Cody Fry’s newest album, Pictures of Mountains, opens with one of the tightest pop tracks the world may ever hear, Thinking About You.

Cody has proven his talents time and time again, but with the opening track of his newest, most ambitious project, he surpasses even the bar he set so incredibly high before. Thinking About You is a lot of things, which is why even labeling it as pop like I did just before is extremely misleading. I think ultimately, it has that pop vibe, only with inspirations from many decades of the genre. You can influence from 80s all the way to modern pop, hints of every decade along the way brewed up inside this beautiful song. Despite the feel being very funky and poppy, ultimately what captivated me the most was the jazz edge that in sprinkled all throughout the composition. The harmony, for starters, is amazingly complex, yet sounding so incredibly simple. Cody does a wonderful job of expressing so many different chords with such little moving, almost giving the impression that he’s barely moving in melody and harmony – but that couldn’t be further from the truth. The piano solo is where the song becomes the most obviously jazzy, to the point of sounding like a straight-up modern fusion song. 

The bass is so warm and fuzzy, complimented by what can only be a Fender Stratocaster with those signature single-note stabs sounding straight off a Toto record. The wide array of synths garnishing the song from start to finish is what really seals the deal, outside of Cody’s wonderful vocal performance. What makes this song the jazziest, however, is its usage of space. Miles Davis said about jazz “It’s not about the notes you play. It’s about the notes you don’t play.” Cody took this advice and, quite frankly, perfected. Every pause has meaning, which makes every note just as impactful. There’s an impossible amount of subtleties in the production, from little rhythmic quirks to extremely brief organ slides and punches, it’s all buried in there just perfectly. 

Thinking About You made Pictures of Mountain my favorite Cody Fry album. Despite this being one of my favorite songs off the record, it in no way diminishes any of the following songs – it’s only the beginning of an adventurous and emotional journey through the genius of Cody Fry.

Author: Nicholas Gaudet

Music producer and writer from Dieppe, Canada.