Music Analysis - Tumblr Posts

You want more? Ok. Here you go. (Also I’m so mad this is the second time I have to write this my phone glitched and I lost everything.)

Let’s analyze the lyrics of the album Green. Starting with “Pop Song 89.”

The lyrics of the second section are: “Hello, I'm sorry, I lost myself. I think I thought you were someone else. Should we talk about the weather? Should we talk about the government?”

First sentence: “I lost myself.” “I don’t know I guess I feel like I lost you or something.” See what I’m saying? Not a lot needed to say.

Second sentence: “I think I thought you were someone else.” Will used El’s name to share his feelings. Mike thought they were El’s feelings. He thought it was El.

Third sentence: “Should we talk about the weather?” In the “super spy” and the “crazy together” scene, they are talking about the shadow monster, which is portrayed in a storm. Weather. Also the whole upside down is kind of portrayed as a storm, so the scene in Hopper’s cabin also counts.

Fourth sentence: “Should we talk about the government?” Hello? Stranger things?? Government?? The government is a huge thing in Stranger things. I can’t remember if/when Mike and Will talked about the government but still.

Also I think is a good idea to mention another line in the song that goes “You know I never knew it could be so strange, strange.” STRANGE. Stranger Things!

Next, a very short one, “Get Up.” It’s literally about trying to get someone to wake up. (Remind you of anything?) Since “wake up” has been said (or sung) to almost every Vecna’d victim, it’s safe to say either Mike or Will will get Vecna’d. Also near the end of “Get Up” there is music that sound like a music box. Robin pointed out and played Nancy’s music box. And she got half-Vecna’d.

All I’m going to say about the next song, “You Are The Everything” is listen to it and read the lyrics. Just think about Mike singing it about Will. It’s just really sweet and sad.

That’s all for now but let me know if you want me to do the rest of the album. I might do it anyway.

Also there’s 11 songs in the album.

Lil update:

I listened to the rest of the albums and I can’t figure out anything else except for that they mention a compass in “Stand” and “Turn you inside out” sounds like it’s from Vecna’s pov. Also “The Wrong Child” could be about El.

I have an official theory that the s5 time skip is going to skip forward 2 years to 1988 and I need that to happen and here’s why:

Will has an REM poster. Will canonically listens to REM. (great taste) What REM album came out in 1988? Green. Now if you don’t know about the green byler color coding I suggest looking it up somewhere else because I don’t have the energy to explain. Not to mention, Green literally has a song in it called “I Remember California.”

I don’t remember who said it but right after volume 1 came out, someone pointed out that REM can stand for Rapid Eye Movement (again look it up it’s hard to explain) which occurs multiple times throughout the series and especially in season 4.

Another interesting thing is that in Life’s Rich Pagent, one of their albums released in 1986, there is a song (a very popular cover) called Superman.

Leaving it at that

I listen to a LOT of music, right? mostly the DMC soundtrack. so heres some shit i just found interesting while listening and noticing stuff, in no particular order:

In Nevan's theme, if you listen really closely from about 1:15 - 1:27, you can hear a background track really similar to 0:31 - 0:44 in Ultra Violet. Its not exactly the same but it was similar enough to make me pause for a minute and go back to listen again. Similar to above, in The Duel, if you listen closely throughout the song you'll notice that guitar riff sounds traumatically familiar to 0:37 - 0:48 in ASSAULT from DMC 2 (aka, that stupid fucking helicopter.) Intentional? Probably not, but i cant listen to that track the same way again lol The choir in Vergil 3 and Devils Never Cry are actually the same, just in Vergil 3 the pacing of it has been shifted a little, and in Devils Never Cry its a little slower also. It has the same notes in the same order otherwise. Also in Vergil 3, have you ever noticed how playful the track seems in parts? Most notably, the beginning? I plan to write a full analysis of all 3 of Vergil's themes in DMC 3, but i just found this interesting to note considering how otherwise serious the fight is. And also in Devils Never Cry, ive noticed the beginning sounds eerily like what you'd hear at a funeral, especially with that church organ in the background. Fitting, for a scene right after Vergil lets himself fall into hell. this one is probably obvious but can go unrealized, but DMC 5's Divinity Statue theme is the only DV statue theme in the series that isn't primarily a chior track. The track "Public Enemy", as it's named in DMC 5, is named "Pubic Enemy" on Spotify. Actually all of DMC 1's soundtrack on Spotify is a long sex joke. (Pubic Enemy, Red Hot Juice, Final Penetration, IM COMING!, and Blue Orgasm)

DMC 3's Mission 4 theme is actually saying all the deadly sins, which took me an embarassingly long time to realize. that squeaky noise heard in the background of EYE OF THE WIND in DMC 2 is actually first heard in ST-07 in DMC 1. For some reason i thought that squeaky noise was a DMC 2 exclusive thing because its just that annoying. Yamato 2 in DMC 4 from 0:15 - 0:50 uses the same kind of violin track that's used in most - if not all - of Arkham's scenes in DMC 3 (a good example being this track from 0:10 - 0:40), which i also find interesting considering how much of a story point Vergil was in that game, and how Yamato in a way represents him in DMC 4. anyway thats all for now i may reblog in the future with more discoveries if i find them :]

I do know why, but I think the Suicide Squad 2016 soundtrack reflects ‘91 Negaduck as a character, especially “Sucker for Pain” and “Wreak Havoc.” Its hard for me to explain without you guys listening to the songs, but I’ll try.

Negaduck seems like the type to not only enjoy others’ pain but also his own. In his head, pain is pleasure. Which is basically what ”Sucker for Pain“ is about.

”Wreak Havoc” is about someone who enjoys causing chaos and loves being bad. There‘s a few lines from the song that resonates Negaduck vibes for me, “The only reason I’m here is to wreak havoc, everybody prayin that I’ll change, yeah, Maybe one day but tomorrow I’ll be back at it,” & “Go against me & you’ll die hard.” The first line explains all the fun has chasing destruction, while the latter line implies that he’s not afraid to kill anyone who goes against him.

