RockRoast

“Undertow” by Pain of Salvation has long been one of my favorite songs. I love it for its intensity of emotion and the way it conveys these deep, dark feelings with sincerity and beauty. Pretty much awesome stuff all around.

But another reason why I love “Undertow” is because the whole song seems to serve as a frame for the vocals. Every note played on every instrument is wonderful, but it never upstages the singer and only enhances what the he’s doing. Some of the guitar parts are simply unisons with the vocal melody.

And as the music becomes a backdrop for the singing, the focus shifts to the singer. The song is now defined by the vocal performance, the lyrics being sung, and the emotions with which the lyrics are delivered. And all that maximizes the song’s effect.

There are lots of good songs that suffer from poor vocal performances. Every time I hear Chad Kroeger grunt through “Far Away,” I think of how much better that song could have been with a better voice from a singer who at least acted like he felt some kind of connection with the words he was singing. “Undertow” is driven by the top-notch vocals of Daniel Gildenlow, and his emotional (not to mention eclectic) singing is what made me fall in love with Pain of Salvation.

A few days ago, I was browsing YouTube and came across a live performance of “Undertow.” At first, I was disappointed that the arrangement had been modified from the beloved studio version. But as the song progressed and Gildenlow sang his heart out, I began to realize that, though the arrangement had changed, the song had not—it was simply a different but equally effective backdrop for an unbelievably emotional vocal.

This is how you do music, folks.

Dominici’s latest album, O3: A Trilogy - Part 3 hits stores in North America today. Go pick it up. You’ll be able to find it at Best Buy and probably at FYE.

I stumbled across this video on Morow.com the other day. It’s an interview with Porcupine Tree frontman Steven Wilson, and near the end he gives an interesting answer to one particularly interesting question. The whole interview is pretty good, but if you’re not a Porcupine Tree fan, you might as well just skip to 6:48 for the best part.

The question was, “What is your strategy to struggle against music downloading?” And as far as I’m concerned, Steven hit the nail on the head.

His first point is that Porcupine Tree is not music for “fickle” people. It’s one of the things I love about prog fans. We tend to be completists. If we love the music, we want the whole discography and the whole experience. I suppose I could have pirated Fear of a Blank Planet if I’d wanted to, but, like Steven alluded to, it’s difficult to enjoy music quite as much as listening to an album for the first time with the liner notes in open in your lap.

Which brings us to Steven’s second point: packaging. Fancy boxes, bonus DVDs and riveting artwork all make a piece of music worth owning instead of just listening to. Just yesterday, I pulled out a CD I hadn’t heard all the way through in a while and I sat there listening to it while staring at the artwork in the liner notes and reviewing the lyrics. It’s a great experience, but you need to own the CD to do it. Steven Wilson is right: you can’t download that tactile experience.

At least, not yet. I really hope technology never goes so far as to allow us to do that.

Many people are worried about the death of the compact disc in a download-oriented culture, but I don’t really think it’s a possibility. I will always want a physical, non-digital version of the music I buy, and I know there are plenty of other people like me who will continue to buy CDs. Although I have to say that I would be very amused if, years down the road, progressive bands begin to top the sales charts–not because they’re more popular, but because their fans are the only ones still willing to shell out a couple of bucks for a CD.

I don’t expect that to happen. But it would be hilarious.