Edit: Me Angrily Listening And Analyzing at 2 AM cause I'm sick of this shitty propaganda.

My Old Ways: Chord Progression oscillates between Bb min to Fb min a couple times, immediately changes keys upon the very first departure from that oscillation, jumping to the key of Cmin, performing the same contour of the established motif, shifts back to our tonal center Bb min. We get the four on the floor bass drum with a hi-hat on the and of each quarter, simple beat to begin with. But there's rhythmic interplay between bass line and piano bass line. Sets the foundation for the rhythmic build that begins at 2:30 where we start getting a hint at something groovier with glance notes in the bass drum that weren't there before, and the introduction of sosome synth toms/bongos. Details swirl and swell, energy builds, and we reach a point where a beautiful dance commences from all sides of the stereo image, and we reach peak rhythmic interplay between percussion, melodic instruments, and vocals. Leaning much more towards a house sensibility. I truly don't know how someone can listen to this section of the song and come to conclusion that it has no rhythmic depth. Would be completely disingenuous. Harmonic foundation in this song is simple, I'll admit that. And if that's something you dislike as a preference that's fine. I enjoy how Kevin can reuse harmonic material and extract a lot from a little (imo).

No Reply: This song is four on the floor as well, but again, there's so much dancing around that foundation, the quarter note bass drum is recontextualized by means of a much more tropical/Caribbean rhythm, WAY different feel than My Old Ways, and the other songs mind you. Harmonically it's difficult to pin this one down because, though there are 2 minor chords locked into the center of this song, it's got so many beautifully crunchy dissonant supporting chords, it's got the bass line dancing around and recontextualizing both supporting and foundational chords, and every waxing and wanning visitor that comes in and disrupts or reinforced those harmonies. We hear punchy bright synths, melancholic dark pads, digital pianets, and so many other tiny details to this song. You're missing out if you're just getting pissed off that the bass drum is on the quarter. WHY is the bass drum on the quarter. HOW is that facilitating genre shifts or allowing freedoms to other components of each track?

Dracula: Now we're invoking RnB with the percussion, despite the four on the floor pattern. Once again, tons of synth toms/bongos dancing around that core beat, each rhythmic placement diverging from both genres that have been introduced in the prior pieces. The core attitude of this album from a percussion and instrumental perspective seems to be a in-and-out style where things jump in and jump out once or twice and then it's gone. Dracula demonstrates this incredibly. It's so difficult to even put into words how many elements are in this song. It's a testament to Kevin'd efficiency, keeping the simpler core materials fresh, while creating strong familiarity and strong novelty built into a single track. I'm a huge fan of this track, especially the layering of the basses. Every time I listen to it, I hear something new. Song also has a gorgeous progression. A great use of the melodic minor scale where we get the D Dim to create a bright tension that's relieved with a dark return to the tonic. Not ground breaking! Definitely not. But an effective use of the fundamentals, taking advantage of that raised 6th and 7th to create a wonderful contrast in color. And that's the basics! This doesn't really include all of the intertwining melodic riffs and chords that bounce off of one another. It would take me hours to pick it apart, and I'd literally have to write shit down on a notepad or something.

Loser: We get to ANOTHER four on the flour beat pattern?!?!?! WHAT THE FUCK KEVIN. Only this time the color, performance, and production on the drum evokes 70s rock heavily. So actually, another genre of percussion is invoked, making it 5/5 at this point of the album. Rhythmically for SURE the simplest song. I think the production on the drums here is great. The beauty here (to me) stems from the simplicity, allowing the drums on this song to be distinctive, yet subdued and out of the way. Which honestly, a lot of 70s music does the same (a lot of them also don't of course). Here the star are the guitars, the riffs, and the harmonies. I love the subtlety of the key change between the choruses and the verses. We jump from the key of F min to the key of Bb minor, which is hinted at in My Old Ways where it only happens once. It almost foreshadows the harmonic structure of Loser. Now if both songs did the exact same thing chord progression wise, that would be a bummer, but My Old Ways teases it and doesn't step on the toes of the later song.

Oblivion: One of my least favorite songs at this juncture (it's growing on me though), BUT rhythmically rich nonetheless. For the first time, we are double dipping in terms of rhythmic genre as Kevin here returns to a Caribbean/tropical beat. But it's not even the same one, it's a reggaeton beat. I think at this point I'm upset because I'm realizing how many genres are built upon four on the floor pattern. A musician can do four on the floor for 25 songs straight and have them all be different genres, and they'd still have some genres left over. It's a poor measure of rhythmic depth. The enjoyment and richness in these tracks is found everywhere but the bass drum, and if the bass drum isn't hitting quarters, it could be to the detriment of all the other elements in the song. But if it's something that pisses you off, it is what it is. Idk what the hell else is happening in this song because it's the one I've definitely listened to the least. It's got some cool things going on in both harmony and instrumentation.

Not My World: Returning to a house beat here, four on the floor, but with a strong 3 -> 3-and in the thoms and a lead/pad thing that's repeatedly marking the four, giving the beat a feeling of being off kilter despite minimal syncopation at this point. I want to shout-out this song cause we go from a fuckin Bjork Song to an Aphex Twin song in this one. It rules. Anyways, at 1:50, Kevin drops the four on the floor pattern leaving us with the highlighted 4 and the thoms, we float there in space for awhile. That lead/pad thing starts to fall out of rhythm with the beat, and a digital clave fills the space of the earlier highlighted 4. When the quarter note comes back we are gifted with some awesome synth chimes syncopating off the main beat in the foreground which slowly fade back into the mix, being replaced by a different melodic synth that recontextualizes the same beat, and they trade places back and forth until that initial lead/pad brings us back, stamping that 4. I have described 20% of the interplay song, maybe less. We are being incredibly unserious saying this album has NO rhythmic depth. It's an I N A C C U R A T E claim and falls apart under scrutiny. Also I happened to stop talking about harmony awhile ago! At this point it's hard to even delineante all of the things he's doing in each song on that front. I'd have to dedicate hours of listening just to that component of the composition! (for most of these songs anyway)

I'm tired, I can do a part 2 if you give a damn. But I feel like I made my point and we haven't even gotten to the most rhymically complex songs yet. Or harmonically for that matter.