What do you guys think? What other songs do you think fit Negaduck?

Okay so I saw atsv recently and while I love reading everyone’s takes on the art styles, I have to bring up the music

I’m a pretty basic music nerd with minimal theory study, but I’ve taken to just playing the soundtrack. (I’m referencing specifically the Metro soundtrack, I prefer songs with lyrics, but I’m positive this will apply to the other soundtrack too, the crew of spider verse are that amazing) And in doing so, I just need to bring up how carefully these songs are constructed??

See, backing track songs need to be subtle. That’s what (in my experience) can make them boring or difficult to compose - how do you make something interesting but able to blend in? But these people, they’ve just - pulled back layers?? And spread them out???? Rarely is there more than about 3 things happening at any one point in the songs, and it means they can pack so much into them. And more than that, it gives them room to give every song a style, a reference and a character to link them to!

Take ‘Hummingbird’, for example: it’s the song that plays when Gwen opens the portal above Miles’ bed. Then compare it to ‘Sunflower’, from the original movie. The artists are completely different, the tone of the movie has changed entirely, but the songs mirror each other!! The way the vocals have a little flick (flick? Reach??) at the end, the bass and trap in the background, heck, even the emotions they convey! Miles, in each instance, is at a turning point, whether he is aware of it or not.

But the composers haven’t just decided to mimic Miles’ song from the original song - they’ve dampened it to fit the tone of the movie. The trap beat and pulses are muted, and the vocals are slightly subdued. And of course, the lyrics are very different. They are both about love, but one is optimistic, and one is resigned. GOD these people!!

And it’s like this with basically every song I’ve come across! While a lot of the characters have less (or nothing) to compare to, the composers have put bits and pieces in to make the characterisations and emotions peak through. Just look at the percussion in ‘Link Up’ (a mixture of the clicking from ‘Self-Love, which kinda was Gwen’s theme in the album, and the percussion from ‘Silk & Cologne’, which I think is supposed to be Miles’ family and their party (?)) which I took as showing Miles’ split between Gwen and the Spiders, and his family.

Just, this soundtrack has som much care and love stuffed into it. I don’t know how much this makes sense (It’s 3 AM), but I didn’t see anyone talking about it and that is a CRIME

as a born-n-raised southern Californian (specifically the area around LA + Hollywood, which is relevant), Chappell Roan's California messes me up in a subtly in the lyrics i dont think non-Californians will get (or at least people who DON'T live in a climate that is similar to what we got going on in that vague LA, Hollywood, valley-area)

like everybody who loves this song knows the whole 🎶"No leave are brown"🎶 lyric is a reference to California Dreamin' by The Mamas & The Papas' lyric 🎶"The leaves are brown and the sky is gray"🎶 and that is true

and, this will seem like a tangent but i have point: im Indigenous American, and i will seldom stand up for the USA against other countries' criticisms (tho i do have "glass houses, my guy. have you checked if you live in one?" thoughts about it, but that'd be SUPER tangential to get into); but i DO feel my hands turn to fists when anyone, an American from another territory or a foreigner from any other country, pokes judgementally at California. like i either have or almost have unsubbed from youtubers or tiktokers who have voiced bitter opinions about California. and i mention this bc those people would probably joke "lol 🎶'no leaves are brown'🎶 bc, in California, they are plastic, their trees' leaves cannot turn brown" liKE?? FUCK YOU, NO. THAT'S ACTUALLY KINDA THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT I AM ABOUT TO SAY HERE. BITE ME. YOU DONT GET IT

bc that line, 🎶"No leaves are brown"🎶 has a different impact as someone who has grown up in the relative area she is singing about

but if either you yourself or else your parents/guardians/older family members were in California in even the 80s, much less the 70s or earlier... you know fire-season is a brand new thing we have to deal with it. you know drought-season is the same. it's a weird political thing where they try to normalize for us these global-warming things, make us less scared of them if we see them as cyclical

which might be a surprise for non-Californians, as many have this odd image of California as "both a city and a desert × beach" when it's not. it's got cities, yes, it's got a coast, obviously, and it has deserts, yeah, AND it has a shit ton of mountains and hills EVERYWHERE, it has valleys, farms, rural mountain towns, "hicks" and "hillbillies" ontop of our 🤟surfer-dudes🏄‍♂️ and influencer/actor-culture stereotypes, ski lodges, boonies, reservations, national parks, and northern California is part of the Pacific North-West, you drive literally in any direction and within 2 to 4 hours, youll be in a whole different climate. this state is so huge that i remember my family trying to do roadtrips to Canada (bc we were too broke to fly, woah, who said that) and itd take over a week to get from my soCal hometown to Washington state alone. and im not that deep south in soCal; LA and whatnot is part of the northern-most area of soCal. it'd still be over a week of driving for 8+ hours. and we'd face sleet, hail, snow, rain, and insane winds on the way. which sounds like im exaggerating, but the reason why we stopped doing those roadtrips was because my mom (who is from MICHIGAN) couldn't stand driving through snow and rain anymore, again, before we even hit Washington state ("if you guys do get rain and snow then why does California still have that on/off drought then?" bc water from norCal doesn't trickle down for a 1+ week through all of central-Cali over in the same buckets to soCal naturally, makes sense)

so we, in this pocket of California Chappell Roan is singing about, arent SUPPOSED to have brown leaves is what im saying. but we are. we have TOO MANY brown leaves, actually. that's what happens to plants in a drought, they brown and die; and then we get at-risk for the false-normalcy that is fire-season. those brown leaves in overabundance is those wildfires' kindling. even in rural mountain-towns where there are evergreen trees, bc LA and Hollywood's area does have mountains that get some HEAVY snow and rain, to the point where houses often get snowed in ("wait, but the drought—?" fam, it just won't come down the mountains. idk why the weather is like that except ✨️general global-warming reasons✨️. and the water doesnt trickle down bc, down the mountains, is so hot normally that a lot of that shit evaporates. sometimes, we get "lucky" and the "global warming happens in extremes both ways" thing means those mountains will get SUCH BAD snow that the hot af valleys can get enough water for the drought to temporarily be "off". but that shit doesnt stick, and thank fuck for that bc these mountain towns cant stand THAT bad snow ALL the time, so the drought comes back), there will still be dead pine-needles and other evergreens in overabundance across these woods' floor, and more and more and more will fall bc the nature of a drought and how HOT it gets and that shit can catch on fire EASY

