Ribs Musical Devices

Though the layering of instruments and sounds, Lorde presents her growing fearful anxiety of growing old in Ribs. While there are few instruments and musical devices at play, Ribs brilliantly picks and chooses precise points to insert or remove sounds for effect. As a whole, the music is supporting the lyrics; it enhances the singing and feelings of Lorde, and stirs the listener emotionally. A song directed towards an old friend, Lorde reminisces about the past and expresses her worry for the future. Further, the lyrics contain specific examples drawn directly from their experiences as friends, though thick and thin. She wishes for more time, endless time if possible, to spend with her friends in their current youthful state. Slowly, Lorde
Right from the start, the verse is preceded by her choral hymn rising over the ambient electronic sound. Her choral hymn has a swinging nature, where it alternates between a strong and weak pattern. Every couple beats, she doubles the strong hymn, and it emulates a backing up effect, as if the music is being played backwards. Slowly, as the hymns get louder, Lorde’s vocals comes in the pickup, and the hymns are replaced with the drum set bass drum keeping the tempo underneath. Throughout the entire song, the ambient electronic sound has shifting texture and keeps the music persisting forward. Once the verse ends, the pre-chorus begins immediately at a faster pace, and this is where the electronic claps are added in every measure. Now, the growing supporting sounds carry the lyrics into the chorus, where Lorde sings the fastest. The hymns are added back in, and there drum taps; the chorus is where Lorde is the most anxious, and it is reflected by the accompaniment all coming in. At the end of a chorus, the song resets back to just the hymn and the ambient electronic sound. The final two stanzas, bridge and outro, are song at the same pace with the same instrumentation as the chorus, and is considered to be the final breaking point of