Okay, a detailed reply or two:
MC Gitarz - thanks for the idea about lowering the motif that runs through the piece - not only have I done that on the newest tweaking of this mix, but I'm doing it on other songs as well. I'm such a doober sometimes - it never occurred to me until you mentioned it that instruments could lay back a bit once the singing starts. Duh...
As for the message, it's straightforward enough: the universe is one thing, so everything that happens is an aspect of the universe acting on itself. The madonna illustrates a series of three aspects of that - lovemaking, giving birth, feeding the child - it's interesting to think of the universe as doing each of these things to itself, especially if the child she gives birth to is a symbol of spiritual awakening.
fprod - thanks for the idea about the glock. I use a sound like this three times on the album, and each time, it's got too much edge. I haven't tried to tame it yet. I'll try limiting - thanks for the idea.
Groucho - I didn't redo any of the parts, really. But the first set of feedback I got on this song focussed a lot on the string synth I used, and it was *really* useful feedback. So I axed some of the synth parts, split the rest up and panned it all over, and added some more synth parts in some places. The fact that only one person noticed the synth in *this* mix is a huge relief to me. But I think I can still run some subtractive EQ on that synth in a way that'll make it less obtrusive.
MAC2 - yeah, I agree about the synth. See what I wrote to Groucho above?
M Brane - I take your point about the breath sounds, but I've got a kinda quirky personality in this regard - I don't want to airbrush out the warts and moles - I want to leave them in. It makes it sound more real to me - kinda like Bob Dylan's jacket buttons smacking on the back of his guitar on the last track of Planet Waves. I wish there was some way I could record my *sweat* when I record LOL. But I'll consider what you said - I'll try it out and see what it sounds like.
Thanks *very* much to everybody who responded. I actually thought I'd nearly finished this mix for a minute...