Lizzy McAlpine’s song “ceilings” is emotional and lovely for so many reasons, but my favourite has to be how she creates tension so masterfully. She practices prosody by not only creating tension in the lyrics and the story, but in all these other subtle ways to establish the unique feeling in this song.
The Verse Structure
Check out the couplet at the beginning of the song:
Ceilings, plaster, can you make it go faster?
Lovely to be sitting here with you, you’re kinda cute but it’s…
The line melodies have just enough repetition that it allows us to follow along, but there’s no denying that these lines are not the same structure. By setting up the repetition in the beginning of the lines, it leads us to think it will repeat—but it doesn’t. Most couplet lines match almost exactly, or have a call-and-response. Breaking this “rule” adds to the feeling of unease and builds tension.
And not only do the lines not match, they aren’t complete sentences. By fragmenting the lines, it leads to keep listening, as well as creating that feeling of imbalance.
The sections don’t end on the “home” note
The song is in A Major, and while some of the lines end on the “home” note or the Tonic, which would be A, the section as a whole never ends on that note. Even if you’re not familiar with music theory, try listening to the melody at the end of the Verse: does it sound like it resolved? What this creates is a feeling of there’s more to the story, that there’s something left unsaid.
The Chorus is sung on the Major 7th
It’s a bit rare for a Chorus melody to hang on the Major 7th of A major like it does. For anyone who is unfamiliar, the Major 7th is the last note of a Major Scale (Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do). If you sing the scale, you will most likely not want to sing “Ti” for a while, preferring to resolve up to “Do”, or the “home” note.
McAlpine sings much of the Chorus on G#, starting and ending on that note. In fact, none of the Chorus lines ever resolve to A. The melody plays with our feeling of certainty, especially since most Choruses resolve to the “home” note, usually at the end of the Chorus.
The chords never resolve
Similarly to the melody, the chord progression never starts or ends on A, the Tonic chord or “home” chord. In fact, all of the chord progressions end on the Dominant chord (E), which adds to the feeling of never resolving. Traditionally, we have this concept of needing to resolve the Dominant chord that has existed in classical music, and as listeners, we expect to hear the resolution. This non-resolution also adds to the feeling of instability in the song.
The lyrical reveal at the end
There is a sort of vagueness in the lyrics of most of the song, creating a sort of dreamy movie-like effect. Through the unstable structure and non-resolving melodies and harmony, we still feel like something is off, like there is more to it than what is being described. Even so, we as the listener understand the snapshots of the relationship McAlpine creates, and when we reach the lines at the end…
But it’s not real, and you don’t exist
And I can’t recall the last time that we kissed
It throws us in for a loop. And I don’t know about you, but it makes me want to listen to the song again and again, looking for clues.
Tension & Prosody
And that’s what the use of tension does: keeps us waiting for that answer, that resolution that we never actually receive. We truly feel the yearning of the character. It makes the entire song an experience, and not just a story.
Write the Next Song 