#track analysis

"N95" is the second track on MMatBS, possibly Kendrick's most thematically and narratively complex album. It acts as an introduction to one of the most important concepts on the album: the mask.

The name "N95" refers to a type of medical mask which became much more popular during the pandemic; this connects to the real-world context of the album but also provides visual imagery for the central symbol. The song centers around Kendrick telling his community and peers to "take off" all of the cultural and economic 'masks' that they wear to hide who they really are.

In the chorus, he tells the subject of the song (people who obscure who they are using wealth and trends and the like) that they do this because they believe they're ugly below the mask. He critiques them for putting up the perception / facade of wealth ("steppin'"), and for doing "out of pocket" things for clout and attention. By doing so, he argues, it gives cultural enemies and those who want to exploit the culture ammunition and targets to attack.

He says that the counter to cultural exploitation is being genuine, and peeling off the masks. Instead of allowing ego and braggadocio to take hold, acting like relevance and wealth are the only important metrics and therefore only performing relevance and wealth, one should work to portray the humanity in themselves.

However, in contradiction to his central point, Kendrick brings up his own struggles in doing so. In bearing his soul to the world through his art, he's made himself incredibly vulnerable. By not complying with cultural expectations and not fitting into what society thinks he (a wealthy, famous black man) should be, he effectively invites himself to be a target of outrage and attacks.

Throughout the album, you can catch references to the 'masks' that he and those in his community have and how he works to dismantle them. For example, in "Count Me Out":

He plainly reiterates the central message of "N95" here. Everybody wears their masks at all times, but under the mask they're still human—still ugly, as he says in the chorus of "N95".

The whole album reminds me of songs from the '90s or 2000s, simpler in production, not too noisy, yet immersive. It has a nostalgic vibe that's also catchy and each video brings the emotions of the songs to life.

Playlist: Crazy Life

# 1 Anna of the North - I Do You

"I Do You" hits with this intense but calm emotion, the feeling of loving someone you're supposed to leave behind. The lyrics show that inner struggle without feeling desperate and the video shows her stuck in a monotonous, autopilot routine. To me, it's a mix of affection and stagnation, of love and the difficulty of letting go and moving forward.

«'Cause I know that without you, I'm better before But there's things that I don't know how to do If I did me, the way I do you»

My take: 4/5

The concept of pure heroine 

Pure Heroine is Lorde’s debut album. If we took her as the narrator the album is told from a very young perspective, the vast majority of these songs were written when she was 16 to 17 years old so she talks about the fears and of growing up and the changes she’s experimenting while entering young adulthood. She also criticises the way grown adults view teens, and there is sort of a rebellious theme throughout the album, which is also related on fame and how other people view her as a celebrity.

Tennis Court: Resources used in the track

Conceptual: “Don't you think is boring how people talk….but ill know they never own

“Is a new art form to show people how little we care” As previously mentioned this is a rebellious side of lorde speaking we can see this even emphasised in the music video were all she does is sing the background vocal saying “yeah” as in “I am going to do my own thing” kind of way.

There’s also a lyric that states “pretty soon ill be getting on my first plane…” this is her way of talking about she is becoming famous while still remaining true to herself

Sound/Technical: Electric drum set, bass drum is not used, tom drum is treated with a reply high eq same snare and some sort of high hat they are also ver compressed (1:3 ratio i think)

The vocals in the back are treated with reverb and some a bit of a chorus effect also a low pass eq (I think is the track is equalized with more intensity in the mid section and definitely a high cut filter used) 

As in the panning of the track the vocals are situated in the right middle and in the front, the string enable done with an electric keyboard is extended through all the spectrum (from right to left) the tom is on the left (75 - 80) percent and the snare is in the left with the same proportions cymbals are both in the right and left with a 65-60 percent with mens there placed a bit more in the front.

Musical, microdanymics: Its an 84/85 bmp track (if I counted correctly), 4/4 beat, those time measures are almost the standard of pretty much every mainspring gender not making any judgement at all just a fact. In the verses The bass drum marks the first beat of every bar, theres a drum beat in the back with varies between a cymbal and a lower tom drum with marks eight notes.

In the chorus the main beat comes to the from of the cymbal track marking the eight notes and the tom moves slimly to the back

I'll start by saying that I like this song. I find it very enjoyable. It's one of the best off of The Fall Off.

However. It seems like it's trying to apologize or at least address Cole's past of homophobic and transphobic lyrics (see: villuminati, pi, 7 minute drill, grippy to mention a few). At that, it does a horrible job.

The whole song is framed as a series of phone calls by people from Cole's hometown of Fayetteville asking how he is and when he'll come back home. The final verse describes a character named Quay who lived in the closet as a child but came out as gay in college and later died from AIDS. The character speaking in the song states this in no uncertain terms:

We been known what team he acknowledged Since we was kids, he lived in a closet But that changed soon as he went to college, up there wildin' at A&T Runnin' with fruity types, d**k in the booty types Tight pants, switchin' they hips, paintin' they nails

This description of Quay is obviously offensive and problematic. But it's said in-character, so we can excuse it for now. The narrator continues:

So n****s from the 'Ville, had to distance ourselves He felt a way, remember, he was beefin' with me That's when he moved to the A, I guess, so he could be free

