On this edition of LITM Rock Picks, artists use their melodies and soundscapes to build on their song’s lyrical and narrative themes. Featuring The Amber Bugs, Harpa, TJ Howlett and more!
1. The Amber Bugs - Happy
‘Happy’ by The Amber Bugs begins with sparse melodies under the lines that feel quick and breathless. The song seems to ramp up to keep pace with the narrator’s growing frustrations, tempo dancing with lyric to create a dynamic fog that simply builds with intensity.
The song builds from rhythms and melodies that trickle in one note at a time, before intensifying with this whirl of frustrated emotion. The narrator attributes this build-up of frustration to the hypocrisy outside of themselves, a feeling that only loops into itself before attempting to resolve where the song had begun.
“...Fucked up and alone….”.
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2. Harpa - The End
‘The End’ by Harpa takes on a tone that balances between vulnerable and emotionally charged. Its lyrics take on a bit of dual-tone, balancing the acceptance the narrator is attempting to front at the end of a meaningful relationship, with the devastating weight of the grief of losing someone like this paralyses them.
The build on this track comes from the expansive interplay in the song’s soundscape, as it contains this burst of emotion, with lyrics that feel like the catalyst to this vulnerability. The song builds in intensity before ending on a note that feels poignant and almost sombre.
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3. TJ Howlett - Not Mine
‘Not Mine’ by TJ Howlett is a stomping folk rock song that seemingly digs itself out of a looping cycle one hit at a time. Its soundscape holds an edge that feels as sharp as a pick-axe, recounting spheres of influence where a generational cycle is repeated.
The sound seems to represent this with energetic, looping, stomp-like melodies that seem without end.
This cycle only takes from those surrounding the narrator, the act of mining fueling an exploitative cycle that only takes. Until tragedy reveals those cracks and pulls the narrator out of a suffocating, endless cycle.
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4. Todd Capps - Everything Must Go
‘Everything Must Go’ by Todd Capps uses its bright piano and soft melodies to tell a story that feels hopeful and forward-moving. It takes on this emotional charge, vulnerable in its optimism, while the lyrics show us what’s building that hope. Bright moments of productivity, hand-crafted and unique, while letting go of everything that doesn’t fit this whole.
Our narrator wants to build a safe space for the people they love, holding onto the warmth that builds during this song. This build affirms this sense of positivity, compounding onto this mood to make something warm, expansive before the fade out.
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5. Rick Cassman - JENNIFER JANGLE
‘JENNIFER JANGLE’ by Rick Cassman is a bright song sprinkled with soft melodies played on the harmonica. The song centres around Jenny, someone the narrator describes as “...ordinary…”, but it seems to be anything but.
Jenny is described as someone who’s more than the sum of her parts, a bright spot in our narrator’s day. “...(She) loved to play the tambourine, but she was more than that…/So much more than that….’.
The song is imbued with this light, bright energy, made warm with the affection and tinge of vulnerability in the lyric. It’s a tribute that feels expansively warm.
Listen here:
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