This is a most exquisite piano solo that I have ever had the pleasure of hearing, and the vocal rendition is nothing short of sublime. I am ecstatic that I was afforded the opportunity to witness it!
Author Comments
[Edit: Thanks for featuring this song!]
I don't really know how to start explaining this one... Perhaps it's best you explain it to yourself by listening to it, as I'm sure a lot of us can relate to the feelings conveyed.
Lyrics:
I once heard "it doesn't hurt at all."
Then again,
just who can say
they've sailed those seas before?
Brought their ship ashore.
Are you sure
you're ready to depart?
It'll be hard
to let you fly alone.
I pray you'll find a home.
But I will miss you,
There's a silent mist through
which I cannot see.
Oh believe me,
you have always
been my dearest friend.
I don't want to send you off.
I remember when
I saw you for the last time.
Sleepy and afraid,
as colour turned to shade.
That was when you said:
"I must head beyond where you have gone.
You must be strong, please let me go."
That was long ago.
And now I miss you.
There's a silent mist through
which I cannot see.
Oh believe me,
you will always
be my dearest friend,
even though you've reached the end.
I once heard "it doesn't hurt at all."
Then, why does it hurt for me?
P.S. I thought of about 20 different pieces of music which inspired this song in one way or another. I wrote them down, so if you want to play a minigame in the reviews, try guessing which any might be; I'll let you know if you hit the mark. Thank you for listening!
Sounds Like Omori Tbh
LucidShadowDreamer responds:
I can see that a bit, I'll take that as a compliment, so thank you :D!
I often find piano songs very hit or miss, as I'm usually left to want more in terms of instrumentation.
I think in your case, the limits actually contribute to the charm of the song as it lets the AMAZING composition work shine through, it really adds to the emotion.
I have one single issue with the track, and as you can probably guess, it's the vocals.
They sound truly beautiful (I'm vibing so much rn), but I feel like they are introduced too suddenly and loudly (which caught me offguard).
I believe adding a slight reverse reverb tail before introducing them would fix the issue for me.
I also think that the vocals peak a bit too high in volume in some places, and that a little delay here and there at the end of a section could make it even better (though this is personal taste).
Very happy with this !
LucidShadowDreamer responds:
Thank you for reviewing!
I think all genres have the potential to be great, or to be boring. I've heard plenty of really exciting metal songs, but also my fair share of "this again" tracks. I think because the piano is such a common and easily approachable instrument, one hears a lot of these samey songs on YouTube, Spotify etc. which perhaps don't have so much thought or effort behind them. Perhaps that is why you often feel like you're left wanting more! I do believe that if one really utilises the range of the keys and knows how to keep a piece dynamic, solo piano stuff can truly shine ^____^
I know you know this, as you already said as much in your review, it's just something I've been thinking about recently :P
Yup, I think your advice is on point regarding the vocals. I basically never record any, so whilst I did take the time to do so properly, I think I am a little bit lacking in experience when it comes to avoiding the issues you mentioned. Because I don't record vocals often, I'm also less experienced in mixing them (yet). I'll bear your advice in mind for next time :O!
Thank you for all the kind words :D
Compositionally, this is a masterwork. Ranks among some of the best solo piano and vocal pieces I've ever heard.
However I have some similar comments about the vocals to @creeperforce24. They're mixed a bit like modern pop vocals at first, as opposed to, I guess this would be 80s piano ballad.
By that I mean, they could use manual de essing and some gentle treatment to roll off the highs.
It gets better as you go on, perhaps recorded in a different take with different position. Microphones are finnicky creatures.
But in general, the performance was wonderful overall, varied, emotional without sounding insincere. I think that's saying something!
Great song, great modulations, and great poetry. It doesn't get much better than this!
LucidShadowDreamer responds:
Wow, what amazing praise, thank you very much!
I agree (almost) completely with your points about the vocals. I have to get better at handling the mic for sure, but I suppose that'll come with experience, and following good advice ;)
Actually, I've got a slight lisp, so I'm pretty happy with the result, considering. I know it can be heard a bit in the end result, but I managed to get reasonably decent takes, overall. I did universally de ess a bit, but I probably should've paid more attention to individual lines, as you say!
I suppose the only comment I would have, is that I personally am not too much of a style purist (I know you're not either), so I think it can be okay to have a piece in a style of a certain era, with aspects from another, including in the mix. That said, I think in this case I wasn't able to achieve that smoothly enough! I need to get better at making the vocals sound intentional, both in the recording and mixing phase :)
I'll try some of your tips next time!
Btw, this has nothing to do with this composition, but I happened to notice you said "So I was advised it's best practice to normalize your audio to 0 dB headroom, just to make full use of the sonic space. If you've heard different, let me know." on CloakedSoup's submission. I am not secretly the alt account of CloakedSoup (fun as that conspiracy would be :O), but I thought I'd reply to that here anyway, as I've looked into it quite extensively.
I also agree that the standards that were recommended for different platforms didn't seem to stick so well, and the loudness war does seem to be over, with loud being the victor. All that said, in my understanding, mastering (/normalising) all the way to 0.0dB headroom can and does lead to issues in digital to analogue conversion (DAC), which is to say, especially older systems will produce artefacts and clipping if there is not a bit of headroom in the final version. -0.1dB will already reduce the risk a lot. If the mix is good though, the perceived loudness should already be pretty good even at -1.0dB though, which should be safe in almost any format. For that reason (amongst some other even more technical ones), although a 0.0dB master will indeed be the slightest bit louder, and work on many devices, I think it mightn't be good to expect that from all tracks, as they're at that point essentially guaranteed to sound bad on many systems. If the mix is good, it should work well regardless of that last decibel. Also, if one is listening to professionally produced tracks from many genres in the same sitting, I think the volume knob tends to see some action anyway ;)
Feel free to let me know your thoughts on this, as I secretly quite like to get into the technical aspects of music and sound quite a bit too <3
Thanks again for your uplifting review, it made me happy to read!
This is really good! Kinda reminds me of your collab with Jordi Francis back in the day. :)
LucidShadowDreamer responds:
Thank you so much! Jordi has definitely had an influence on my singing, in general ^___^
Plenty more like this here!
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