DECEMBER 2 2024: WHERE ARE WE

Time to get everything in order again. A lot of songs feel like they're almost finished, and yet there's a lot that are nowhere near completion.

Blanket statement: I don't know if ANY of these vocals are final.

MOSTLY DONE:

• Bad Job feels like it is mostly done, but I have arrangements for like 6 or 7 more instruments that I've yet to record. This song suffers from Too Many Ideas. I suppose I should record them anyway and see if they add anything, and if not I will cut them.
• Brands Brands Brands Brands feels good, finally. Mixing it is hard. I might need to redo some accordion at the end, and I might need to redo the rototoms.
• Drop The Knife is basically done I think? Super happy with it. Also has probably 50% more music in it than it needs. I went through Brands last week with the intention of cutting stuff but wound up keeping more than I expected - I suspect the same thing will happen with this song. I think I wanted to redo something on dulcimer. Should probably redo the guitar solo...
• Flavor Crystals I just sort of started recording last month for Something New To Do and the bed feels great. It needs keyboards now. The problem I'm having directorially is that it just sort of feels like the "default rock song" sort of arrangement that I wind up writing every so often - it feels like my other songs "Email Address" or "Friday Black Friday," it has a similar groove in the verses. I suppose having a Style or Tendency is not a problem that needs to be solved, but I am just afraid of repeating myself - and I'm not sure if this song is as good as the other two to justify the repetition.
• Grey Water has been released already, I might dub in new rotos if I do that for Brands.
• He Might is another mixing puzzle for me. I might have to redo the bass clarinet, or the electric guitar. Another case of less-is-more - trying to strip away some of the pieces I added, but finding myself wanting to keep most of them.
• Internet Girl is close to done, which is a big relief. This song might involve a complicated remix process at the end. I am not sure where this would fit on the Album sequentially - it sort of feels like an end-credits montage but I don't really want to end my album with a silly cover. I'm not sure if I have a satisfying end for this album yet.
• Man Into Hole has been released as well but I think I could mix it a little diferently and maybe redo some of the strings.
• Millennials Are Killing has also been released, and I have already made my mix changes, but now that I own my own tenor sax, I wonder if I could play the solo again.
• My Brother, His Brother, and His I think is also in the subtractive mixing stage. I find myself wanting to cut the first instrumental in half? Oh, there might be a hammered dulcimer thing I want to record on this too.
• also Everything I Do I Do For Free is basically done, but it won't be on the album.

MOSTLY UNDONE:

• Asterisk I have a piano recorded for, but that's basically it. I need to write lyrics for the last verse. I need to figure out if the sample it's based on is even going to be featured. I need to figure out if I'm writing additional parts for harp or woodwinds or what. And then I need to record the drums & guitars for the end.
• Once A Day I would like to basically rebuild with only like 25% of the original tracks. I wish I had access to a vibraphone. I feel like I'm keeping this for the end because I think it will go really quickly - we'll see.
• Growth is completely written but completely unrecorded. I'm really excited about it but also kind of scared by how daunting it will be. Will require writing lots of woodwind charts, and probably recording piano and drums first.
• Baby Don't Want I am still insisting to myself will wind up on this album, even though I've made no progress. I've written like 5 different verse structures over the last year and kept none of them. The hooks are good enough that I want to fight for the song. I bought new drum heads (it's sort of based on a drum groove) to try to give myself a deadline.

There's a handful of other offcuts that I feel like I could throw together really quickly if I get bored again, the way I did with Flavor Crystals. I think that's good to have in my back pocket as a motivation tool.