I stumbled across the wonderful Madison Cunningham not so long ago via one Remi Wolf’s feature in Hospital. Through an increasingly obsessive deep dive into Cunningham’s catalogue I fell upon Anywhere, whose chorus strikes a chord with me:
Any day now
I’ll find myself free of it
You’ll
turn and see me there
daring
to answer to no one
Any day now
I’ll smile in the face of it
and you’ll say
you’d rather me
anywhere
anywhere but here
It’s a well-captured feeling which is brutally relatable. I always appreciate a pristine lyric. While trying to learn the chords, I realised its’ main time signature was an unusual one in the world of pop music: 7/8. For non-musos out there, when you listen to the song below, notice how the verses feel wonky and incomplete, like part of the music has been lopped off with the passing of each bar? That’s the 7/8 you’re hearing! How exciting.
The first number indicates the number of beats per bar, and the second number indicates the length of each beat (e.g. 4 indicates that they are crotchet/quarter note beats; 8 = quaver/eighth note beats). Now I have nothing against 4/4, but I did send myself down a rabbit hole of non-common time sigs that appear in the pop scene.
I was reminded of Bic Runga’s Beautiful Collision. A subtler, smoother on the ear 3/4. Not nearly as uncommon; it has a waltzy feel to it. Also, I fucking love a pizzicato string instrumentation. Yes, please.
This video below thoughtfully explores other examples of irregular time signatures in popular music over the last few decades.
I wholeheartedly encourage you to step outside your 4/4 comfort zone when it comes to your music rotation. You can thank me later x
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