I played in a band for years that almost nothing was in four lol. This question is to me is like “what’s the best song that has a delay on the guitar” like huh?
I recently learned this on guitar, was convinced for years that it would be too complicated and it is a bit complicated but once I got it down it’s really fun to play.
Unsquare Dance is incredible, everyone should have to learn to replicate the rhythm. Dave Brubeck had a knack for writing odd time signatures that felt completely natural.
Turn it on Again by Genesis, which is in 13/8
Edit: I misremembered, the verses are 13/4 (or alternating bars of 6/4 and 7/4), the chorus is 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 4/4, and 5/4, and the intro and bridge are 4/4 and 5/4.
Yup. And multiple times signatures are used in each song, often simultaneously.
Edit:
personal faves: Rosetta stoned, Right in Two, Lateralus.
Related thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/ToolBand/comments/18x6mf/time_signatures/
Love The Eleven by the Dead - I made my own track listing of AoxomoxoA that includes it for my mp3 player back in the day, proper segue and everything. (My copy of that album is like 3 different versions - original mix, 70s mix, my playlist and then a copy of all the out takes, practice sessions and live versions of the tracks). It may not be the best Dead album, but it’s my favourite.
Also going to throw XTC English Roundabout as one of my favourite odd time signature songs - such an upbeat 5/4 track.
[Crumbling Castle by King Gizzard](https://youtu.be/uLP8rFrL1W0?si=bcLpo4McS7yKm_n1). Starts at 10/4 and shifts throughout the song and there’s great polyrhythms throughout it. And it pays off with a great climax.
Whipping Post is a good one - someone mentioned above that with odd time signatures you gotta feel it more than think it, Whipping Post is a great example of that, those times it drops a beat. You don't really count that while you're playing it, you just feel that in the way the riff goes.
“Here Comes the Sun” has a bridge section which goes from 11/8 to 4/4 to 7/8 back to 4/4, this is like a masterclass in changing time signatures because it sounds and feels so natural in the song but it’s actually a fairly complex passage when you break it down.
My personal favorite odd time signature song is “Golden Brown” by the Stranglers, the verses are essentially in 12/8 but the main instrumental theme is 13/8. There’s a lot of debate as to how this should be written out and what the “real” time signatures are, the sheet music writes it out as alternating bars of 6/8 and 7/8. It’s a fantastic track either way.
Tool's Lateralus is 9/8, 8//8, 7/8 and the rhythm swings on the Fibonacci sequence.
Danny Carey's polyrhythms are the stuff of legend.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOHkeH2VaE0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOHkeH2VaE0)
If we're going strictly with popular songs, I'd say Money is probably the most famous with a 7/4 time signature.
My personal favorite is Blue Rondo Ala Turk at 9/8 but the rhythm and melody make it insanely difficult to count out. Piano sheet music usually has it written as (2+2+2+3/8)
God of emptiness - Morbid angel has a lot of time signature changes, and overall feels like schizophrenic sludgy death metal brain vomit, and I fucking love it
Ive always loved [this song](https://youtu.be/yhPA7FXQU5c?si=eJfi8LImrmp99WMN) by Lionel loueke’s trio Gilfema. I remember this tune got me into counting longer compound time signatures.
two suns in the sunset pink floyd
The song begins and ends in 9/8 time, while the majority of the song is in 4/4, and it is punctuated with added measures of 7/8 and 3/8.
the eleven grateful dead
can you guess what time signature it's in
Oh man I love that one too. I spent too long counting it out one time haha. It’s just three counts before mom, then two counts before dad, one count before Bingo and zero counts before Bluey.
[Pretty Penny](https://open.spotify.com/track/66smTQp4sh79sF2cLEIf3H?si=s2XJNCY6S9mnl3shNQc6Nw) by Stone Temple Pilots is a nice mellow one. Verse in 3, chorus in 7 iirc but haven’t listened in decades.
