Samuel,

You are doing a good job of "heading in the right direction" to "get that sound".

This is a strong write - a "love song" (or breakup song which is still a love song) with an obvious subtext...

The drums are cool. Gives this a unique flavor similar to a Paul Simon song. A nice alternative to the typical hip-hop type beats sound. The arrangement is good. I thought the acoustic guitar needed to be brighter and a bit louder.

I can't speak for HTL (I hope he weighs in here and set me straight if I am wrong), but I think one of his main issues with the attempts to "sound modern" is that no one is getting the vocals where they need to be (there's other stuff, too, but that is a main thing). That will always be a hard nut since - as Charlie says - we do not have the megabucks equipment that the big studios do. On this, (to my ears) the vocal seems "apart" from the rest of the mix. Kind of "on top" instead of "part of". The vocal needs to "pop", but not stand outside of the mix. A fine line - and a tough one, admittedly. Your vocals are always good (well sung). With the right processing, they should be able to sit where they belong. I don't think they are doing that here.

I do like the song. A lot.

fj

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