and let's pretend for a second that there are no rural mountain towns in the LA and Hollywood region (there are) but let's pretend there arent. i grew up in a college-town full of trees, at least one per house, in the valley of that region. we still get seasons. flowers bloom, red and orange leaves, brown leaves, leaflessly bare trees, i just personally never experienced snow in my hometown. i grew up associating winter with rain, and i genuinely frowned in upset if i didnt get rain on Christmas (still do. even when i wasnt in my hometown. rainy Christmas beats "white Christmas" or "green Christmas" every time for me). so we do get seasons, we still get all the trees' seasonal forms. we just are also heavy on "throw your leaves away, rake it all up, fire-season is around the corner!" types of stuff

but even if you went with stereotypical "oh, but the palm trees tho?" type of trees, in a fantasy where that's somehow the only tree in California: that shit is ever-green, but that doesn't mean it is plastic. the leaves still brown and fall. we just p immediately get rid of them since they're SO BIG that they can cause issues with foot-traffic and are annoying as hell to drive over. so you dont see them too often, not like other ever-greens, where youll easily see a shitton of pine-needles or whatever around. and thank fuck for it, bc rats nest in palm-trees and i always freak about the mostly-irrational fear of one falling by me with a rat; and seeing either a rat die from the fall or the spooked and confused rat possibly attack me. like. to the point that unless i can see a dead palm-tree leaf is fully flat, i give that shit a WIDE berth bc im scared of a spooked or dead rat being under it OR of another leaf falling. and palm-trees being evergreen means those leaves fall all-year-round, randomly, there's no season. so, again, not like that shit is plastic or like it is impossible to see a dead palm-tree leaf around. so that's not the "no leaves here are turning brown, wtf" happening either

and, as a quick aside, before someone from Missouri says it: i am aware y'all ALSO have fire-season/s, burn bans, and your trees sometimes are also unintentionally creating kindling. it's just not AS infamous as California's, because we don't have a "yearly drought" but instead have this 365-day-long drought that has brief "off-periods" of being over before returning in less than 4, 6 months. it's not a competition, bc fire-season is fucked up either way. it's just "we have more dead leaves than y'all nc of that on/off drought" is all im saying. not about how bad/worse whose fire-season is, that shit's fucked. bUT I'LL BRING UP HOW MISSOURI ALSO HAS A FIRE-SEASON, JUST WAIT

so why does this line fuck me up??? if leaves ARE brown in California?

exactly that. (ill explain) (..obviously lol)

i think that's the point of the line 🎶"No leaves are brown"🎶. not that "tee-hee 🤪 california is plastic and never gets seasons 😝 so 'no leaves' CAN 'turn brown' there 😜 heh" kind of "there are NO leaves here turning brown, there's no snow, there's no seasons, everything is 'young' forever" kind of reading. toss that shit out of here, that's not relevant to my personal reading of the song. to me, it's not "none of these leaves are brown"

it's instead "too many of these leaves are brown. leaves are not supposed to be brown all the time" kind of 🎶"No leaves are brown"🎶 (if you need an example of the emphasis shift: we have moved from "No unicorns are here, only horses (unicorns don't exist here)" to more of an "No unicorns are without a horn, there shouldn't just be horses (unicorns do exist here)" type of sentence? bc we have moved from "No leaves are brown, leaves should be turning brown (browning leaves don't exist here)" to instead "No leaves are brown, leaves shouldnt always be brown, leaves should be green in spring and red in autumn (brown leaves exist in overabundance). i hope, if everything else hasn't made the emphasis shift click yet, that breakdown example helps???), like Chappell Roan would— instead of yearning for leaves turning brown and seeing winter— be yearning for leaves turning green, of spring, of rain, of rebirth and youth instead of this "kindling for a fire" (possible phoneix reborn from the ashes) where 🎶"My dying town"🎶 then has a double-meaning of both "my hometown (definition 1: place of your early years) in Missouri is dying (with people like the singer leaving and population dwindling assumedly)" AND "my hometown (definition 2: place of current residence) in California is dying (with brown leaves and fires)". which can then turn the lines about 🎶"Thought I'd be cool in California/I'd make you proud/To think I almost had it going/But I let you down"🎶 and 🎶"Come get me out of California"🎶 to easily twist from "I failed, I messed up" walk-of-shame kind of reasons for why "Thought I'd make you proud by being cool → I let you down" into instead being external reasons of the "This Is Fine" House-On-Fire Dog Meme becoming the "How Could I Ever Think Was Fine?!" House-On-Fire Dog Meme variety. it instead reads as an evacuation, as "i almost got it but all this other stuff happened (like, idk, a wildfire lmao) and i need to leave, help me live, i cant brave this anymore, im sorry for asking for help and letting you down"... with the irony being Missouri ALSO has fire-season. but they just have a fire-season with other forms of weather more consistently everywhere, with less brown leaves. so there is this kind of "Chappell Roan, Missouri isn't where you should run from a fire, there's fires over there too", which just twists the knife about 🎶"My dying town"🎶 for sure since both are capable of burning. but it kind of makes it also more apparent that, hey, both of these places (to live in pursuit of fame OR to live with fame abandoned) will burn away a part of you, and you will panic about the "new devil" and yearn for "the devil you know" twist of "the grass is always greener on the other side". also, the place you grew up will always be special to you and scream of safety in a way. like im saying all this stuff about California, but id write a song wailing about wanting to go back if i ever had to leave it. all of which in turn spins 🎶"'Cause I was never told that I wasn't going to get/The things I want the most/And people always say 'If it hasn't happened yet/Then maybe you should go'"🎶 to now be about wanting to go to Missouri (but can't, as you can hear from the pleas being unanswered and the lack of shift from "Come get me → You've come to get me/I've left/I'm leaving/I'm packing/etc") and people encouraging "maybe you should go to Missouri". but the singer doesnt. Chappell Roan instead writes about someone who wants to leave but isn't leaving. the closest the singer gets is 🎶"Too hard to find reasons to stay/Even true love could not persuade"🎶 but the act of leaving never ACTUALLY happens. the singer pleads but doesn't move. Chappell Roan already wrote about how the singer has 🎶"[T]rade[d] amber clay roads for the/Sea foam and endless sun rays"🎶 and the leaves that are only ever brown and, as a result, will have to remain "stretched across four states" with unanswered pleading