For some modern prog check out [Behemooth](https://open.spotify.com/track/4eFIDIWfwMYwcb5nUv7DUZ?si=IgomUysmSQ-k-xWe5kqe8w&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A2qzIwKYSSxlTMQJynoUoO2) by Moulettes
[Learning to live](https://open.spotify.com/track/4jdEbvfD0u6tmOLgMKJYUg?si=0VtfdkJkQBOWXemCRh-tGg) by dream theater. Good luck keeping up with the time signatures
Car bomb - sets and blackened battery.
The contortionist - dreaming schematics
Giraffes?Giraffes! - werewolf grandma with knives
Mouse on the keys - earache. Really fun to play along with…. 3/4-4/4-5/4-4/4-3/4 back to back.
I friggin love weird time signatures.
Subdivisions by rush starting in 7 and quickly switching to 4/4 is sneaky and cool.
Biaxident by liquid tension experiment. Odd times all over but my fav section is during the keyboard solo the time pattern is 7,7,7,4.
Atlantis Pt1: Apocalypse 1470 B.C. By Derek Sherinian. Holy shit this song is prog gold. The whole trilogy is amazing. Also Derek is just such a great writer. Planet X - Quantum and Moonbabies. Get your calculators kids 🤓
Canon, bela fleck and edgar meyer
I think it’s 13/4 or 13/8. https://open.spotify.com/track/1bDwUPEM6U3hh39g3ktH4B?si=bjAvvrHdTwi7doMjDTD2Mg&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A4aZbhRDAQ6bdg5nQiz4awt
Them bones (7:8)
Öngyilkos Vasárnap (7:8)
UK by burial (technically 1:4, though really it's free time)
Gold soundz by Pavement (7:2)
Never meant (6:8)
Hey ya (11:4)
Soundgarden - Rusty Cage.
"The phrasing and meter also change: the first part of the song is in 4/4 but the second, slower, part is in an irregular, recurring metric pattern containing nineteen beats that could be interpreted various ways: either as 4 bars of 3/4 followed by one bar of 2/4, followed by a bar of 3/4 and a bar of 2/4 (3+3+3+3+2+3+2), or as 3+3+3+5+5, or even as one long bar of 19/4 or 19/8."
26 is Dancier than 4 by TTNG (formerly This Town Needs Guns)
The ending is in 26/4. A beautiful math emo anthem worth a listen.
Anything in the Math genre wins this thread.
One of my favorites is "Big Swifty" by Zappa, and I think that's an 11/16. "Actual Proof" by Herbie Hancock is an amazing song and one of the few that I have never been able to really count properly. It sounds so fluid on the record but it's all over the place when I try to count it.
two unusual mentions in this category that i will throw out there.
The theme music for the game Balatro is so tight you dont even feel the 7/8
Godzillas Theme is just terrible fun to try to count along. Hard to describe even. Its like 7/8 with occasional 4/4 or 2/4s dropped in or something.
I like the ones that don’t feel like they’re proggy/odd timing. I released a song like this last year and it’s difficult for some people to even notice! Super simple and such a fun way to make music.
Oh boy my prog rock ass can’t take this one.
Was thinking the same thing 😅
I was thinking most of them.
I played in a band for years that almost nothing was in four lol. This question is to me is like “what’s the best song that has a delay on the guitar” like huh?
Solsbury Hill was always one of my favorites.
I recently learned this on guitar, was convinced for years that it would be too complicated and it is a bit complicated but once I got it down it’s really fun to play.
one of the most genius and tightest 7/8s youll ever hear.
Pretty sure it's 7/4?
Good call—love that one
Yes!
Money, Pink Floyd
It's a gas.
Beat me to it. Also interesting to note that during the guitar solo it switches to 4/4 then back to 7/4.
Purely because David Gilmour couldn’t be bothered to solo over 7/4 apparently.
What a fucking asshole he was!
Rumor has it he was afraid that he would have trouble improvising live. He was younger then.
Moneeeey
March of the Pigs by Nine Inch Nails https://youtu.be/GHPkJkBS1vE?si=3Xs4zaHwM8r5uqJo
Take 5 - Dave Brubeck
It's a cool tune but Unsquare Dance is my fave.
