Death Cab for Cutie · Plans
What Sarah Said
What Sarah Said is in C major at 89.5 beats per minute.
Tempo
90 BPM · Andantemedian of 140 analyses · 89.4–89.5 across the middle eight tenths- Key
- C majorno sharps and no flats · the key most of the analyses agreed on
- Agreement
- 97%share of analyses that agreed
- Analyses
- 140people who ran the extractor
- One beat
- 670.4milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
- Tuning
- 434.2Hz · -23 cents from A 440
- Dynamics
- 5.6dB the level wanders from its average
- Loudness
- 0.621Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
- Danceability
- 1.028Essentia's danceability, 0–3
Source: AcousticBrainz, dump of 2022-06-23 (CC0) · MusicBrainz core data, 2026-09-17 (CC0) · how each number is measured. Measured up to 23.06.2022 — AcousticBrainz stopped collecting in 2022, so nothing released after that date is here.
What the numbers say
140 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. All but a handful of them — 97% — put it in C major, a key signature of no sharps and no flats. The tempo printed above is the median of the 140 readings; 100% of them land within 2% of it, and they barely differ at all.
At 89.5 BPM one beat lasts 670.4 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 167.6 ms and a dotted eighth 502.8 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 44.8 BPM, counted twice as fast 179. A score would mark that Andante, by the ranges this site uses.
The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 434.2 Hz, which is 23 cents below concert A at 440 Hz — the sort of drift a tape machine or a slightly different mastering leaves behind. That is a fact about this transfer of the music, not about how it was played.
The dynamic complexity of the recording measures 5.6 dB: that is how far the level wanders from its own average, so a small number means a loud, flat master and a large one means a recording that still breathes. Its average loudness is 0.621 on Essentia's 0-to-1 scale, which is not decibels and is not comparable to a streaming service's number.
10 other recordings here are in C major; the ones listed below are the closest in tempo.
Beats per bar are not in this dataset. AcousticBrainz's analysis reports a tempo, a key and a loudness, and no time signature at all, so this page does not print one — a 4/4 here would be a guess dressed as a measurement.
Keys that fit with C major
Each of these differs from C major by at most one accidental, or shares its tonic. That is the whole of what a mixing wheel encodes; here the relations are named instead of numbered.
Delay times at 90 BPM
| Note value | Beats | Milliseconds | Hertz |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whole note | 4 | 2681.6 | 0.37 |
| Half note | 2 | 1340.8 | 0.75 |
| Dotted quarter | 1.5 | 1005.6 | 0.99 |
| Quarter note (one beat) | 1 | 670.4 | 1.49 |
| Quarter triplet | 0.667 | 446.9 | 2.24 |
| Dotted eighth | 0.75 | 502.8 | 1.99 |
| Eighth note | 0.5 | 335.2 | 2.98 |
| Eighth triplet | 0.333 | 223.5 | 4.48 |
| Dotted sixteenth | 0.375 | 251.4 | 3.98 |
| Sixteenth note | 0.25 | 167.6 | 5.97 |
| Sixteenth triplet | 0.167 | 111.7 | 8.95 |
| Thirty-second note | 0.125 | 83.8 | 11.93 |
Half time 44.8 BPM · double time 179 BPM. Every row is one beat (670.4 ms) times the fraction in the second column.
Closest in key and tempo
- Kickstart My HeartMötley CrüeC major89BPM
- Hollywood (Africa)The Red Hot Chili PeppersC major89BPM
- I Only Have Eyes for YouThe FlamingosC major89BPM
- Bemsha SwingJohn Coltrane & Don CherryC major90BPM
- The Downeaster “Alexa”Billy JoelC major90BPM
- In LimboRadioheadC major89BPM
- The Game of LoveDaft PunkC major90BPM
- Fall to PiecesAvril LavigneC major89BPM
- Count on MeBruno MarsC major89BPM
- (Let Me Be Your) Teddy BearElvis PresleyC major89BPM
Recordings in C major, ordered by how near their tempo is to 90 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.
All songs in C majorAll songs at 90 BPMC major at 80–89 BPMDeath Cab for Cutie
MusicBrainz collapses 16 recording ids into this one. Recording id e955d818-82db-4f42-a7c3-b1e5bd0b35b2.