Better Home: Change Is Hard

Better Home was written a couple years ago, before I could even conceptualize moving out and setting off on my own. I often write about hypotheticals, or future possibilities, as I have always liked imagining the "what if"s of my life. This was one such example; "what if I were to move out tomorrow? How would that feel?".

Musically I have always loved the chords in the verse. The line cliche at the start is a personal favourite of mine that I use often (maybe too often...). It then moves to a cool C(b5) chord which is such a fun sound. Then Am, D/F#, A to get us back to E major. Pretty cool and a good amount of harmonic complexity without being too jarring and weird.

In the chorus, it takes all that harmonic complexity and non-diatonicism and throws it out the window with some nice open E, Bsus4, and Aadd2 all over an open E on the bottom. This much simpler and more consonant chord progression provides nice relief to the tension of the verse chords, and thematically provides a pleasing contrast to the doubt and anxiety that is present in the lyrics of the verses. Arrangement-wise we get more guitars, more vocals, and generally a bunch more layers to reinforce the chorus and make it feel like an arrival.

The bridge is a shocking change of pace which changes pretty much everything. We're in a new key, the time signature changes, a faster tempo, and the style changes to gritty rock with electric guitars, big drum fills and crunchy distorted vocals. This is paired with the lyric "taking a leap of faith, stepping outside what is safe" which further supports the bridge's theme of sudden change and unfamiliarity.

Finally it builds into the final chorus, reintroducing the earlier themes and lyrics, as well as the simpler familiar guitar chords. Except this time we are faster and down a step from the previous choruses, and we have some new timbres like some different electric guitar lines. This symbolizes me in a new environment, I am similar to the past me, but my surroundings have changed a bit. It's still me just in a better home. :)