which you could read as "Missouri is mad" and feels "let down" that the singer ever left, not that the singer wasn't able to "be cool in California". i personally see it more as Noah Kahan's You're Going To Go Far 🎶"We ain't angry at you, love/You're the greatest thing we've lost"🎶 and 🎶"The boards will still creak, the leaves will still die/We ain't angry at you, love/We'll be waitin' for you, love/And we'll all be here forever/And we'll all be here forever/You're gonna go far"🎶 or even Chuckie's famous line in Good Will Hunting (1997) about Will's potential that went like "Look, you're my best friend, so don't take this the wrong way but, in 20 years if you're still livin' here, comin' over to my house, watchin' the Patriots games, workin' construction, I'll fuckin' kill ya. That's not a threat, that's a fact, I'll fuckin' kill ya. [...] No. No, no no no. Fuck you, you don't owe it to yourself man, you owe it to me. Cuz tomorrow I'm gonna wake up and I'll be 50, and I'll still be doin' this shit. And that's all right. That's fine. I mean, you're sittin' on a winnin' lottery ticket. And you're too much of a pussy to cash it in, and that's bullshit. 'Cause I'd do fuckin' anything to have what you got. So would any of these fuckin' guys. It'd be an insult to us if you're still here in 20 years. Hangin' around here is a fuckin' waste of your time" or Cinema Paradiso (1988) scene where Alfredo is saying goodbye to Toto and "Don't come back. Don't think about us. Don't look back. Don't write. Don't give in to nostalgia. Forget us all. If you do and you come back, don't come see me. I won't let you in my house. Understand?"/"Thank you. For everything you've done for me."/"Whatever you end up doing, love it. The way you loved the projection booth when you were a little squirt". albeit i never liked the trope assumption of "small town lives never change", esp to the point that entire towns or states would be "waiting" or "a waste of time". i think the Thing is moreso about "sometimes you have to leave, even for just a while, you just have to leave and nobody is going to bring you back early". im more of a Nina, more of a Breathe, from In The Heights, state of mind than i ever would be "someone comes and gets the singer of Chappell Roan's California themselves". you come back when YOU come back. or else you never do. like i said, id be wailing for California, and i know my health will force me to leave it someday since i cant live well in this heat, so im definitely not of a "never come back" OR of a "small town/states are lesser" lens or whatever. but rather that kind of "everybody wants the best for you so badly, for you to at least leave for a while bc thats the best thing for you, that theyll ignore your pleading until you yourself make ACTUAL moves to come back. to follow your dreams, even if it is just for a while and then your dreams or means change, then you must follow that shit wholeheartedly". even though all the examples i gave are of people implied to have never came back, or practically never, if i remember right, in the case of Toto who does briefly return for Alfredo's funeral before returning to his new home elsewhere in Italy. still. my overall point is i dont think the singer's pleas being ignored is malicious. i believe the singer has the agency to leave, and is just momentarily scared of something external that isnt actually That New, but is scared of actually returning (and thereby doesnt use their own agency to evacuate) bc doing so/having left in the first place feels like letting Missouri down...

anyway.

i have a lot of thoughts about California is, i guess, the moral of the story(?). and this song wrecks me to pieces in a way that i dont think a lot of people outside of my homestate will get, yet everyone DOES get with You're Going To Go Far, Breathe from In The Heights, Good Will Hunting, and Cinema Paradiso... not to mention how many double-meanings the ambiguity of these lines have, and how it isn't as straight-forward a song as many assume, and that is BEAUTIFUL. but people keep interpreting what 🎶"No leaves are brown"🎶 means (aka: the plastic trees people) in ways that piss me off so now y'all get this essay

(anyway should i mention how ive wondered before if The Mamas & The Papas were prophetic in how 🎶"The leaves are brown and the sky is gray"🎶 so easily leads into the Californian brand of fire-season, all about the kindling and smoke?? no? okay lol)

ok ok first of all thanks for the cookie munched and crunched that !! 😍😍

second OH MY GOD I AM IN LOVE WITH THE WAY THIS WORKS SO PERFECTLY READING THRU THIS WAS LIKE PUTTING PUZZLE PIECES TG OHHHHHH

THE FACE YOU HOOKED ONTO THE MORE COMPLEX RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LEON AND KRAUSER AND THE MUSIC TOO!!

I TOLD MY FRIEND THAT AND SHE WAS LIKE "yes but they're gay anyways" AND I DIDNT GET ANY MORE DEPTH SO SEEING THIS ALFKAHDLSHDODNSK

I TOTALLY GET THE CAT AND MOUSE PART WITH MENDEZ LIKE HES JUST AN OBSTACLE WHICH EXPLAINS THE LIKE CLIMACTIC MUSIC LEADING UP TO THE UHM PART WHERE LEON SHOOTS THE GAS CANISTER (barrel? tank? as you can tell idk)

OH GOD CLAY YOU READ MY MIND 🫶🏽🫶🏽 YOU LOCKED IN FOR THIS ONEEEE AND U DIDNT FAIL TO DELIVER

okay let me just say i am a big music nerd and also a big resident evil nerd. put two and two together, and now you have this. greetings and salutations everyone and today i am going to analyze and discuss the 4 major boss themes in resident evil 4 remake and my interpretations of each one.

note that i am no big music theory major, but i know way too much about resident evil and i know how music can influence how someone can feel and how it can relate to the characters they are for.

the bosses i am going to be talking about are as follows:

Bitores Méndez, Ramón Salazar, Krauser, and Osmund Saddler.

they will go in order right under the cut!! i hope u enjoy because this actually took hours to write im not even kidding.

