The Unbearable Beauty of Auto-Tune

Many have written about the plague on today’s popular music that is the Vocoder, including TSRE’s very own Chris (on Nov. 18). While that unique robotic timbre was striking at first, its overuse has eliminated much of the Vocoder’s intrigue. And, as a singer myself, it annoys me that all of a sudden people that can’t sing are releasing albums full of singing. In some sense, though, the Vocoder effect is at least honest—Kanye, T-Pain, and Lil’ Wayne are not pretending that their voices unaided by studio effects, like many pop stars of the 90s (Britney, the Simpson sisters, etc.) did. But I’m still sick of it.

It was thus refreshing to discover a more satisfying use of auto-tuning technology on Bon Iver’s EP Blood Bank, released in January. The final track is called “Woods”, and consists only of singer Justin Vernon’s auto-tuned voice repeating a simple four-line phrase: “I’m up in the woods / I’m down on my mind / I’m building a still / to slow down the time.” With each repetition, different incarnations of Vernon’s voice are added and the auto-tuner is used to create strange rhythmic twitches, like a mechanical vibrato, as well as to enable more athletic melodic flourishes.

What makes this use of auto-tune effective is the way in which it enables the song to build from a robotic beginning to a vibrant end. “Woods” begins with a clearly auto-tuned solo voice. But as voice after voice is added, the harmony becomes increasingly lush, and the rhythmic twitches and melodic peculiarities within each line combine to form an increasingly dense sonic mass that, by the end, seems to quiver with life. It's like the song progresses from seed to flower before your ears.

The effect is more than a little reminiscent of Imogen Heap’s “Hide and Seek.” Yet one thing that substantially differentiates the two songs is their use of lyrics. The lyrics of denial and despair are a major component of “Hide and Seek,” and the music is often used to accentuate them, like when the melody suddenly slows to a deliberate plod on the lyrics “stop to hold their heads heavy.” In “Woods,” the lyrical content takes on a meditative quality with its constant repetition, and allows the listener’s focus to firmly rest on the growing harmonic and rhythmic complexity of the song. Both approaches work, and I can’t decide which track I like more.

Here, for your listening pleasure: “Woods” and “Hide and Seek.”

Bon Iver – Woods (YSI) (filesavr)
Imogen Heap – Hide and Seek (YSI) (filesavr)