I think I over complicated things.

I did a new version of one of my songs recently. I accidentally put an old version of it on Sonar. It was full of life. Every instrument was clear. There was no compression. Just recordings of the instruments. It's when I didn't know how to use the software, so I just laid tracks down. You can feel me struggling to stay in key whilst expressing feelings. It just smacked me straight in the teeth. In some parts the bass gets a bit loud, other parts my voice; you can hear the emotion. But it feels alive and musical. 
 
I'm not sanitising my music for anyone now. It's been a long time since I went to that song again. Now I see why people liked it in its rawness. I'm keeping it raw now. Fiddle with some faders and that's it: There's an actual song.
 
It's a song; not a technical achievement https://soundcloud.com/ge..attle/this-is-your-life

I hear what you're saying.... I recently pulled up the first song I did in Cakewalk Pro audio 9. One of the first songs I did in a DAW. I had done lots of Midi and sync to tape stuff before that. Anyways the song still sounds really good - it was just a test jam and I did a short little ditty and copy pasted it a few times and added some overdubs originally. I've been thinking about re-doing it - but your post reminds me to leave it the hell alone !