tl;dr. Srsly.
It’s quite hilarious and informative to watch the behind-the-scenes DVD included with the deluxe edition of “This Loud Morning”. I should probably warn, this is me totally without my filter or “let’s-look-at-both-sides-of-it, not-drawing-any-snap-judgments” mindset. This is just me giving my gut feeling and being a bit snarky and jumping to some conclusions.
Basically what I got from watching it was that David mostly felt restricted and driven crazy by the agonizingly slow and pedantic, even nitpicky process of making this album, particularly the way the producer, Matt something-or-other worked. He didn’t come straight out and say it; but I got that vibe.
Amusing thing that I noticed - remember in the teaser trailer that was posted a few months ago, there’s this bit where David’s in a white t-shirt and black beanie, and he’s standing up and saying something to the producer guy next to a sound desk, and he’s like, waving his hands as if he’s conducting? Yeah, well that was actually a bit in the DVD where he’s saying “F#ck it (they beeped that out!), let’s just finish the damn song already” (I’m paraphrasing, but only slightly). Lol.
Clearly, David was used to just getting in there, laying tracks, getting out a nice raw, gritty sound, and getting out, with no time for second-guessing and with his artistic vision intact. And personally, I quite like that. When I’m not busy loving bands that incorporate strings and have grand sweeping sounds, I swing back to loving really raw-sounding, simplistic, stripped down stuff, carried by a catchy melody and emotional delivery.
But he actually says in the DVD interviews that with this process, everything slowed down to a painful crawl, and he found himself second, third and even fourth-guessing everything. That made me go O_O. Because then, putting together that vibe with the comments he makes about each song at the end of the DVD, I really got the feeling like some of the songs were like album filler. Not only album filler, they’re more than that, but more acting as album filler than other songs, which were definitely meaningful to him and have a sound and strength by themselves.
It seemed like his favourite songs from the album are Circadian, R.E.M., Right Here With You and Goodbye to the Girl. He didn’t seem to be as deeply invested in songs like We Believe, Hard to Believe, Time Marches On and he seemed amused by 4 Letter Word - love is a 4 letter word lol, he was kind of emphasizing the implied innuendo, I mean, what are some other 4 letter words we all know :P
It’s weird, but I felt like Cook’s voice, the piano parts, and the fuller sound with more effects and instruments, and the poetic, metaphor-rich lyrics were simultaneously the best and worst things about the album. Because, I mean, from a mainstream, commercial point of view I think it’s hard to be thought of as a “real rocker”, when you’ve got these complex metaphorical lyrics, and “soft” piano and boys choir and synth going on. Cook’s voice, which is very rock and naturally gritty, seemed like it didn’t really fit at times (to my ears). It was really weird.
And in most of the songs, to me it felt like he was constantly hovering on the edge of over-singing. He didn’t sound like he was struggling vocally, not at all - I was constantly impressed by his range - but it didn’t feel effortless and genuine to me. I guess I still love listening to the album and his voice, but really, I can’t wait to get youtube vids of him performing these songs live, where he’ll have an audience to connect to, and he might play around with the songs and strip them down or give them a harder edge.
One thing I absolutely loved throughout the album was Neal’s guitar solos. In the DVD, David actually calls Neal his “secret weapon” which made me nod and lol at the same time. It’s so true. To me, the two ‘wow’ factors to these guys are Neal’s guitar-playing, and David’s fantastic voice.
Overall, I felt that the sound of most of the album can really be summed up by the word “anthemic”. I can’t think of any other word as apt. They all hit you like a wall of sound, and could easily fit as the soundtrack to an inspirational video, or you could imagine them being screamed by a crowd in a huge stadium, everyone singing along.
I just had another thought (wish). I wish, that they hadn’t had layered back-up voices in like, ALL of the songs (Sorry Andy and Kyle!). I think that gave it a really dated, 80s rock sort of feel. Which, hey, some people might love. But I don’t. I would have loved just David’s voice, which is probably why Goodbye to the Girl is my favourite, followed by the two bonus tracks.
After listening to the album a few times (and some songs multiple times - Goodbye to the Girl, I’m looking at you :D), these are my comments. But as a disclaimer, the first few months of listening to TOSOD, I hated “Look Around”, now, a year(?) later, it’s the only one I still find really catchy. And after owning Kris Allen’s debut CD for about the same length of time, now I realise that “I Need to Know” is the best song on it, and I have to listen to it on repeat :P So I’ll be interested to come back to this album in 6 months and see how my opinions have changed.
Circadian - such a novelty, starting off with the music box like that! I love the piano opening, but then I think the rest of the song really departed from that feeling, so I don’t know how much I like the song as a whole. But I’ve gotta say the driving bass line at the beginning of each verse gets me every time. Very nice. However, I can’t help feeling like the title of the song should be “Mayday”….is that just me?
Right Here With You - the beginning sounds so much like The Last Goodbye. The verses don’t really do anything for me, but the chorus is fairly catchy. Again, I don’t like ending on a soft piano note. To me, it just destroys the rock edge of the song.
We Believe - I loved the beginning, which felt really U2. Weirdly, I felt like I was listening to a religious rock band doing a praise/inspirational song. Well, I guess it is meant to be an inspirational song, so it works.
