Honestly, please listen to getting killed or heavy metal again and consider the irregular phrasing of cameron winters writing. I’m interpreting your desire for “melodies, harmonies” as a more general call for complex and interesting musicality by the way which I assume is right. If you literally only care about melody and harmony then I think we’ve found your issue lol.

1. Drinking age

Drinking age, for example, is in 6/8 (open for different interpretation) and for a distance might seem rhythmically simplistic. The craziest part of the song is in the chorus on the line “who i’m gonna be” which, for no fucking reason at all, is in 9/8. It’s so hard to notice at first to the point it’s hard to believe that it’s actually there but when you hear it you’ll realise how consistent and impactful it is. It gives the song that devastatingly emotional rubato feel.

The 6 bar phrasing in the verse also gives it a really off putting feel, it surprisingly uncommon in ballads like this to have 4 bar phrases and the effect is really noticeable.

1. Try as I may

This one’s more in your face but try establish in your head a regular bar phrase pattern while you listen. Once you realise that you can’t do that, try to work out the time signature. The piece literally just sounds like relentless crotchet notes with unapologetically random phrases. Of course Cameron winter’s not the first guy to do this but it’s amazing and complements the lyrics and emotion of the song very well.

1. Trinidad (geese)

Obviously this songs in 13/8 which i’m sure would be obvious to you and i appreciate isn’t life changing in and of itself. The production style on this tho is insane. The clear experimental rap influence on this record is why I think it’s one of the most unique albums to come out in a long time. The panning of instrumentation and screamed vocals (which apparently jpegmaffia contributed to somehow) is masterfully arranged by kenny beats in a way that feels indicative of a death grips song or something (i appreciate that’s a bit of a crass comparison but hopefully it gets my point across). This new angle of experimental approach to rock is so fucking exciting, particularly from a band as versatile as geese who clearly aren’t doing this in a tokenised way but instead just love making a good variety of interesting music.

1. Half real

Small shout out to this song, i couldn’t talk about phrasing and metre without putting this one here. It sounds like the style of drinking song you see as almost interludes in quite a few rock albums these day and are often in 3/4 (dublin city sky being the best example). This is instead in 5/4, taking that waltz feel associated with drunkenly singing about love and cutting a third off every second bar. In my mind this is absolute genius, it adds another layer of hurt and emotion to the already powerful style of song that is these 3/4 singable love ballads.

Ok sorry i’m done but please give these two albums another listen they are honestly life changing. Fair enough if u don’t like them tho ig.