It has been a while since I’ve been at this…actually let real life (and other board life) take precedence. And yet, the JBT ended with the introduction of what remains by far my favorite of the 3 new ballads that Clay previewed as possibilities for his sophomore album. It’s a song whose title is actually unknown…across the boards, I’ve often seen it referred to as “Tears Run Dry,” but it might also be called “When the Tears Run Dry.” I’ve been eschewing the acronyms and simply calling it “Tears” for short. I was listening to a few different live versions of the song earlier this week, and a nudge from Cristal_Line finally returned me to blogging mode. That and the AOL debut yesterday of Nick Lachey’s “What’s Left of Me," a song in somewhat the same lyrical and melodic vein.
So…here’s the thing. “Tears” is a straight-up pop ballad whose melody would be perfectly in place in a boy band playbook. But it serves up more of a challenge and also more punch when delivered by a solo male singer. Moreover, while the lyrics cover the well-trodden ground of post-break-up devastation, they are, to me, accessible and mature, and they paint a more credible and poignant picture than the typical boy band/pop song. The whole song just works for me—it is a winning marriage of convincing lyrics to pretty and fitting melody. I still have a couple of reservations, but the version of “Tears” that was introduced to us represents the first of the ballads that I think might be album-worthy. I’ll break it down a bit here, but basically, what works for me about this song is a sort of call and response, melodically, lyrically and in the exchange between the vocals and the instrumentation. The call & response conveys a sort of an internal conversation that the singer is having trying to come to grips with what has happened to his relationship and to him. It’s a process that mirrors the listener’s process (of figuring out what has happened and how it feels) and makes it easy to relate to the song.
Melody
Like I said above, I’m not sure that I would consider the melody of this song particularly unusual, but it is so pretty. Pretty pretty pretty. So I don’t care that it might evoke a boy band sound. It’s a fairly range-y song that uses the outer reaches of the typical male pop-rock tenor and then some, so Clay is well-suited to take on such a song.
The first two pairs of lines offer a strong melodic set-up that involves the listener; they offer a sort of internal call-and-response. The first line in the pair sets up an emotional state, and the second line in the pair sort of resolves that state melodically with a commentary in response (in other words, the second line in the pair tells you what to think about the first line). It serves as a “this is, concretely, how it feels to me” explanation that makes the song accessible. The second line in each pair feels like a natural resolution, which involves me early on—this is key. I think that with a romantic or angsty ballad, it’s especially important to get the listener connected to the vibe of the song early, because you need the listener to feel like s/he has been through what you’re singing about—you want the listener to be able to hum or sing those lines and verses because s/he relates. So the song moves very smoothly within and between these pairs of lines.
And then, after the first two pairs of lines, there’s this sudden drop in the melody, where the listener is thrust into the emotional rut that Clay is conveying. It starts with the lines “And I’m in the dark/I’m completely numb/Like a shadow that’s turned to stone.” It’s a drop that sends Clay into his lower register (it’s a low E or E-flat, I’m not sure which off the top of my head), and keeps returning to that note, as if to convey the idea (also expressed lyrically) that Clay is stuck in that rut. That just-short-of-plodding return to that lowest note expresses a sort of lifelessness that Clay can’t climb out of at the moment.
What’s interesting is that in the second verse, you have the same drop to the low E (“And I’m calling out/Are you hearing me?”) but the next line (“I don’t know where I belong”) doesn’t go for the drop. Instead, it returns to the melody of the resolution line earlier in the verse (that is, the second line of the pair that starts off the verse, where Clay sings “It’s always and ever the same” and “When I’m still dreaming your name.”). To me, this is key to the dynamic progression of the song—he moves from a really dark, despairing mood in the first verse to a more questioning stance of, “OK, how do I make sense of what happened?” in the second. That’s much more credible than staying in the despairing mood of the first verse—I would probably be annoyed if he were still whining in the second verse, so I’m glad to see him moving forward a bit.
The melody of the chorus is more piercing (but very pretty and catchy, at the same time). It builds on the despair in the verses and conveys a more expressive pain. It’s an effective counterpoint to the more understated melody in the verses…there’s a sense that the pent-up emotion from the verses is breaking forth. It works really well.
And then, there’s the transition to the bridge, and the bridge itself, which is an explicit demonstration of the internal “call & response” that has gone on all song. The back-up vocalists start the conversation, and the lead vocalist gives momentum to desperate thoughts that culminate in some really piercing wailing. Again, the dynamic progression here is very compelling…the melody of the song really carries me along in what feels like several cascading waves of emotion.
Lyrics
As critical as the melody is in establishing those waves of emotion, the lyrics have to match the melody credibly, and the ones in this song really do, I think. The tactic seems to be to use a series of metaphors to convey the same thing. When you do that, there’s a risk that you’ll overcook the song and deprive it of power. But I like the lyrics of this song because the various metaphors paint a picture of a guy who is so down that he is struggling to find the right words to describe the way he feels—so he opts for a series of metaphors. And they’re reasonably well chosen and evocative ones…the dead-end road and a shadow that has turned to stone (I think the latter is actually one that I’ve not heard before!). They effectively convey the lifeless but devastated stagnation that the singer is feeling, and also the cascading waves of emotion expressed by the melody.
