Bruce M.:
ZodiakFool:
My latest fave would be My Valentine. Such a rich melody, kind of dark and haunting, too. I was really disappointed with the production and arrangement though. It felt so lame for such a great composition. In the big picture, Maybe I'm Amazed and For No One never fail to blow me away. Absolute genius!
I agree "My Valentine" is a great song, but not sure what you dislike about the arrangement. I think it's lovely.
Hmm, yeah, I really hate criticizing the musicians because I know they're all superstars in their field, and we've got God playing guitar on this track, too. I do like the performances in general throughout the album. But when I hear My Valentine, it sounds like a band that's timidly going through a first run-through of a song. You know, everyone's just getting a feel for the chords and melody, and it's very tentative. I think the song has great potential, and I wish it had been developed more. I was thinking of some references. In a way, this song makes me feel like it's in a musical territory somewhere between And I Love Her and A Taste of Honey. It even feels like something Paul might have written in 1964 (I mean that as a huge compliment). And I Love Her, as a gentle song, has some really interesting counterpoints in the arrangement. I feel like My Valentine needs a great guitar riff to open and anchor it like And I Love Her has. Clapton plays guitar on this song, and to look at his own history, I would consider Tears In Heaven as a great inspiration, too. It's a gentle, sad song, and there's amazing things going on in it's arrangement. Layers and layers of interesting counter-melodies. One more song I was thinking of as a reference, and this one might spoil the point I'm trying to make, lol. I was thinking of U2's cover of Day and Night. I know it's really HEAVY and a bit extreme. If you take away the drum track and listen to what the strings and synths are doing, it's really strong and interesting and kind of wonderfully weird, too. There's a lot of dissonance and tension going on in that arrangement. I'm not suggesting My Valentine should be as bombastic as Day and Night, but it's the way the notes and chords are augmented with the various other instruments/ tracks. It's taking a jazzy, sophisticated Cole Porter song, and making it even more interesting with their own sophisticated counter-melodies underneath it. My Valentine feels like it could have a TOUCH of the dark and haunting like Day and Night, but still within it's original light jazz setting. Anyways, that's enough rambling from me Whoops, mental dyslexia.....I meant Night and Day as the song. I'm travelling backwards through time.