"A Question, A Guess, and An Answer"

This is one my most recent political protest songs. "A Question, A Guess, and An Answer"
And I'll post it along with my usual disclaimer:  My vocal skills aren't the best, I've been compared to Dylan, Tom Petty and Leonard Cohen.  Thankfully Melodyne makes my vocals a little more tolerable.  Other than that, I'm pretty happy with how this one came out.

The song is divided into the usual Verse, Pre-Chorus, Chorus, and Bridge.  The way I wrote the lyrics were the verses offer questions, the pre-chorus offers guesses, and the chorus offers answers.  (The bridge offers advice)
Thanks for listening.  And your comments and critiques are always welcome!

http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=13490496

Thanks Freddy, I appreciate your comments and you taking the time to listen!

Thanks for the feedback and compliments Voda.  It's much appreciated!

"A Thanks, A Confession and A Question":

Thanks Daryl!  I appreciate your feedback.  That's good to know.
But I've always wanted to ask this (because I can't be very objective when listening to my own music) but if you had to name a band or musician that my music sounds like (vocals not withstanding) who would it be?

I mean I get the Dylan comparisons because of my vocals, but I don't think the style of music is close to Dylan's, or is it?

Lee, I have the feeling that many are writing socio-politico songs right now.  Your voice and style sound like a cross between Tom Petty and Dylan.  The song is well executed and mixed, which makes it all the more impactful.  Muchos kudos.

Very good. I wish I saw the lyrics too as I have often difficulties to hear them well.

Wookiee
Dylan with overtones of Mr Petty is what I get from the vocal.  The mix sounds OK here though it is quite busy.

Thanks for sharing

Thanks Wookiee.   Yes I tend to write songs and draw pictures that always turn out to be very busy.  Lately I've been trying to give my songs more open space to breathe.  But thanks for the comment, it's very useful.

berlymahn
Yo! Tom Petty's bro.... good tune.

Thanks Roger, I appreciate it.  And I love your band name Scenic MentaL Detours. It made me want to check out some of your songs.  You got some great synth-rock tunes.  I used to write songs similar to yours before "sampled virtual instruments" hit the scene.   I could never play the guitar, so when my MIDI keyboard started being able to produce real sounding acoustic and electric guitars (as well as real sounding bass and drums) I thought it was the coolest thing since sliced bread.  And I guess I never went back (except occasionally) to featuring synths in my songs.

But after listening to some of your songs, and realizing between Sonar and Kontakt, I have so many synths available to me, I might try writing some songs again like yours.   My first keyboard was a temperamental Polymoog.  I wish I still had that.  Anyway thanks again!

Thanks mcourter for your comments and compliments,  I very much appreciate it!
As for the lead guitar, there's a good reason it might sound a little off.
Most of my songs I play all the parts on my MIDI keyboard, including lead guitar parts from a virtual guitar and amp setup. (usually MusicLab's RealLPC and TH3), and even though it usually sounds pretty good, there is no comparing it with a real, talented guitar player, using a real guitar.   So I purchased some lead guitar loops from BigFishAudio and used one of those loops in this song (mostly near the end of the song).   I thought it sounded pretty good, and thought it fit in fairly well. (It took several tries to find just the right loop file)  But I guess it didn't fit in as well as I thought.  Maybe a better mix and/or different efx?

Thanks for the feedback thepogue, I appreciate any advice or observations.
Sometimes I get into the habit of setting up certain instruments in a specific way, and generally speaking I like to give my songs a live feel to them, like you're listening to a band in a bar or garage. I enjoy the loose Grateful Dead, Neil Young, CSN&Y live feel in songs. And I usually start by giving the drums a specific reverb that I like (Breverb2 -> Drums -> Alive).  If you ever watch a movie and there's a band playing in the next room, you get this type of reverb sound if you bring the wet level all the way up.   I bring it about 1/4 of the way up.
For other instruments, I usually add a touch of reverb or delay or chorus, depending upon the instrument.
The only thing I like to keep really tight is the bass guitar and drums.  Otherwise the song ends up sounding not loose but sloppy.

And as I mentioned in a previous post, this was one of only two times I've used a lead guitar loop for that instrument.  Usually I'll play it myself using any one of my VSTi guitars.  But I wanted something fresh and different sounding for this song, and I chose this loop from a set I got at BigFishAudio.  It took a while to find a lead guitar loop that fit the song, this one came the closest.  But again, you're not the first person to point out that it doesn't sound like it quite fits.

Anyway thanks again for the feedback, it was all very helpful!

Petty, Joe Walsh and a bit of Dylan. Good company. I thought the music was well put together. Lyrics of this nature and in these times will probably alienate half your listeners (unless they're all like-minded friends). Good job.

mcourter
Lee, if ever you find yourself in need of a guitarist, I'll volunteer.

Thank you, I'm always looking for musicians to collaborate with.  Do you have any songs online that I can listen to?
Just so I can get a sense of your style of playing....which I'm sure would be a vast improvement of my fake MIDI keyboard lead guitar parts.

EDIT: Never mind, I just saw the link to your songs on SoundClick, listening to them now.   I wonder if the women you have singing backing vocals might be interested in working with me too?

Nice one, Lee!   I'm not a big political song type of listener, but I liked this.  The lyrics are done well, the arrangement sounds good, and everything seems to gel together nicely.