Growing Up With Less To Say

Although it would seem to be a reflection on my posting frequency on my blogs, it’s actually sort of a metaphor for something I noticed in a band I recently found.  A few months ago I picked up an album by a group called Happy The Man, and I thought it was music by a different artist who also had an album released under the name Happy The Man.  As it turned out, it was nothing of the same music.  The music I was looking for was soft of synth-y new age.  Ironically, what I purchased was a kind of music I did like immensely – progressive rock.

The 70’s group Happy The Man only had a couple albums on a major label.  I had purchased the second.  And it was not long ago that I found the first album and quickly bought it as well.  It was, as most debut albums are, a little more raw and disjointed, but still something I enjoyed a lot.

As is typical of my musical habits, I had to know everything I could about this new band I found.  The part that interested me, and the point of this post, is that the consensus was the second album was not as good as the first.  Now me, hearing the second album first, held a slightly different opinion.  Now having listened to both albums to excess, I can see how the critics came to their decision.  And here’s where I want to reflect on it.

If you know prog music, you know it’s some really busy shit.  A lot of people can’t handle it because it’s sometimes really difficult to follow.  in fact, there’s some prog groups I can’t get into because they make stuff that’s just beyond what I can follow.  Happy The Man isn’t like other prog bands that play out a song for 12-15 minutes, though.  Their stuff is pretty compact and easily digestible.  But in that short amount of time, on their first album, they go all over the place, with sections that jump back and forth.  That’s part of the excitement of prog is that the players can turn on a dime, keep the beat, switch tempos and time signatures and typically play very quickly.

But on the second album, there’s still the shorter songs, but less frequent twists and turns.  And those that wanted more of the first album were disappointed.  But here’s the key: the band grew up.  They got more mature.  And when that happens you worry less about how much you say and care more about how well you say something.

And I get that.  My earlier compositions were very similar.  I had many different sections all put together in a stream of madness.  I had a lot of things I wanted to say and I needed to get them all out in one song.  For a different example, see Emerson, Lake, and Palmer’s Tarkus.  The number of things said just in the first movement (Eruption) with changes every 1 or 2 bars, is mind-blowing – if you’re into that stuff.

But when you’ve done all that, you find you want to begin making a big picture that’s cohesive.  You take one theme and build it, embellish it, do variations on it, all in the same song.  Looking at a melody from many different angles.  That’s what a lot of classical composers did and it lets the listener relax and move with the changes instead of getting shocked by change after disjointed change.  And that’s how Happy The Man’s second album is.  They wanted to say one thing very well.  And on top of that, they avoided making it tedious by keeping the songs a manageable length.

And when you take this "saying one thing" metaphor to another level, you can apply it to more modern trace and groove music.  In these instances, they are saying one thing over and over with small colorations here and there.  The intent and result is like repeating a mantra, as one would do during meditation.  At least that’s my interpretation, because I can’t tolerate much of that music because I need active listening music.

So when you listen to music, especially when you listen to an entire album of an artist, consider what they are trying to say and how they are saying through the length of the songs and the number of sections within the songs.  Especially the closer.  Does it repeat and fade out over a long time, trying to lull you into a trance or does it end with a bang, trying to be the grand finale of a fireworks show?

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