Cauterize (Caught Her Eyes)- Word Painting and Tension.

Watch the Youtube Analysis here: https://youtu.be/hsT6p68tP4g

This song could be treated as a jazzed-up version of a Bob Dylan ballad, featuring muse-y lyrics about fictional characters which represent real people. The strumming pattern and pedalling between chords in the main riff builds up towards a descending chord progression in the verses. The fast changes move with the storytelling within the words and reflect the sometimes unnatural or confusing aspects of relationships and intimate moments that come out of nowhere.

The combinations of minor and dominant chords with the same root add a country/blues Americanised twang which border the line between American and British styles of folk and jazz. In the verse progression we see G minor and F minor being paired with G7 and F7 which for a soloist could imply a Mixo-Dorian sound, containing the b7 of Mixolydian, and adding the b3 of Dorian, in place of the Major 3^rd , to imply that Blues-y sound which often appears over a Dominant blues.

The use of melodic minor, across two dominant chords a whole tone apart in the chorus, firstly F9, then Eb9, create a dark, tense sound. These chords are the IV and V of Bb Melodic Minor, however the Dominant quality of both these chords implies that we could be returning to two different roots at any time. Our Eb9 suddenly functions as the V of Ab Major with the next chord, Ab major7. The descending progression following this starts in Ab, but we soon realise through the G minor chord that we have moved to C Dorian, as we play G minor7, D minor7 and end on C minor7.

So, here’s a quick way of disseminating the modal interchange during the chorus.

Bb Melodic Minor >> Ab Major >> C Dorian

My choice of voicings in the chorus has been optimised to create tension, then the simplest possible release. By voicing our Eb9 with the sus2 and the 3 in the same octave together, we have my reoccurring suspended 9^th sound over our dominant chord. This is a common feature of modern jazz and many singer-songwriters’ styles.  

Lyrically, the song dabbles in wordplay, how ‘Cauterize’ and ‘Caught Her Eyes,’ from the title are homophonic sounding phrases. Whilst this pokes at a cliché of song writing, it is effective in displaying how corny the idealised version of a relationship or a chance meeting can be. The song is a commentary on how pretentious people try too hard to visualise and create the perfect or not-so-perfect words, which one might say to express themselves to another person. It is far easier, as I had to learn myself, to be natural and to allow everything that is good about you to shine through and not get lost under heaps of pretentious layers of irony and rhetoric.

The lyrics also express how some people feel that something is missing from their life and will desperately search for experiences to get that something back, in turn they end up hurting themselves and damaging their chances of finding happiness later. For example, drug and alcohol abuse, excessive risky sexual activity, gambling, or overspending money   

Youtube Analysis Available Here: https://youtu.be/hsT6p68tP4g