shut up and listen

The track begins with a simple triangle struck four times (reminiscent of the buddhist practice of ringing a bell at the beginning of a ceremony).

Then the lead vocal begins with the first two lines accompanied by strums of steel string acoustic guitar (doubled and spread wide in stereo), on the chord changes. The next two lines are joined by backing vocals. The backing vocals are a group harmonising, and are back in the mix.

When the rest of the instrumentation joins (bass, drums, piano and electric guitar) it all sits a fair bit under the lead vocal. (The acoustic guitar seems to disappear). The honky tonk piano is only just noticeable. The focus is on the backbeat (the snare on the 2 and 4) with an electric guitar reinforcing the snare. The reverb on the snare and guitar push it under the lead vocal. A second dirtier electric guitar, panned left, comes in during the chorus, and the lead vocal is doubled and harmonised during the chorus.

The backing vocals are throughout the verses and choruses and sound almost processed (vocoder?) but perhaps not – maybe just reverbed and pushed back in the mix.

The middle section features a key change. The lead vocal has more noticeable reverb here and is perhaps doubled. The second electric plays a prominent fuzz counterpoint.

The third verse features a call and response pattern with the backing vox going ‘doo doop’. The lead vocal is harmonised with a double.

There is a phasing/flanging effect on the vocals at the end of the third verse, as all stop for a pause … leading into the outro.

In the outro there are some spoken vocals that are EQ processed, to sound like a megaphone, that play an almost solo role in the final stages of the track, before the ad libbed lead vocal returns to be the main focal point. The long fade out starts slowly but then dips suddenly at the end.

An interesting production overall, in that the song is an obvious homage to the Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly sound of the 50s but the production tries to sound more modern. Mostly it is the backing vocals, with the almost vocoder/processed sound, that gives it a modern edge.