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I just finished my second album. It's called The Shivers.
iglidante
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So, for the past year and half I've been working on a collection of songs. It's gone through a lot of changes, and many (many) tracks did not make the cut. I've primped, tweaked, and otherwise played with these songs for months in some cases. My ears are tired. My eyes are tired.
But I'm done.
This album is called "The Shivers." I think it's the best thing I've ever done. I feel relieved, uncertain, and joyous at the same time. It's confusing.
Anyway, I wanted to share it with the AC. I put it up on Bandcamp to make streaming easier (and their playback quality is really amazing considering how fast things cache). Some of the highlights are:
Close Your Eyes, an electronic track with buzzing synths and introspective lyrics.
Girl's Got Altitude, a pounding rock track with a catchy chorus.
Going Down, a gritty number with a screaming solo at the end.
Supersonic, a hot mess of swirling synths and booming drums.
What do you guys think?
But I'm done.
This album is called "The Shivers." I think it's the best thing I've ever done. I feel relieved, uncertain, and joyous at the same time. It's confusing.
Anyway, I wanted to share it with the AC. I put it up on Bandcamp to make streaming easier (and their playback quality is really amazing considering how fast things cache). Some of the highlights are:
Close Your Eyes, an electronic track with buzzing synths and introspective lyrics.
Girl's Got Altitude, a pounding rock track with a catchy chorus.
Going Down, a gritty number with a screaming solo at the end.
Supersonic, a hot mess of swirling synths and booming drums.
What do you guys think?
I've been focusing so much on this lately, I haven't had much time to post everyone's favorite comic - does that grant me bonus points?
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Unfortunately, they aren't really my style despite all being pretty different. I was thinking to myself that the first track was pretty repetitive and almost boring, but then the change came in and was pretty refreshing. I think ideally that could come a little sooner, or maybe add a little more meat to the beginning to tide listeners over until dessert?
I prefer the higher vocals (on the chorus of 'Girl's Got Attitude'), but that's pretty subjective I think. Generally I just assume that people have something to hide when their vocals are super distorted. You have yet to prove that theory wrong, but the effects are pretty neat and have a definite character that I imagine you worked hard to develop. Also, I think maybe the words could use a little breathing room in parts, its just feeling a little rushed. I am not qualified to comment on lyrical content.
The drums of 2, 3 and 4 are all pretty 80's, as I'm sure you're aware. They seem to fit pretty well with what you're making. Tracks 2 and 3 in particular seem to fall between The Police and Rock Kills Kid for me, hopefully that's a compliment.
The little interludes of major chord synth/synth+talkbox stuff on 'Supersonic' was the highlight of all of it for me (opening sound effect, also awesome). Some of that really hit some of my favorite parts of the chiptune documentary from 2 Player Productions off the main page. Really rad.
All in all, a handful of well made tracks. Not to my tastes really, and yet I sat here and listened to it all a couple of times. Hopefully having another opinion helps you make the music you want to make.
Edit - I was numbering based on the tracks you posted, just to not type out the names. They were the only ones I listened to. Hopefully the comments make more sense now?
Diamond Dust was something I played with for a while, and in the end I decided to let the beginning bit ride for maybe too long. It was hard, because when I first wrote that song I intended to rock the whole way, but that didn't work. I love the sparse, electronic bit even better than the main riff, I think.
I'm definitely not a talented singer. I don't have any training. I only started singing two years ago, and I really try to make the most of my limited range and vibrato-free voice. I have kind of a snotty punk sound to my vocals in most ranges, unless I sing softly. I do love doing the gritty, glottal fry sound (which I'm sure you noticed).
And yes, I absolutely love the 80s. To my ears, the drum tracks on Def Leppard's Hysteria album are the peak of drum excellence.
For me, the major-chord bits on Supersonic stand out even more because of how down the verses are. I love when those upbeat moments arrive - the synths and vocoder really make me happy.
Thanks for taking the time to give me feedback - I really appreciate it.
