Current mood:	calm
Current music:	...... duh.

Maroon 5- This Love
Here is a temporary upload of Maroon 5's "This Love." made possible by putfile.
It's from the Album "Songs about Jane." Find out more about Maroon 5 here. LA-based band.

Overall, I love this song. It got pretty popular like.. half a year ago, I want to say. While there are things in diatonic analysis that make it freaking awesome, there are also things about it that are beyond analysis that make it awesome.



For people who are not trained in theory: Don't worry about all the fancy words I'm using. They're basically just what you hear defined in English/Italian. I encourage you to just try to define what you hear first, and then if you want, read through my analysis to see if we had anything in common.

Lyrics:

verse 1:
I was so high I did not recognize
The fire burning in her eyes
The chaos that controlled my mind
Whispered goodbye and she got on a plane
Never to return again
But always in my heart

chorus:
This love has taken its toll on me
She said Goodbye too many times before
And her heart is breaking in front of me
I have no choice cause I won't say goodbye anymore

verse 2:
I tried my best to feed her appetite
Keep her coming every night
So hard to keep her satisfied
Kept playing love like it was just a game
Pretending to feel the same
Then turn around and leave again

chorus:
This love has taken its toll on me
She said Goodbye too many times before
And her heart is breaking in front of me
I have no choice cause I won't say goodbye anymore

bridge/transition:
I'll fix these broken things
Repair your broken wings
And make sure everything's alright
My pressure on your hips
Sinking my fingertips
Into every inch of you
Cause I know that's what you want me to do

chorus:
This love has taken its toll on me
She said Goodbye too many times before
And her heart is breaking in front of me
I have no choice cause I won't say goodbye anymore

repeat

Analysis:
     So the song's overall form seems to me to be "AABAABACBB."  Here's a guide to what the sections mean:
A- verse (c minor)
B- chorus (c minor/Eb Major)
C- bridge/transition (c minor iv-III-viio-i-iv-III-V)

Pretty standard. You'd think while listening to the song it would sound that standard with that simple of a structure, but it is not very simple.

When you listen to the song, the first thing you are presented with is the steady bassline. All you can hear is that bassline; it is very strong. I think that the reason it's so catchy is that it establishes the basis of the harmonic structure: the fact that they are playing around with our ears. If you listen carefully, you can't firmly establish the key (the tonal center, like major/minor or in this case, c minor/Eb Major). The line goes "B... B D C... G F# F... F Eb D.... Ab Bb B." The tones bolded are the important ones. Those all are in the diatonic scale for c minor. The way it's written, though... you'll notice that there is only once instance of the tonic, C. Everything else points towards C, but never really gets there. It's basically a creative way to establish the key... by dancing around the fact.

    The other interesting thing about the bassline is that it's structured in what seems like a chromatically embellished phrase, but it can be traced back to jazz roots. The chromatic movement from F# to F is a slight nuance of a bebop scale in jazz starting on G (minus the Ab). I wonder if they thought about that when they wrote the song.

    Anyway, the chorus is amazing. I don't know how they came up with it, but basically I think it's hella meaningful not only because of the lyrics, but the harmonic structure as well. They sing a simple triad, basically, consisting of three notes: G, Eb, C. The melody primarily stays on G, and alternates between Eb and C. "This Love Has Ta(G) ken(Eb) It's(G) toll(Eb) on(G) me(Eb) and etc etc. The kicker is this: The harmonic progression changes under it, despite its oh-so-diverse pool of 3 notes. It changes from the tonic (C) to the fourth note of the scale (F) which could also be the sixth of Eb, and subsequently moves to the fifth of Eb(Bb) and then finally to Eb. This repeats 4 times throughout the entire chorus. It's amazing! And the melodic line is like... still 3 notes (well excluding the lick at the end of the phrase which further solidifies the relative Major Eb).

The bridge is pretty standard, it stays in c minor. moves up to the iv, then down to III and then again viio-i, twice, except the last instance of it moves to the dominant of c minor, G. woot. then back to the chorus, which ends the song.



So overall, here is a summary of it:

First section, verses: based on the bebop scale? Also possibly playing with the idea of 2 keys, c minor and Eb Major. They relate in diatonic theory.
Chorus: Effective movement in the harmonic line with really amazing movement in the melodic line. 3 notes on top of 2 different key areas. Amazing!
Bridge to ending: standard, but totally effective (returns to tonic). Doesn't help that the instrumentalists and singers are freaking awesome, and the lyrics kick everyone's ass.

Overall a 9/10!!