Thanks so much, everyone - genuinely appreciated. I WAS, initially, a little worried about the slow tempo of the song, but thought: ah, it'll work. Evidently not - so I'll look at it again as soon as I can. Shouldn't be too much of a problem to speed it up a little.

And yes, Hans, these kind of songs can indeed sound too similar - something I'm actively trying to avoid - you spot all my own worries so well ... have you been in my head lately? haha. You are picking up on every worry of mine immediately. As for an up-tempo spoken song, see if you like this? I wrote this last year ... see what you think if you have time - and THANKS Hans and indeed everyone for such incredibly perceptive feedback!

https://soundcloud.com/jamesdelsono/the-servant?in=jamesdelsono/sets/best-of-2019