ARTIST / BAND: DIRK DARMSTAEDTE
SONG (MP3): WE ARE WAVES
ALBUM: Our Favorite City
FILE UNDER: Acoustic / Folk / Indie
LABEL: Tapete Records
SONG (MP3): WE ARE WAVES
ALBUM: Our Favorite City
FILE UNDER: Acoustic / Folk / Indie
LABEL: Tapete Records
INFO: Crisp, polished, and incisive in a Neil Finn-ish sort of way, "We Are Waves" alternates itchy, restrained verses with a gorgeous, crashing-to-the-shore sort of chorus. And yet--if I may stretch the metaphor to the breaking point, as it were--much the way a crashing wave is simultaneously composed of the water being pulled back to sea, so do I hear in the chorus an engaging sort of counter-movement that gives the song extra depth and presence. What I'm talking about in particular is the way the chorus leads with a straightforward A major chord but then, even as the melody takes that engaging leap up, from the fourth to the seventh note (0:56), the chords retreat from the plain power chords one might expect into something more complex (perhaps suspended?; listen at 0:58, on the words "open sea"); listen further to how the chords take two more unexpected steps before finding A major again. The chorus might have been blandly catchier without the subtle complications, but it's richer and more gratifying with them.
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