Nick: They have to have something to fill it up- oh. He's sad. Aaron: Yeah, what do you- ???
Umu: Wassup? Before diving into our reaction to 'Strangers Love' check out the description for a two-month free trial to Skillshare
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Now, let's move on to the reaction video.
Henry: Are we good to still judt Christmas it up? Is this for Patreon?
U: This is not Christmas and this- this whole recording session today is for Youtube.
H: Okay, so should we (Cloud: Wait what) U: Do you wanna change. H: un-Christmas
U: Yeah, if you want. H: I'll just throw a scarf on.
*laughs*
I look like a hobbit.
U: So now you're reacting to an SM station season 2 song called
'Strangers Love' which is sung by the Barberettes who are a female trio and the male solo artist Jang Jinyoung.
The lyrics expressed the pain of a breakup and how people become strangers when a relationship ends.
This song is composed by Jessica Symonds and Charlie Tanku.
A: Relatable stuff.
Kevin: Oh. Ohh, I just saw- I saw. Oh. Three, two, one.
Isaac: Is this Skyfall?
Ah, no, it's in major. K: Ooh nice dorian.
Elizabeth: I like having the piano do all of the strong beats,
and then have the singer do all the
offbeat's and kind of a hemiola feel. Owen: Mm
Melissa: This one has like a really interesting voice
Like I like the color change It feels like the color changed to like one shade darker.
Like you're in Home Depot looking at the paint- some samples, you know?
H: Oh, that was cool. C: That was cool. There's like no space between the words.
H: Eyyy. Belt.
I love that y- jumping in on it.
H: OOH
N: Well, those (A: sorry, he's hot) are some nice harmonies
A: The harmonies are very- the Barberettes are really killing it.
K: Lots of interesting rhythm games with the melody.
Yeah, lots of um,
misplaced, like same melody, but placed in different beats.
Ohh the guy sings~
A: I love that reverb, like, the echo effect.
N: They have to have something to fill it u- oh.
He's sad. A: Yeah what do you-
K: There's like a almost like a French horn type sound in the back, like a little like a brass...
swelling.
But it's very faint.
Bouquet, artificial bouquet.
James: Really nice harmonies throughout the whole thing.
M: Wait what? J: I- harmonies are really good. M: Yeahhhh
Aaahhhh
O: The strings sort of taking over the horns role in the background. They have the rhythmic piano, and then the floating
something up top still outlining the chords.
H: Oh.
We haven't had that before, like that- humming harmony.
It's a nice contrast.
And it's beautiful.
A: I feel like these red lips symbolize something. The rose is red, his lips are red, like.
C: This is like one of those songs that you breathe with though (H: Yeah), you like
notice you're like breathing a little bit faster or slower than you were before because you match it up.
H: Do you hear the brass in the background?
We just (C: Yeahhh) added that in.
We don't have any like percussion in this whole thing. So it's they're driving the rhythms, and they're so together.
E: I don't really even mind the fake breaths, it's like quiet enough
that it just kind of adds the (O: Mhm) oomph it needs to be super dramatic.
M: Oh I like that, like that little rolled chord.
J: Interesting. M: I love how like the piano, there's such minimal instrumentation, this is really all about the voices.
Like the piano is just there to support, and the voices were like, wooo!
That's like my favorite singing probably of like anything we've seen recently.
U: Powerful and it doesn't seem strain-y, right?
M: Yeah, it seems so healthy and good sounding, but also like so blended. I don't know. I seemed like it was written for them.
E: The Barberettes being sort of barbershop
O: Mhm E: Ki- aesthetic I think having a song that highlights their
vocal range, and their ability to strike really tight harmonies, I think was really smart.
Allowing that to kind of shine and taking the accompaniment back,
scaling it back so that you really can just experience like the voice and...
they're very expressive when they sing. There's a lot of intensity to what they're
Putting forth in their vocals. So I think it's really cool to just hear them do their thing. (O: Mhm) Yeah.
O: Yeah the song- the instrumentals do a really good job of featuring the vocalists, and showing off like how
incredible their voices are and the collaboration worked really well, I think, all the voices mixed and blended super nicely.
It was really well done. And even like though it was simple, it was solid and thoughtful.
I: It was nice how they...
they bring some solid affirmation into the chorus.
So you have these verses where- I think it's, yeah- it starts with a syncopation on the end of one
[demonstrating the syncopated rhythm]
It's regular eighth notes in, uh
This is- is it two four? K: Yeah, it's like a two four, four four. (I: Two four, four four) It's probably yeah I mean, more a four four.