Fade Into Me - the opening bars made me think, “Wait, is this ‘Lie’? What’s going on?” and then in the next second, the first lines he sings made me go, “No, wait, it’s ‘Time of My Life’? What?”. So basically, nothing about this song gets me…sorry. I think the strings don’t really fit.
Hard To Believe - I like this song. I really like it. It’s a different, interesting marching-beat. I also think the melody of the chorus is really catchy and ‘makes sense’. As a bonus, the lyrics are cool too, although again, weirdly, I get the religious rock vibe from this.
Take Me As I Am - this one, the beginning does nothing for me. But then I really like the chorus. This is one where I think the ‘over-singing’ I mentioned earlier is really obvious (to me, anyway) in the chorus. Ah well.
Time Marches On - I loved, loved, LOVED the opening to this. It was raw, it was stripped down and beat-driven, his voice came through loud and clear. But then….then the chorus hits, with its kind of cheesy lyrics and it turns into something…that I don’t like as much. But then the next verse goes back to that opening sound, so I like it again. I’m a bit all over the place with this song. O_o But again, awesome guitar solo, Neal. Thumbs up.
The Last Goodbye - I thought this song was so weird and totally the wrong vibe for his voice the first few times I heard it. I felt like Kelly Clarkson or even Miley Cyrus should have been singing it. Weird, right? Then I found it was stuck in my head, word perfect, even though I’d only listened to it a couple of times. I still don’t know if I actually like this song. Just because it gets stuck in your head, doesn’t mean you like it, right? Update: I’ve decided I hate all the tinkly, really high synth noises in it. >_<
Paper Heart - OK. I CANNOT BE CALM AND NITPICKY AND ANALYTICAL ABOUT THIS SONG. BECAUSE. OK. STOP THE CAPSLOCK< STOP. FINE> OK. The first time I heard this song, it was a mid-quality recording from a live performance, like, last August? And I fell in love at first listen with the awesome guitar opening. It had a really fresh, different, Asian sound to it, and I just wanted to listen to it over and over.
Then I listened to subsequent versions, and I started to get worried at how the sound and the vibe was changing. And….I hate how the album version has completely taken away the electric guitar-driven, ‘sharp’ (I’m losing my words) opening sound, the driving beat and like, taken away the “teeth” and “edge” of the song. To me, this song is not meant to be acoustic. So I’m disappointed that it’s one of the ones on the “This Quiet Night” CD. Sigh. I’ll just have to wait to hear some more live versions.
I was really amused to see on the DVD interview that David actually hated Paper Heart for ages at first, even though everyone else loved it! But then apparently he grew to like it. Lol.
4 Letter Word - I love the first verse of this song. It’s very U2-esque. Don’t know how I feel about the rest of it.
Goodbye to the Girl - I’ve thought and thought about why I FREAKING LOVE THIS SONG SO MUCH. OH YEAH, BECAUSE IT’S FAMAZING. Lol. No really, it hands-down my favourite on the album. And on thinking about it, and listening to it for the 18th time, I think it’s because it has the most organic, raw sound out of all the songs, it has a FREAKING FANTASTIC guitar solo (thank you Neal), and it has ONLY David’s voice, sounding fabulous without overdoing it. The melody is perfect and makes me FEEL THINGS, and the lyrics just flow unnoticeably along with the music, which is why it’s only now I’m like, “Argh, he’s talking about jumping off a ledge, THAT’S NOT HEALTHY!” :P
Rapid Eye Movement - it starts off pretty awesome and heavy guitar, hard rock sound. Then his voice comes in on the verse…and it sounds weird. Then the chorus sounds right. :S sorry, don’t know how to explain this one. Overall, I like this one. I love the choppy underlying guitar in the second verse, it breaks up the slow pace a bit.
Bonus Tracks!
This is not the Last Time - the beginning of this song is SO weird at first, lol. I heard it and was like, “Does this sound a tiny bit country in some way? Omgness o_o” But there are some little melody twists in this song that really appeal to me and I like how his voice sounds in this. This one is also a bit U2-esque to me. I actually like this more than most of the ones on the album. I think because his voice isn’t so drowned out, and they actually throw in some low notes! David has an impressive high range, yes, but his low range is HAWT - see his cover of “Always Be My Baby” and his debut album’s “Heroes”!
Let Me Fall For You - from a tinhatter’s perspective, the lyrics to this song are awesome. This is my second favourite song on the whole album. I think the chorus is awesome. It’s like, got a big sound in a rock way and when I start getting incoherent like this, I realise that I actually really like this song. I think his voice sounds gritty in the chorus in a good way, in a raw, emotional way, rather than a screaming, overdoing it.
That said, the overlapping voices bit kind of ruins it for me >_< Especially because the voice in the background is singing kind of OTT, cheesy lyrics - “Let me fall like a stone in the water, like a plane out of the sky, let me crash, let me burn my heart, let me learn to fly” well, I guess the words aren’t that bad? But the voice singing them (whoops, I think it’s Cook) sounds really robotic and fake-gritty.
That’s all my thoughts for now. Like I said, I’ll be interested to come back to this and see how my opinions have changed in the interim!