shut up and listen

The track begins with sweet lullaby-like electric guitar chiming single notes on the left and a glockenspiel or xylophone on the right and a second picked guitar in the middle. Lots of reverb gives this intro a spacey, atmospheric feel. (This spacey feel is accentuated in the middle instrumental section with delay effects shimmering in the background). The metre suggested by this intro is misleading so that the arrival of the bass and drums is a bit of surprise. The drum part includes a tambourine part that seems to be doubled and spread wide in stereo. this in effect works with the vocal because it too is doubled and spread wide.

The vocal is doubled and set hard left and hard right. But in the third verse the vocal appears in the right, and then a second part joins on the left with a counterpoint melody. The hard panning during the first part of the song, which seems odd and unnecessary, makes sense at this point, as the counterpoint adds drama and is all the more interesting and dramatic because it is separated by being spread as wide as possible. There is a harmony vocal added to the centre of the choruses.

In the chorus the chiming guitar plays a call and response role with the lead vocal. The guitar chimes a few notes between vocal lines.

The drum part during the first part of the song is dominated by toms, so that when the snare and ride cymbals comes in (halfway through the second verse) it fills the mix with more drama. During the peaks of the track (the choruses essentially) the guitars are barely noticeable, being buried in the mix, and in effect the track doesn’t sound like a guitar band at all.

The track ends with an acoustic guitar on the left and an arpeggiated synth on the right. The way these instruments just appear suddenly suggests that these elements were there all the time in the mix and have now been revealed by everything else dropping out. (The synth and acoustic do actually come through the mix in the instrumental middle section).