I can see how you feel that way, from LDN and Smile.
Although I found them quite catchy, they're not usually something I'd remember after hearing them once. Not my type of music.
But when somebody showed me them, they said: "Hey, you might be interested in these music vids. They've freaking weird!" I think its the weirdness that caught me; I'm a big fan of weird.
![:D](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/grin.png)
I mean, did you see her face at the restaurant in Smile? She creeped me out! And the part where she's hugging him and comforting him, but meanwhile she's the cause of all his problems and she's smiling evilly over his back! Crazy!
One guy I showed her music to, had a hilarious reaction. ;D
He heard one line of lyrics and a look of shock came to his face. He turned to me and said: "Oh my god... I HATE her voice!"
![:D](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/grin.png)
Most of the other people I've shown her to said they couldn't help but like Fear. But they couldn't say why. Have you heard that one yet? I've analyzed it artistically and I think I've found what attracts people to it.
I shall call the cause: Melodic Discord. It's present poetically (in the lyrics), musically (the sound and voice), and visually (in the video). By the end of this, you should see how a title like The Fear is so fitting.
Melodic Discord: it'll become more clear as I go along, but consider it as something in the song feeling off, wrong, yet still it seems complete and like proper music. You'll see.
![:)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/smiley.png)
Lyrics:
For the most part of the song, she's singing about how materialistic she is (i.e.people are) and how she has everything she wants to make her happy. In fact, she seems completely apathetic to the matter. Then in the chorus she turns around and expresses her uncertainty of all she just said. It's like an inner battle. Everything is nice in the stanzas, then everything is not right in the chorus, then back and forth. "I'm being taken over by the fear," is the uncertainty of the materialistic life she is (we are) leading that is gnawing at her in the background, but she ends the song still ignoring it, talking about how things are the way they should be. That is humanity knowing something is wrong with the way we are, yet not doing much all to fix it.
Music:
She has a very lovely voice, making everything soft and nice-sounding. In the stanzas, we get our first little dose of the slightly "off" notes that somehow don't seem wrong.
Life's about filmstars and less about mothers,
its all about fast cars and cussing eachother,If you listen carefully, every other line might pull at your ear. But that's not much. In fact, you could argue against it. However, the chorus is where the real melodic discord lies. The first aspect of it is that the listener naturally expects the chorus to be about an octave higher, but that is denied. Instead, the notes stay right where they are, and only the tone changes. Everything becomes flat or sharp (depending on how you see it). The notes themselves seem to carry some anxiety. It's like a warped mirror of the preceding stanzas. This musical discord parallels the lyrical discord. The background music for the whole song is dreamy, light but a little demented like a fun-house.
Video:
It sure looks happy, don't it? She's prancing around, she's got a mansion, she's got serving men who dance with her, she's got a room full of huge presents, and everything is brightly coloured. Problem? Did anyone else say 'what the heck?!" when the presents got up and started dancing? When bunches of balloons start jumping around? When the servants start skipping around and coloured smokes start fogging the scene? Aren't the colours a little too bright? All the niceness begins to look more and more like insanity. Everything falls apart, gives off that feeling of "wrongness" and again gives that idea of a fun-house.
It's like it's slowly becoming a nightmare, and we have every right to feel the Fear.
![;)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/wink.png)
So! When you look at it that way, what do you think? ;D
Killerzzz