Wow! SO much to say here!!

First of all, in case anybody didn't catch it.. this is Anne-Marie's song! Usually Rob writes the songs, and Anne-Marie contributes her beautiful voice.. but this time she wrote the song, made the video, and even laid out the melody that Rob was singing! (I'm right about all that, am I not?)

This is such an ambitious first project! Is Anne-Marie content to start out with a nice easy 3 chord progression? One with a melody that stays in a single key the whole time?? Noooooo, She jumps right in with an original adaptation of a classical piece... and not just ANY classical piece.. Grieg's March of the Dwarfs!!! Now there's a confident woman! (are you a classically trained musician by any chance? I wouldn't even know where to start with a project like this, but you NAILED it!)


Your melody is very unique, interesting and appropriate to the chords, which in itself is quite an achievement! You didn't take the easy way out in ANY aspect of this project! And the harmonies are every bit as interesting as the melody! I'm curious to know who your influence is for this style of writing?

Regarding the words: you've managed to spin a set of lyrics that are vague enough to ask questions without giving any answers... in so doing, you kept me wondering and interested through the whole song... which interestingly is exactly what the quest for love does (keeps us wondering and interested, but never quite sure)

The mixture of rhyme with free verse accented my sense of uncertainty... occasionally you incorporated rhymes, but not always... again, much like the quest for love, in which we cycle in and out of periods when we hope we've figured out the rules, only to realize we have not

(If your brain is that active, I bet you have trouble sleeping... you probably can't get your thoughts to calm down long enough to drift off!)

Then there's the choice of instruments... here's an idea.. let's see if bluegrass instruments can be made to work for a classical adaptation! AND THEY DID! (I especially liked the dobro at the end!)

And that video! Did you take the raw footage? Or is some or all of it taken from video libraries? Where EVER you got the footage, ALL of it is breathtaking! I think you did an excellent job of reinforcing your points with graphical representations of things that work as metaphor.

If this had been your 50th song, I would have been very impressed with the complexity of the project and the high degree of thought that went into every single aspect of it... but for a FIRST project... it is nothing short of amazing!

(You do realize that now you've set the bar for yourself, and you can never go backwards. Not to put on any pressure, but...) wink

Rob, you're suddenly in the same situation as all the people who collaborate with Janice. All the praise gets used up before it's your turn! wink

but seriously, that melody was extremely difficult, and you handled it easily! I winced through the whole first listen, feeling sure that somebody would choke on it, but you both cruised right through!

Man, if I had to pay for exclamation points, this review would have cost me some bucks!
If I had to leave you with a one word summary, it would be "WOW"

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ey71h8ep047758h/AAC12jNM0Hz9Q8zsh5iDeqNHa?dl=0