This is a continuation of the list started yesterday. Blog exclusive! for audio clips, download montage2.mp3 and montage3.mp3.
Songs finished (extra work still possible):
"Distance"----Indie oldies pop song. What's hot: Beach Boys harmonies. What's left: still some room left for pitch-shifting, especially in the ooh-ed last part.
"Sad"----Ancient Sculpted Static track resurrected for the album. What's hot: 3/4 keyboard against 4/4 guitar. What's left: nothing.
"Lucy"----Opener of Sunny Ash, our old Sculpted Static album. What's hot: solid, reliable song, good melody. What's left: the vocals sounded better on the original.
"Lucy Tricked Me Into Something"----An experiment in modular songwriting. What's hot: in conversation with the other song "Lucy." What's left: could use more guitar at the end.
"Thank You"----Penultimate track of Sunny Ash. What's hot: bass and guitar. What's left: more vocals, perhaps.
Songs being recorded:
"Save The Day"----80s dance pop song. Instrumental pretty much done. What's hot: harmonizing guitars, synth part. What's left: needs a new electronic drum track, mark's lead vocals.
"Apart"----Like the one on Sunny Ash. What's hot: fan favorite from Sunny Ash. What's left: overdone production will probably need to be cleaned up. Arta vetoed his guitar solo, but we may still record it because of the lack of other ideas.
"Agoraphobia"----First appeared on Sound Check. This one's in 4/4. What's hot: withstood the test of time. What's left: not much, really. It may be good to go already.
"You're Only Human (Do You Know What You're Doing?)----War-themed song not originally planned for the Tonics album, but it would be a shame to waste that excellent instrumental track. What's hot: Arta's lead guitar. What's left: could still end up on the album with new lyrics.
"Greenback (Blank Page)"----New Mark song with a cool guitar riff. What's hot: lead guitar on last verse. What's left: more instrumental tracks to fill in the verse, harmony vocals, additional percussion.
"Elegy for Anne Bancroft"----Simon and Garfunkel-esque song. What's hot: Anne Bancroft. What's left: vocal tracks.
"The Clapping Song"----Happy, bouncy Mark song. What's hot: amazing performance at 155 Dwinelle. What's left: needs a new lead vocal, more percussion.
Songs that we have started recording, but will probably need to be re-recorded:
"Portrait (London Bridge)"----Originally released back when we were Sculpted Static. What's hot: one of the more emotional pieces on the album. Issues: arrangement is boring at the moment. Steven wants it to sound more like Coldplay. Would probably require full band rehearsal.
"Crowds Of Nervous People"----A slow, piano song by Steven. What's hot: excellent melody, tempo change. Issues: like "Portrait," needs a better arrangement. The recordings from the winter sessions are too boring, not always in tune, and not done with the metronome.
"Hamlet----Written by Steven, sung by Mark. One of Arta's favorites. What's hot: depressing lyrics. Issues: current recording not really in tune. Does not sound enough like The Smiths. Ian's drumming sometimes off.
Songs vetoed:
"Tonight"----Unloved song most likely to get the axe. What's hot: lyrics fit the theme of the album, has a great bridge. Issues: current recording overproduced. It may be converted to different time signature. But we're not sure if the real problem comes from Steven's songwriting.
"Opium"----The original version (on Omer's Odyssey) is still the best. Sculpted Static made a mess of it during summer 2004. It was dropped in favor of "Lucy Tricked Me Into Something" at the last minute before scheduled recording started.
So that's, what, 20 songs towards the album plus 2 vetoed ones. From that, we want to trim it down further to 15 songs or 45 minutes, whichever comes first.
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