Break My Heart by Dua Lipa

Listening to Spotify playlist ‘Trending Tracks’ this week, these are my thoughts on the production techniques and trends being used on the top track:

Song: ‘Break My Heart’ by Dua Lipa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj2U6rhnucI

Intro:

The track begins with a standard filtered out bass guitar intro, when the vocals enter the low end of bass returns and high frequencies are filtered out instead.

Verse:

The vocals are relatively dry in the verses with some words having extra reverb for effect such as ‘I like’ at 0:22.

The drums have a modern Disco sound, taking inspiration from Daft Punk records.

Pre-chorus:

The pre-chorus break features more reverb on the vocals that sounds like it’s been heavily side chained to the vocal, as it swells in volume when the vocal stops.

The instrumental side of the pre-chorus features filtered pianos and synths that swell to build tension for the chorus drop.

Chorus:

The most unique thing about this track is the drop in the chorus, where the track drops to just the bass guitar and harmonised vocals. The vocals are very tight and dry, which sets up the ‘real drop’ into the full chorus.

We have a lot going on in the full chorus, with guitars, horns and strings entering alongside the drums, bass, synths and vocals.

Post-chorus:

There’s a return to filtered intro with some vocal sampling going on resembling a ‘party atmosphere’ which fits well with the disco style of the track.

Verse 2 through till Chorus 2:

The production remains consistent here from the first verse, with some added guitar, strings and backing vocals.

Middle 8:

The middle 8 returns to the spacey, filtered sounds of the pre-choruses with the lead vocal also being filtered out, this sets up the final chorus to drop back in with the full bandwidth of the mix, giving the illusion of a ‘big’ sounding production.

Last Chorus/Outro:

As with most productions the final chorus has the most going on, however the final few bars have the instrumental drop back to just bass and vocals before finally ending up with a dry acapella vocal, which gives the effect of the song closing down and getting ‘smaller’.