Day 1 - Glenn Case - Stapler

The mp3 for Stapler can be found here.

This song started it all. If you want someone to blame for my music invading your ears, blame Glenn Case. John sent me a link to Tom 7's web site, where I found the Album-a-Day Project. I was a little skeptical, at first. But for some reason, upon deciding to sample some of the works, the first I came across was Glenn Case's album Just So You Know. I heard the bouncing piano chords and immediately fell in love. As I listened, I thought, "Oh, so it's possible to do this and, at the same time, make good music." I didn't end up making any really good music during my time participating in the crap art movement, but I did gain some for my personal library. This turned out to be a great album, and ultimately, I ended up over at SongFight! thanks to this entry, but let's not lose too much focus on the song.

The initial chord progression is brilliant. Paired with the rock shuffle feel, and some clever lyrics, this song is off to a great start. The chorus is a completely appropriate place to go, musically, from the verse, but it feels somewhat far from home. It's not unpleasant, or strained, but the verse seems like a better place for me to hang out. Ben Folds, who probably had some influence on this track, takes a similar approach to a lot of his choruses, and even claims that he doesn't "understand hit choruses." However, this chorus is very lyrically interesting, and is a lot of fun to sing along with. It may actually be a step above a typical Ben Folds chorus. In any case, the way it's set up allows the little tag on the chorus to lead right back into the verse very effectively, and makes for a nice outro later on. The a capella bridge is a great technique that I'll have to rip off some time. It provides more sophistication to the song's dynamic flow, going beyond the requirements for such a short pop song. From the bridge, the song is rebuilt for one more go-round of the song's basic structure. The repeated taggy thing becomes the outro, and it persists, until the instruments unexpectedly drop out. The vocals finish quietly, leaving us in a great position to hear the beginning of "Hurry Up," especially if one has taken these mp3's and made them into a nice gapless album for the car. But, uh, "Hurry Up" is for another day.

I don't think I did a good job with this, but hey, it's my first day. Deal with it.