Tuesday Tunes

My favourite was always Donatello. If your mind, like mine, jumps immediately to Ninja Turtle instead of renowned artist, then perhaps you grew up with the cartoon. But these days you just as easily could have grown up with the movies, which in my opinion, will always play second fiddle. But there was no real second fiddle in the Ninja Turtles. Sure, there was Leonardo who was the leader, but without the other turtles playing their roles, who would he be? Only a freakishly mutated and trained-to-be-deadly pizza loving Turtle with swords.

Leonardo leads, Donatello does machines
Raphael is cool but crude, Michelangelo is a party dude

The point is; certain things feel good as a set of four. Superheroes (Ninja Turtles, Fantastic Four), Elements (Earth, Water, Fire and Air), Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Beatles, Ghostbusters. Four feels balanced. But what happens when you mess with that balance …

The Song
Song: What You Do To My Soul
Artist: Air Traffic Controller
Album: Black Box - 2016 - Self Published (I think)
Method of discovery: Spotify Discover

Theory: The song, like so many older and newer than it, is in 4/4. Our ears are used to this typical beat, so much it’s called ‘Common Time’. What is the same, but less obvious is the fact that we like to hear four Bars of music, regardless of whether a song is in Common, or some other time Signature. Treating the first line as ‘before the start of the song’ (or if you want to be fancy, an Anacrusis) I would start counting when the music comes in after the word TIME. If you count every fourth beat, by the end of the verse you’ve got to Ten. Ten is not divisible by four. Mind = Blown. My theory is that ATC started with twelve bars, but simply cut out an empty space after ‘ease my mind’ and ‘to my soul’ each, resulting in this ten bar phrase. What it does musically is build a sense of urgency, like these thoughts are bursting out of the singer in a stream-of-consciousness, like a teenager confessing love. And when we get to the chorus you’ll find the even amounts of bars give the main message more stability, speaking of stability, the chords in this song are only I, IV and V. Very happy and stable chords, there is no room for minor chords in this song.

Research: Air Traffic Controller got their name from Dave Munro, who used to do that very thing for the US Navy. They are out of Boston and have won many awards. But perhaps what’s more impressive is the fact that one of their music videos was featured on the homepage of Funny Or Die. It was another track from the same album Black Box, which is their third. You’ve probably already heard their music, given that it’s been licensed for more than seven brands that I recognise.

Personal thoughts: The first time I heard this song it made me want to dance. I didn’t, because dancing does not spark joy in my life. But the fact that it made ME want to dance is incredible. It’s boppy, hoppity, pop. It’s a very well written song that dilutes itself only to the necessary and doesn’t waste space with nothing. Instead, it brims out over the top and announces itself. It makes me feel good.

Give it a go: If you’d like to feel good.

Give it a miss: If you’d prefer to remain morose.

[links]
Spotify: Tuesday Tunes, What You Do To My Soul, Air Traffic Controller
Social: Website, Twitter, Bandcamp
Other: Wikipedia, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles lyric analysis on Genius.com