Category: Shared Music

This song has very heavy tension and release, in the beginning of the song there are disoriented keyboard plucks which instantly throws the listener off and builds tension. It then gets silent and goes into an off beat sounding guitar and follows up slow and small drum roll to keep you wondering what is coming to build even more tension and then BOOM, a lovely drop.
there’s not much tension through the rest of the song but there is one part where the drums stop and they start to build tension through an oscillator on the vocals, pitching it up RANDOMLY and then slowly pitching it down and hitting a few crashes.
tension and release methods – drum rolls, silence, and pitch.

This song starts out very soft and easy, it slowly builds tension by adding more and more sounds/instruments. Not having drums in the beginning really helped build this tension because whilst listening to it you can notice it needs drums and at the climax they come in and release all the tension.
There are also small tension breaks throughout the middle part of the song, the slight pauses with a synth being pitched up before the drop comes back in.
The strongest example of tension and release from this song is at 3:33 where all instruments stop, a synth and light guitar play softly slowly progressing with the vocals, a drum roll comes in to build it up even more and is then released with a crash, or multiple crashes.

 

wobbly synths pitching up to build tension

 

Right from the beginning like some of the other ones it already starts to build tension with out of beat, weird disoriented chords and synths. Basically, nothing makes sense and then they go into a regular 4/4 beat bringing you back to reality.

Later on, they build tension again by cutting out all other instruments besides the guitar, switching tempo and time signature to make it grittier and more distorted, this only happens for a couple bars.

this song’s tension and release is fairly simple, I don’t really know hw to explain this exactly but, with repetition the song makes familiar with the repeating chords and its like your brain knows something is coming but you don’t really know what it is and then it releases and switches to a different riff in an octave down, as far as I know.
This one was hard to explain.

Delay used on vocals sounds great and hi hats going faster at the chorus create tension.

Reverb fills up all the gaps where vocals are not present etc, dynamics create tension.

Cool, simple bassline that keeps the listener hooked

1. Lying Has To Stop– Soft Hair: I absolutely love the intro of this song (or rather the intro to the intro?) Vocals and lyrics don’t come in until 2:15, the tension and release is insane. I also like the distorted keyboard sound throughout the piece.
2. Goodbye Kiss– Kasabian: I enjoy the catchy percussion instrumentation. The change in dynamic before and after the chorus is effective for tension and release.
3. Dog Eat– Jack Larsen: My favourite part  is the lead vibrato baseline that is just constant throughout. The distorted vocal motifs carry the song as well.
4. How Deep is Your Love– Bee Gees: The harmonies in the chorus are awesome, they make the sound more full and bright. The bridge is literally euphoric.
5. XS– Rina Sawayama: The production is mesmerizing. The flow is so juxtaposed due to the the light guitar and the intense drum hook that repeats itself.