Ocean Eyes:
This is in the key of G major, with a chord progression of C major, D major and E major (IV, V, vi).
This is an acoustic performance so she does a lot of harmonising with herself alongside her brother, they tend to harmonise in falsetto/ head voice. For the chorus, there’s a strong falsetto harmonisation as Billie does the very high end vocals and Finneas does the bass vocals. The harmonies are diatonic to the key and they repeat quite a lot, except they have slight changes in each of them like maybe a little agility in some places and less in others.
Verse 1- The guitar plays on beats 1,2,3 and 4 for each bar. The strumming pattern is played in legato and although the chorus is relatively the same as the verse, it kind of has a little pause in certain parts, like sometimes for harmonising. Verse 2 is played with the same chords except the strumming pattern is played in more of a staccato form. The second chorus is, again, played with the same chords but he switches back to legato and plays louder. Then the bridge and last chorus are played the same but much quieter.
At the beginning of the song, the melody starts off soft ,as Billie harmonises, but as more instruments starts to pick up, so does the melody. By the end, the melody goes just as high as the piano ends solely with a piano.
Six Feet Under:
This song is in the key of B Minor with a BPM of 68, which is incredibly slow for a pop song.
Lyric wise, the song tells the story of how she lost herself trying to find that one special person but resulted in betraying herself, which can be seen in the lyrics “six feet under”, which means that her feelings for that special person is now buried so far down but she also wants it all again. She wants to feel the love “bloom” and wants to cherish every moment, but she can’t because of how much they hurt her.
The rhythm of the melody is really slow, especially for a pop song. Simple melodies, which make them memorable, and they repeat a lot, literally just vi, V, IV the whole way through. There’s a lot of diatonic harmony to accompany the melody.
The melody is pentatonic and the pitch of the melody lowers in the lyrics. The chorus is higher in pitch and has a different rhythmic pattern to the verse but still uses the same chord progression.
Bellyache:
Lyric wise, this song can be perceived in many different ways, depending on how deep you can see. One interpretation is that the lyrics “where’s my mind” references to how lost you can get in your own mind and your thoughts. “Maybe it’s in the gutter” could be a references to “rock-bottom” because people say being in a gutter or a rut to reference that too. Or, it could signify a broken mind and how maybe all her thoughts are so “dirty” that they’re as low as the gutter. The concept of “bellyache” is like a reference to the guilt in your mind, it’s like when you feel like you’ve lost yourself or you’re struggling but you feel bad for being upset because you know someone is much worse that you so you kind of invalidate your own emotions.
This song has thick textures, with a powerful sine wave of bass, interesting drums and a lot of hi-hat rolls and acoustic guitar. The song is in G major with a chord progression of IV, ii, vi, that is repeated the whole way through the song. This is a very unusual chord progression for a pop song because it has a ii chord.
Billie harmonises in the intro, pre-chorus and in the chorus, are all diatonic and have a lot of different layers to make them more powerful and stand out more. The melody doesn’t really change and more or less stays the same throughout, except it starts off quiet and builds more in the choruses.
The structure is like a typical pop song, intro, verse, pre-chorus, verse, pre-chorus, chorus, verse, break, chorus.