hey soul sister

Try to ignore this video (it will make you itchy) and just listen to this very popular song.

0:01 enter ukelele and voice. "Hey hey" section is howlable. The song is produced cleanly: all the instrumentation is distinct, and the words are well-enunciated.

0:13 enter words and drums. Catchiness of music must overcome cringeworthy lyrics. Bad visuals, meaning sacrificed to rhythm: "Your lipstick stains on the front lobe of my left side brains" and "my heart is bound to beat right out my untrimmed chest." Inconsistent metaphors, meaning sacrificed to rhyme: "Like a virgin you're Madonna, and I'm always gonna wanna blow your mind." The singer's voice is strong but colorless, most interesting when straining at its highest register, like Sting, but also good for a lilting head voice, as sung on the "I" in "I don't want to miss a single thing you do." Drums make the song. Is this in 2/2? The beat is samba-esque, with a kick drum on the downbeats (and a little sixteenth note before the second beat that makes all the difference), and a sort of unraveling, slightly decrescendoing snare that leaves the second half of the measure hot, empty space. The measures feel unfinished. It gives the song a humping-along momentum.

0:33 enter piano chords.

0:52 first chorus. Enter tambourine and shakers. Slight sound separation here. Most of the music is centered, except the bass (at 2:02) leans a little to the left and the hand percussion is pretty wide on the right.

1:12 instruments drop out when singer hits vocal crux of song, the word "tonight." Then instruments reenter, plus organ holding chords behind everything else. Brush hits on the snare on the back beat, coupled with ukelele strikes, also off beat, give the song its catchy Club Med country/reggae feeling here. Sounds like Jason Mraz.

2:02 enter electric instruments. An unnotable bass line gives the song a little flesh on the low end; clean quiet Telecaster chords are similarly unobtrusive, but the addition of these instruments counteracts the repetition of the verse melody. The rhythm and the singer's vocals are mixed so loud that the changes in instrumentation feel subtle in comparison.

2:21 bridge section. Only melody and chords change but rhythm and instrumentation are the same. "The way you can't cut a rug" is a nice resuscitation of a dead idiom, unfortunately nullified instantly by Sting saying, "You're so gangster, I'm so thug."

2:42 great transition here where all the noise drops out except vocals, ukelele, organ, and snare.

2:50 ramping back up with the instruments.

3:01 nice drum fill into a shuffle beat, which gives the effect of slowing the music down even though the tempo hasn't changed. Handclaps on the up beat at 3:11 return the rhythm to its rollicking Christian rock sound.

I find this song very attractive, even though like many pop songs the vocals are mixed so loudly that I am embarrassed by the music's earnestness. This production toes the line between sincerity and sentimentality. Who gives a shit? The music really works.

I may have spent too much time thinking about this song.