There are echoes of the phrasing of Alanis Morissette in Invisible. This means that Hayley really wraps her vocals around the lyrics with great dedication to communicating their narrative.
The combination of drums, piano, acoustic guitars and synth strings are arranged in a perky, staccato style that keeps proceedings marching along and provides a punchy accompaniment to the smoothly-sung vocals.
Mixing up the vocal delivery so that sometimes it’s syncopated with the music and sometimes left flowing, Hayley relates a story of feeling ignored in relation to somebody else who ‘wouldn’t understand, would you?’. The song’s production creates a mismatch between music and top-line – a clever device that makes you focus on the vocal – so that it’s anything but Invisible.
When we get to the chorus, the melody hits all the expected notes over the chosen chords (‘Cos I’m tired of being invisible’) – courtesy of the musical build up to it. But then the chords that sit under the second line (‘Can’t you see me over here?’) come in at a right angle to where our expectations would want to lead us, brilliantly subverting them and making us focus on the lyrics anew. Then we go back to the sweetly resolving chords for the third line before further subversion. The see-sawing feel keeps us on our toes and is the sonic cure for invisibility! This is not painting by numbers, there are some smart choices being made.
The bridge does everything we want by going somewhere melodically new before a final chorus, and then we’re left with an innovative choice for an outro; an improvisation around the end of the chorus, repeated over a solo drum kit. It’s a refreshing dose of quirky to end on, and Invisible is a rolling, punchy delight.
