Satu

A lot of people correctly point out how devastating it is that Gabe hijacks the melody away from Natalie in the final chorus, forcing her onto the harmony line, forcing her to play second fiddle in her own song. And all the ways to interpret that, like, is Diana trying to drown Natalie out through Gabe's voice? Is she grafting the words onto him so she can hear her daughter? If Gabe is more ghost than memory, is he helping her or trying to steal the chorus? Is Natalie getting louder or quieter? AHHH I'm unwell already.

B U T. Idgaf about that rn. I am so obsessed with how this song uses mixed meters. What a way to use your medium. Refresher: mixed meters refers to using multiple time signatures in a single piece. The time signature dictates the beats-per-measure and the value of the notes counted in the beat. Ex: 4/4, four beats per measure received by quarter notes. its the classic one two three four count you can feel in most songs.

Superboy and the Invisible Girl is constantly switching between 6/8 and 5/8, so 6 beats received by 8th note, 5 beats received by 8th note. Important that 5/8 literally has less time, it has less space for the notes. This is a matter of math and time and music can't really be divorced from time since its a temporal medium.

Guys. I am gripping you by the shoulders. When Natalie talks about Gabe, the song is in 6/8 and when she tries to talk about herself it switches to 5/8. It starts to rush her.

I am shaking you back and forth. Natalie literally gets less time for herself. She is being given fewer counts. Even in her own song, HER song, the fabric of the story is prioritizing Gabe. The medium through which she is screaming her heartache can't be fucked to give her the time it gives him. "She's not there! She's not there! She's not there!" that is in 5/8! It is forcing her to frontphrase!

The two times she isn't being cut off by the music is when she is talking to Henry who actually is listening to her! "I wish I could fly" and "here she is clear as the day" that stays in 6/8!

But the rest of the song is betraying her, cutting her off! This is probably because so much of the show is filtered through Diana but good LORD. And yes you can def say this is me extrapolating a lot, that the counts don't match, that she gets through the words referring to herself mid-meter switch, but to me it so very much sounds like those sections are urging her to hurry up. To go faster and she cannot slow down it's pushing her. Those cymbals and the guitar cues telling her to speed up when she dares take his memory out of her mouth.