Recent FM Recordings (SYW-Present) Observation

[aprilsrain]

I've actually liked a lot of the songs on both SYW and the EP. And I was watching the Destiny Rules documentary earlier today. All over the forums there's a lot of talks about production, problems, what people want to see out of a new album. A lot of talk has gone on about should LB produce it or bring in someone else. I actually like a lot of his production choices. I think they're edgy and interesting, and they have a distinct sound that separates him from other producers.

However, in recent listens as I've gotten excited about the band again, I've identified a trend that I think hinders a lot of the new songs, which are mostly from a songwriting perspective I believe equal to or surpass a lot of their predecessors. It's actually a pretty simple issue that saps the energy from a lot of the songs.

Tempo, or a slower BPM than most of their prior recordings. For those who aren't familiar, that refers to beats per minute. If you put a click track to a lot of FM's older work, the tracks are slightly faster than current ones, especially in the white album-rumours era. Now the band's known for their "mid tempo" songs, that's what make them popular, and they're still mid tempo, but as I said slightly on the slower side.

Look at the demo for Without You. It's really quick, and doesn't leave as much dead space as the EP version. It's the same song, sounds fine (though I as many here prefer the raw acoustic guitar as well), but for the length of it, the new version bogs down because it's recorded at such a slow BPM. The live versions play it just a hare faster, but still not up to the speed of the demo, which has a really nice innocent feel to it because of that speed.

Just listened to Say You Will, the title track again and that song feels like it lags just a little bit too, especially for such an uppity pop song.

What's the World Coming To, equally drags a little.

Even Sad Angel, I felt like if the tempo was pushed a hare it would have been a little stronger.

I could go through each track on both recordings and say dial it up a notch and it would add a little intensity.

Now if you look at In Your Dreams -- I don't get this feeling from most of the tracks. The Stevie songs there at least mostly feel like they're at the right tempo.

I wonder if this stems from Lindsey spending most of his time playing solo and mostly acoustic based albums/shows which lends itself to a slower, more laid back environment?

Be interesting to see others thoughts on this.