Song Deconstruction

I chose to analyze the song "Paranoid Android" by Radiohead, and a cover of the song by Matthew Hemerlein, and Tosin Abasi.

Paranoid Android - Radiohead




Listening Phase 1: Rhythm
Tempo: Medium (Slows down around 3:30)
Source: Rhythm comes from the assorted percussion parts and drumset
Groove: Relaxed, and flowing

Listening Phase 2: Arrangement
Instrumentation: Lead and rhythm guitar drive the song
Structure/Organization: Song starts with repeating guitar part, clave, guiro, and drumset. Short sound effects build in as the song goes on to add depth.
Emotional Architecture: From the beginning the song builds until about 3:30 where it slows down then picks back up at 5:35. The slower part creates a solemn feeling.


Listening Phase 3: Sound Quality
Height: This song ranges from a low base part, to a medium pitched guitar part, and high pitched vocals. There are parts in the song where the melody dips into lower, base-y tones.
Width: Little to no pan happening in this song. The sound is evenly spread between both speakers.
Depth: This song has a lot of depth from it's instrumentation. As expected from Radiohead there are a lot of auxiliary percussion parts, and short guitar effects that add quite a bit of depth to the song.


Paranoid Android (cover) - Matthew Hemerlein, Tosin Abasi





Listening Phase 1: Rhythm
Tempo: Medium speed, then slows down like the original version except it does not build back up to the original tempo
Source: Guitar drives the rhythm
Groove: Acoustic, raw, on the beat, it gets funky between 2:06-2:12

Listening Phase 2: Arrangement
Instrumentation: Guitar provides the melody, upright string bass replaces the vocals and provides some of the bass parts
Structure/Organization: Like the original, the guitar repeats the same parts throughout the song, but the upright string bass replaces the vocals until the bass player begins singing
Emotional Architecture: The song starts fairly simple, picks up more emotion from the string bass as the song goes on, and then slows down dramatically and adds vocals


Listening Phase 3: Sound Quality
Height: Not much height in this version. You have the guitar playing most of the melody, and the string bass doing vocals/bass parts
Width: No pan in this cover. This is a studio recording with equal levels from both instruments coming out of both speakers.
Depth: Both guitar/string bass/vocals are layered equally, and have relatively the same volume

The covered version of Paranoid Android is minimal in comparison to the original. It only has 2 different instruments and most of the lyrics are 'sung' through the string bass. The original version has more of a full instrumentation: Guitar, keyboard, bass guitar, vocals, aux percussion, and drum set. In both versions the melody comes from the guitar, and the harmony comes from the bass parts. Both have similar tempos and include a part where the song slows down considerably. Obviously the original has more height and depth, due to the instrumentation, and can be argued that it has a stronger emotional build/drop than the covered version. However the covered version does do a good job of gripping the audience emotionally with it's simplicity and clarity of the parts. Of the two, the original version is my favorite because of it's depth and instrumentation.