chord progression
5 tracksThe order in which chords follow each other. A few progressions recur across thousands of songs; the choice shapes whether music feels resolved, yearning or restless.
Melody
vocal harmony
11 tracks.
What it is
Two or more voices singing different notes at the same time, so that together they sound a chord. Stacked harmonies make a chorus feel wider and warmer.
Read more on WikipediaRelated concepts
call and response
11 tracksOne phrase is answered by another: a lead voice and a choir, a vocal and an instrument. It comes from African and African-American traditions and runs through gospel, soul, funk and house.
melisma
1 trackSinging several notes on a single syllable, so the voice bends and runs through a phrase instead of moving one note per word. It is heard in Gregorian chant, gospel, soul and Middle Eastern singing alike, and it lets a singer show expression and agility.
falsetto
10 tracksA light, high register of the voice above its normal range. Disco, soul and much contemporary pop use falsetto for a weightless, intimate or euphoric effect.
Hear it in these tracks
theAngelcy
My Baby Boy
Plucked strings, a chorus of voices and Rotem Bar Or's raw tenor make this Tel Aviv folk song feel like a lullaby sung in a dark, uneasy time.
Lamomali
L'Âme Au Mali
The song that names Matthieu Chedid's Franco-Malian collective: Toumani Diabaté's cascading kora, the voices of Amadou & Mariam and Jain, and a pun on 'the soul in Mali', from the 2017 album Lamomali.
Hindi Zahra
Old Friends (Remastered Version)
The slow, dreamy closing song of Hindi Zahra's debut Handmade, which she dedicated to her ancestors: a husky voice layered into a quiet choir, turning memory into something warm and quietly aching.
Glass Animals
Gooey
Glass Animals' breakout is a slow, syrupy jungle of a love song, Dave Bayley's murmured vocal drifting over finger-snap beats, soft guitar and a bassline that oozes.
Arctic Monkeys
Snap Out Of It
Alex Turner pleads with a lover to wake up from someone else's spell over a swaggering, hand-clapped shuffle and a chorus hook that sticks for days: the sixth single from AM.
Angus & Julia Stone
Big Jet Plane
Soft guitars, sibling harmonies and a daydream of flying away with someone: Big Jet Plane drifts in slowly and stays with you long after it lands.
AnnenMayKantereit x Parcels
Can't Get You Out of My Head (Cover)
AnnenMayKantereit and Parcels join forces on a stripped-back cover of Kylie Minogue's 'Can't Get You Out of My Head', trading the original's cool electronic pulse for Henning May's rough voice and close band harmonies.
Pomplamoose
Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
Pomplamoose's 2019 cover of Daft Punk's 'Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger': a robot anthem built from a sample and a vocoder, replayed by a live band with real keys, bass, drums and human voices, and filmed so that everything you hear, you see.
alt-J
Breezeblocks
A lullaby with teeth: alt-J's 2012 breakthrough wraps an obsessive love song, borrowed in part from Where the Wild Things Are, in plucked guitar, close harmonies and a refrain that piles up until it will not let go.
Her
Five Minutes
'Five Minutes' is the second single by Her, the French duo of Simon Carpentier and Victor Solf: clean-cut, R&B-tinged pop of finger clicks, rippling guitars and layered vocals, from their debut Tape #1.