I'll check it out soon- Hadn't noticed it before. Not tonight, however. Oh hell, why not...

I listened to this right when it came out and made some notes but hadn't had time or energy to make a post. Now I do, here comes.

First of all, it's an excellent album. It has a really intimate feel to it, you have a good singing voice and obvious talent as a singer. Most strikingly it's an overwhelmingly melodic album. The not so nice side is that I didn't like many of the drum beats and rhythms. At some points there were also problems in the mixing and sounds, but considering this was home-made it was actually quite good. And most importantly, the sounds have your own style in them and they support the songs and your singing really well. You could have better quality cymbal samples for example, but that's kinda superficial compared to how great the synth sounds work with all those fabulous harmonies.

As to your singing, like I said your voice is good, you just sound good on the record, but in many songs, I would really like to hear some more boldness, strength and courage. Trust your voice, it's a good one, and go full steam ahead. Now in many parts I get the feeling that you're a bit afraid to sing. And with the beats, I would use some more contrast in the dynamics, really make some notes stand out and drop some others to the background as ghost notes. On some tracks the monotonous drive makes a good point (Mother), but at many points a more subtle one could have been better. Or maybe you want to deliberately keep the crude 80s drum machines style, so that it's a stylistic choice I just didn't get.

Something on individual tracks:
-I really like the first track, the hiphop beat and the etheral chord mat leaving a lot of space for the beautiful and fragile melodies, both on the piano and vocals. The guitar part also features one of the best vocals on the album.

-The third one could be a hit-single. Drums sound somewhat clumsy, but it has some really catchy melodies, awesome synth sounds and good singing.

-Living in Throws nicely breaks the synth streak, it's a good composition and the layered vocals work well. Really elliottsmithy, not in a bad plagiating way.

-I don't have much to say about Headache, it's not one of my favourites, but the chord progression in the beginning which keeps repeating later on is really, really, really good. Write a theme melody for it and I'm sure somebody will want to include it in their book of jazz standards. It keeps rotating hypnotizingly.

-Mother is really big change in style to nastier beats and riffs, but I really like how it still has the same strenghts; same great underlying atmosphere and awesome melodies. It's also one of the best songs structurally. One of my favourites.

-The Synapse is a really good one as well, it's very coherent and you sing it well. Maybe it's just that your a bit shy style of singing sits well with the acoustic guitar bits, but the vocals sounds best here and on the first track.

-I think Open Interior is my favourite on the whole album. It suddenly and surprisingly hits you with a really strong driving bass and the synth riffs even remind me of Pendulum's Hold Your Colour. Still it doesn't lose one bit of the fragile personality present on other tracks. The structure works, it's really well layered, the singing is good (some effects? they sound good) and again kick-ass melodies.


It's a very solid record, it keeps a theme and atmosphere throughout the album but has variety in styles, with songs like Broken Light (I'm loving that one) pacing it well. You know the way some indie bands want to appear as really apologetic and shoegazy, "I'm sorry I exist", but in reality end up sounding obnoxious and cheesy, making pop songs with whiny vocals? Well you actually reach that feeling they try to fake. I've already over-used these words, but fragile, intimate and personal really describe the album well. (That's just for the songs though, I can't say this or that about the lyrics. I'm horrible at listening to lyrics and can't really judge poetry in English.) Still at the same time it's catchy, light and adorably 80s. Your greatest strength by far seems to be in composing, whether it's dissonant distorted riffs, heavenly piano melodies or ambient pads, they are always interesting and musicality shows through at every point.

It's Pet Shop Boys feeling down.

as for the singing, i probably am still a bit embarassed about it but i am trying to get better at that too.

I can't sing at all and never have, but I can imagine the embarrassed feeling really well, and I think it's pretty common too. Singing is always so personal (unless you run it through millions of effects and filters), a lot more so than any instrument. If somebody says you can't play guitar, it's just an attack at your abilities, saying you can't sing is more like an attack on your person. Or at least that's how I would take it.

What software do you use? FL studio and VST instruments?

I like the built-in effects in FL but I always have problems finding decent instruments or other generators, other than drum machines. I guess you could do cool stuff with that Sytrus synthesizer but I can't use it and the learning curve feels really steep. It's nice for producing random weirdness, but it's usually not even the type of weirdness I'm looking for.

I've heard from some friends who study music that professionals mostly use Reason and then Ableton for live sets. I think they both work mostly as skeletons you build on with VST-stuff and recordings, so it's not a whole package like FL, and I can't use either.