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Scaleter's Choice - Lemonade / Andy Kangas

I've received many works for consideration and I'm grateful to all senders! I enjoyed so much listening to new songs and will consider to publish some of them here in the future. Please keep sending me new material!

Andy Kangas

Scaleter's Choice is presenting for the first time. I'm excited because I was hoping to get a magic song and I got one.
It is a big pleasure to tell you about a musician called Andy Kangas, from a small town in Oregon, US. He has a garage at home where he makes his recordings and apparently he made a whole solo album there.

This story will get even more sweet/romantic when you'll press play and listen to this song "Lemonade", from the album "Girls and God". Andy wrote me that it talks about making life work even though "the gods have never been so kind".
I praise with a few musical notes down the page but right now let's press play and take a ride.

Lemonade / Andy Kangas

I think the stars screwed me
They must have been pissed off
And forgot their earthly charm
For a moment they began to scoff

In that moment I was born
Another year for human eyes
But a closer look would find
There was something off up in the skies

What if I just make it my own way?
I think I'd make some damn fine lemonade
The stars don't have to align
For my life to pass heaven's grade

So when you're feeling off
And there's no way to explain
Why you're sleeping all alone
And your heart is aching with the pain

You've got to push on through
Start putting in some time
Its not easy when you do
But you know the gods have never been so kind

What if we just make it our own way?
I think we'd make some damn fine lemonade
The stars don't have to align
For our lives to pass heaven's grade

Digging in the lyrics, I see a big abstract thing like the will to take fate into our own hands and then a small natural act like making a lemonade. I like realistic poetry, where we get a day to day experience like the lemonade making. It reminds me of a line Jarvis Cocker sings, that he needs to get the dishes dry (Dishes/Pulp). So there's a gap between the big wondering and the small actions in life. It's very nice and gives you something to think about.

The instruments are recorded very well and the tracks nicely arranged. Now that I know it was done in a garage, it's like I can hear the acoustics of it, arriving from some microphones like the vocals. So authentic. In Pop/Rock tracks like this one, I think authenticity is important and authenticity is a keyword to "Lemonade".

Scaleter's Notes

This section is for showing some sweet points in the song, presenting my favorite elements.
It's got nothing to do with enjoying the song. We past that a long time ago, right after the Play button.
But musicians might like that part where I'm pointing on some interesting musical moves:

From piano to guitar

Pay attention how parts are switched in the song by the instrument. The drama part with the piano, giving low pitch chords and after that the shift to the main subject of the song with the guitar. A very dominant shift, gives more clearance to the song parts, professionally done, bravo.

Scale goes up in thirds

We are in Scaleter after all

On the second verse [min. 2:01] the guitar is split to left and right, playing a scale that goes up gradually in thirds interval. For a moment it hangs in the air and you get the feeling it's not gonna make it to the end (the scale root). But after a minor delay it does. Beautiful.

My heartdrum missed a beat

A cool rhythm is played on the drums during the main guitar subject and this rhythm prevents from the snare to be on the symmetrical half bar [1:23, 1:26, etc.]. One would think that such a move would give the feeling of something missing. But hey, surprise...

I liked the use of only one electric guitar, showing us that even one alone can take control and give a wide fill to the song. So, for those who wanna play along, here's the main guitar part in TABS. Enjoy.

Tablatures

Listen and buy the album "Girls and Gods / Andy Kangas"