This week on Will Listens To Music, I listened to “The Well” by Smog and “Mount the Air” by The Unthanks. Here I will discuss each song on its own, and then compare and contrast the songs together.
“The Well” – Smog
“The Well” was released in 2005 as the third track from the American singer-songwriter Smog’s album “A River Ain’t Too Much To Love”. The album was notable for being the last album released under the Smog moniker – subsequent releases saw the artist use his real name, Bill Callahan.
The genre of the song complies mostly with the tropes of alternative country and folk music. The song is simple in its structure and instrumentation, with only the lyrics avoiding any repetition. The composer most probably deliberately went for this approach to give more emphasis on his lyrics and the story being told within them. The song’s purpose would be mostly story-telling, as the song’s overall simplistic style would hardly impress in terms of its technicality.
Stylistically and compositionally the song varies little. The song is in the key of F# major and alternates between the I and IV chords of the key; F# and B respectively. The chords themselves are based on the basic major triads, although the full F# chord is implied as the major third is not used in the harmony. The guitar and harmonica continuously play the same riffs and patterns respectively. The drums do vary slightly, with the passages in B major bringing in the snare to help accentuate the move to another part of the song before returning to the original beat.
Coming in at 7 minutes long exactly, the song uses minimal instrumentation; it features an acoustic guitar, a bass guitar, harmonica and drums alongside Callahan’s vocals. The vocal melodies also do not vary much, forgoing any real vocal athleticism in favour of telling the story that his lyrics portray.
The purpose of the song seems to be to tell a literal story about someone, in a drunken rage, smashes a bottle in the woods and goes out to pick up the bottle shards. They come across a well deep in the woods, which they stare into and shout profanity while also reflecting on themselves. The lyrics do not seem to portray any hidden meaning and are meant to be taken literally.
“Mount the Air – The Unthanks
“Mount the Air” is the title track from English folk group The Unthanks’ 2015 release “Mount the Air”. The song itself is based on a traditional folk song “I’ll Mount The Air on Swallows’ Wings”, with the arrangement and music taken care of by Adrian McNally and Becky Unthank; Adrian McNally also handles managerial duties for the band. Similar to “The Well”, seems to tell a story; albeit in a more grandiose fashion that Smog’s simplistic approach.
This song is the longer of the two tracks discussed here, coming in at a hefty 10 minutes and 34 seconds in total. The song is in the key of D minor, although it does borrow an Eb major 7 chord from the D Phrygian mode for unexpected tension at the end of some verses. Instrumentally the song uses minimal percussion, but has a large string and horns section to carry the song along; these instruments also play the main recurring melodic motif that the lead vocalist sings throughout the verses. The time signature, whilst feeling somewhat free time as the song sometimes slows down and speeds up, is predominantly 3/4. This gives the song a waltz-like feel. It also deviates from a common song structure, instead opting for numerous verses with some repeated lyrics here and there and with a final repetition of the opening verse.
“Mount the Air” features a large array of instrumentation, featuring piano, strings, brass, guitars and even a harp in the discordant opening. The large ensemble of instruments in the composition gives it a large, epic feeling almost similar to that of a movie soundtrack. The vocalists use a narrow range voice – with some vibrato on the longer notes – and use a syllabic vocal style for the majority of the track. Their part somewhat contrasts with the rest of the instrumentation as it is not terribly complex and harmonically interesting (their part entirely sticks diatonically to the key). There are two vocalists featured, and each seems to take turns at handling lead vocals. Towards the end of the track, both vocalists sing together in unison as the song becomes more instrumentally intense. This final section seems to have subtle shift in key in places, sounding more like F major than D minor.
Lyrically the song deals with someone looking for their long lost lover and to what extent they would go to find them.
Comparison
It is fascinating to listen to both of these widely differing songs knowing that both fall under the genre of folk music. Both of the tracks utilise storytelling in their lyrics and the vocal style is not overly complex, most probably to give the listener a chance to listen to what is being said through the lyrics. They both also have an unconventional structure, with both not having a clear chorus in them. The songs are also not too technically challenging on the instruments that are featured in each song.
However there are more differences than similarities. While “The Well” features a stripped down instrumentation with only guitar, bass, drums and harmonica, “Mount the Air” has a large group of instruments from strings to brass to even a harp. This gives the song a much bolder, grander and fuller sound compared to “The Well” and its minimalist approach. “The Well” is also faster and more upbeat than the melancholic and pensive sounding “Mount the Air”, and is much less harmonically diverse; the song only has two chords – F# and B – whereas “Mount the Air” features a vast array of chords and chord progressions. Finally, the overall vocal style is wildly contrasting; Smog’s offering has a more conversational drunken rambling style of vocal delivery, whereas The Unthanks sound more controlled and almost choral in style.
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