Blog 4- Song Deconstruction

The two songs I have chosen for the assignment are "Someone Like You" and "Rolling in the Deep" both by Adele.

*I chose the live version of "Someone Like You" because it is both more popular (except for radio) and more soulful than the original version.


These two songs are quite different from each other. The lyrics of "Someone Like You" are quite sad and emotional, as it is about a difficult breakup. The song details the relationship between her and someone she used to date, and how he has moved on. It also speaks about how they have become estranged, but she is determined to move on and "find someone like him."
The lyrics or "Rolling in the Deep" are certainly more angry and powerful. She uses words like "fire", "scars," "burn", and "sorrow." The song is about the anger that comes with a breakup, along with regret and despair. Similar to "Someone Like You" it is definitely a song about a breakup, however "Someone Like You" comes with more acceptance and sorrow, while "Rolling In The Deep" is certainly an angry song. The two songs can quite possibly have been written during different stages of her own breakup (I think they are based on real events.) Typically, the first stage of a breakup is anger and regret, while acceptance comes later.

The melodies of both songs fit the lyrics very well, as the melody for "Someone Like You" is slower and more emotional, while the melody of "Rolling in the Deep" is much more powerful. She strains her voice a lot in "Rolling..." and sings with anger, while she sings with a kind of sorrow on "Someone...".

As the graphs show above, the music quality of both songs is where they differ the most. "Someone..." has a sort of smooth, wavy structure to it that adds to the emotion, while "Rolling..." has a structure that drops up and down very often. The chorus adds a powerful punch to it, and the verses seem to always build up to the chorus.

The timbre of both songs is, as I've said much, much different. "Someone..." contains only a piano in addition to her soft vocals, while "Rolling..." layers many powerful instruments together to add more power. This makes for a much more intense song, while "Someone..." is much, much less intense.

The organization of both songs is similar in the way that they go verse-chorus-verse-chorus (x2) and drop off. This is a typical song structure in the way that it leaves a strong framework for the song.

The speed of "Someone..." is very obviously slower, while "Rolling..." is faster. This goes along with the rhythm, and what drives the rhythm. Drums tend to be faster and more powerful, while piano tends to be (but not always) slower in speed and rhythm.



I personally prefer "Someone Like You" because of the timbre and instrumentation. There is a certain authenticity that I typically associate with songs that only contain vocals and piano, which I really appreciate. It is much more raw than "Rolling in the Deep" and I really enjoy the soft melody. "Rolling..." is much more a song for an upbeat energy, but to me seems a little more formulaic than "Someone Like You."