The chorus relies on two main metaphors (something broken into pieces and having cried an ocean)…the important thing is that the metaphors are developed and completed over two lines. I’m not bothered by the fact that the different metaphors don’t really fit together, because, again, the song feels like it’s a guy trying to find the right words to convey how heartbroken he is.
As I try to describe the lyrics (and, for that matter, the melody), I feel like I’m making it sound really overwrought and over-the-top emotional. And it actually could have wound up that way. But I think the song stops short of that, and that’s a huge victory. The lyrics are grounded in accessible, mostly everyday imagery (in other words, there is a minimum of suns, moons & stars g), which helps. It also helps that the construction of the phrases isn’t trite, even if the imagery is largely familiar—so it still feels somewhat new. I also think it helps that no part of the song goes on for too long (actually, the whole song is relatively short—somewhere in the vicinity of 3:10). The most dramatic part of the song, the bridge, only has lead vocals for 3 lines. Somehow, the song doesn’t leave me feeling like I’ve been sledgehammered by how much this guy’s life sucks. Instead, I find myself relating to the guy and remembering what it’s like when a really meaningful relationship ends and you just want to hide under the covers and not face the world for a little while. Basically, some of the various stages of post-breakup angst.
Reservations
I have 2 major reservations about this song, as much as I love it. One is that it didn’t seem a very strong live song for Clay—he seemed to struggle a bit to reach down to the song’s lowest notes, and seemed to not always hit his notes dead-on the way he normally does. I did like that he chose a more delicate delivery on the verses, too, but sometimes, he sounded a bit nasal…maybe that was for effect, though, because it made him sound pretty young. I also much preferred the original ending on the song in Toronto to the one that was developed subsequently…the original ending just closed the song more effectively, I think. It’s an ending more consistent in structure with the rest of the song, too, I think—with Clay echoing himself (again with the call & response).
The other reservation comes from the deluge of heartbreak songs that seem typical of pop music today. There’s a group of songwriters, some of whom may have contributed to “Tears,” who seem to excel at writing these teen-targeted heartbreak songs for boy band singers. I’m thinking about the Backstreet Boys’ “Incomplete” and “Crawling Back to You” (co-written, incidentally, by Chris Farren, who is one of the co-writers of “Compromise”) and Nick Lachey’s “What’s Left of Me.” I think “Tears” is a much superior song lyrically and melodically to the aforementioned songs, and obviously, Clay’s vocals move me a lot more than those from the BSB and Nick Lachey. But when some of the imagery recurs, is there a risk of consigning Clay to this category of boy band singers if he does a song like this? I’m inclined to think that it’s not a big issue as long as Clay’s album isn’t dominated by boy bandy songs. And I don’t think it’s a bad thing if Clay reaches the stereotypical audience (teens and probably AC listeners, though probably not Hot AC listeners) with a song like this. It’s just concerning to me that more than one act seems to be trying to put out a song like this—it seems like just another formula. Like I said, though, I think “Tears” is the class of the songs I’ve mentioned, and it’s also the class of the ballads that Clay previewed during the JBT.
Studio Possibilities
So yet another thing that I like about “Tears,” is that it’s the first original song that Clay has sung whose progression really depends on the interaction between Clay’s vocals and the background instrumentation—the piano in particular, during the verses. It’s nice to hear a song that doesn’t depend totally on Clay’s voice to drive it…the piano is in the background, kind of serving as a reminder that life is going on around you and it isn’t going to stop just because of this one sad voice. In concert, the piano seemed to fade a bit on the chorus, with the drums and bass guitar conveying more of a driving force. It’s the sort of standard pop arrangement that I would expect, and it works well for the song. I don’t know if they’ll be much inclined to “busy” it up with a lead guitar, or more of a bass line…I think the song works fine without it. I can also imagine a studio producer wanting to add some drama to the song via some string accompaniment. For me, personally, this is where there is a risk of overdoing it, of overcooking the song by trying to wring every last ounce of emotion out of it.
Personally, I think I’d prefer a simpler arrangement to the song. I’d actually like to hear this song with just string accompaniment. That might seem more appealing in tandem with a more traditional pop arrangement. My sense is that the piano lends more melancholy to the mood of the song while a string accompaniment might lend more of an air of almost philosophical resignation? I don’t know. Maybe the strings can be integrated into the very end of a more traditional pop arrangement (like, after the bridge, for the last rendition of the chorus). That might make sense in terms of the progression of moods in the song, actually. I don’t know.
My concern is that the song will be arranged in a way that attempts to enhance the drama and winds up seeming calculated and manipulative. A lot of recent ballad releases have tried that, and not many have done so successfully. For this song, I’m inclined to think that less may be more (that goes for the volume and density of the instrumentation). I really think that Clay has a winner with this song, if it fits his vision for the album. And if it doesn’t, could we get an iTunes exclusive or a special compilation for a brick & mortar retailer or something? g Because I would like the pretty. g
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