January's Challenge - Frankie's reviews

[Frankie Rage]

Firstly, thanks all for your kind words about ‘Seven Tears Ago’. I was nervous to upload it as it is clearly under-par in terms of the quality of the demos produced by the rest of you! However, I’ve got to start somewhere… which leads me nicely into…

‘Somewhere’ gecko zzed

This was the first one up and I immediately liked everything about it. The lyric was already my favourite from all our efforts. It’s hard to critique it because I can honestly say I immediately started playing the song for pleasure as opposed to listening to it as a contribution from a ‘forum compatriot’.

To me, this is a professional quality recording from accomplished musicians, singer, producer and recording engineer. I aspire to have my songs recorded to this quality.

In terms of the song. I like the way it keeps building to it’s climactic, ‘somehere I just gave in’. Very poignant, for me this alludes to many things in life generally. The singing is out of the ordinary partly due to the phrasing and the choice of language. It reminded me in places of Peter Gabriel and not in a bad way. It all fits, I can’t say more. The video put the cherry on the top of an already well-iced cake!

‘Your Home’ icystorm

Second one up. Another good quality recording to which I can only aspire at this time.

I would say that I would have put the vocal higher in the mix (or with less effects/eq) on the verses as there is a lot of the story in the verse some of which I think would have come out better with a more natural sound to the vocal.

The reason I say this is that the first few times I played it the voice on the verse seemed like another instrument in the mix and I wasn’t listening to the lyric. But it’s OK on repeated listening, so I’d probably ignore that!

I really like the falsetto part (and would have used it earlier in the arrangement and probably twice), for me it takes the song ‘outside the box’ but I thought it tailed off a bit too suddenly, which caught my attention in the wrong way. I would have faded that out over a longer time frame. Hark at me considering the lack of control I had over the results of my own efforts! Anyway, just a thought...

It’s an accomplished effort. It has a wistful quality that grows on you with repeated listening.

‘B 4 U were born’ What My Say

Well, another great recording. Very accomplished. This song is very easy on the ear, in a style to which I aspire. Interesting vocal, which I thought worked really well on the chorus/middle eight’s.

I might have left a little more space in the mix though, but then that’s my taste and no reflection on the quality of this song and recording.

It’s an instantly accessible song, which will have wide appeal I would have thought.

My First Car – Upfiddler

I was expecting something more in the vein of ‘Somewhere’ when I read the lyric, but no!

I am gob-smacked with this (in a good way) and although I can see the novelty aspect, I think the riffs and the off-beat timing behind the vocal lift it out of the novelty arena. This is just full of hooks. Love the vocal. Another stab well ‘outside the box’.

Another one that I am now listening to for pleasure!

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Thanks one and all for a great challenge. I have something else to say on the follow up to these songs which I’ll put in another thread in due course.

Fx

[icystorm]

'Your Home’ icystorm

Second one up. Another good quality recording to which I can only aspire at this time.

I would say that I would have put the vocal higher in the mix (or with less effects/eq) on the verses as there is a lot of the story in the verse some of which I think would have come out better with a more natural sound to the vocal.

The reason I say this is that the first few times I played it the voice on the verse seemed like another instrument in the mix and I wasn’t listening to the lyric. But it’s OK on repeated listening, so I’d probably ignore that!

I really like the falsetto part (and would have used it earlier in the arrangement and probably twice), for me it takes the song ‘outside the box’ but I thought it tailed off a bit too suddenly, which caught my attention in the wrong way. I would have faded that out over a longer time frame. Hark at me considering the lack of control I had over the results of my own efforts! Anyway, just a thought...

It’s an accomplished effort. It has a wistful quality that grows on you with repeated listening.

Thanks for taking the time to listen and provide feedback, Frankie. I agree that the falsetto part at the end should be held longer. At that point, I was annoyed with trying to prevent clipping, but, you're right and it is not where I want it to be... which is what you actually described. It can and will be better... someday.

Cheers,
Joseph

[Whatmysay]

Thanks for the good words. I agree with the 'space' issue -I think the acoustic guitar is just up too loud - I still need to think about layering a 2nd ac in so I might make the opening a little more sparse then bring the current ac g track in between the 1st and 2nd Vs.

Cheers

Burt

[gecko zzed]

Originally Posted by Frankie Rage

‘Somewhere’ gecko zzed

This was the first one up and I immediately liked everything about it. The lyric was already my favourite from all our efforts. It’s hard to critique it because I can honestly say I immediately started playing the song for pleasure as opposed to listening to it as a contribution from a ‘forum compatriot’.

To me, this is a professional quality recording from accomplished musicians, singer, producer and recording engineer. I aspire to have my songs recorded to this quality.

In terms of the song. I like the way it keeps building to it’s climactic, ‘somehere I just gave in’. Very poignant, for me this alludes to many things in life generally. The singing is out of the ordinary partly due to the phrasing and the choice of language. It reminded me in places of Peter Gabriel and not in a bad way. It all fits, I can’t say more. The video put the cherry on the top of an already well-iced cake!

I am gratified by your comments, and in particular your reference to it being 'poignant', because, as I remarked to Joseph, this was the key emotion I wanted to get across, and the alluding to 'many things in life' is also on the mark. Though the song was ostensibly about a car, I was hoping that it being a metaphor for relationships generally would emerge.