Bitores Méndez:

Starting off with Méndez, his boss theme is very very different from the OG. What the Remake has, I believe it further demonstrates and shows to the player through music more insight on how he is presented in the game.

In the original, his theme is really just...eerie. It's unsettling, with much of it being very high pitched and almost just screaming in your ear. Some really other good examples of this are like—for instance—the very end of the Undertale Genocide route or like Something in Omori. It's made to be unnerving, like something is incredibly wrong in the situation you are in. But for Méndez's theme in the OG, it's really as far as it goes. It's just high pitched noises with creepy sound effects, almost like something is chasing you. There's even remnants of someone screaming in the background if you listen super closely.

The thing I love with the Remake is that they added so much more to this theme. Firstly, they kept that eerie high pitched noise that was primarily in the OG's soundtrack, in the background. That feeling and that aspect is still there in the song, but they added more instruments so that it was definitely more of a boss theme. There's drums, violins, tubas, etc. Those were at least the main ones I heard upon inspection.

Méndez is supposed to be the first big bad in re4r, he's kind of like the strong and seemingly invincible character for a good long while. He doesn't talk much, he's just there to follow Saddler's orders and to carry out his will. You have to try to avoid him in many cases because you can't get past him, but now you're in a situation where you have no other choice but to fight him. The music really amplifies this because it really conveys that feeling that he's like a mindless soldier. He's extremely intimidating, a lot of the music feels like it isn't leading up to this big finale or any sort of release. It's meant to build up tension or suspense, and it isn't much of a build up.

Méndez is there for the purpose to kill, with Las Plagas infecting his mind so badly he doesn't even have thoughts of his own anymore. That's only the first half of the song, because the second does get interesting.

It turns very fast paced and hurried. Like a cat and mouse chase, there's even an added primarily male choir in there to further add to the eerie feeling. It gets a lot more intense, because further in the fight, Leon is doing more to injure Méndez and that tension is finally rising to where it's a much more intense battle because Méndez had mutated a second time and now they are at each other's throats and the heat of battle and the burning building is probably getting to the both of them. And the tension is rising, rising, the music gets louder and its crescendoing more and more and then, it goes quiet.

it's not a big flashy ending, it just fades out to quietness. all of it is over, you can take a break and let what just happened sink in. it's so much more interesting and i do love they incorporated the same eerie noises from the OG into the remake's.

----

Ramón Salazar:

Up next we have Ramòn Salazar, and his remake theme is one of my favorites in the whole game. But starting with the OG, it lays a pretty decent foundation. There's that eerieness to it in the first, but then it grows a bit bigger. It primarily has a lot of organ parts to it. Plainly stating, Ramòn is from Royalty, he lives in a castle and had people do his bidding and such. His official title is of a Castilian.

He is also very weak compared to everyone else, and he hides behind the stronger ones with his rank and title. Organs are very primarily used in settings of where we are now, a very gothic style castle where before Los Illuminados came, everyone there was very Catholic. Which in other cases, they can be heard in churches as well. They're typically seen as very creepy instruments that unnerve many people. There's also usage of violins and a choir, which give this feeling of almost like a Haunted Mansion like sound as if there were ghosts taunting you.

Interestingly enough, there's also some more modern hints in the song with a faint electric bass in there. It's also a little waltzy, like it has elements where you could kinda dance to it. It has a similar tension where it rises and rises and then goes quiet again.

But what I really want to get to now is his remake theme, holy shit it is so so SO amazing. Ramòn in remake is very vastly different from OG, he has that same element of being weak and using his authority to always have a higher ground, but he isn't nearly as cowardly. He has a way more sadistic mind to him, and even in records found in the game, he was described to be this nasty little guy who reveled in seeing people suffer.

he also presents the whole section as like a story or a play. He calls Leon a "gallant knight" and Ashley the "princess fair." He's over dramatic, and he sees himself as a higher being than the others. Except for Saddler, because he worships the man—like everyone else.

Already within the theme we are starting off BIG, it's loud, dramatic, very fitting to how he sees everything as a show, a drama even. We get a lot of build up within the first 35 seconds or so. They utilize a lot of choir parts within this, mainly SSA (sopranos and altos) to make it very high pitched and giving that eerie vibe again. The title of the song comes into play too, "Baile de la Muerte," or as translated, The Dance of Death. Already off the bat it sounds as dramatic as the music is, and because the song is very much a waltz.

It's also something to note that Ramón moves around a LOT in this fight, similar to how you move in a dance. But he looks a lot more like a horrifyingly mutilated bug so it's more annoying than anything.

String instruments are HUGE in this song, and especially that choir part mentioned earlier coming in really heavy towards the middle. There is some more SATB (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) at this part compared to the beginning. There's already so much tension because the song starts big and keeps. getting. BIGGER. towards the end the choir part keeps striking with more and more tension, its keeps building and building, and then HUGGEEE beat drop where there is just this beautiful and amazing finale that is just so so SO dramatic and theatrical. it's like the big end to a show, the strings are fast and furious as the drums are striking and LOUD, and what i believe to be brass instruments just killing it. and the final note ends on a high ass note for the choir and all the instruments coming together to deliver the end of this AMAZING track.

its a dramatic piece for an equally theatrical and dramatic character, and it leaves with this satisfying finish before ending and letting it all settle again.

