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Published in electro-pop ·

Say Yes Dog

Heartless

The two-minute fifth track of Say Yes Dog's second album Voyage (2019), a song built around one line, on a record a critic heard as warmer and more analog than the trio's debut.

By korczis 3 min read
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Review

Genre and Mood

Say Yes Dog’s “Heartless” is electro-pop and synth-pop at its most compact: barely more than two minutes, warm and heartfelt, a small song in the middle of an album about travelling far.

Song Summary

“Heartless” is the fifth of ten tracks on Voyage, the trio’s second album, released on 10 May 2019 by Diskodogs Records. It is built around a single sentence: the German blog Shitesite wrote that its central, and only, line is “I don’t want to be heartless”, and that with this sound the three of them need not worry. That is the song’s whole lyric, a wish rather than a story, and the music around it carries the rest.

Musical Breakdown

No review we found walks through “Heartless” part by part, so this breakdown stays with what critics said about the sound of Voyage and with the one line Shitesite quoted.

Main Section

The line is the song. Listen for how a short phrase turns into the hook simply by coming back, and whether the arrangement shifts beneath it while the words stay the same.

The Sound Around It

Shitesite heard more analog sounds, more warmth and more feeling on Voyage than on the debut. Soundmag heard synthesizers and beats mixed with analog instruments such as bass guitar and drums, electro-pop at once warm and cool.

Outro

The song stops after about two minutes and hands over to “Feel Better”. No source describes its ending.

Concepts in Focus

A hook is the short idea a song is built to stick with you, and it usually earns its place through repetition. “Heartless” takes that to its limit: with only one line, the hook and the lyric are the same thing, and the only variation left is in the voice and the arrangement.

The bassline is where Shitesite heard Voyage change most: the bass is unusually prominent and creative, and often shapes the songs more than the beat does. The critic said that about the album, not this track in particular, so listen for whether the bass leads here as it does in Say Yes Dog – Lies.

Artistic Context

Say Yes Dog are Aaron Ahrends (vocals), Paul Rundel (bass) and Pascal Karier (drums), a German-Luxembourgish trio. After their 2015 debut Plastic Love they toured festivals in India, Korea and Vietnam and travelled to Japan and Ghana, and announced that their second album would be shaped by those impressions. Shitesite found little pentatonic or Afrobeat influence on it; instead, the band had refined their electro-pop. Ahrends is credited as the producer of “Heartless”.

Impact and Reception

Reviews of Voyage were friendly but measured. Bedroomdisco heard clear synth-pop with funky bass and minimal drums, but songs that often sound alike; Soundmag found no obvious hit, but a self-contained sound world to get lost in; MusikBlog called it a beautiful, occasionally slightly monotonous album. “Heartless” asks for two minutes. Give them, and see whether one line is enough.

Learn from this track

Introductory

What you will learn

  • Explain how a song can be built around a single repeated line, and why that line then works as the hook.
  • Describe what reviewers meant by the warmer, more analog sound of Voyage compared with the trio's debut.
  • Listen for the role of the bassline in a synth-pop song where, a critic wrote, the bass often shapes the track more than the beat.

Listening guide

  1. the vocal line The one line that, according to Shitesite, is the song's central and only lyric: listen for how it changes, or does not, each time it returns.
  2. the bass Across Voyage, Shitesite heard the bass unusually prominent and creative; no source says how it moves in this song, so listen for whether it leads.
  3. the sound The analog warmth critics heard on the album, with bass guitar and live drums under the synthesizers.

Concepts in this track

bassline

67 tracks

The lowest melodic part of a track. In dance music it often carries the hook as much as the vocal does, and its rhythm against the kick drum defines the groove.

hook

99 tracks

The short, memorable idea a song is built to stick with you: a sung phrase, a riff, a synth line. A hook is designed for repetition and usually arrives early.

Listen next, and why

Questions for discussion

  1. A whole song with one line of lyric: is that a sketch, a mantra, or a complete statement?
  2. Heartless lasts about two minutes. What does a song gain or lose by stopping that early?
  3. Critics found the songs of Voyage alike. Is a consistent sound world a strength or a weakness for an album?

References

  1. Shitesite. Say Yes Dog - Voyage (archived) (2019). Review
  2. soundmag.de. Say Yes Dog - Voyage (2019). Review
  3. Bedroomdisco. Say Yes Dog - Voyage (2019). Review
  4. MusikBlog. Say Yes Dog - Voyage (2019). Review
  5. MusicBrainz. Voyage (release). Database
  6. YouTube. Heartless (Say Yes Dog - Topic) (2019). Video

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