I: Well, you have an even-numbered time signature, and then you're putting in
groups of three, within these even-numbered meters.
And having this unstable meter, I would say unstable or just...
An unstable melody or verse, and then all of a sudden you land on the chorus and you have this
solid landing on the downbeat it really creates that effect of comfort
and also the wash of sound that supplements that too, really creates the effect.
K: I think the beginning of this- of the song captivated me because
that da da da da da da felt like there was a lot of motion and I'm like, okay where is this gonna go,
but as the song went on, I actually didn't think it gelled together very well.
And one of the things that I thought was interesting, was that I think this song sounds like a Lana Del Rey type of song.
Because the melody is very similar to something that she would write and maybe it's because I-
The moment I heard it, I had that notion, (I: Mm) but the way that Barberettes sort of belt out these melodies in like a-
almost like a diva-esque, like a really passionate fashion,
I didn't think the music really supported that. I thought the music was a little too laid-back
to support their really passionate belting, there wasn't enough there to sustain it.
And the reason I like Lana Del Rey is because she's kind of just singing softly like, but here they're really trying to bring a
different type of vibe to a similar type of mood, and I don't think it worked very well together. But I think
melodically there are interesting things going on, and harmonically, and instrumentally, there are a lot of interesting things going on, but maybe just not for me.
I: Well, if you listen to the piano line where it's just they're getting heavier and heavier,
there's a limit to how much the piano can really play.
And that's that's where you start adding in more instruments like when they had that I think- I think it was horn.
Or some type of brass. If you had more of that to- to support from the bottom with these really beautiful
I guess vocal lines. It would make more sense because if you have something just really passionate, and just piano that's just not making up for this
overly passionate line. It just becomes very awkward.
J: I can appreciate the simplicity. But if it- if the song doesn't really go anywhere, (U: Mm) it sort of just like feels flat to me
like in the beginning like I- like I did enjoy their voices, especially that woman's voice was on the top
and they were singing di di di, di di di.
Her voice almost had like a rock sound to it, which is really interesting, especially for this like ballad type song
I thought is was a really interesting like sound, but I just thought this song could have gone more places.
A: *humming* (N: Wow it's really-) very interesting.
Interesting cinematography with like this stark contrast between black and red.
Also what the Barberettes were wearing, one of them had like the really sparkly gold dress on.
I definitely got that like separation... vibe from the music.
What do you think? N: I thought it was- it was really pretty, and it was...
Like they didn't do anything more than they really needed to.
Because they just had the piano and the vocals the entire time (A: Yep) and they added a whole bunch of reverb.
It felt very alone, because of that, because they don't have all those other (A: That's beautiful) instruments that are like
helping them out. It's just-
U: That accurately represents- 'cause I've always listened to this, and it's like most simple harmonically, A: Yeah
U: but something is so entirely moving about it. It felt incredibly alone, wow.
C: That was nice. H: I like their singing a lot, the Barberettes.
C: Like it was- (H: They're so strong.) There's almost more structure than I feel like a lot of the songs we listen- like it very much like, was like
Both: Verse, chorus, verso, chorus.
C: Or like verse, refrain, verse, refrain- H: I don't know, it didn't- it didn't feel long for me that ended- (C: Yeah) that started and ended within like
One like meditation session. Honestly. It was-
the singing was so good And I think without the percussion help you- helps you focus better on the vocal line.
I'm just- I'm just making spec- (C: Yeah) speculating here, (C: The bo- the stuuf that they like) why I was so drawn in.
C: Yeah, the stuff that they added in too, like as it went on, like the bottom that got added on and the- as the foundation with the strings
just kind of holding the chords and the brass supporting that really give it more of a full sound
I was- (H: Mhm) dude, I was like just like breathing like the whole time like
H: I th- I think, (C: That was pretty nice) yeah, your idea of moving with the breath with that is really fitting for this piece.
Especially how they- they subtly drive you forward into the next phrase
by layering on another- (C: yeah) another singer and then do- using some triplet motifs just to sneak into the next chorus. It's really good.
C: This is one of those songs that I worry about listening on the bus with my earbuds in, 'cause I can't tell how loud I'm being and I'm just like sitting on the bus going
*intense breathing* H: *laughs*
C: The people in front of me think I'm crazy and I'm like no, I just, I gotta breathe.
Welcome to Christmas H: It's snowing in Rochester and Starbucks has their...
peppermint frap out (C: Mocha) peppermint mocha frap, and there- I just had a caramel brûlée latte, so
C: It's Christmas. H: It's justified.