I like the atmosphere at the beginning and the blissful piano fills during the intro. The texture at :28 is cute and pizzicato-y, but also pretty full and well-balanced. The mix is a little wide for my tastes, with a lot of heavy panning between the pads and the guitar at :55. I’d recommend using stereo widening - not just panning - to clean up more mix; it’s more of an advanced tool. You also need to get your volume levels under control: there’s some clipping at 3:45 and 3:47. The chord progression and sound design can be a bit generic at times in this piece, although I like a lot of the drum samples, especially the sleigh bells at 1:50. The gritty bass at 1:50 was also a highlight of the instrumental palette. The structure of the piece seems a bit drawn-out sometimes, and there weren’t too many truly dynamic melodies in here either. The piece comes together better towards the end with the dreamy synth at 3:50, even if the melody is still very in-the-chords. The outro seemed a bit short-lived, although I liked the filtering work there.

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.5/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1.5/2
Instrumentation and sound design
.75/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1.5/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.25/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.75/1
Composite score
7.25/10

Good chords at the start, muffled beat is nice. I know where this is going and I like it. Nice harmond?? bwop bwop bwop, I keep saying to myself. Good build! And those drums get a little more intense which is just what I was hoping for. Nice second half melody and instrument choice. a little break beat would have been ok. But I get it in terms of the build. and then BAM!! Nice. I like that choir. It's beautiful but I would have liked to hear a little more destruction to change things up. and then it just ends. but why?