Originally Posted By: Noel96
floyd,

Wow! This song overflows with emotional sincerity. It seems to me that 'tears in the beer glass' songs are one of your writing strengths. Each one you've posted on the forum has been a real pleasure to listen to. This is no exception.

The lyrics of "Half" are very, very powerful and resonate with believability. When these words are coupled with your outstanding melody, accompaniment, arrangement and vocals, an incredible listen unfolds. My fingers are stumbling over what to type! It's not a situation that they usually find themselves in.

Perhaps I should drive you through my thoughts as I listened...

Firstly, that second chord of the intro really sets the tone for what is to follow. It's such an excellent choice of sonic mood-lighting. Secondly, the two-bar intro made me open my eyes and pay attention because I was anticipating a third bar of strings. Then, when you started singing with the strings backing, Neil Diamond flashed into my mind. The key, the strings, the lyrics, the backing, the vocal delivery, the phrasing all struck me as reminiscent of Diamond. For this reason, when "Half" was done, I went to Youtube and listened to Neil singing "Love On The Rocks", "Hello Again" and "You Don't Bring Flowers" just to confirm that I wasn't hearing things.

All the above being said, what impressed me most about "Half" is that it seems like you've used just about every possible permutation of how the prefix/suffix/word can be used but it never sounds humorous, trite nor overdone. Just wow! How did you do that??? I counted 23 occurrences of 'half'. That's unbelievable. In addition to this, all those perfect rhymes flow so very smoothly and so conversationally. Prosody shines at all times. Upside down and inside out, this is magnificent lyric writing.

Quite honestly, I'm in awe of what you've presented here. This is not an ordinary song by any stretch of the imagination. Everything about it cries out 'professional', 'commercial appeal', 'international hit'. Seriously!

I'm heading back for another listen.

All the best,
Noel


Noel - I had a feeling that you might enjoy "the write" on this one. Using a word over in subsequent lines can be a great writing device - I do it often... I wanted to see how far I could take it... Thank you for another delightful review! Now I have to go have a listen to some Neil Diamond (I was actually going for an "older" feel than that - Johnny Mathis doing "I've Grown Accustom To Her Face"... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7izY6dUmTo )

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