profusia
(Worcestershire)
Thursday 13 Jul 2017, 10:24am
I felt the intro was a bit long - maybe some improvised strings over the top would help hold the attention till the vocals come in. Or perhaps just cut it down to about half that length.
I thought right at the beginning the vocals seemed a bit too far back in the mix, but either they came forward or my ears adjusted, as once you'd really got going I didn't sense that any more. I won't say any more re vocals as we've discussed previously, suffice to say I don't think they suit this song as well as some of your other songs - but that's just my very personal perspective.
I think the strings sound nice, tonally. However, I felt they were understated, and a tadge bland or safe and that where there are the lengthy gaps between lyrical phrases the strings needed to do something a bit more melodic and attention grabbing. They do sound classy, but just need something more interesting to attract the ear in the way of some melodic lines.
One last thought... I'm not sure if you are hoping for radio play, but at 5+ minutes this would be too long and I imagine might either not get played or would get faded out after 3 minutes losing some of the nicer instrumental touches towards the end, and the nicely crafted ending itself. Which would be a shame. In any case I think you could do with more variation throughout to sustain a 5 minute track. The more melodic strings between verses would help, but also doing some changes to the vocal melody as the song progresses, maybe harmonising, or singing off melody to add some variation. Just my thoughts and opinion obviously. I'm sure others here will differ
I'm now just listening to your Hey Now again, and find it so much more listenable personally - but that's just a matter of taste of course