Dancing Into The Moonlight by D'Sound

Song Title: Dancing Into The Moonlight
Artist: D'Sound
Album: Doublehearted
Released: 2003
Genre: Pop/Jazz
Length: 4:18
Lyrics: http://artists.letssingit.com/d-sound-lyrics-dancing-in-to-the-moonlight-42q1cj9



A few years back, my brother bought a D'Sound album entitled Smooth Escapes: The Very Best Of D' Sound. I cannot remember very well but if I'm not mistaken, it is a 20-song album (will verify this), obviously taking their best songs from the band's albums. And guess what, this is the song that I liked the most in that compilation - better than their hits Tattoed On My Mind, People Are People, Talkin' Talk and Do I Need A Reason.

The story this song is sharing to the listeners is pretty simple and straightforward - basically the vocalist shares her experiences, feelings and thoughts of being in love and being with her lover. And it is also evident that whatever she feels about and for her lover, she is generally receiving the quality of love complimenting what she is sharing. In other words, the feeling is mutual, "Knowing that you are just mine."

It's easy to understand how she expresses her feelings for her lover, as the lyrics, for the most part, only uses either the simple form or just a shallow usage of a few figures of speech. Nothing really fancy on the wordings, except for two lines in the bridge:

"The fireflies starting a flame
The waves are all saying your name"

When I first heard these lines after listening to two and a half minutes of purely good music, my eyebrows just crossed for curiosity. Honestly, I really don't like how this part was written. I am not entirely saying that this was poorly written, but try to relate it to the rest of the song. Somehow, the entire song was simply written, then the songwriter suddenly thought of putting two personification lines (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personification). The song was pushed down momentarily for maybe an unnecessary depth. And trying to realize what those two lines would mean, it's like suggesting that the girl is getting overly obsessed for her lover. And to add to that, after the bridge, the song goes back to chorus, going back to its original depth, without any continuity from the bridge.

The music itself is very captivating. Even if you make this as an instrumental without changing anything, this would still do very well. Just hearing the intro part, which already has meaningful notes and great delay/reverb effects, you'd almost instantly think "Oh I feel this is going to be a very happy love song." I'm not sure if a lot of people can appreciate this, but the percussions in the intro part was just very simple BUT very nice. The clapper and the bass were the only ones being used on that part. I do not know if they have a musical term for it. At 0:11, in the transition between two intro riffs, the clapper was hit on an off beat manner, that it quite emphasized the transition part.

The entire song showcased the guitars (with the guitarist with a very good limb to brain coordination, switching the effects so frequently in the whole length) with a very significant amount of delay, echo and reverb, except for the ending part using overdrive (3:37 to end). You'd only be noticing there are not much notes used in the whole stretch, and maybe only four eighth notes used in a series in one measure. The sounds of the notes were just carried by the effects, and that helps the notes to be kept in legato. The bass basically served as a backbone, especially on the stanzas and the instrumental part - maybe more needed as a backbone compared to most of the other songs).

Hearing this song for the first time and not relating to other D'Sound songs, I wouldn't be surprised if some people would say Simone Larsen's (lead vocalist) voice is not out of the ordinary. A reasonable percentage of female singers can definitely emulate Simone in this song. But mind you, it's not all about sounding unique, but it's more of how the vocalist can relate and mesh his/her voice to the music and the lyrics combined. Simone's voice in this song reveals a female's personality of being a fierce lover. Sweet sounding, but fierce lover.

It's going to be tricky if you decide that this song deserves more attention and come up to cover this, not actually heavy on the fingering skill part. Take note, the only chords used in the whole song are Em7, DM7, Am, Em7/F#, GM7. Nothing really special in those chords, not even a single accidental (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accidental_(music)) used in the whole song (if I haven't missed out a thing). But the tricks will fall on having to utilize two lead guitarists (I think this is necessary to play this song closest to the original) exchanging notes alternatively (that would seem to look like a dialogue of two instrumentalists). It is imperative that the two guitarists don't play with exactly the same effect at the same time, because that will almost just momentarily defeat the purpose of having two separate guitarists. And yea, a backup female singer for the second voice would be a plus.

Vocal range for the whole song is not really wide, but in the higher part of the normal soprano range. Floor is A4 and peaks at A5 (the bridge only peaks at G5). No fancy combination of notes. That's not so hard for the vocalist.

I've always imagined this song to be played on acoustics, but never knew how this would sound. But for me, the best acoustic setup for this song would be two acoustic guitars, the bass guitar and the percussions. I think it would work better if the acoustic guitars would still stick with the delay effects, so that would be two guitars on clean + delay (two same effects throughout the song - as opposed to what I have mentioned above playing with the exact same effect at the same time). Maybe to at least to deviate and compromise abit from having two guitars with the same effect, one of the guitarist can play one octave lower, so as to put emphasis on it. But having them play as it is would still be workable.

This is a must-have for people who loves pop love songs. If it weren't for the two personification lines that I have mentioned above, I would have rated this song a perfect 10 out of 10. But anyway, the simplistic nature of the lyrics and how it was sung meshed with a very enchantic music make me listen to this song everytime I can. I have always believed that this song deserves more recognition that it has been currently receiving.