On "Everything's Magic" by Angels and Airwaves

You know, I think I'm going to mix it up a little here: I'm going to run through a song I actually kind of enjoy.

Maybe you don't like the song. Maybe you hate it.

Well, I suppose you can just stop reading at this point.

Anyway, the song is 'Everything's Magic." By Angels and Airwaves. You know, that band Tom DeLonge from Blink-182 fronted for a while. Blink never was my kind of music. But there's something about this song that I really like.

Here, have a listen. Ready? Good - let's do this:

[0:00 - 0:09]

Okay, so we've got a tight, punchy drum track. Some hand claps. Whatever that electronic percussion noise is. Honestly, I can't really make sense of it. But either way, it's a catchy beat. The production is dry and thin, with sharp hits.

[0:10 - 0:25]

This song has two riffs. This, the verse riff, is the first we encounter. It's a little arpeggio that repeats twice with one root note, and twice with a different note. The entire thing is pull-offs and straight up-and-down picking. Very simple. The guitar has mild distortion.

[0:26 - 1:02]

Now, we get to the verse. The arrangement here has a definite sense of separation. The drums and guitar play the same bits that we heard in the introduction. The bass enters, playing little clusters of notes at the beginning of each stanza, before settling into a slightly more complicated groove at the end of the hook. The vocals ride above the rest of the mix.

What catches my ear most about the production is how sparse the mix is. It takes more than a little daring to leave well-enough alone. When a song isn't quite where you'd like it to be, it's easy to add layers to the mix. To complicate things needlessly. "Everything's Magic" is not a complicated song. The arrangement is simple, and not afraid to be so. I like that. The drums and guitar are essentially a loop. For that matter, so is the bass. And it doesn't matter. It works.

[1:03 - 1:40]

The first chorus mixes things up a little. But not much. The drums are still playing a basic beat (but more on that later). The guitar is playing a plucky rhythm that is, honestly, only two chords. And they're drawn from the same exact shape as the verse riff. The bass plays straight 16th notes. It drives the chorus through a series of perceived chord changes. Perceived because the guitar only alternates between two chords (and even then, most of the time is spent on the first chord). But the changing notes in the bass alter the context that those chords are heard in.

Now, I'll admit, the chorus drags on a bit longer than it should. The novelty of the sound eventually wears off, and you begin to notice exactly how simple the song is. The bassline in particular.

[1:41 - 2:17]

A quick drum fill announces our return to the verse. And that reminds me: the drums. There's something about them that really catches my ear. Every so often, Atom Willard throws in these little fills and flourishes that humanize an otherwise mechanically-precise drum track. They're one of my favorite parts of the song.

The second verse is more of the same things we encountered the first time around. I would like to say, however, that there is something about Tom's vocals that I really enjoy. They just feel unique. Maybe even honest.

[2:18 - 2:54]

And...the second chorus. You know the drill by now - but they still manage to mix it up a little. For one, a synth-string patch rides under the rest of the instrumentation. Your mileage may vary as far as that's concerned. Sometimes, it annoys me, the fact that it takes away the sparseness that defined much of the first part of the song. But other times, I really don't mind it.

Either way, it's made up for by the drumming, which becomes more frenetic. The fills happen about twice as often as before, and every hit seems a little harder.

[2:55 - 3:12]

The bridge, if you can call it that, removes the guitar from the mix. Heavy delay on the vocals. Scaled-back drumming. Really, it only serves to rachet back the intensity a little to preserve the impact of the final chorus. It works well enough.

The third and final chorus is more of the same. That isn't saying it's bad - just that it's nothing new.

Conclusion:

"Everything's Magic" is fairly minimalist pop-rock with strong instrumental tracks. Simplicity serves it well.

Is it perfect? Definitely not. But that doesn't mean I don't enjoy it.