vocals, vocals, vocals 'little richard'
Bass is pretty darn heavy, and maybe it should be, but it's really 'pumpin'.
I have to concentrate and yes, struggle to understand the vocals, especially in the beginning.
I have really noticed almost all of us warm up after the first line or two and 'catch our snap' vocally and start to produce a more consistent level, get in the groove.
IMHO you should always rehearse the song once or twice, all the way through before beginning a vocal session, and 'loop-rehearse' the first 16 bars of vocal a few times also.
The mic you are using does not flatter your voice, it's ok. But you are in a little bit of a box, compared to the more wide open verby sound of the guitar. Perhaps a little more verb, and of course you would have to bring the instrument levels down at that point, because any effects on the voice will make it more challenging to understand the words.
Imagine running all the instruments to one bus, and compressing that bus. Run the vocal to it's own seperate bus, compare the meters. If the instrument bus's meters are the same as the vocal, the instruments are in fact much, much louder than the vocal.
Sounds like the top, is rolled off of your voice, there could be much more presence in your voice. Intonation is right on, pronunciation is great ... song is cool ...
Your vocal shines near the top of the range in this song ... let it out, let it shine ... at the top, and there is a lot of blues in the upper registers of the human voice, use it.
Say 'sheeeeeiiiiit', hear the resonance in the sinuses and on the tip of your nose ... when we think and feel, and say ... sheeeeeeyuht ... that's feelin blue huh ? ;-)
Listen to how Little Richard is mixed, this is how this particular vocal by you should be treated IMHO.
Grating, getting under our skin. It's very, very vinyl. It could be.
I'd like to hear some affirmation in the backup vocals when you write them.
a-no-thudayyyyy ... a-no-thudayyyyy ... a-no-thudayyyyy , three part with a low, low bass voice on the last presentation of the backups ... to really conrast with what you are doing fairly 'nasally'.
Good groove, I've had it rolling on repeat about 4-times now ... kewl mon