So the narrator says that the community cut off Quay for being gay, and that he moved to Atlanta into a more accepting community. Again, this is obviously a bad thing. However, the way it's presented by the narrator---they "had to" distance themselves---makes it seem like the logical, default choice was cutting him off. Still in-character, so maybe there's something later that redeems it. The narrator finishes the story of Quay with the following lines:

But years later, I heard they seen him walkin' on Bragg At 2 a.m. with a lace front, dressin' in drag I shook my head, but still, I began to feel bad It's like his lifestyle was blockin' all the love that we had We turned our backs on him, some of us called him a fa— Nah, time's changed, I know that's wrong Now that we grown, I wish I could apologize 'cause we did him wrong

What?! "His lifestyle was blockin' all the love that we had"?! This is incredibly disrespectful language to refer to a queer person who was cut off by their friends for their identity. Then he says he "know[s] that's wrong" and he "wish[es] [he] could apologize". He only realizes that homophobia is wrong after his friend has died and not made amends with him at all? If this is intended to portray growth and a good reflection on his choices, it has failed miserably.

Ultimately, there are two possibilities for the final verse here: The narrator is meant to be a 'good guy' representing Cole's personal changed attitudes about queerness, language, and acceptance, in which case it is absolutely a bad sentiment and actively hurts his case; or the story is not meant to address Cole's history of homophobia and the narrator is not intended to be good/represent a wholly positive change, in which case this controversy still hangs over Cole's head and he has yet to address it. Either way, this track is not even close to an acceptable apology for his years of problematic lyrics.

WHAT IS TRACK ANALYSIS? TRACK ANALYSIS Normal: Suitable for analysis of tracks which have arelatively consistent. Dynamic: Suitable for analysis of tracks which containsignificant tempo changes. Normal analyzing doesn’t change yours BPM while playing track.Dynamic analyzing changing yours BPM. That means If you playing song ,started with house 128 bpm if is there in the middle of the song…

Ant Davidson takes us through the Jeddah track

Analysis of music with Reason

With my Reason 9 upgrade I wanted to develop a track analysis and composition template. The original idea is from Timothy Allen in Groove3 videos and worked on with my Loop course with Kadenze.  

I have set up a series of blocks which are colour coded to intensity from A1 to D4 which I used for composition.

Reason Block are an under appreciated feature. They provide a fast and effective way to lay out the structure of new music and provide a way to create alternatives to audition. 

Instrument tracks are added which roughly correspond to the type of music track they could play. The tracks are colour coded to type. Duplicate tracks are created as required when new song elements occur.

An initial listen for the structure of the track can be done with renamed blocks. 

In the sequencer parts are added to the tracks to show the occurrence of elements within the music. The parts can also be labeled by right clicking on the clip and selecting “Add labels to clip”. 

The function here is get get an overall structure of the track and it’s main parts. How deep you wanted to this is up to you but I suggest just enough for a rough idea. 

“Olsen Olsen” - Sigur Rós (Words/music: Sigur Rós, available on Ágætis Byrjun, Fat Cat 1999 / PIAS America 2000) Recently, I've been thinking about moments I associate with songs.  In many cases, finding a new favorite isn't about finding the right ingredients but rather the right circumstances.  This is how albums seemingly “reinvent” themselves over time; an album that evoked one set of emotions at one time period might return another time with an entirely new set of associated feelings.  Along with this, often, comes a new set of favorite songs.  It's not that the songs change (obviously), but rather the listener.  A lot of times, I'll rediscover a record that went hidden behind mounds of new music only to find something entirely new that I never noticed earlier.  I used to get frustrated when I'd buy an album, listen a couple times, and then abandon it; now, I see these occasions as “buying myself a present for the future,” almost like I bought the record and subconsciously stashed it away for when the time would be right. I bought Ágætis Byrjun in 2001 and liked it immediately.  It sounded like something that beautiful, angel-throated aliens might sing.  I have vivid memories of my first winter break home from college, running errands for my mom in her mini-van listening to Ágætis Byrjun and Jeff Buckley's Grace for almost the entire break.  Then, the record drifted to the depths of my giant CD binder, traveling with me back and forth between school and home, occasionally getting played but only sporadically.  Then, last summer while visiting my old college roommate in Chicago, we watched Sigur Rós's Heima documentary.  While marveling at the beautiful Icelandic countryside, I absorbed all the different performances of their songs.  “Olsen Olsen” was the one that stopped me in my tracks, though.  I was compiling my things in his apartment when that scene started, and the opening crawl immediately struck me.  I started packing slower and slower, watching a crowd gather on the countryside as that beautiful woodwind melody floated in for the first time.  Then, as the film panned across a now complete crowd, “Olsen Olsen” shifted into high gear and I froze in my tracks.  I let the mix of bowed strings – some from a traditional string section, the others from the electric guitars played with a bow, wash over me.  It was the perfect wave of distortion and melody soundtracking a breathtaking scene of rural Iceland at dusk.  It was the precise moment that led me back to Ágætis Byrjun, a record that I often put on late at night when I need to unwind and shift towards bedtime.  I previously had favorites from that album – specifically “Starálfur” - but since that time, “Olsen Olsen” became my favorite (and, over the past 12 months is my most played song on Last.fm, in part from those late night Ágætis Byrjun listening sessions).  All because of a lazy August afternoon in an apartment a few blocks away from Lake Michigan.