Phenomenological Analysis

The entire song is only 2:51. Despite its brevity, we still get a chock full of sonic data thrown at us which I’ve tried to put into timeline format here.

00:00—00:08
The song opens with what sounds like a piano and maybe a harpsichord beating out chords, but the reverberance makes it smooth and diminishes the attacks. An organ, plays but with sustained, adding another layer of thickness. An effected French horn plays a melody that rises high and crests like a wave and then recedes a little. It doesn’t sound like a pure French horn, and has been perhaps been blended with something else that gives more of a synthesizer feel.

00:08—00:15
Bass comes in playing a loping line, pretty low register, gives body to the mix. It sounds more electric, but I could be completely wrong. This, along with the addition of the steady shaking of sleigh bells gives propels us along.

00:15—00:17
Everything playing except bass drops out, and another instrument comes in that sounds like the affected French horn but sounds like it could be played on a key instrument, like and affected organ. This instrument and the bass play in unison and pull us up and away into the next section.

00:17—00:35
The prominence of the sleigh-bells are traded for wooden precussion making more hollow klicking and klacking sounds. Bells remain but lower in the mix. Vocals come in the middle-higher register and everything seems to pull back to give them space. A cleaner sounding piano beats out chords, a little softer. Our deep bass seems to have moved up higher is register and doesn’t sound like the bass we first heard.

00:35—00:40
We experience almost and exhaling and release sensation that marks the chorus as everything in the mix—bass, vox, rhythm—seems to fall, but not heavily.

00:40—1:05
The deeper bass comes back in and with the help of the bass of piano and help gives a push back upward. Wood precussion drops out momentarily, but bells continue. We get a new type of organ sounding instrument, perhaps playing with an accordian, playing more sustained as the vocals come back in, giving back a new blanket of sound.

1:05—1:14
We get a sudden break with the previous parts of the song. Instrumentation changes and the momentum we have been accustomed to the last minute is usurped as a different higher organ that sounds more synthy and Carribean comes in and, with the base, seems to ping-pong around different notes. The notes sound like as if the keys were plucked at rather than layed upon gently like before. Everything else is dropped but we get a new percussive force, the snare drum, making little accents and comments in between the breaths and hiccups that the melody is making.

1:14—1:29
Bells and woods come in like before and we are back on our journey. The sustained keyboard instruments continue to provide a warmth and padding. Still though, we seem to be in familiar sonic territory, something seems to have changed after the break. Now we get multiple voices coming in scat style. The first on sings “oohs” in a sighing manner. “Doo doo”s come in to answer it and then more prominent and nasal sounding “bompa ba”s come in and seem to want to take over the melody. This continues with “ooh”s and “doo”s working together in harmony as “bompa bah” point out a melody to us. However our harmony vocals have the last word and like before lift us out of this section

1:29—1:52
Lead vocal returns and restates his intentions this time in a higher register. Our instrumental arrangement is similar before. At about 1:46—1:48 and we get a subtle flute, I believe, whirling in the high end like birds who seem to answer the vocals the last word of a line and then do the same at 1:50—1:52 except slightly lower.

1:52—1:59
Our chorus motif returns but this time it is aided by the additional return of the French horn singing to itself and repeating the line it played in the opening bars in the background.

2:00—2:10
Then something seems to shift. Just the synthy organ and bass play while the vocal repeats the chorus but something seems different. Bells drop but woods stay and become more present. At 2:04 a different vocal comes in repeating the thought of the of the lead. When it finishes at 2:09 we get a snare fill suggesting that everything will return. But we back off

2:10—2: 51
The lead vocal continues repeating while vocals are added back in and play tag with each other while overdubs hum high, loopy “ooh”s. Snare fills continue to interject filling empty spot. At 2:16 the sleigh bells return. At some point another layer of piano or organ return and we feel fuller body return. The whole thing gives us a rocking sort feeling as if the voices are two children on a see-saw while the oohs act as other children playing around them. This feeling is carried on until the song fades out.