Episode 4 - 'Colour Me In Gold'
This week's episode features a song by an incredible U.K. singer/ songwriter, J.P Cooper - no relation! This track, Colour Me in Gold, is featured on his E.P for Island records entitled Keep the Quiet Out. His full length debut album is expected in June 2016.
Just as a parallel movement from major to minor (I to bVII7) was so evocative in 'Everything Must Change', here the same idea is present in another intoxicating verse progression moving from D Minor to D Major (iiø>I, Em7b5 to D Maj9). It's beauty allows the melody to wander around in a dream-like state, perfect for the ambience and prosody of lyric. The verse concludes with a descending motif via C Maj7>Bm7 and A. The choice of C Major 7th, rather than C7, seems purely symmetrical (it's the same shape as D Maj9 on the guitar moved down a tone) but we could also think of it Em/C; either way it works. The bridge charts the familiar move to chord IV and concludes in an identical descending fashion the first time but substitutes a more tried and tested Bb6 (bVI) to C (bVII) move the second time, leading to Em (ii). The Middle 8 feels like a brief allusion to Em (relative key to the bridge) but the elongation on A leads us quickly back to the verse. The two chord vamp that opens the song closes it too. A gem of a song and proof that it's quite possible to start a song with a (half) diminished chord.
Here's the songscheme, download a hi-res PDF if you prefer here.
As usual, here is a reference video featuring all the song sections..
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Next week's episode really will be a song by Dana Glover.