FKJ, Jordan Rakei - Learn to Fly

GENRE: POP

Learn to Fly is a really laid back song with really nice vibes. It is mostly comprised of synths, a drum machine, and layers of vocal chopping, vocals, and humming. The song itself is about people defying the odds, fighting back, and 'learning to fly'.

There are so many interesting aspects to this song. Firstly, it has a pretty interesting structure: one verse, a chorus, a bridge, and a final chorus. Even so, the song isn't considered short; it has a run time of four and a half minutes. A lot of the song is filled with the vocal humming, and the main melodic motif.

"You're learning to fly The beast of the mind."

The motif is in 12/8 time, and it is made up of four ascending broken chords (in the following order): C minor 7, Eb major 9, F 7, and Eb major 11 (starting on a Bb note). This series of chords is really interesting, because it is not what is considered a typical pop chord progression. However, that aspect makes this pop song so unique and so fresh. The key of the song is also difficult to grasp because of all the 'weird' chords that it uses. It could be in C minor, however, there isn't a very strong pull towards the C tonic (1).

The rhythm throughout the song is also really cool. The motif, like mentioned before, is in 12/8 time, and that is what the song starts off with (a solo of the motif). However, the drums kick in in 4/4 time whilst the song retains the 12/8 motif in the background. The melody and the drums share the same strong beats, but it is clear that the motif subdivides its beats in three, whilst the drums subdivides in two (as heard through the consistent hi-hat).

Overall, this is definitely a song that I would recommend! You don't need to be able to understand all the musical details to appreciate a good song; it is the combination of all those details that come together to create a great work.

Glossary:

(1) tonic: a note that belongs to the major/minor chord of the key

or, the first chord of the key.

in this case, "the C tonic" indicates any note that belongs in the C minor chord, and I am using it to explain that the song does not feel like it is in C minor.