A Logical Progression

You know when you listen to a certain album, how certain songs just simply “go together”? Take for example, Heartbreaker by Led Zeppelin, off of Led Zeppelin II. I dunno about you, but when I hear Heartbreaker, I gotta hear Living Loving Maid right after. When Robert Plant goes adds the final “Heart…”, I gotta hear “With a purple umber-ella and a fifty cent haaat”. If I hear Heartbreaker on the radio, they usually play something else right afterwards, but I end up singing that first line of Living Loving Maid. Same thing goes with We Will Rock You & We Are the Champions by Queen.

My point? there are songs that simply go together, and the way they are ordered on the album is even more critical. Case in point…Rogue Wave’s album Descended like Vultures. Every song on this album is a winner, however, it’s the progression of songs 3,4, 5, and 6 (Salesman at the Day of the Parade, Catform, Love’s Lost Guarantee, and finally 10:1 respectively) that fortify my point. Salesman is an acoustic ditty that ends on a softer note, which segues smoothly into Catform. About ½ way through the first measure, the drums and fellow electric musicians kick in giving the song some pep. It’s a medium-paced song that is super playful, and ends with some chords fading into white noise. Again, the seque is amazing…right into Love’s Lost Guarantee. LLG picks up the white noise and blends it into feedback and an interesting intro. The vocals are rather haunting, but when the chorus picks up, the tightness of this band is just the focal point. Finally, as LLG winds down, it plays itself into some guitar chords with the chorus & *maybe a tremolo?* on, leading into the raucous 10:1. At the end of that song, the 4 songs seem to be like cars of a derailing freight train. They pile into each other, smashing in dissonance, and at the same time harmony.

pure genius!