Originally Posted By: Noel96
Hi floyd,



The first thing that stood out to me when the song started playing was just how brilliant the arrangement, the instrumental line-up and the mix are. The clarity of this production is way better than any superlative I can some with. It's like listening to sunshine – it's bright, it sparkles, and it resonates full of energy. This song sounds as professional as anything from a dedicated studio; it's a production masterpiece in fact. Music really doesn't get better than this. After listening to “Listen”, I realised just how much I still have to learn in the mixing arena.

In relation to the lyrics, I really like the way that you've used rhyming couplets throughout the song. Whenever I've tried writing lyrics using rhyming couplets, I seem to get a kind of 'forced' quality to my words. By comparison, these lyrics of yours flow as easy as conversation and the rhymes seem so natural that the lyrics slip by without drawing attention to anything other than the story. This is what I call black-belt songwriting smile

As a 'set the tone of the song' verse, Verse 1 is terrific. The image of a woman being alone, frustrated, angry and despairing was vivid. For some reason, your Verse 1 reminded me of the lyrics of Mike Reid's and Allen Shamblin's “I Can't Make You Love Me” and the power of the imagery in its opening verse.

Originally Posted By: ”Mike Reid and Allen Shamblin”

Turn down the lights, turn down the bed
Turn down these voices inside my head


It's worth noting that Reid and Shamblin used an odd number of phrases (i.e. three) while working within the boundaries of a couplets approach with rhyme. Your first verse also uses an odd number of phrases (i.e. five) and, as already mentioned, the constraints of couplets.

If I reconfigure your Verse 1 so that it's easier to see the couplets, it's interesting to see how you've rhymed 'again' with 'listen'.

Quote:
i know the last time your heart told you where to go
you took a wrong turn and ended up alone
right then and there you swore you'd never love again
the next time your heart talks to you, you just won't listen


To my mind, the effect of this consonant rhyme using the 'n' sound is one of the most notable features of the first verse. Because this type of sound relationship has a very 'door left open' feeling to it, it pushes the listener straight into the second verse due to the fact that the listener is still waiting to hear a more concrete rhyme like go/alone. Such a rhyme doesn't happen though.

In finishing Verse 2, the listener is aurally satisfied by a more solid rhyme that indicates that the Verse1+Verse2 sequence is complete. The effect of the lack of closure at the end of Verse 1 seemed very appropriate for a Verse, Verse, Chorus, Verse song format. Nice!

The melody is outstanding. I particularly like the timing and the melodic phrase for “listen to mine”. It's musical characteristics really make it stand out and so easily identifiable as the title. Also, the vibes were a very inventive, creative touch.

Yep, black-belt songwriting meets black-belt song-producing meets black-belt PG Music technology!

All the best,
Noel

P.S. Janice's and your voices work incredibly well together. If the two of you keep this up, like Guenter, you're going to win something somewhere!





Once again, Noel, your review is as interesting as the song you are reviewing... but this one is especially interesting....

Greg and I often exchange emails about songs "worth listening to"... things that we find written at a level worth noting... Not more than a couple of week ago, I sent Greg an email with a link to Mike Reid's version of “I Can't Make You Love Me”!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlA3tMaX9GA

It gives me chills. I had not thought about it for YEARS. After I found it recently, I listened to it over and over and over... Songwriting at it VERY BEST.

I dig that you get that.

floyd

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