It’s been a while, but Music Monday is back. The workload was so crippling that I needed to take an extended vacation. Jokes aside, I have a new pool of songs to talk about, and todays selection is a 90’s classic.
Despite being a figure of much controversy, its hard to deny
that Jackson was a great performer, and in time a great songwriter. Stranger In
Moscow begins with a spliced beatbox backtrack by Jackson himself, as
instruments start adding on, most appealingly, that whistle. What a sound! The
vocals come in with the bass, quite a common layering technique.
The first part of the verse is built around this four-chord
loop with a constant Eb note binding the chords together. This provides stability,
but not resolve. The Verse modulates away
in the subdominant direction of the circle of fifths, ending on a suspended chord
before looping back to the start again.
In the second verse, the layering continues, as more strings
and vocals are added. The gated reverb of the “snare sound” gives a great space
to the track, emphasising the loneliness. After a repeat of the second half of
the verse, an instrumental break commences, with a piano solo, with rain
overlayed. The solo is overshadowed by other instruments taking turns, first a beautiful
synth that sounds like a soprano sax, then a hard, almost western tinged
guitar.
Afterwards, we a thrown into “how does it feel”. In this
bit, the piano countermelody is particularly gripping. After the suspended
chord we reach the climax of the song, and my god, is this a climax. A singular
perfect cadence into the chorus, overlayed on the first part of the verse (a Jackson
formula). It is wonderfully satisfying after all this plagal movement that goes
nowhere. Jacksons triumphant singing only compounds this.
Now for the lore. It is said that his song is a redevelopment
of a piece Jackson wrote for a Sonic game. This is hard to deny.
https://youtu.be/55rtX4wCJPM
Final Rating: 9/10
Comparative Ranking List:
1. Dear Prudence: 10/10
2. Rachmaninov Prelude in G (Original): 9/10
3. Stranger In Moscow 9/10
4. Black Sands: 9/10
5. Jupiter (The Planets): 9/10
6. Hollywood Heart: 8/10
7. Make It Easy on Yourself 8/10
8. Another Day in America: 8/10
9. Don’t Let it Show 7/10
10. It’s Your Move (Parkinson) 7/10
11. It’s Your Move (Vaporwave Version) 7/10
12. It’s Your Move (Ross) 7/10
13. Don’t Lead Me On 7/10
14. Rachmaninov Prelude in G (VSO): 5/10
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