How Tension and Release Creates Successful Songs

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I’ve been listening to Foo Fighter’s fantastic new hit, “Rope“, from their newly released album “Wasting Light”, and it got me thinking about song energy, and specifically about the issue of tension and release. “Rope” is a relentlessly powerful tune, and you might legitimately be thinking that you hear all kinds of tension, and not a lot of release. However, tension and release happens in many different ways, and even high-power songs like “Rope” need to have musical ideas that present conflict that need to be resolved. When your song is generally a high-energy performance from beginning to end, the proper release of tension becomes vital.

Many of the ways we build tension have to do with the musical arrangement of the song: the performance. So things like 1) style of drumming, 2) instrumental accompaniment, and 3) vocal/melodic decisions (harmonies, range, etc.) all affect the perceived energy level of a song.

But in addition to those, there are things that songwriters can and should be doing to build tension, and then release it. Using “Rope” as a model, take a look at the following:

1. Harmonic tension: The tension in “Rope” comes from the odd choice of the two verse chords: Bm and Dm. Even though the Dm chord shares the note “D” with the Bm chord, the switch from the F# note to F as Bm moves to Dm is harmonically unsettling. The release comes from the more standard chorus progression: G  Em  Bm  A… (All chords, incidentally, from the key of D major, which brightens the overall temper of the song.)
2. Melodic tension. The tension comes from the juxtaposition of a rising melody in B minor, reversing direction on the F# note. Switching on that note highlights the unusual relationship between Bm and Dm. The release comes from starting the chorus melody a semitone higher – on G – and beginning with a descending scale that, in part, mirrors the opening melody.
3. Lyrical/rhythmic tension. The tension comes from the beat-displacement of each verse word, the syncopation generating considerable energy. That tension is released in the chorus, where each line of lyric starts with a word that is placed directly on – not between – the beat.