The fifth song! Woot! Firefox dictionary doesn’t know the word woot???? ADD ADD ADD!!! That’s just ridiculous.
Anyway…. This song is called “Nostalgia.” Its more or less about how at any given point in your life, you do not have enough information to make reliable decisions about what is best for you… You’re lucky if you can beat pure luck half the time. Oh and I borrowed from Soren Kierkegaard. He had the whole “Life is lived forward but understood in reverse” thing, as far as I can tell. Anyway, more production than usual on this one. Don’t get used to it, it probably won’t happen again.
Couple notes: Pretend there’s something cool going on in the intro. Like a solo or something. Also pretend the midi drums didn’t suck. There’s just there to give you an idea of what I’m thinking might be going on. Mix is, of course, rough. Sorry if it blows.
Nostalgia
(C) 2007 Matthew C Goo
I would never lie to you willingly
Nostalgia just aint what you used to be
Every tone turns yellow in my memory
Nostalgia just aint what you used to be
What it is
is a mirror, oh
What we are
outa control
I would like to see you in that dress
I would like to be somebody else
If we knew then what we know now
Maybe we wouldn’t have to guess
Looking back
we played the fool
yeah this time
We’d know the rules
and they wouldn’t keep changing
in the middle of the game.
Life seems easier looking backward
Taking time to understand what occurred
Life must be lived looking forward
But it is understood in reverse
So what i means
we don’t know a thing
History
Is all turned around
Its the blind ahead of the sighted
leading them god knows where.
leading them god knows where.
Tech notes: drums and piano are from reason. Bass direct, Acoustic is a modded 57, Vocals is that modded sm57 too, I like that way that sounds. 12 string electric is through my pedals and the “ech 2″ (tech 21) amp direct out. Nothing too tricky here. That piano patter I play I pretty much ripped directly from Paul McCartney on “Too Much Rain” from his new cd.
I’m going to get an RSS feed going for the song a week project, so you can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes or your feed aggregator of choice. Look for bulletins.
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7 Comments
so i just thought i’d try something new in my critique… i have just read the lyrics before actually hearing the song. Yes. They are quite good. I approve. Moving on to the whole picture.
Ok, maybe I don’t know anything… but maybe I do. The song started off sounding like a Jonny Weaver tune. Not a direct rip-off, more like your vocals and guitar were just “Jonny-esque” which I quite enjoyed. The song is popie without being ridiculous or stupid, which is nice. I’m can’t quite tell if I like it whole-heartedly. I do, however, LOVE the lyrics as all-get-out. The end of the tune seemed kinda hokey to me… but what do I know? Also, I quite enjoy the piano bits you threw in…very nice touch, adds a little something, etc.
Anyway, overall I give it 4.5 out of 5 stars. It was only going to be 4 stars, but the lyrics are super fantastic and that bumped you up to 4.5…
first of all, i too like the lyrics. and i also like the gritty quality you gave to some of your vocal delivery even though that’s not necessarily what’s supposed to be commented upon. i like the structure and use of different chords…they compliment the narrative pattern of the lyrics. i would add a steel guitar sound to it. i really like the ending to it with all the instruments doing the turn-around.
i think that your inspiration should be the kung fu chicken on your previous post. i think it works for the whole nostalgia thing…
I like the lyrics a lot too. And I really do enjoy this one, popy but not over done. Much better than last week’s song. YAY.
Really good. I like that’s it’s more fleshed out than some of the other ones so i don’t have to use my imagination. I’m at work. Imagination is hard. quit making me use it
Anyway, I like the poppyness, and…actually i think i’m just gonna end up repeating everything everyone else said. But good job.
Oh, and not really a critique, but a funny thing that i heard, the “life seems easier looking backward”, when i first heard it, i thought you said “life seems easier looking back, word?” and then i giggled ans i was like…”that can’t be it”.
I figured people would like this song. I like it okay. Well, I’m not particularly wild about it, it’s a song I might skip.
At first I didn’t care too much for the lyrics, but now I think they’re good for what they are. I usually prefer your “blah blah blah is like this analogous statement” type of stuff. Lyrics that paint pictures. I don’t know if that’s the case here, whatev.
Also, I think I like the stripped down demos more because I’m a producer, so a bare bones song gives me ideas how to flesh it out. Less to fill leaves me thinking only of “well, what could I do on guitar to this?” if that. anyway.
i think some of the empty space needs filled with a harmonica, and bgvs. thas’all
I agree with Katie about the ending. I liked the song, but the very end just seemed a little cheesy. If it were me, I wouldn’t arrpegiate that last chord; I’d just let it resolve with the last word of the lyrics. The lyrics are great, but for some reason the use of “ain’t” bothered me. It probably is a better word to hold a note on than “isn’t” though.
Anyway, sorry to dump all the negative stuff up front. That’s exactly the opposite of how I was taught to give criticism in my writing workshops, but I know you can handle it. I really like the layered sound of the song, particularly the underlying piano stuff. I also like the way it starts with the acoustic guitar and builds from there.