Sean Kilmer

2/25/15
Rhetorical Analysis
In 2011, Nick Murphy, also known as Chet Faker, released a cover of
Blackstreets No Diggity, and a year later released an EP Thinking in
Textures. The EP and single vaulted him to fame and solidified his style as
loungy yet subtly beautiful. This past year he released his first full album
Built on Glass, and it contained many songs that were similar to those on
Thinking in Textures, such as Talk is Cheap and Melt. However, he also
branched out, especially on the backside of the album. He moved away from
his comfort zone of slow synth jams, and experimented with guitar chords
and a slightly faster tempo. The last song on the album, Dead Body, is a
combination of the two styles, and the result is a song reminiscent of the
beginning of Black Magic Woman by Santana, only with synth added to the
background. However, this entire album would not be nearly as easy to listen
to without its introduction, Release You Problems.

Any introduction used to be able to do two things: catch attention and

set the tone for the rest of the album. Luckily, in todays world of lead singles
and single-song listening, the artist can choose a song to release before the
album to catch a potential listeners attention. Therefore, now an
introductions main job is to set the tone for what will come after. Release
Your Problems does a wonderful job of putting the listener in a relaxed mood

required for the rest of the album, and it does so through a relaxing beat,
sounds that fade in and out, and strong, almost haunting vocals.

The song starts of with a multitude of slow paced synth chords that
echo for a second after they are struck. This creates a dream like effect
before Faker even opens his mouth. After about a minute, the beat comes to
a momentary climax, and the song goes silent for second. This climax is
similar to a sound that is used to signal time travel or teleportation in
television shows. Therefore, the climax signals transportation to a different
place. Faker wants one to forget about their current surroundings and join
him on the journey that is his album. He wants the listener to focus on only
his album, since it would be underappreciated if treated as background
noise. The climax is effective in intriguing the listener, and when the song
goes silent, they are curious to find out what will follow it. At this point, Faker
has the best chance of pulling in the listener for a minimum of a song or two.
To capitalize on this vulnerability and hook the listener, Faker relies on his
beautiful voice.

The first thing the listener hears after the silence is Fakers voice
unaccompanied by a beat. This is a bold move, since his past releases
highlighted his voice with wicked and soft beats. However, the risk pays off
because his voice does not need the crutch of a beat, at least for a few
seconds. He lets out a woahhhh, youre takin all I own, before the beat

drops, and the smoothness of his voice is comforting. Its an inviting voice
that exudes empathy and melancholy. Nevertheless, after that line he slides
in a beat made up of soft shakers, bass drum, and mellow synth. The beat is
at a slow pace, and similar to the one before the climax. It easily takes a
backseat to his vocals and highlights his lyrics while still making the listener
bob their head.
Faker certainly prefers relaxed beats with synth, yet thats not the
most relaxing part of the song. He is a master at inserting background vocals
that fade in and out. These are extremely key to the song as they add a
dream like effect to it. While singing, the feet are stumbling, walking down
the street in the light, he adds an oh oh oh oh oh in the background. This
is only his fourth line of the song, and by this point, he has already added
background vocals twice. In the next line, he adds another set of ohs.
However, this time they serve a slightly different purpose. When they were
added the first time, they were much calmer and the same pitch. But the
second set of ohs is added over the strongest line of the song up to that
point. He wails, walk on or die, in increasing strength, and the ohs
increase in strength with him. Whereas the first time they were used to
create a haunting effect, the second time they are used to reinforce his
powerful line.

However, the best use of background vocals in this song is during the
chorus and hook. While singing the lines, Eyes to see the break in your

way / Release your problems / Release your problems / Release your

problems, he doubles his voice. He added his own voice to the background
of those lyrics, and it makes it seem as if two of him are singing the song.
This choice makes the song much more trippy, and bends the rules of reality.
It is common for singers to harmonize with others, but rare for them to
harmonize with themselves. In an interview with Swide.com last April, Faker
told Ben Taylor that, writing music is not a linear process at all, you have to
sit down and do something and then another thing. Its just kind of like a selfconscious flow of energy, like tapping into a feeling you have in music. He
certainly conveys a haunting feeling with his echoing voice, and it is obvious
that when he recorded this he was trying to relax and eliminate stress. This
is evident because of not only the beat, but also the lyrics as a whole. He
uses a string of ohs again during the last Release your Problems, along
with drawing out the ems of problems, which gives that line more emotion
and creates a stronger connection with the listener.

Of the 24 lines in the song, six of them, or one quarter, are Release
your Problems, he is reinforcing a message that only gets stronger at the
end of the song. The last five lines of the song are: I could be the warmest
soul if I like / what a night / what a night / what a night / dont lie to my face.
He is telling the listener that he also has stresses, but he released them in
this dream state, and so can the listener. After the last line, he hums and
snaps over the beat, and eventually the song fades out as soft as it came in.

The listener is now supposed to be in stress free state and can listen to the
rest of the album in the state of mind that Faker intended.

Judging by the name Built on Glass, glass is meant to be a metaphor

for this album. In the same interview with Slate.com, Faker said that, glass
was this perfect metaphor for [this album] because glasses are fragile but
they are also strong. This song portrays that dichotomy well because the
song in general seems so fragile, like one loud noise could ruin it. At the
same time, its relaxing message is so strong and effective. This introduction
accurately set the tone for the rest of the album, and does its best to hook
the listener, and therefore, it completed its job.