James Blake is a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer from London, Producing and making electronic tracks. He often works with other musicians such as Drake, Kendrick Lamar and Travis Scott, like in this song. The song was released in early 2019, just a day before his new album ‘Assume Form’ was released. As it is electric, it is danceable and has a lot of energy.
I am not a huge fan of electronic and trap music, however, I thought this song’s breaks (where the drums drop out) were interesting. Despite this, I don’t think these breaks go well with the rest of the song; they feel too ambient for a trap song and I feel like I am listening to a totally different song! If the ambient parts were a whole different song, I would much prefer it as it is slow and it wouldn’t stick to the trap genre which for me, is a positive. I think the composer has successfully expressed a sense of love through both the lyrics and the slow tempo.
I can hear vocals from James Blake and Travis Scott which compliment each other very well. It also uses electric drums and many different computer-made sounds like the birds chirping. The Electric drums and bass drop out at different places for the breaks. The texture is mostly quite thick, but it isn’t over the top.
The dynamics don’t change too much, except for when the breaks occur; because the bass and drums drop out, it’s bound to get quieter. The articulation is quite legato (smooth) because of the sleek bass and some vocals, however, the drums counter this, making it staccato (detached). The auto-tuned vocals also counter this, but overall I think the articulation is still smooth.
I can’t figure out the exact structure of the song as it is not like a generic pop song structure, but it will be in verse-chorus instead of A, B. Some sections repeat; these seem to be the chorus when the singer says the name of the song. There are also many breaks and verses but these occur in some strange places.
The song’s key is in f#m. This is defined by just the vocals and bass, as there isn’t really any more pitched instruments in the song. This minor key is prominent through the minor vocal harmonies and the combination of the bass and vocals creating a sadder tone. There only seems to be 3 chords in the song that repeat but these are really just notes, as they are from the bass. The first chord plays over two bars, the second chord in the third bar and the third chord in the fourth bar; this just then repeats through the whole song (except for in the breaks).
The only melody that occurs is from the vocals (some would say the bass but I feel like it isn’t distinguished enough to be its own melody). The melody is quite memorable, especially in the chorus as the melody is fairly simple. when you put good lyrics with the melody, it makes the melody even more rememberable. The notes in the vocals are usually g#, b, c#, e♭, e, f# and g# (an octave up). Because the notes are close together, the melody is pretty memorable.
The time signature is 4/4, meaning there are four crotchets in one bar. This is stang=dard for most songs now, especially in pop or electronic songs like this as it is more danceable and easier to make a song with. The BPM is 115, almost in the middle of allegretto and allegro. This song could be described as moderately fast because of this. This song contains ostinatos in the bass as this doesn’t change in the song, only drops out. You could also say the chorus has ostinatos because the vocals sing the same melody, only very slightly varied in some parts. The vocals also use triplets, a rhythmic technique, in the choruses which adds a more smooth feel to the vocals as triplets flow very well.
I would say that samples might have been used and edited as most pop songs now use sampling. Compression will have been used to level the volumes, and also EQ on probably almost everything, to ensure no frequencies are too high or low. Programmed drums are clearly used as well as largely auto-tuned vocals in some verses and all the choruses, which I becoming more normal in popular music. Reverb is used in the vocals during the breaks to add an ambient and echoey feel. A delay can be heard on the vocals at the end of some breaks and even more clearly at the very end of the song.