Originally Posted By: Noel96
Hey floyd,

Wow! Actually, I'll put that in colour because it needs to shine as brightly as both your composition/presentation and Janice's vocals.



It seems that your producing and orchestrating have moved into a whole new universe these days! The clarity that you've managed to create with the percussion is amazing and the mix is every bit equal to the percussion. It's a stunning sound. (And that's after being compressed by Soundcloud!)

Many times over the years, I've used the word 'professional' when I've talked about about your songs. Quite simply, that's how they sound to my ears. Then, every few songs, you come along with a creation that significantly raises the bar on what it means to sound 'professional'... I guess it's like 'professional' on steroids. This song was like that for me.


I appreciate that Noel... (we have been having forum conversations for a number of years now.) The addition of a beat track to the existing RealDrum track has been an interesting discovery. I have used a combination of a typical RealDrum and a bongo/congo RealDrum a number of times - that's a great sound, so this seems a natural extension (where appropriate).

Quote:

The musical journey in "A Little Bit Of This" (love all those short 'i' sounds in the hook, by the way) was very inventive. It captured my imagination and didn't let go for the entire length of the song.

The lyrics... well... they captured my imagination in a completely different way!

One thing that stood out to me in the lyrics was how you cleverly used rhyme asymmetry to set-up the non-rhyming hook in the last line of the chorus.

When you sang....

Quote:
a runaway train can jump the track
so don't lay a bet that you can't back
careful, lesser men have cracked from
a little bit of this

...the three successive rapid-fire rhymes of 'track, back, cracked' prepare the ear for the line that does not rhyme.

  • Even though I've talked about this lyric strategy in at least one of your earlier works, your use of it in this song is so effective that I wanted to mention it again. I hope you don't mind.

This strategy of three consecutive rhymes followed by a non-rhyme is one that many lyricists have used over the years; especially in AABA songs where the hook is the last line of each A-section. Having a last line that does not rhyme, shines really bright spotlights on that line. This makes it perfect for hook placement.

As I see it, and I stand to be corrected on this, the reason the aaax rhyme scheme works so well is because the ear/brain appreciates contrast when an aural rhyming pattern starts to sound too predictable. When such predictability sets in, as in a sequence of three consecutive rhymes, a subsequent unrhyming line can do the job much better than a rhyming line.

I always appreciate that you pick up on and can verbalize the atypical "lyrical tricks" that make songs work in different ways. There is similar "verbal gyrations" happening just prior to that, too... The quick "hot/not" rhyme allows the non-rhyming "how much can you handle" to stand on it's own (also helped by the cadence of that line...) then the track/back/cracked captures the ear enough that there is no longer a need the resolve "handle..."


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But then you take it a step further...

To capitalise on using lyric-rhyme asymmetry, you've strategically finished the chorus melody with the note for 'this' not on the tonic! Such an unbalanced lyric setting is excellent prosody given the guy's pounding heart... "ingenious" is a word that just sprang to mind. I'm going to have to try this technique in a song! Until I do, though, I'm heading back for another run-through.

What a terrific listen!
Noel


Thanks for such a thoughtful (and delightful) review.

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