Common Air
Control
Common Air is an audio engineer, producer and artist who’s just released his first song (I think). All I have to go by is one Instagram account. ;) I can’t tell if he’s in Nashville (because of the music stands in one of his posts), NYC, or LA - but it doesn’t matter. What matters is the song at hand and the incredible talent it took to put it together. Here’s our review of “Control.”
He created this song as a statement of his frustrations with the state of the world (see his Insta post from November 1st). It’s “about feeling hopeless and voiceless, but also about putting a stop to that feeling and taking control of your own life, and agency over its direction and the fate of the world.” What’s so interesting to me as the listener and writer is that he touches upon a host of musical genre’s in this track - almost as if to have each genre separately represent a different major problem we face as a society.
Track starts off in an f# groove with bass, acoustic, and drums, after an intro sound effect that reminded me of a heart & lung machine in a hospital. Interesting. Dig the groove. Melody starts on the 5 creating great separation between the vocals and instrumentation. Love the first verse! It’s got a 70’s soft-rock vibe with very modern tones (great mic choice and mix), nice syncopated hits in the middle to create an unexpected surprise and the manner in which he delivers the melody is excellent. The melody writhes around on top of the chord progression like a snake with just the right amount of reverb and compression on the take.
Love how the chorus starts! Definitely did not think it would drop down to the E for it’s starting chord but it makes perfect sense (if you play a fretted instrument) - great choice! Love how he uses it here with the 4 chord - this is a classic 70’s progression and it works perfectly - reminds us of Todd Rundgren. We often describe different parts of a song like different rooms of a house and here it feels like we’ve been led into the great room of the mansion. “There’s no good where love can’t grow, don’t let it fall away” is the line that stands out, and what follows it is absolute controlled chaos. That intro groove gets distorted, the drums tweaked heavy, and a gnarly synth tone comes lands right in your lap to tie it all together - perfectly setting up the second verse.
Second verse starts, and the aggression and anxiety picks up to perfectly match the angst of the lyrical content. We’re totally hooked on this track now. Nice touch with the added effects on the vocals, the use of the electric to drive the groove, and the added instrumentation. Love the last line of the verse as it takes a stab at the power-hungry leaders who don’t give a damn about what’s really going on and what’s really needed (“christens devils” is the line I’m referring to).
Second chorus has all the proper additional builds to keep this track pushing the boundaries - most notably the background vocals. I also have to say how much I love the three district electric tones I’m hearing here - the vibrato tone, the clean picking tone and tone used in the riff. The bridge is a culmination of all the chorus tones with a beautiful change in the chord progression. Here again, the background vocals are exceptional. The final chorus and outro is like some sort of a space jam - part Rush (2112 specifically), part glam rock (The Sweet, specifically), and definitely solid.
It’s hard to pinpoint all the references and genres I think this song represents. I say so because it’s brilliantly put together - the parts are all seamless and the mix is dead nuts perfect. I hear Glam Rock, Album Rock, synth pop, acoustic rock and a little bit of R&B with the chord changes - specifically in the bridge, and the use of the 7 as the starting chord for the chorus. I have no idea what other tracks this artist has produced or when he plans to put another one out, but I’ll definitely be looking forward to it - I loved this track.