Songbook

Open Eye Signal — Jon Hopkins

I like how much this song does with a minimal arrangment. The meat of what you hear is drums and bass, with some ambient descants added over top. Sometimes the drum and bass fall back, and other times they come forward to be the main event. The bass synth is super rhythmic, so it feels like a single unit with the percussion. But that rhythm stays pretty consistent (until the bridge section). What really makes the song dynamic and interesting is all the transformations the bass sound goes through.

Open Eye Signal — Jon Hopkins

I like how much this song does with a minimal arrangment. The meat of what you hear is drums and bass, with some ambient descants added over top. Sometimes the drum and bass fall back, and other times they come forward to be the main event. The bass synth is super rhythmic, so it feels like a single unit with the percussion. But that rhythm stays pretty consistent (until the bridge section). What really makes the song dynamic and interesting is all the transformations the bass sound goes through.

You are my House — Skullcrusher

From what I’ve heard of them, Skullcrusher seems to do a lot of short songs like this with simple, often single-section structures. That approach to songwriting reminds me of Guided by Voices. There might even some similarity between them in the simple, catchy approach to writing melodies. With You are my House, I think that format works really well: you get a strong idea from two verses of lyrics, and then the third verse (I sink my feet into you...) turns into a chorus that repeats like a mantra, followed by a soundscape instrumental to wind down. I really like the lyrics for this one.

At the Chime of a City Clock — Nick Drake

It’s mostly out of season now, but I love to listen to this song on the first day it snows. It’s cool how instruments layer in as the song goes on: strings get added on the first chorus, then the saxophone on the next verse. Also, I just noticed how the verse is minor and it switches to major on the chorus.

Elise — Jacob Mann

I usually avoid listening to the same track more than once in a single day. But Elise is an exception: I like to listen to it multiple times in a row. The piano part is so pensive on its own, with the syncopated left-hand rhythm gently pushing forward like a paddling canoe. Then we land in the B section with the warm comfy hug of the drum and bass, and everything just flows from there...

A Little Lost — Arthur Russell

This song proves you don’t need much to make a pop song. There’s just a couple instruments and a voice, but I think it’s really the rhythmic elements that keep the arrangement alive throughout the song. If you have a great melody and a catchy rhythm backing it up, that’s all you need! And that definition encompasses so many possible sounds and ways to experiment while keeping the music appealing. I find it exciting.

Tile By Tile — Alvvays

For a while this was my favorite song from Blue Rev, although in the long term it probably couldn’t pass Pharmacist. The harmony really floats around throughout most of the song without much resolution, which I enjoy. I think the rhythms of the melody and the synth play off each other well in the chorus.

Heaven’s on Fire — The Radio Dept.

Listened to this a lot at the end of 2024. I like the busy, washy drums and the optimistic groove. Makes me feel like going places and doing things. It has some of that delicious late 00s feeling for me too.

What If I Found Out — Kath Bloom & Loren Connors

My brother really likes this album and told me about it a while ago. The whole album has this feeling, but this song especially feels so raw and vulnerable that I am moved to tears. I have a lot of respect for music like this because I know that vulnerable quality is not an accident, and it’s not easy to create. I love the lines What if I tell my dreams and you don’t think that they’re so hot? / What if I am naked and you are not?