15-16 Puzzle: You, sir, are a master of the simile. I can't say much else about the song, though. I listen to the words, I shrug and nod at your lyrical genius, I move on to the next track.
Abecedarian: You got a great tone from the mandolin, and the spare arrangement works really well. The meta-lyric killed it for me, though. I can't think of an example of self-referential lyrics that work, outside joke songs.
Andre ... : If you actually want this to sound good, the guitar should be louder.
Ants: This is great. It's tough to give it my vote 'cause there's not much "song" to it, but what's here is really well performed and produced.
Bellgreen: The instruments go in and out of synch throughout. Not by much, mind you, but enough to give the song an overly loose feel. Cool, if that's what you were going for. Also, I don't get the lyrics. I mean, I can hear them, but do they say anything?
BeWells: I want to say nice things about this, 'cause it's a good song overall, but all the notes I jotted down are critical. Deep breath: The drums have too much room mic, and it makes them sound distant, more so in the busier parts of the song. The kick drum, especially, has no punch. (Was it mic'd separately?) Maybe as a result of this, the song has no dynamic, which is fine by itself but I don't think that's the sound you were going for (with the drum beat changes and so forth.) I think tightening the drum sound would address this. Finally, I didn't notice a hook, at least on the first couple of listens. I suspect this is because of the flat mix, 'cause like I said, it's a good song overall.
CCS: The production is flawless as always. The only nit I'd pick is that the phrasing shounds forced in places, especially for "is it true that I fell out of the sky."
EddieBangs: Great harmonies in the chorus. (I thought you'd get more AIC comparisons.) The levels are perfect in the mix, but the overall sound is thin for some reason. Missing low-mids maybe? (Heh, I should know.) Your song has the best hook of the week.
Edge of LA: Heh, is that a real tambourine? Either way, I like it. My feedback is all mix related: This basically sounds like it's mixed mono. And the vocals are drowning everything out, but I think it's more a matter of competing frequencies. I'd pan the guitar out of the middle, and kill the bottom frequencies on the vocal track. Maybe roll off 6db/octave from 200Hz down? The song doesn't really grab me, but I think it would with a cleaner mix.
Hostess Mostess: Fantastic. I love your voice. I think this is the song to beat this week (if winning actually mattered
.) Others have noted the drums could use a little tweaking. Maybe run a humanize script on the midi track? Otherwise, though, the levels and placement are spot on. Also, it's tough to make a 7-beat sound accessible, so congrats on that.Jordan: A cardinal rule of songwriting: "just because you wrote all these words doesn't mean you have to put them in the song." Or, to paraphrase Elmore Leonard, "try to leave out the parts that people skip." This is an O.K. song waiting to be edited into a good song. The good song you end up with will be 2 minutes, 30 seconds long, and won't have anything that comes after 3:27 in your mix. Also, I'd make your vocal quieter, and the snare drum louder.
Lemon songs: I cranked the volume. I still couldn't hear you. Have some confidence, man! (Also, see my advice for Edge of LA. All your parts are fighting for the same frequencies, and unfortunately the background guitar wins.)
Likely Lads: Good vocal performance. The guitar and bass are mixed well, but all I hear of the drums is the high hat in most places. This song would rock much harder with a tweaked mix.
Macher Lietchy: The production's fine. The track has a couple of interesting bits, but overall it just kinda drags. I mean, there's no up-and-down at all, nothing to maintain my interest.
Max The Cat: You produced this perfectly for what it is. The lyrics demand to be heard, and you made sure they are. I like this .. If I listened to a lot of it, I'd kill people and the press would blame your song. But I like it.
Motor Monkeys: This sounds ... Norwegian. Wow, is it ever well-performed. As was pointed out above, though, the mix is really muddy. There's tonnes of great stuff in the song but the bottom end is stomping all over it. Whatever's doing the thunder at the low frequencies has to go. It sounds like a detuned bass drum run through a reverb. If it is, don't do that anymore.
PigPen: You have a great sense for the style. By which I mean, the parts that make up the song are all the right ones. The vocal performance doesn't quite carry it, though. It sounds like you recorded under a blanket at 3 a.m. so you wouldn't disturb the kids next door. (If that's the case, forget about them just let rip. This is your ART, man. They're kids. They'll get over it.)
Scott Faris: The drums in part II need to be way louder. And that part needs bass, too. Or if there's already bass in there, it needs to be much louder.
State Shirt: Brilliantly performed. You know yourself the U2 comparisons are all off the mark. Not the Radiohead ones, though: that chorus found its way here from Oxford in 1996. Alternately, this is what Coldplay would sound like if they weren't such pansies. I echo dre and TT, though: the mix sounds like I'm listening to you perform in the SkyDome. SkyDome is the world's largest bass trap. The comparison makes me think you may have mixed the bass too loud.
I always end up voting for Mostess, and I see no reason why this week should be any different.
deshead:
Thanks for the feedback and comments, and for Sarah too. There's no one else I'd rather harmonize with.
Are fade-outs verboten?nicegeoff wrote:5 out of 19 songs had fade-outs.
Um, auto-tune?Future Boy wrote:Ugh, pop-country with auto-tune. No, no, and no!
Actually, that cleared it up for me. Thanks for the feedback.J$ wrote:I appreciate that this doesn't really make sense ... I just heard the voice and thought 'that would make a really good folk voice'
"No one holds me like you do."abecedarian wrote:It’s a little hard to catch the verse lyrics. No oneme like you do?
Just curious: was there something in the mix that made it hard to hear?
Do you mean the slap of the kick drum? All I hear is kick drum, albeit the bottom end.Jack Shite wrote:and the kick drum is barely noticeable
Your comment made me wonder if maybe my listening environment is bass heavy, especially with our different takes on State Shirt's song. But then I see tonetripper and dre agree with me about State Shirt's mix, and I don't know any more.
You should hear me when I drink.dre wrote:and you sound like an American and not a Canadian.
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