I just have one crit -- on 'Close Your Eyes', during the chorus there's a lead synth line that's somewhat muted in the mix. It's there, and it sounds good, but I wish it were more present. Actually, it's a little too far back in the verses too. If I weren't paying attention I'd probably have missed it, and if I were listening on shitty laptop speakers I'm not even sure it'd come through. It's being dwarfed by the powerful buzzing synths (which sound great by the way, so good job on that), making the instrumentation sound maybe more simplistic than you intended.
Maybe I did make the buzzing synths on Close Your Eyes a little too loud. That backing synth you hear does kind of fade away. There's really a lot going on in that track.
Insincerity is a bluesy kind of rock instrumental.
That's Okay is a punk-rock type track, short and to-the-point, with a driving rhythm.
Any thoughts on these?
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On the other songs I listened to, Supersonic and Going Down specifically, the intros are waaay too long (Girl's Got Attitude also doesn't start until 42 seconds in, but you get away with it here because of the 17 someodd seconds of piano before switching into the song proper). What are you waiting for?
And maybe this is just me, but starting an album with a (mostly) instrumental track? Attention spans are nil (I got through eight tracks before something caught my eye on television) you need to grab interest and never let go! Skip the extended foreplay and hit me with the real digs...dig?
Girl's Got Altitude is one of the last tracks I wrote. It happened pretty quickly, this summer, and was a stretch for me (both subject-wise and vocal-wise). I spent a long time producing it, too.
Really, every song was a new experiment for me. I guess you could say some were more successful than others. I do love intros. Maybe too much. I like to let the theme build until the song feels ready for me to be in the meat of it. Usually that ends up being about...8 bars? Maybe that's too much.
My logic in starting with an instrumental track was basically to put something out front that summed up the style of the disc. Diamond Dust is a weird rock/electronic hybrid that has a huge shift in style. Maybe people don't have the patience to sit through an instrumental. Maybe it was a bad decision on my part. It's all digital at this point, so I could always change it.
Do you have any suggestions for track order? I'd love to hear them.
I'd keep Girl's Got Attitude at number two to keep the momentum going.
Then Going Down followed by Discredited to incrementally ease it back a bit as the album transitions into the first instrumental Pressure Plate. I'd follow that with Clarified because Pressure Plate and Clarified kinda just mesh.
After that I'm not quite sure what I would do. You have two more instrumentals to place, and I'd usually suggest placing one at the end of the album, but House of Cards would also be a nice outro as it is comparatively mellow for most of the track.
So, maybe if things went like this it would be a bit smoother:
Supersonic
Girl's Got Altitude
Going Down
Discredited
Pressure Plate
Clarified
Close Your Eyes
Diamond Dust
Redline
House of Cards
One For The Road
Also, there are five songs in this EP that didn't make the final tracklist (some advice from friends regarding sequencing), but maybe some of them should be on the album proper. I'm really not sure.
SHIT (I'm listening while I write)! You need to include Give it Up (Morning After Mix) into Shivers! This track possibly even trumps Girl's Got Attitude in listenablility. There is a lull between 0:32 and 0:54 (over twenty seconds of instrumental...needs to be cut a bit), but I love lyrics on this one! It cleverly speaks to the insecurities and inadequacies that the standard male feels when trying to groove with a special lady friend out of his league.
I suggest canceling out the remaining instrumentals and replacing them with Insincerity (with added lyrics) and Give it Up. Your LP will be greatly improved.
Right now, these two new albums are only on Bandcamp. That means I can change whatever I want, and it doesn't hurt me. I want to make a physical run of this if I can ever get some cash. Then, I can revise the tracklist and try to make the perfect set. I really think Give It Up is one of my catchier songs, and I think people would like it if they heard it.
What do you think of That's Okay (from the same EP)? A friend advised that I cut it from The Shivers, and I could see his point (so I did), but I still thought it was a good song.
Thanks again, shovelkid - this is great.