Mini Analysis: Powderfinger – Passenger (Character)

Work: ‘Passenger’
Composers/Creators: Jon Coghill, John Collins, Bernard Fanning, Ian Haug, Darren Middleton
Performers: Powderfinger
Album: Internationalist (Universal, 1999)

Sometimes an excerpt can have very different characters, creating a variety of moods within a minute!

Listen to this first part of the excerpt and consider some words to describe the character and mood.

Need some ideas? See pages 140 & 141 in Decoding Sound.

Press “PLAY” on the video to hear the excerpt.

The character words I chose for this first section are:

• benign
• easy-going
• mellow

Listen to this next part of the excerpt and note what happens to the character and mood. Think about some words you might use to describe how it makes you feel.

Press “PLAY” on the video to hear the excerpt.

You might have had something different to me, but the words I chose here are:

• foreboding
• desolate
• anxious

Even if your words are not the same as mine, we can definitely agree that the mood has shifted in this excerpt. Let’s listen now to the last section and come up with some words.

Need some ideas? See pages 140 & 141 in Decoding Sound.

Press “PLAY” on the video to hear the excerpt.

My last few selections to describe the character are:

• intense
• fiery
• determined

Listen to this excerpt in full now, and follow the character through it’s various incarnations.

Press “PLAY” on the video to hear the excerpt.