Making music is a process of stringing ideas together. One way you can tell if an idea sounds good is if you want to hear it again. And again. And again. Sometimes it may be that repeating a motif or recurring returning back to a motif is more effective than continually introducing new motifs. This is why choruses remain such a common feature in popular music. The loop-based music hip hop, house, and techno are entire genres built on the power of repetition. This is why I’d argue that A Tribe Called Quest’s “Electric Relaxation” is superior to Ronnie Foster’s“Mystic Brew.” Tribe’s extended meditation upon those lush guitar chords laid down by Foster makes me wonder if Foster moved on too quickly from them in “Mystic Brew.” He didn’t fully milk the chord progression, the textures, and vibes for as much as Tribe got out of them. That’s okay though, Foster had different intentions. The repetition makes them that much sweeter.
Speaking of songs that maximize sweetness from motif repetition, “American Food” by Philly-based band They Are Gutting a Body of Water has been my most listened-to song of the past couple weeks. “American Food” is built around arpeggiated power chords, with a two note melody slicing in between the chords to create a fractured drone oscillating throughout the track’s runtime. Unlike the band’s more effects-laden songs, the guitars ring arid and twangy, and this dryness is punctuated by the monotone spoken word passages that form the song’s two verses. Vocalist Doug Dulgarian describes a voice message not in terms of its content but of the sounds it is backgrounded by. A car drives by, and the sound of either rain or applause pitter patters behind the caller’s voice.
It is unclear whether any clues to what was said on the voicemail could be gleaned from the chorus of the song. A pitched up digitized coos “tell me there’s a better one and I’ll go get my gun.” The melody here is so catchy and the line flows so smoothly. The decision to repeat this sentence rather than replace it with a new phrase is a smart one. This lets the phrase sink its claws in and takes on a mantra-like appearance.adds to the trance-like feel induced by the instrumentation.
It is unclear what the “better one” is. For that reason, it is also unclear whether the gun is to be utilized to obtain it, protect it, hurt it, or to do something else entirely. This openended-ness is the strength of the song. I know that for myself, as a songwriter, one of the traps I fall into is getting stuck trying to say something that communicates a specific and impactful idea. Falling into vague generalizations is a lazy way to circumvent this challenge. But “American Food” demonstrates that obtuseness and opaqueness can actually be wielded in ways that make a song more interesting. The chorus provides a resonant prompt in which the listener can fill in the gaps in a multitude of ways.
I think one not very interesting way to look at the phrase would be interpreting it as the thought of an insecure and distraught ex-lover, who if learning that their former beau found someone else, they would take the firearm to potentially off themselves, the former lover, or the former lover’s new lover. It’s violent and provocative, but not the most imaginative possibility. One reviewer on Rateyourmusic (mis)heard the line as being about a “better world” rather than “better one”, and proceeded to explain how the gun might be used in an armed struggle in building towards a world that is better than the unsatisfactory one the narrator lives in.Taking up the gun sets the precedent for violent action, but it is the violence of the world and the speaker’s knowledge that violence will be deployed against their cause that leads them to believe it is necessary and just to take up an armed struggle. I don’t believe that it is “world” that is being sung here. It would friction to the rhyme in a way that is unfitting with the sweetness of the melody. But the “one” could be a world. It’s an interpretation that is broad, ambitious, and filled with longing. With this reading, there is still much more to be filled in - we’re not given all the answers. You and I might have different ideas of what a better one/word looks like.
For me, what this chorus so cleverly captures is the potential intensity of desire. Desire is a powerful multi-faceted producer of action. The desirable object is not always describable. And in some cases, the object of desire that becomes attained then loses its allure over time. The desire moves to pursue a different object. There is a better one. And if there is, what lengths would one go to in pursuing it? When desire is a driving force for human activity, a song about desire can be about anything and everything to the listener.
January 8, 2026