Weekly Billboard Theory — XO TOUR Llif3
After writing about a song I enjoyed last week, here we are again. Lil Uzi Vert’s biggest solo hit isn’t something I care for, however it is quite a bit different than some of the other stinkers of the year. I said that I’d probably start doing more notation stuff since I’m home now but this song doesn’t really call for it. Whatever, let’s get it over with.
Lil Uzi Vert
Key: B minor
Tempo: 155 BPM
Okay, the song kind of had me within the first couple of seconds. Interesting synth sounds? Heck yeah. This is a huge advantage that hip-hop and EDM have over rock music: NEW SOUNDS. Yes, certain bands successfully utilize interesting sounds into rock music but a looooot of them don’t. We get some higher synths added in and the song has a new progression that we haven’t seen so far this year. Despite being in B minor, the song really revolves around the G major chord in the bass. This is the VI chord of B minor but if we look at the enharmonic major key of D then it’s actually the IV chord. Remember how I wrote about how common the IV is in pop music? Yep.
If we’re in major (we’re not, but it makes a little more sense to me so deal with it) then the bassline would be IV-iii-ii-iii followed by IV-iii-vi-ii . Definitely not the IV-V-vi that we’ve seen before. A little interesting, for sure. But like a lot of the hip-hop stuff that we’ve checked out so far, we get the same beat over and over. This doesn’t have to be a bad thing if there are ebbs and flows blah blah blah this song has the same problems as a handful of other songs. However! “XO TOUR Llif3" is barely over three minutes so at least it goes by quickly. To be honest, I’d say that it goes by a little TOO quickly. Hear me out.
The saving grace of this song, its brevity, is also its downfall. I often play guitar along with these songs because it’s usually the easiest way for me to figure out the chord progressions. Every time that I would do this with “XO TOUR Llif3” I would miss the majority of the song. The song is forgettable. A little TOO forgettable. The first chorus begins and before ya know it you’re at the second/final chorus.
Or at least, I thought it was the second/final chorus. Had I not looked at the lyrics I would have thought that this was correct. Nope. The chorus that happens at 2:29 is actually the THIRD chorus. Never would have known. The only reason I knew that it was the third chorus was because it’s the same as the beginning. Normally a chorus acts as a climax of some sort but this one is the same as the verse, just repeated.
But yeah, let’s get back to how this is the THIRD chorus. Not the second one. The third. You might be asking, when does the second one happen? Apparently, it occurs at 1:27. If ya don’t believe me, take a look below.
I’ll be forward about it, this is pretty awful songwriting. Often times, since the final chorus serves as a climax and last hurrah where the singer can show off their abilities, performers will do something new on the final chorus of the song. However, Lil Uzi Vert seems to create a climax in the middle of the song repeating the same lyrics as the first chorus…but on completely different pitches.
As someone who never really focuses on lyrics, I would have never known that this was a “chorus” had I not looked up the lyrics. The pitches here are completely different. Also, because the beat is no different in the verse there is really no way to tell that this is a chorus with the exception of the lyrics and the rhythm. We finally get a more traditional chorus at the end, which is probably a simple cut and paste from the first one. So we have Chorus A at the top, “Chorus B” in the middle, and then a final Chorus A at the end. I feel like normally I’d try to get hyper-philosophical with trying to imprint meaning upon this but c’mon. There’s a lot of better stuff that could have been done. For example, the verse leading up to this chorus mentions Xanax and how it’s slowing him down. You could have had the instrumentals played in half time, or perform the chorus in augmentation. You have the platform, use it.
I know that was a little short but so was the song so *shrugging white guy emoji*. A handful of songs that were at the top of the charts still are but I want to point something out real quick. “Despacito” is still number one and I recently found out that a producer/rapper/singer that I’ve been listening to for 15 years worked on the song. Check out his old stuff too. New song at number 7 is Zedd and some girl that’ll probably be a household name in a couple of years with “Stay.” I don’t really listen to EDM but I can brag that I’ve been into Zedd for quite a while. I haven’t listened to this song yet but if he’s on it I’m sure it’ll be decent. See ya next week.