---

Jack Krauser:

Now with Krauser's theme, it is my favorite in the whole game. I could loop it for hours because it's so catchy and it even ties back to previous lore with his character. Firstly to compare to the OG, the OG and remake are already extremely similar.

It's very strong and heavy, like how Krauser is. It's also very dramatic and one big thing to notice is that there is this kind of very fast drum that is prominent. It's kind of something that you would hear in a theme pertaining to jungles and whatnot, which IS important. I'll get to that in a moment, but, it's a very fast paced song. It does have that tension because Leon is facing a formidable for that he used to know. There's a lot of build ups ready for a beat drop that just adds so much to the intensity. There's not much to say because the melody and sound for this song is pretty much the same as remake, but obviously they expanded on it.

what i really want to get to is remake, because they utilize SO many elements in this to make it really powerful and to support Krauser's character. First and foremost, Krauser and Leon's relationship in remake is different than OG. In OG they were more "comrades" who fought with one another in the military, but in remake, Krauser and Leon, have this relationship where he was his mentor. They both know the same combat skills, it just comes down to who can apply them better in their fight. That's what makes Krauser so terrifying, because he knows everything Leon knows to a higher degree.

As well as that jungle aspect maybe coming from Darkside Chronicles that expanded on Leon and Krauser and Operation Javier. I thought that was a neat touch to add with the music as well, but anyways, this piece is powerful with the primarily male choirs, harmonies, and so. much. buildup. it's leading up to something so much bigger with it's fast paced structure. there's a lot of heavy drums that are just going and going, and it eventually leads to this HUGE beatdrop that really makes it feel more like a final battle. Leon is facing someone that was close to him, even if he was a huge asshole, he was Leon's mentor and taught him everything he knew.

it's so heavily dramatic because the stakes are high, Leon has to get to Ashley before it's too late and try not to get killed by his teacher. It repeats until at the end It leads up and up until it goes to this somber music. Leon has to kill someone he did care about. He proved himself worthy and now has to take the final blow, all while trying not to cry because he was forced into doing it. It leads up to this big big tense feeling until he strikes the blow and it's over.

"I taught you well, Leon."

"That you did, Major, that you did."

---

Osmund Saddler:

With Saddler, it's, again, similar to the OG and to be frank, I'm just gonna talk about the remake. Saddler is so interesting because the whole game has been leading up to him. He's a mystery, he is the leader of Los Illuminados, the one with all the control over everyone in the hivemind. With his theme, they really use a lot of the choir instead of the instruments taking over.

The reason due to this is probably all of the religious themes within Saddler and how he is literally a cult leader. within churches, there are usually church choirs that sing which is probably why it's very abundant in the theme. The music is matching with the choir a lot, and a lot of drums are used in this piece. Compared to some others, there are a lot of flowy parts to the song and also some very staccato moments where it's very on the dot. Especially in the middle where it's very big and intense.

This is a serious battle, Leon has to kill Saddler to get rid of Los Illuminados, and it isn't an easy task. They really keep that feeling of it being such a tough fight and that it is menacing, Saddler is not just a pushover. He wants to spread his cult across the world and he will stop at nothing to try and achieve that. It mainly repeats a lot due to it obviously being a boss theme and it will repeat until you kill the boss, but the ending is so interesting as it goes from this very flowy and moving section, and then it goes down, and then ends abruptly with even a hint of organ snuck in there.

Saddler is posed as a threat, on or off screen, and his theme definitely delivers on that as well.

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and that is a wrap! if you made it to the end, you get a cookie 🍪

and if anyone wants to discuss anything more, feel free! these are my thoughts and ideas of all of these themes and how they relate to all of the characters they are for :)

I've been thinking about this for a while, not just in terms of Eurovision, but it's a good context to explore the idea in.

I'm not sure it there is an actual term for this, but I've come to think of it in terms of genre literacy, where for certain musical genres you need a base of understanding (and experience) to work from, in order to fully understand or appreciate the more complex or derived works within a particular genre.

This doesn't negate those moments when you're introduced to something outside of your normal experience ("What the **** was that?!") and it completely knocks your socks off, but even then, chances are you're going to be inspired to do more exploring around that song/artist/genre, thus providing you with more background and musical context.

This is why I get so excited seeing variation in some of the less well-trodden genres in Eurovision; to me, Viszlát Nyár by AWS (Hungary, 2018), in addition to being one of my favourite Eurovision entries ever (and being one of the few to reliably make me cry), is wildly different from anything we've seen before or since, including the examples you gave from 2021, Zitti e buoni by Måneskin (Italy) or Dark Side by Blind Channel (Finland, of course).

As much as I would like to feel slightly smug about my taste in music, I very much feel this applies to 'pop' music as well; with a few exceptions (Lizzo, Lana Del Ray, Miley Cyrus, and a smattering of Carly Rae Jepson and Cardi B) I've barely listened to anything approaching the mainstream musical canon for a few years, so turning on the radio it all sounds like a bit of a homogeneous blur. That doesn't mean that mainstream pop music is objectively bad, or less complex or worthy than the music I enjoy, more that I don't have the experience and the background knowledge to judge whether it's good or bad in context.

A lot of my musical taste is so niche, I'm also just really happy seeing other people finding music that they enjoy and that means something to them (even if I would love to have more people to talk to about Epic Nautical Funeral Doom Metal ;) )

This gets further complicated when you consider artists and songs who are deliberately pushing (or breaking) the boundaries or tropes of a genre; you need that grounding in order to fully appreciate what they are doing differently!

One of the reasons I love Eurovision so much is because it's one of the few arenas where we get to see a wide variety of genres (and cultural contexts) in one place, and I feel that has been invaluable for me in terms of my overall musical genre literacy.

That said, if we did ever see a doom metal entry in Eurovision (unlikely, and I'm not convinced it would do well), I would absolutely flip my lid! :D

I sometimes get annoyed at how eurofans trend to treat all rock/metal songs the same, putting very different songs into the same box/genre, while for instance Zitti E Buoni and Dark Side were very different songs. Meanwhile, when listen to the pop entries my reaction to pretty much all of them is “it’s pretty catchy, I could listen to it but I would not seek it out”, and I get baffled when half of them are written of as masterpieces and half of them as trash.

