Machine (2006)
Written By Eric Mouquet, Josh Groban
Performed By Josh Groban Featuring: Herbie Hancock
Album: Awake
“Machine” is a song that just grabs you with its uniqueness,
in musical style and lyrical creativity. Its sound is fresh and modern, but
still sophisticated enough not to alienate traditionalists of both jazz and pop
music. “Machine” steps outside the musical box’s boundaries, with class and
direction. Josh Groban who normally sings in the pop, pop/classical and adult
contemporary styles, with hits like “To Where You Are” and “You Raise Me Up”,
works beautifully, both vocally and musically, with the award winning jazz and
classically trained pianist Herbie Hancock. Whose many styles include hard bop,
fusion jazz rock, electronic jazz and jazz funk, and whose mentor and former
band mate was cool jazz musician Miles Davis. This unlikely match of performers
with diverse backgrounds makes for a cool and awesome sound, which is totally
cohesive to the listeners’ ears, mixing beautifully in its musical flow of
notes. It is like these two musicians have worked together many times before,
though they have not, and I personally hope they will work together again in
the future.
“Machine”, with its synthesized sound and funky keyboard and
piano play, is categorized as electro-funk with jazz and pop overtones; I
personally would call it jazz rock/pop fusion and funkfied techno/electro, it
could also be called wild new age jazz fusion. Its sound puts you back into the
period where the seventy’s music was mixing with early eighty’s music, a disco
sound without being real disco, but with a lot of techno synthesizing. Where
pop, rock, jazz, funk, and disco were all meeting together in a musical recipe
book, which created many unique and strange sounds of experimental music;
taking the listener away to another musical world without rules. “Machine” has
a smooth sound that makes the listener want to be in the music studio watching
it all being put together. Even the name “Machine” for a song is also a pretty
cool title; it pulls you in wanting to know what it is all about.
Lyrically, “Machine” is poetic and unique; fitting perfectly
to Josh Groban’s beautiful baritone voice and past work and Herbie Hancock’s
diverse musical styles. It is both spiritually and intellectually beautiful.
The listener can listen to this song and find many different meanings to it
each time it is heard. “Machine” can be an anti-love song to a cold and distant
lover, who does not know how to return another person’s affection or kindness;
and really does not want to change or acknowledge their sociopathic ways. But
“Machine” can also be a spiritual song speaking about how the world has become
so materialistic (I want everything no matter the cost), technological
(computers are replacing flesh and bone beings) and religiously
fundamentalistic (every one is a sinner but me) that we have forgotten and lost
are humanity and spirituality, Losing our connection to each other and the
universal Soul, becoming just machines (robots) walking in the world, zombie
like, slowly losing all feelings for humanity. This would be my old age/new age
spiritual interpretation of the song. But however the individual listener
interprets “Machine”, it is a song that will pull you in with its mixture of
sound and lyrical tapestry. If it was a painting it would be a fine art piece.
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