#under over

Northwestern Region, Iceland

Coming up for air at the glacier lagoon. :-) Shot with an AquaTech Elite housing and the Canon Canada 5D Mark IV, Jökulsarlón, Iceland.

by Paul Zizka from Canada 

Under/Over is the shorter song in the EP, and it’s also my favorite. 

NME wrote that this is one of those songs that are easily forgotten, but I don’t think so. For me, Under/Over is a minimalistic work of art. A production that doesn’t yell “Hear me!”, but instead, it says “Listen to me carefully, and appreciate the sounds within,” which include a simple but beautiful piano progression, different percussions, a distorted 808 bass, vocal harmonies, at least two synth pads (one which rises and disappears, and another that seems to be in reverse) and ringing bells. 

This song goes straight to the point: Gracie starts singing and playing her Wurlitzer electric piano from the first phrase and until her very last one. In the first verse she tells us the story of a forgotten love, reminiscing the days when she could hardly function from a broken heart. She still remembers everything, and, like in “Friend”, she’s still able to access those feelings, even if she’s way over them. 

The chorus also starts early, with just the one verse before it. The distorted 808 bass is introduced, giving the song more depth. The vocals turn into rhythmically playful words and a falsetto that couldn’t fit better, giving the song more sense of dimension and spectrum. The piano chords change a bit, but they always come home to a sweet resolution. Here, we get Gracie doesn’t quite understand her feelings, which is normal for a teen: A wave of emotions is enough to make you do or not do certain things. We tend to overthink and make mistakes, to do things we think are right for us, just to realize they aren’t, as she so states in the second verse: “Thought that I’d be good the day I took down all your pictures in my room”. As if it were that easy; Emotions and feelings are way much more complex than that, and, at the end of the second verse, she seems to understand this. (“Maybe I’m just getting confused”) Exactly. 

The chorus repeats, with just a few production-wise variations (We now hear layers of delayed and echoed vocals, and a pad, which rises at the end and takes us towards the outro) and one BIG-LITTLE change in the lyrics. Now, instead of saying “I’m underwater, but I’m over you”, she sings “I’m underwater, am I over you?” She’s still confused, and rightfully so, as she’s been digging on past emotions, and most of us well know what happens when you do that: You might get stuck in the mud again. Unfortunately, we don’t get that answer from Gracie. 

Next and quickly enough, is the outro, which to me is just perfect. It’s what makes me want to repeat the song all over again and get to that part yet again— although I hate that it happens to be the end. There are chopped vocal samples along with the ongoing percussive sounds that are put here and there in a clever rhythmical pattern all around my head, different kind of synth pads that work together in harmony, an airy synth that I can’t really name (be it a bubbly trumpet or a sax), and a bell-ish hit that reminds me of a sound from Super Smash Bros. It’s just all too much and too good. It certainly gives me Owl City’s “Fireflies” vibes, which adds to why this song is my favorite. 

Personal Favorite Phrase: “I'm not chasing feelings that I don't understand"

Objective Findings:  

Key: E

Instruments: Wurlitzer electro piano, vocals, 808 bass, different percussions, at least two synth pads, bells, that airy/bubbly trumpet (which I think is also a virtual instrument) and I’m really thinking there’s a Super Smash Bros sample there or something lol.

Chord Progression: III - VII - I three times, then VII - I - II

Effects: Reverb, delay, echo, stereo imaging, a chain of compressors, equalizers and limiters. Panning (which is not an effect, but boy did they panned away!) 

Note: I’m sure they worked with more effects, but these are the ones that are more noticeable to me.

The under all over