Open Listening #2

Going back to this piece keeping in mind everything I have just explored, I begin to see and understand exactly why and how this piece works so well. So rather than just taking it in as-is, I recognized the intentionality behind all of Brian’s little moves in orchestration and production and how he used them to help support the text to evoke so much with what seems and sounds like so little.
For example, how the intro goes from being heavy in instrumentation but then as we move into the verse he precisely lets just the bass take us there with its rising three notes. By peeling away the other textures that add harmony and leaving us with only single notes on the bass, rather than chords which imply keys better, we are unaware that we have even really moved to another possible tonal center. This reduction simultaneously works to open up space for the vocals to come in and thus be our main focus.
Also having being able to look at the score I noticed that he also made a conscious decision to use more unstable or ambiguous chords to help match what the text was saying at a given moment, such as how a D#dim chord plays through the line that talks about doubt. This also happens melodically such as when he sings “stars above you” and his vocals go up from A-B-C#.
I noted that despite the inherent pop sensibility to write in 2 or 4 bars, he was able to use harmony to get by sections like the chorus with only three bars without us ever noticing the deletion because the chords that follow seem to just meld, rather than each section be its own standalone thing.
I realize that my initial feelings of being at see are most likely because of the rhythmic feel of the song, which seems to bob forward at a pleasing pace like a tide. Also I never really noticed how much the percussion instruments were vital to this and there is actually few real drum parts, in fact I don’t think there is a single kit fill or cymbal hit in the entire song!
Finally, though I was perturbed by the seeming out of place instrumental break I actually, upon analysis and more focused listening came to appreciate it for what it was both as a rhetorical theory device and as sprinkle of texture that made me excited to hear what would come next rather than lo a detraction from the song.