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Well, hello. I’m still testing this.

Music Notes

A blog, generally about music, usually for projects hosted by Jeff

. I may also write about the 48-Hour Media Prompt Challenge if I don't feel like writing a story or poem inspired by the given song. Other bits of poetry or different topics of discussion might end up here as well.

Show Recent Comments

10 Most Recent Blog Comments:

SAD Holiday Potato

Oct 15, 2024 at 12:09pm
In response to "500 Miles (I'm Gonna Be) (ID cover)"

That was an amazing performance. Dan certainly has a sense of showmanship..

1 Like

Merry QPdoll

Oct 12, 2024 at 8:00am
In response to "I Heard It Through the Grapevine (CCR)"

I've only known the Marvin Gaye version. I have to say that CCR did it justice. The drums and that bass. So cool.

Excellent choice!

1 Like

♥HOOves♥

Oct 12, 2024 at 7:45am
In response to "I Heard It Through the Grapevine (CCR)"

Great song choice! There is also a version with Gladys Knight and the Pips that may or may not have been the first one. It was the first one that I heard.

1 Like

Dave Ryan

Oct 11, 2024 at 8:19am
In response to "If I Had a Hammer"

Puff the Magic Dragon is a great song for traumatising the kids. There's nothing like a happy ending, and that one is definitely nothing like a happy ending.

1 Like

Merry QPdoll

Oct 10, 2024 at 7:57am
In response to "Fast Car (Jonas Blue cover)"

This is great! I love this song and have heard a couple of different versions, but I've never heard this one. Thank you for sharing.

1 Like

♥HOOves♥

Oct 9, 2024 at 9:07am
In response to "Fortunate Son"

Love Centerfield and Have You Ever Seen the Rain, also!

So many wonderful songs!

1 Like

♥HOOves♥

Oct 8, 2024 at 9:00am
In response to "I Won't Back Down"

Great song choice!

1 Like

Merry QPdoll

Oct 8, 2024 at 6:15am
In response to "I Won't Back Down"

I like Tom Petty, too. My favorite song is Mary Jane's Last Dance. However, I like the message of I Won't Back Down. It's a fine choice.

1 Like

tracker

Oct 7, 2024 at 12:23pm
In response to "Creeque Alley"

This is when I like AI. The song is a story about when the group was formed. It was released when I had first started college. Where? In California! Good choice of song.

1 Like

Merry QPdoll

Oct 6, 2024 at 7:58am
In response to "Three Little Birds"

It's been a long time since I've heard this song. I don't know if I've heard it from beginning to end. I think it's just been in pieces in different instances. Thank you for sharing. I don't have a playlist, but the song is fun.

1 Like

September 28, 2024 at 5:30am

#1077372

Serotonin

My eighth OneRepublic track is Serotonin, a deep cut from their 2024 album Artificial Paradise.

It has a uniquely funky charm, seemingly the exact type of song the album cover art was designed for, with loopy, cyclical, "drifting through cyberspace" synths and quietly confused lyrics that have a mildly surreal and psychedelic quality.

The first thing I thought when I heard the opening lyrical melody and Ryan's vocal timber is: this is a Post Malone parody! Seriously, it sounds exactly like a song Ryan Tedder might have prepared for Post Malone and then decided to keep for himself. Either that or Ryan was knowingly imitating the other artist.

Now, this last theory is not so farfetched as it may seem. Ryan Tedder has a sense of humor, and I've noticed he's hidden little "Easter eggs" in some of OneRepublic's songs over the years. I'll give a couple examples from their 2021 album Human. In Distance, Ryan sings "I don't wanna ever need a map to you." He is here referencing the old song he wrote for Maroon 5, Maps. And in Savior, he uses the word "bridge" at the song's bridge, a subtle pun. Ryan is also a high-level producer who has written songs for and worked with pretty much every pop artist you could name within the past fifteen years. So, if he wanted to, he could easily have made a song in the style of Post Malone just for fun.

All that aside, I truly enjoy Serotonin, despite the simple, almost childish lyrics. The loopy moodiness of the theme and the music resonate with me, especially so because it reminds me of two Imagine Dragons songs which I love for similar reasons, Sirens and Peace of Mind. (Both of those are deep cuts off their 2022 "second half album" Mercury Act 2.)

The first night I sat down and put Serotonin on to analyze turned out to be quite a memorable night, with the song woven into a bunch of other things that were happening. When I hopped onto WdC some time before midnight, which I don't usually do, I shared Serotonin with LinnAnn -Book writer

on Scroll and chatted eagerly about it. I think she enjoyed it too. It was fun to be able to bond with someone so different from me, on the other side of the country, across three time zones, listening to the same song simultaneously.

All in all, the mood of the night was very much similar to the mood of the song I chose to listen to: peculiar and slightly surreal. Or maybe it just seemed that way because of the song. A quirky bunch of summer memories to associate with it.

Interestingly, Serotonin is an example of a recent songwriting habit of Ryan's, what I call "burning the bridge." Over the years, OneRepublic's songs have become shorter and shorter, until at some point I realized they're actually missing a crucial element: the bridge, particularly the lyrical bridge.

The lyrical bridge is a natural turning point in a song, usually coming after two sets of verses and choruses and leading up to the final chorus and outro. It introduces a new angle on the main theme and provides intellectual and instrumental depth as well as a moment of fresh engagement.

Taking a random 1R track, Love Runs Out from their 2013 album Native as an example, we see a clearly defined lyrical bridge. A random track ten years later, 2023's Runaway, entirely lacks one, having only ten seconds of instrumental transition between choruses. Ryan repeats this trend across a dozen or so different songs within the past three years, both deep cuts and singles.

The absence of this natural turning point in 1R's recent songs creates a cheapening effect, making them seem too short, overly repetitive and simplistic. For that matter, the disappearance of 1R's bridges coincides with a general oversimplification of their major themes, from the charmingly moody and cryptic lyrics of the early days to basic, optimistic love songs. Even the verse structure has changed, from longer poetic lines with alternated rhyme schemes to quickly stacked sound bites aiming more for catchiness than complexity.

I don't know if Ryan Tedder is consciously "dumbing down" his lyrics for OneRepublic these days to make them more trendy and TikTok-able. Maybe it's not such an unexpected thing, considering the other half of his career is built on the ongoing chart success of what he produces for others in a rapidly evolving industry.

Imagine Dragons lead singer Dan Reynolds, on the other hand, still uses the lyrical bridge as a crucial element of his songwriting. The lead single off of 2024 album Loom, Eyes Closed, includes a bridge which adds a fresh concept to the seemingly boisterous song, that of seeking solitude in order to work on oneself when the world gets too stressful. Dan often uses the lyrical bridge as a way to add deeper, more personal meaning and a different perspective to what he's conveying. If he decided to leave them out, we would be missing a lot.

Returning to OneRepublic and Ryan Tedder, I do remember thinking many of the bridges of his earliest songs from the 2006 and 2009 album cycles seemed to run on the same melody. I even conflated a few bridges over the years.

None of this is to say the quality of Ryan's work has seriously diminished. He repeatedly assures fans that what he writes for OneRepublic is the best he has to offer; he understands we're looking for something higher quality than average pop music, not merely trendy, but also somewhat transcendental. He is a master of his craft, insomuch as he knows the formula and sticks to it. Which, in his case, isn't a bad thing at all.

Word count: 1001.

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