NUR EIN
almost 5 years agoeliminated
2:56
The Only Way Out
see-man-ski image
see-man-ski

Entry from The Only Way Out in Nur Ein XVI.

Downward Modulation

LyricsShow lyrics

See-Man-Ski
Liner Notes

This was another one that I struggled with up until I started mixing then I just adding distortion and I grew to like it. It is definitely one of my more wordy tracks. It's all about scamming the scammer.

Musically it is actually very simple a lot of the guitar parts and that distorted piano are just one finger hits. I also wanted the drums to be a bit more organic so tried to record the hits by hitting the base of my acoustic and fed them into grooove bpm.

Again, not sure this will be enough to get through but it was fun.

the only way out
that I can see
is the read the content
thoroughly

when the devils in the detail
and the detail can't be seen
looking through a filter
that keeps your hands clean

the only way out
that I can see
is read the small print
carefully

you thrust the pen and paper
pointing at the line
piling on the pressure
forcing me to sign

you highlight all the parts
that shed a better light
and make you look like angels
not sharks that feed on sight

the only way out
that I can see
is take the pay out
naturally

when the law is in your favour
and it's lawfully decreed
then I'll take all of your money
and fill my heart with greed

the only way out
that I can see
is press the issue
until they bleed

you'll kick a man down
until the final round
looking for an angle
when an angle can't be found

when the pendulum swings
and the odds are stacked against you
reaching for any excuse
cover up the truth

but
you can't pretend
you didn't know what you were doing

Reviews

3 posted notes

Pigfarmer Jr

Forum post

I dig the rootsy guitars and the vocal is super well done. That stepwise chord progression back into the main riff is cool. I like this song a lot.
Challengewise: Did you modulate? I played a long on the guitar a couple of times and I can tell you move downward in subsequent sections but it doesn't feel like a modulation to me. At any rate, it definitely doesn't feel like it embraces the challenge as well as some of the other entries.

JonPorobil

Forum post

I really appreciate you changing up the genre again. I never pictured you doing a Black-Keys style stomper, but you pull it off well. The problem I have with this song is your implementation of the challenge. It's the middle four lines of each verse, right? You're playing that lick in C, then you play the same lick in G (four steps down), then back up to C, then onto the next section. But I don't think what you've done here is modulation; it's just a progression. I suppose repeating a phrase within the same tonal center but shifted down could be modulation in some contexts, but here these licks are functionally standing in for chords, and so this modulation is just building a bog-standard I-V-I chord progression. Later on in the song you have this downward pointing chromatic riff, which fulfills the "downward" part but again I don't think counts as "modulation" meaningfully. It's frustrating because I do want to be lienient to you for shaking up your style during a moment when you really needed to. But your genre shift doesn't appear to me to have been related to the challenge, and the "modulation" appears to have been implemented in a way that just happens to align with a typical pop music harmonic convention, which gives the impression that the challenge didn't constrain the song or push it in any direction it wouldn't have gone anyway. Okay, I'm gonna go tip a table over and hide behind it.

vowlvom

Forum post

UH! I really like the way this switches out of the rock 'n' roll riff into the darker, fuzzier chorus / bridge sections and back again. It's in more of a classic-rock register than I tend to personally enjoy but it sounds great and the performances are really good, I think it's one of your best this Nur Ein. UH!

see-man-ski - The Only Way Out | Nur Ein