Scott recorded a bunch of sax the other weekend; it felt like more sax-per-minute than anything we’ve done previously, so i decided to revisit near and far, comets, signs, and the b-sides to see if that impression was accurate. Here are my notes.
near and far
- Through “Nexus” sax has only appeared twice, I think; “Well” (a long, really good solo after “Cornerstone”) and the pop solo in “Fourbee.” This might have been a function of time; we tracked and mixed in 4 days, with a second round of mixes later, and they weren’t long days
- “The Broken Anger” – I’d forgotten about the vocal processing in the outro. Hearing it makes me feel better about some of the studio production trickery planned for V for Voice, like it’s not a new thing
- At the time we recorded this I definitely thought just playing cool chord progressions (no lead voice) was interesting. I’ve learned to put more sounds over those; the ear needs a hook to guide it along
- I’ve unintentionally re-created some of the tracklisting flow of near and far on V for Voice; a down-the-middle opener, then a strummy follow-up, rocker at #3, experiments in the back half… for V we moved the genre exercise to the b-sides at least
- It would appear from iTunes I haven’t listened to near and far in its entirety since 2010, at least. That’s about halfway between its release and today
- Interesting choice on the final note of “Constellations,” had forgotten that
- The chorus effect on “Staircase” and “Under My Protection” makes interesting bookends to the record. I don’t recall that being intentional
- <Egregious drum jam>