“Belle” by Jack Johnson

I love this song off of Jack Johnson’s new CD. The song titled “Belle” is sung in French and the music also has a very French sound. The song is in four-four but it has a bouncy feel. The first sixteen measures are guitar and then the accordion comes in on the seventeenth measure. The guitar sound like it might be on the V chord because it seems to play sol-fa-fa with the rest of the chord on the fa and then it plays sol-mi-mi which could be a I or III chord. I’m not sure about French music and its progressions so I’m not sure, maybe V’s always go to III’s. The guitar continues to play the simple two chord progression for most of the piece. When the accordion comes in it starts off playing a little melody, sol-do-mi-sol-fa-mi-fa-sol-la-sol-fa. The accordion keeps on playing the melody for the next sixteen measures and then Jack begins to sing. He sings for the next sixteen measures, making the parts mostly symmetrical except for his small extension for the ending. While he is singing the accordion changes to chords mostly. The melody on the verse have a short phrase, long phrase, short long, short, short, and then one long. The song ends on a chord that is definitely not I, possibly V or something else. I wish I knew the exact chord progression but I am sure that this song sounds French.
I like hearing Jack try to sing some French. He does a nice job and at least he didn’t do more than one verse or it might have gotten old. The music is very nice and I really enjoy the accordion. It’s nice to hear the accordion in a slow setting.