I think that when a lot of people hear "5/4" or "multiple time signature changes in a song", their mind leaps to prog rock and metal, or complicated jazz, or anything really experimental, but it can be a subtle way to elevate a simple song.
Take "In Circles" here, for example: other than Ashley Lynn Barrett's always knockout vocals, there's not much about the instrumentation or arrangement that's all that complex, it's if anything a bit minimalistic, but it feels shifting and dramatic because of the changes in time signature.
Most of the song is in a swing, but the verse and the chorus are in different metres. The verses are in 5/4, which is to say you count the quarter notes in groups of five. It gives the verse this lilting, stumbling feel. It's not a typical way to count something—most music ends up splitting nicely into divisble by two (like 4 in 4/4, the most common time signature there is) or by three (like 3/4 or 6/8, which we'll get to). 5/4 is what we call a "complex metre" for that reason, but we can simplify counting here by sorting the notes into groups of 3s and 2s. In Circles is structured with 3 notes together, then 2 notes. 1 2 3 4 5. 1 2 3 4 5. Try counting along with it and you'll see what I mean. 5/4 doesn't "resolve" neatly, and gives this uneasy lurching feeling to the verses of the song. Because of the swinging rhythm, it feels like should be 1 2 3 4 5 6, 1 2 3 4 5 6, but we come up just short.
That is, until the chorus.
Here it smoothly transitions into 3/4, meaning that we get three beats in a measure. Two measures of 3 gives us that full 6 feel, and it makes all the difference. We go from the uneven lilt and almost claustrophobic tightness of the verses to soaring vocals plus a splash of reverb which makes the choruses feel vast and wide. that drives home the lyrics:
But I/won't/save you
No I / won't / save you
Which in the context that it appears within the game is both brutal and tragic. Devestatingly good. After the chorus is over, the reverb narrows out and we drop back into 5/4, tight and close.
After the second chorus, the bridge keeps the 3/4 time signature, but comes down hard and aggressive, not relenting until after we've swung out into a third chorus here. It still has the swing feel of most of the rest of the song, but by driving so hard on 1 2 3, 1 2 3, it channels desperation and ultimately a doom, and while the 3rd chorus swings back out into the 6-ish pattern of before, the song once again cramps down into that 5/4 to close things out, tightly and abruptly.
Transistor was the beginning of Darren Korb being more experimental as a composer for the Supergiant Games, breaking away from the fairly straightforward Bastion soundtrack (which I also suspect used garageband samples I was using back then, lol) and trying to do a lot more with things. This has continued ever since, especially once the Hades soundtrack rolled around. Darren went hog fucking wild on that one, and there are songs on there of incredible complexity and depth (rage of the myrmidons especially is a nightmare to try and count, god I love it), and it's fair to say he is one of my favorite composers ever, alive or dead.
I started this post months ago, but ever since I started talking about odd time signatures a week or so ago and that rude anon asker came into my box to lecture me, I've been itching to come back around and finish it. This is what I meant when I said that A) it doesn't take a ton of effort to make complex time signatures work and B) that it's a lot more subtle and commonplace than people realize. Instead of wasting my time on what some coward wants to talk down to people, I figure it's more productive to talk about the things I like in a more positive way and center around that. This song is so good. This game is so good. Fuck I love music so much.