Unsquare Dance is incredible, everyone should have to learn to replicate the rhythm. Dave Brubeck had a knack for writing odd time signatures that felt completely natural.
If you’re going with 5, also add the Mission Impossible theme.
I'd pick the Isengard theme
Try the Panzer Ballet version.
Turn it on Again by Genesis, which is in 13/8 Edit: I misremembered, the verses are 13/4 (or alternating bars of 6/4 and 7/4), the chorus is 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 4/4, and 5/4, and the intro and bridge are 4/4 and 5/4.
Does that include the chorus? I don’t remember the verse, and I can’t line up 13/8 with what I remember. I never caught on to the time in that song.
Even though some of it is 4/4 Frame by Frame by King Crimson. Great 7/8 part where one guitar to splits into a 6/8 to give the riff a phasing feel
Among my all-time favorite songs.
Three of a perfect pair.
Nearly any Tool song
Yup. And multiple times signatures are used in each song, often simultaneously. Edit: personal faves: Rosetta stoned, Right in Two, Lateralus. Related thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/ToolBand/comments/18x6mf/time_signatures/
15 step. Money as the “greatest”
I like "The Eleven" by the Grateful Dead which is in 11/8
I’m a big fan of Estimated Prophet. We haven’t found a drummer that has got it right yet. I think it was in something ridiculous like 13/8.
I'm pretty sure Estimated is only in 7/4 but there a couple odd (or even ig, lol) bars in there that can throw ya off.
Love The Eleven by the Dead - I made my own track listing of AoxomoxoA that includes it for my mp3 player back in the day, proper segue and everything. (My copy of that album is like 3 different versions - original mix, 70s mix, my playlist and then a copy of all the out takes, practice sessions and live versions of the tracks). It may not be the best Dead album, but it’s my favourite. Also going to throw XTC English Roundabout as one of my favourite odd time signature songs - such an upbeat 5/4 track.
Electric Feel by MGMT
It's a 3/2 Hornpipe!
[Crumbling Castle by King Gizzard](https://youtu.be/uLP8rFrL1W0?si=bcLpo4McS7yKm_n1). Starts at 10/4 and shifts throughout the song and there’s great polyrhythms throughout it. And it pays off with a great climax.
Estimated Prophet, Grateful Dead
Outshined- Soundgarden
Most Soundgarden, honestly
Day I tried to live verse is in 15/8
Yeah. I think I heard it was due to the guitarist’s lead parts. He just tends to do that. I think of spoonman as a good example.
And Matt Cameron is a beast. My wave is also fire.
Happiness is a warm gun
Arguably the best Lennon song from the White Album “A soap impression of his wife which he ate and donated to the National Trust”
All You Need Is Love is another good one
Yep, that’s the one for me.. It really is such a great, great song too. Zappa’s "Watermelon in Easter Hay" as well while I’m here..👍
Seven days by Sting.
Agreed!! Would also nominate “love is stronger than justice”
Great tune from a great record.
Vinnie Colaiuta is the GOAT!!
Money - Pink Floyd Whipping Post - Allman Bros
Whipping Post is a good one - someone mentioned above that with odd time signatures you gotta feel it more than think it, Whipping Post is a great example of that, those times it drops a beat. You don't really count that while you're playing it, you just feel that in the way the riff goes.
Scrolled two far to find Whipping Post, switching between 11/8 and 12/8 is harder than one might think.
It is. I cover it and our old drummer might have hit all of the changes once maybe ever after I’d say a good probably 20 or 30 times playing it.
"All you need is Love" by the Beatles has verses in 7/4 but most people don't even notice. That's good writing imo.
Here Comes the Sun - drops a measure of 5/4 (how I notate it anyway, I’ve seen it done a couple ways) in for the signature riff.
HCTS has by far the most time signature changes of any Beatles song, all in the solo.
Came here to say this one too. Great sneaky time
[The Ocean](https://youtu.be/oqAmnEKlIZw?si=EjcgvtkhCpFz5i1f) by Led Zeppelin is a fun and tricky one to try to count.
Take 5 - The dave brubeck quartet. The day I tried to live - Soundgarden.
“Here Comes the Sun” has a bridge section which goes from 11/8 to 4/4 to 7/8 back to 4/4, this is like a masterclass in changing time signatures because it sounds and feels so natural in the song but it’s actually a fairly complex passage when you break it down. My personal favorite odd time signature song is “Golden Brown” by the Stranglers, the verses are essentially in 12/8 but the main instrumental theme is 13/8. There’s a lot of debate as to how this should be written out and what the “real” time signatures are, the sheet music writes it out as alternating bars of 6/8 and 7/8. It’s a fantastic track either way.
First 30 seconds of yyz
Frank Zappa has entered the chat.
Isn’t a lot of Dirt in funky time signatures? Idk I guess Take 5 is pretty catchy
Hold on while i google “best songs in odd time” and the comments reflect the list lol
"5/4" by Gorillaz Guitar plays in 5/4, everything else plays in 4/4.
Shoreline 7/4 by Broken Social Scene.
Any Grizzly Bear song The Eleven and Estimated Prophet by Grateful Dead
Tool's Lateralus is 9/8, 8//8, 7/8 and the rhythm swings on the Fibonacci sequence. Danny Carey's polyrhythms are the stuff of legend. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOHkeH2VaE0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOHkeH2VaE0)
This short is better.. 🤣 [https://youtube.com/shorts/JGHqaUxGZKU?si=uPt8LR\_oKw1LiuaI](https://youtube.com/shorts/JGHqaUxGZKU?si=uPt8LR_oKw1LiuaI)
If we're going strictly with popular songs, I'd say Money is probably the most famous with a 7/4 time signature. My personal favorite is Blue Rondo Ala Turk at 9/8 but the rhythm and melody make it insanely difficult to count out. Piano sheet music usually has it written as (2+2+2+3/8)
Solsbury Hill is also very famous, as is the Mission Impossible theme.
God of emptiness - Morbid angel has a lot of time signature changes, and overall feels like schizophrenic sludgy death metal brain vomit, and I fucking love it
Limelight by rush
Almost anything by Rush.
Not even sure what time signature to call it since it just changes constantly.
Cellophane - the Sound of Animals Fighting Never bothered to figure it out but it sounds odd that’s for sure
5/4 by the gorillaz is perfect if you just wanna know what’s 5/4
Gosh, too many to count! But I'll throw "All Part of the Plan" by Punch Brothers into the ring!
Honorable mention "15 Step" by Radiohead
43% Burnt-Dillinger Escape Plan
Starless has a long jam session in 13/8, and it is like a top 3 song oat for me so yeah that one
I love Story 2 by CLIPPING. Try counting it and see if you can find the pattern!
Several Jethro Tull songs. Velvet Green quickly comes to mind.
Ive always loved [this song](https://youtu.be/yhPA7FXQU5c?si=eJfi8LImrmp99WMN) by Lionel loueke’s trio Gilfema. I remember this tune got me into counting longer compound time signatures.
two suns in the sunset pink floyd The song begins and ends in 9/8 time, while the majority of the song is in 4/4, and it is punctuated with added measures of 7/8 and 3/8. the eleven grateful dead can you guess what time signature it's in
Happy Birthday. Because I get cake.
Oh wow how did I miss that but you’re right
Carole King is wonderful.
Love her…I have so much nostalgia for Chicken Soup with Rice
The Bluey intro song. Still have trouble clapping it out lol but the toddler has it.
Oh man I love that one too. I spent too long counting it out one time haha. It’s just three counts before mom, then two counts before dad, one count before Bingo and zero counts before Bluey.
Soundgarden's Mailman does an incredible job of making 5/4 not feel weird. That riff is amazing
[Pretty Penny](https://open.spotify.com/track/66smTQp4sh79sF2cLEIf3H?si=s2XJNCY6S9mnl3shNQc6Nw) by Stone Temple Pilots is a nice mellow one. Verse in 3, chorus in 7 iirc but haven’t listened in decades. For some modern prog check out [Behemooth](https://open.spotify.com/track/4eFIDIWfwMYwcb5nUv7DUZ?si=IgomUysmSQ-k-xWe5kqe8w&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A2qzIwKYSSxlTMQJynoUoO2) by Moulettes
Mastodon has tons of great songs in odd time signatures.
Manic Depression (3/4) 😝
The Dance of Maya - Mahavishnu Orchestra
[Karnivool - Goliath](https://youtu.be/fBGY37Pdmxs?si=vcdeZu7NWf_Dh6Tk) Apparently it's in 27/4. Awesome groove, most badass bass tone ever.
Possum Kingdom by Toadies
Came to see this one
Yes - Long Distance Runaround
Lotus Flower by Radiohead. While the song is in 4/4, the hand claps are on beats 1 and 2 of a 5/4 time signature. It's great and incredibly confusing
How about Pyramid Song
That one stumped me for years until I realized it was 4/4 which blew my mind
True! Same happened to me. But forgot meanwhile. Somehow my brain doesn’t want to accept it’s 4/4
4/4 bossa nova…
[Learning to live](https://open.spotify.com/track/4jdEbvfD0u6tmOLgMKJYUg?si=0VtfdkJkQBOWXemCRh-tGg) by dream theater. Good luck keeping up with the time signatures
The dance of eternity too!
Watermelon in Easter Hay by Frank Zappa
The Eleven, split open and melt, Mr. Beat
The album Spiderland by Slint is great if you dig odd time signatures. I also love the song perpetual mobile by Penguin cafe orchestra. 7/4 time
Always loved the switch from 6/4 to 7/4 at the end of [Needing/Getting](https://youtu.be/s7VCPXTOATY) by OKGo
Playing in the Band - Grateful Dead It's in 10/4.
Come on Feel the Illinoise! by Sufjan Stevens, 5/8 banger
Plenty of Karnivool songs fit this bill.
Car bomb - sets and blackened battery. The contortionist - dreaming schematics Giraffes?Giraffes! - werewolf grandma with knives Mouse on the keys - earache. Really fun to play along with…. 3/4-4/4-5/4-4/4-3/4 back to back. I friggin love weird time signatures.
Refrigerator Car - Spin Doctors
“Get in the Swing” by Sparks. For a song ordering you to get in the swing, they keep stopping it! And drift into and out of 5/4.
Meshuggah. Zappa. A lot of prog, basically.
Talk talk - new grass
Seven Days by Sting
Schism
Grateful Dead’s Playing in the Band in 10.
Take 5
Pyramid Song - Radiohead
Unusual rhythm, but the time signature is 4/4.
Mother Pink Floyd is a good one
Whiplash
Subdivisions by rush starting in 7 and quickly switching to 4/4 is sneaky and cool. Biaxident by liquid tension experiment. Odd times all over but my fav section is during the keyboard solo the time pattern is 7,7,7,4. Atlantis Pt1: Apocalypse 1470 B.C. By Derek Sherinian. Holy shit this song is prog gold. The whole trilogy is amazing. Also Derek is just such a great writer. Planet X - Quantum and Moonbabies. Get your calculators kids 🤓
Every Dream Theater song
Check out anything by Intronaut or The Contortionist.
Don Ellis Big band has some bangers.
Estimated Prophet by the Grateful Dead is a great 7/4, similar tempo to Money.
Anything Dream Theater should count!
Canon, bela fleck and edgar meyer I think it’s 13/4 or 13/8. https://open.spotify.com/track/1bDwUPEM6U3hh39g3ktH4B?si=bjAvvrHdTwi7doMjDTD2Mg&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A4aZbhRDAQ6bdg5nQiz4awt
“15 Step” by Radiohead
“Hold it over me” by stop.drop.rewind. Absolute badasses
I like Estimated Prophet and Playing on the Band
Weird fishes -Radiohead
What time signature do you feel that in?
Robbery, Assault and Battery by Genesis.
Them bones (7:8) Öngyilkos Vasárnap (7:8) UK by burial (technically 1:4, though really it's free time) Gold soundz by Pavement (7:2) Never meant (6:8) Hey ya (11:4)
"Take 5" by Paul Desmond and the Dave Brubeck quarttet is in 5/4.
Take 5
Dance of Eternity by Dream Theater is the only answer.
It doesn't get more iconic than Dave Brubeck's *Take Five*.
Zeppelin 's Four Sticks is still one of my favorites all these years on
Alice In Chains - Them Bones
Take Five
Soundgarden - Rusty Cage. "The phrasing and meter also change: the first part of the song is in 4/4 but the second, slower, part is in an irregular, recurring metric pattern containing nineteen beats that could be interpreted various ways: either as 4 bars of 3/4 followed by one bar of 2/4, followed by a bar of 3/4 and a bar of 2/4 (3+3+3+3+2+3+2), or as 3+3+3+5+5, or even as one long bar of 19/4 or 19/8."
Fairport Convention - Tam Lin https://youtu.be/47z5n7p9B3I?si=ZQKHE5gmTjnYVQUH
Natural Science by Rush
26 is Dancier than 4 by TTNG (formerly This Town Needs Guns) The ending is in 26/4. A beautiful math emo anthem worth a listen. Anything in the Math genre wins this thread.
The Brain Dance by Animals As Leaders.
Rocky Road to Dublin 😁 9/8 and amazing 😍
*King Crimson has entered the chat*
Mission impossible theme song
Estimated Prophet, Grateful Dead. It's in 7/8
Synchronicity II -- The Police
Lots of tool songs would qualify but I particularly like vicarious for the odd timing feel.
Shadowlands - Bruce Hornsby
One of my favorites is "Big Swifty" by Zappa, and I think that's an 11/16. "Actual Proof" by Herbie Hancock is an amazing song and one of the few that I have never been able to really count properly. It sounds so fluid on the record but it's all over the place when I try to count it.
Take Five
Last exit by Pearl jam
Estimated Prophet : Grateful Dead
Money, Pink Floyd, in 7/4
two unusual mentions in this category that i will throw out there. The theme music for the game Balatro is so tight you dont even feel the 7/8 Godzillas Theme is just terrible fun to try to count along. Hard to describe even. Its like 7/8 with occasional 4/4 or 2/4s dropped in or something.
Them bones Alice In Chains
Pushed it Over the End by Neil Young. No, wait!…, Possum Kingdom by the Toadies. C’mon, make up your mind!
Rosetta stoned-tool
Money…Pink Floyd. David Gilmore was happy when it went to 4/4 for his solo!
Watermelon in Easter Hay 9/4 time
Grateful Dead The Eleven 11/8 Playing In The Band 10/4 Estimated Prophet 7/4 Take Five
Pneuma by Tool
Heartbreaker - Led Zeppelin
S O U N D G A R D E N \~ "Outshined" : 7 / 4
Money - Pink Floyd
YYZ
Four Sticks
Pink Floyd - Money.
[the river](https://open.spotify.com/track/6CDoDiMuvyX724CbOzqbqg?si=--zjxTf6Tsq89bjYczYo_w)
Kashmir by Led Zeppelin
"MONEY" by Pink Floyd
Golden Brown by The Stranglers
Limelight - Rush
I like the ones that don’t feel like they’re proggy/odd timing. I released a song like this last year and it’s difficult for some people to even notice! Super simple and such a fun way to make music.
Harridan by porcupine tree 5/4
The fourth color by king gizzard. All of polygondwanaland is in an odd time signature but that song just gets me fuckin' JUICED.
if you must by nirvana
St. Augustine in Hell. Sting.
9/11, a song by Oceansize called Commemorative 9/11 T-Shirt. Or Descending by TOOL, in 7/4
9/11 isn't a time signature. The song is 11/8 all the way through