(to be clear: this post is meant to be about how people tend to view music they listen to more “complexly” than music they don’t listen to, and how I can be hypocritical, this is not an attempt to claim that I have superior taste in music)

Disclaimer 🛑: The story of "Meadowlark" isn't complete yet, I'm simply analyzing the current songs. Also if you're gonna be a part of the fandom don't be demanding of Keath or weird, especially with the four child characters.

These were some of my starting theories for the two songs. Plus the one by amanda-519 which I think was more on point lol I know now that "Harpy Hare" at least is probably about a mother who's overly protective of her children that others begin to tell her that sheltering will only hurt them. My initial thoughts on the past songs:

"Hartebeest" trying to eat a rabbit

"Harpy Hare" a bird keeping secrets from the hare.

My analysis from a few days ago for the two new "Songs of Origin":

"My Farewells to The Fields"

Yarrow a white corymbose Eurasian flower. First Cole then Clēm, Perrine, Kingsley and all together they “Where the yarrow grows”. They all seem fond of the flower, like they're re-remembering wonderful memories together. Next Vole sings “Find me beneath the Grove”. With less gentleness and saying home almost in desperation to remember the Grove they used to reside.

This chorus of the song is where we see the potential trauma of Cole or the tradgey of the in-universe tale. “The hills were left quiet and I am in hiding. They've forgotten, they've forgotten. I do not want to see”. The hills usually filled with chatter and laughs were now quiet. Cole presumably hid when they entered the Grove and noticed the silence or was already there and there was sudden silence. Either way they hid and what ever happened that day ended, everyone forgot. Maybe due to the distressing event being one the people rather forget. However, Cole didn't want people to forget they didn't to be the only one to remember.

“I could hear and that's enough. The clashing of the hoards. Hoof by hoof, horn by horn. Raging song and an encore.” Now left to their thoughts and with no one to confide in, Cole is being tormented by the horrible clashing and enraged song (shouts and violence maybe).

Then both Cole and Clēmentine sing “I could barely speak. I could only hum a tune And with that I am with a chorus I am soon”. The two or the characters they're singing about both experienced similar shock to whatever tradgey. Shutting down they only hummed. And once hearing of chorus of the raging song again or of something else they're again surprised by how soon their time has come. This could be in line with “Bird Cage Blue and Yellow” with how the future is inevitable and scary. However, sounds more calm or else expectant of this outcome while Cole wanted to practice caution to avoid it.

“Sought and safe behind a wing. My farewells to the fields. To the man made of straws. To my name”. The character searched for someone, either a literal bird or just a symbol of freedom that guided them. The person or thing that helped Cole probably protected them for some time or once they left the hills then entity was already gone. Cole says goodbye to the fields, and to their name. Their identity of the past. I don't know much about “the man made of straws”. I believe this could be the one who brought harm to Cole and the Grove or possibly a friend they left behind.

"Bird Cage Blue and Yellow"

This song focuses on Clēmentine wanting to be free from the baroness (lowest ranked peerage: holding a honorary title). The baroness seems to have some wealth considering how Clem is dressed along with keeping the bird in gold cage.

Finndu mig i framtidinni is Icelandic for “Find me in the future.” Clēmentine wants to be found by someone who won't cage them again. Who won't puppet them. Hoping in the future someone will understand and listen to them.

And Rōdd eins oh bjalla heldur okkur öruggum frá framtidinni Icelandic meaning “A voice like a bell keeps us safe from the future.” Bells are meant to alert people, this is a warning to what may come. And the bellringer which Clēmentine’s goat mask and themselves represents. The goat wants to keep them safe.

While Clēmentine wants to be found, Clem and Cole are cautious probably due to how scared and nervous Cole was when recounting their or the Harkers origin in “My farewells to the fields”. Clēm: In search for freedom while both them and Cole are cautious of the future.

Malayang Maya Filipino meaning “free sparrow”. And malayo-layo means “far away”. When Kingsley and Perrine sing this part Cole and Clēm chime in to say Rōdd eins oh bjalla heldur okkur öruggum frá framtidinni. It's a response to Kingsley and Perrine. Yes, a sparrow is free but the world is dangerous. Even if you go far away the past (baroness and the raging hoards) will come haunting.

Summary:

The past (Cole/Storyteller) shows fear and anxiety in “My Farewells to The Fields”. Probably because they already experienced the past events and wanted to warn people with its stories. Clēm seems more passive in its warnings of the future. Maybe knowing the audience has been warned in the past by Cole, so whatever happens in the future is no fault but the listeners.

Clementine's song in Songs of Origin is so interesting to me!! I had to theorize about what it means. Do spoilers for the song!! I'm going to analyze each and every lyric to understand what Clementine's childhood was like.

Starting off with the lyrics:

"Bird cage blue and yellow"

The lyrics start off with a bird cage, something that traps which is supposed to be free. I think in this song the bird cage is Clem's old home, and bird, in a sense, is them. I think the entrapment is more emotional than physical, but I'll get into that soon.

As for "blue and yellow" I think it symbolizes opposing emotions, like blue for sadness and happiness for yellow. Maybe it describes how sometimes Clemie was happy in the house (but still trapped) and sometimes sad.

"Candles warm and windows bare" continue on his dual nature. The candles bring warmth, but the bare windows suggest that Clem felt vulnerable, or isolated. It represents warmth but also exposure/emptiness.

"Tracing upturned smiles of portraits/drawn to disappear" the first line could be read in two ways I think. The first is that Clemie is tracing the smiles on portraits because they don't feel happy/feel that it's fake. Like, that the smiles are fake or forced, and that outside of the portraits they disappear.

And my other interpretation is Clemie's family used to be happy, but maybe something happened (like a death) and the smiles that once existed in the photos are now gone, ans Clemie is reminiscing on them.

