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“Nothing Much Happens” – Ben Lee
(Words/music: Ben Lee, available on Breathing Tornados, Capitol 1999)

A drum loop starts “Nothing Much Happens,” and for the next three and a half minutes, the same mid-tempo, syncopated rhythm runs underneath the song.  Appropriately, “Nothing Much Happens” flows in a circular way – verse gently shifts into chorus and back into the next verse.  It’s a song about stasis that feels like it’s chasing its own tail.  The chorus line “a lot goes on but nothing happens” describes what it feels like to be in a rut.  It’s the same feeling we have those days where we move non-stop from morning to night only to get on the phone with someone we care about and have nothing to say.  It’s not that we didn’t accomplish anything – it just feels that way.

Some songs rely on a sense of motion, whether it’s through the plot of a story, the pace of the song, or the progression from verse to chorus to bridge to double chorus.  “Nothing Much Happens” spends its energy in orbit, gradually moving yet never far away.  However, while the lyrics describe that experience of being stuck in a daily rut, the song takes advantage of its circular path.  Lee keeps the arrangement light, focusing on the beat, the melody, and a few gentle adornments.  Instead of telling a story, the song focuses on this one idea with a minimal amount of extra details.  Before too long, it comes back to the “hook, and after nearly a dozen repetitions, it burrows its way into your brain.  Even if the song’s lasting effect is those two lines in the chorus repeated, chances are it’s firmly lodged into your brain after a couple listens.  It’s an example of a small task accomplished with a lot of effort.

More on Ben Lee: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm