ALT-J's 3WW IS A STUDY IN SONGWRITING

Alt- J deserves more praise.

Their latest single 3WW is mind-blowingly creative in so many ways. The mixture of modal scales and traditional harmony, coupled with unusual melodic lines and familiar twists make it a modern masterpiece.

Before going into a nerdy analysis, let's talk about why one work of music is better than another. In order to do that we must first establish a standard of value that we deem legitimate, and if we believe the edict that musicians should teach us how to hear new things, then Alt-J surpasses that goal a thousand fold. We've heard bits and pieces of this song before, scattered across the hip hop feel of the groove to the eerie opening lines reminiscent of modal renaissance melody (1:40), which harks us back to a time when musicians still hadn't discovered diatonic harmony, when every suspended note was like a mini-death and rebirth in the Wagnerian sense. A simpler time. Alt-J combines all of this into pure magic.

Then it reaches a cadence in the traditional sense and explodes with the powerful piano and harmony (2:40), until a little detuned piano sweetens it into a phrase of bittersweet nostalgia (2:59). On the surface, the bass moves in a steady and traditional manner, but the melody and lyrics distort the structure while keeping the overall musical logic coherent. In other words, creativity at its finest, when it can create new complex ideas out of old fundemental ones.

'tornate al'antico e sara progresso'

'look to the past and you will find progress' - Giuseppe Verdi

So we have a modal opening, tied into a quasi electronic hypnotic beat, underlined by a blues bass line, leading us back to the poetry of the earth - harmony with the arrival of "oh these three worn words"

In any case, my own worn words do not do this song justice - it speaks for itself. I will post a video analysis soon at some point to delve further into it!

oh yeah...and theres an awesome video too.