"A Life" is an extremely well produced song which I could only really describe as "experimental pop." The happy beat, familiar chord progression, and easy-going melody all make me think of mainstream pop-rock for the slightly older crowd (hip, professional). But the sheer scale of Cody Melville's instrumentation and his impressive musical complexity suggest that Melville is a master of songwriting, able to use familiar elements in a way that pulls you fully into the richly defined music. "A Life" is actually a fairly depressing narrative of Melville's life (a "disaster"), using defeated broken-down American imagery. However, the uplifting chord progression makes me feel anything BUT depressed, which makes me wonder at the irony of the song.