In the musical Hamilton (2015), in the song Satisfied, the rap verse, Angelica sang three reasons, literally “number one/two/three, …blah blah” to illustrate why she loved but cannot marry Alexander Hamilton and she backed up for her sister. It was possibly the most unimaginatively boring lyrics ever written.
That is to say, when it comes to music, aside from serious discuss of production quality, vocal techniques or more general analysis, sometimes what matters most is appeals and feelings. There are basically two kinds of ‘favourite’ for a song. One is that you are able to name numerous reasons, that the song is an artistic marvel, topping the chart, being experimental etc.. Another version of favourite is that some song somehow becomes the go-to song on top of one’s mind. When I was picking out the top-k songs, compared to the ones that swing around the borderline that it takes a minute to decide whether it falls above or below the threshold, goodnight n go was picked directly out of the pool and stuffed into the second place among my all-time favourites.
The song resonates with listeners on a profound level. It portrays a bittersweet moment in a relationship, when one is encapsulated in the feelings of infatuation. The lyric goes “it’s bad enough we get along so well / just say goodnight and go” as Ariana sings about being enamored by the person, while saying “goodnight” reflects a deep, implicit expression of affection, the relationship is ephemeral, dreamy and somewhat unreal.
Overall, the song is well produced and through its versions of intermediate demos one can decipher the design intention. The singer beautifully captures the euphoria and vulnerability of falling in love through her brilliant storytelling skills, and renditioned an euphoric atmosphere with careful voice sampling productions as well as song production. It’s an underrated masterpiece.
The studio version is available on YouTube.