"Flowers never talk, they never want/they never need" this line suggests to me that Clemie was seen as a flower. Pretty, but neglected (which is more clear in the next verse).

"In a cradle gilded, they are left/to rot yet never bleed" again I think in the song Clemie is the flowers. They were treated as something precious but neglected. I think the neglect is mainly emotional, since the sing also has themes of isolation. Like Clemie was left alone or maybe even isolated from other people.

I also think the "never bleed" line is about how Clemie wasn't supposed to show their pain. Like they're been "left to rot" yet they're expected to "never bleed" (show pain)

"Eyes of silver, mirror, mirror/Thread on wood and steel" These lines actually threw me a bit. Clemie has silver eyes, and this is a shot in the dark, but maybe Clemie's parent(s) also have silver eyes, and the "mirror, mirror" part is the parent seeing themselves in Clemie, and thus thinking they are beautiful, but neglecting them or keeping them away from their peers?

I'm not quite sure what "Thread on wood and steel" is supposed to mean. Maybe something mechanical that contrasts with Clemie's natural association with flowers?

Maybe it's about how Clemie was woven into a harsh, unfeeling life?? Like, wood and steel being harsh materials, and how the rest of the song is about how Clemie was controlled in their previous environment.

"Keep what can be kept" this ties to into my (mostly unfounded) theory that Clemie is the child of a dead parent, and their other parent, in a effort to preserve the dead parent, is "keeping" them, maybe even putting them in a glided cage, something pretty but still a cage, in a effort to protect them?

"And heave to see which one will kneel" this line suggests some kind of fight for control. Maybe Clemie eventually got sick of living in a glided cage and tried to fight back?

"I've been told to wait/but why should there be silence" finally! A less ambiguous line. Maybe Clemie, after getting tried of living in a glided cage, rebelled, and was told to wait/be slient. I'm not quite sure what they're being told to wait for, though. Maybe it's more of a general dismissal, like "ask me about this later" when "later" being "never".

"Dawning pretty laces/Weaving capes of gold/and framing muffled faces" these lines tie into the rest of the songs themes, with beauty, weaving, gold, and being silenced.

I think Clemie's parent(s) had a lot of money, and thus they lived a life of "luxury". They were seen as something pretty, like a flower, and wore pretty laces and gold, but their issues were silenced (muffled).

"I can be different" this line suggests a breaking of a cycle. Maybe, since Clemie's family was rich, they were expected to act a certain way, and this is them claiming that they're allowed to be different from their family.

"I can't be puppeted!" (Funnily, I actually missed this line the first time I wrote this out because I was going off the description lyrics, and the description is missing this lyric).

Pretty self explanatory. Clemie is saying that they can't be controlled. This is they fully fighting against their "gilded cage".

"Garden evergreen/was what I thought I would see" garden symbolism, which ties into Clemie's nature/flower symbolism. Maybe when Clemie was young they liked their home, but as they were controlled more and more, and isolated, it became both "yellow" and "blue". But they once saw it as a place of peace/growth.

"Branches meet my steps/their kisses open up ravines" As Clemie walks through their home, now feeling controlled, they find branches. Maybe the "garden evergreen" they once pictured has died, and all that is left are branches.

"Their kisses" could represent their family or parent(s). How they might try to comfort Clemie, but all it does it create a bigger wedge (ravine) between them.

"Fences frozen in a dance/they're yet to perform" this could symbolize how rigid Clemie's old life was. I was pretty stuck on what "fences" could represent.

A wall between them and the outside world? A boundary? A barrier?

And how that ties into the rest of the line/song.

Like did Clemie feel like they had barriers in their previous life that made them frozen? What about "in a dance"?

I eventually settled on the idea that this line implies tension between freedom and restriction. A fence is a boundary, but it's ready to move/dance, but it's frozen. It's yet to preform, but it wants to.

"I leave the house and the Baroness/buried in before" this all but confirms that Clemie came from a house with money, maybe they're the child of a baroness?

Or, it might not be so literal, with the baroness simply being Clemie's mother that is strict on them, playing the part of a baroness.

The "buried in before" line represents Clemie leaving behind their old life.

The line "Finndu mig í framtíðinni", according to Google translate, means "find me in tbe future". This could be Clemie saying that they have completely abandoned their previous life, that you will only find them in the "future".

"Rödd eins og bjalla/heldur okkur öruggum/ frá framtíðinni" means "A voice like a bell/keeps us safe/from the future" this line is really interesting to me.

The "voice like a bell" represents, to me at least, the Bellringer, someone Clemie feels a connection to and looks up to. Though I'm not sure "keeps us safe/from the future" in this context means, why would Clemie need to be kept safe from the future? If what they're left buried is the past? Maybe Clemie just feels anxious about the future.

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In conclusion, to me Clemie's song tells the story in which they grew up in a rich house (maybe even as a child of a baroness). They were seen as pretty, but emotional neglected by their family and isolated.

At first Clemie liked their life, but as they grew up and their family became more controlling, they found that their life wasn't "evergreen". They started having conflicting emotions about their life, feeling trapped inside a glided cage, but still warm.

Until it becomes too much and they start rebelling against their family, until they finally run away.

What do you think? If you have any ideas/thoughts, please send me an ask or reblog with your thoughts!! I loved the new songs so much!! Who knows, I might even do something similar for Cole's song!

Light the World Challenge for today: Music brightens the mood. Share a song with someone today 😊

One of my favorite quotes is “If art is how we fill up space, then music is how we fill up time.”

I think that’s a beautiful statement because discovery or creation of music is inevitably the discovery and creation of ourselves. Another form of self expression that can be shared to the enjoyment of everybody around.

As such I’d like to share my favorite song with y’all today: it’s called ‘Wildflowers’ by Maddie Poppe.

My feelings associated with this song can be summed in the words of my favorite poet, Nikita Gill.

If anybody wants to swap and talk about music, I’m all ears 😄🧡🙌🏼