotony. Compare it to Taylor Swift's "Love Story," where every line begins on the same note (Romeo take me...I've been waiting...).

Then the song really takes off beginning about 1:03. It's a thrill to hear the singer jump to such a high note, but then he floats down with that sighing motion. Next comes an exciting build to the end. At about 1:13 the tune has a series of rising notes, leading us back to the song's title. Up till now, the musical periods were 16 seconds long ("You say...don't see how you can" is a period). At 1:13, the period lasts almost 30 seconds without coming to any kind of resting place.

I call these kinds of moments "musical plot twists." It wouldn't have been too hard to end the chorus after "try to understand that I'm..." Instead, they defy expectations with a delightful surprise. Keane deserves kudos for this type of writing. It's the same kinds of structures we find in classical music.

So we come to 1:34, where the piano feels a little lost without the drums. It goes along with the song's theme of trying to keep up with others. When the melody comes back it sounds a little different. On the other hand, because it was so well established before, it doesn't feel like it rambles here. It's actually kind of refreshing, changed like "everybody."

Beginning at 2:3o they trick us with another twist. We've heard the piano do it's thing before. It sounds like we'll hear another verse, but at 2:45 the piano keeps playing. It builds more suspense and momentum, barreling into another thrilling chorus. THEN, at 3:15, just when we think we're through, it plays a different chord than we expect, turning us around again so the singer can reiterate the song's title one last time. All this suspense and these plot twists make me dizzy, so Keane was polite enough to slow down at the end. I wish songs would slow down like that more often. It sounds like a real ending, instead of fading out or running out of verses.

Well, believe me when I say I could have made this much longer. There's a lot of even more technical stuff in this song under the surface that fascinates me. Most of us don't need to know it's there, but it is, and it subconsciously keeps the song interesting to our ears. The best music always has something good to offer, depending on how deeply we care to listen.