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Melody and instrumentation

Although the song does feature very limited vocal harmonies, Someone Like You is written for a duet emulating vulnerability. The elements in this song are:

• small phrases in the verse descend, following the same shape and last only one bar. For example, the four lines 'I've heard that you're,' 'settled down, that you,' 'found a girl and you're,' 'married now' all have the same melodic shape even though their rhythms vary slightly.
• the opening phrases in the first five bars are repetitive because they are similar in rhythm and descend from E to A
• a pop-balled written for solo female voice and piano
• the piano accompaniment plays broken chords throughout most of the song

Rhythm, metre and tempo

Devices are implemented in the recording to bring out emotion and story of the song. These are common elements that songwriters and performers like to use in similar style songs. For rhythm, metre and tempo these are:

• repeated semiquavers in the piano accompaniment
• anacrusis - main melody starts on the 4th beat of the bar
• a time signature of 4/4 – simple time
• a bar of 2/4 just before the first chorus
• an adagio tempo - about 72 beats per minute
• a small rallentando (rall) at the end of the bridge

Structure

Like most pop songs, Adele and Dan Wilson wrote Someone Like You in a verse-chorus structure. The sections are:

1. introduction
2. double verse
3. pre-chorus
4. chorus
5. verse
6. pre-chorus
7. chorus
8. bridge
9. double chorus

Timbre and texture

Timbre and texture refer to the colour of the music and the number of layers. Someone Like You possesses the following qualities:

• mid-female vocal range
• melody-dominated homophony

Tonality and harmony

Someone Like You is written with:

• a tonic centre of A major
• diatonic harmony phrases
• the chord sequence I - iii/V - vi - IV

• thin vocal harmonies in the bridge section
• a plagal cadence from chord IV (D major) to chord I (A major) every four bars