Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Shout Out Louds

Shout Out Louds - The Comeback

This song is all about tones and tonal quality.

Opening: The keyboard sounds just like the Nintendo blips from the race opening to RC Pro-Am.

Something crazy like 4 or 5 guitars are in this opening (and song), all with very different and distinct tonals qualities. The simple kind of air-y/kind of heavy keyboard part juxtaposed over the moving guitar melody works as the song's chorus, which is fairly rare for many pop songs - it is word-less. It is also one massive hook that just sticks in your ears and into your head and pretty soon you are bleeding that melody. Mixing equal amounts of a real bojangly feel and a stiff white-collar teenage bop by the books hook makes sets propels the song into the verse where if the vocals can't keep up, the brilliance of the opening riff will be lost.

A Swedish guy singing in English. Perfect. The tone in his voice sounds like the tone of the lyrics - matter-of-fact, sympathetic, and compromising with a logical thought process - "I'm a reasonable man/but I can't believe what's on your mind."

The rhythm section holds down the fort. The drums have a real dry feel to them, but not chapped or blistered. More like a dry fall air.

The guitar in the solo brings out a more wet tonal feel which takes many of the same feeling as the vocals give. Not drenched, just a little drizzle over the song.

This leads us into the final chorus where it all comes together. Note the added eighth note upper neck guitar part raining over the top of the vocals along with the keyboard harmony part which leaves you somewhere between feeling utterly satisfied and painfully teased.

A few "who-hoo-hoos" and this would sound dangerously like a lost The Rentals single. Maybe that's what makes this song so good - it brings back memories of the past, but takes us somewhere else, in its own creative way.

View the music video.