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Radiohead - No Surprises This song warns of the monotony of a life of ceaseless routine, and details the way it can

transform your attitude toward life. The song is mostly comprised of the repeated chorus lines No alarms and no surprises and the entire song is somewhat mumbled in a low voice, while louder music is played over the vocals. This combination of volumes makes it difficult for the reader to hear the song, and one easily finds them self simply giving up and listening to the chorus and instrumentals. I believe this was what the artist intended, as it shows how easily we fall into monotony when the alternative is the expenditure of effort. Jenny Lewis The Watson Twins Rabbit Fur Coat This song shows the desire of people, and the path that desire takes them on. The content showed the difficulties of achieving love and riches, the rabbit fur coat and the mansion house, and described how peoples desires change over time (when the child becomes the riches the mother sought). Apart from the wording the sad tone of the singers voice gave the song a feeling of inevitable decline, and the flow of background instrumentation created a cyclic nature, which echoed the rise and fall from riches described in the song. M Ward Chinese Translation The purpose of this song is to illustrate that there are certain things in life that you must answer for yourself, and there are also question that have no answer. The content and form help to achieve this purpose by posing a several questions that are answered only in the format of a song. The music has a mysterious yet upbeat quality, which comes from the intermingling of what sounded like a banjo and a harp. This musical quality seems to further the idea that the answer to the posed questions will remain a mystery, while at the same time letting the listeners interpret their own answers to the questions. The Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots The purpose of this song is to display the concept of complete trust in another person, or thing. This is achieved by the writers frequent references to Yoshimi protecting him from the robots. Other than the wording, a feeling of helplessness is established at the begging of the song by the broken speech utilized. The fragments of speech make it seem as if the listener is in a crowd, observing the event transpire, later in

the song the inserted background noise furthers this effect. As the song develops a shift is made from the original upbeat acoustics of the guitar and drums to a harsh and scary electronic tuning. This shift seems to highlight that the writer was wrong to seek protection form Yoshimi and may speak to the fact that complete trust is often unwarranted.

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