I agree with you completely. I LOVE Lindsey's guitar work on this...i actually wish the guitar solo was a bit longer...it seems to end a bit too soon. But the arpeggio you are talking about is what made me love his style in the first place. It was very surprising to hear that when the first verse kicked in. At first, I thought it was going to sound predictable but was pleasantly surprised.

I agree about the lyrics. When i heard that "Thrown Down" was going to be used on the FM album i thought to myself "yuck...that song sounds very boring..." I thought Stevie's best material was that off the wall dark and mysterious stuff including the lyrics. We all know that Stevie's lyrics have somewhat lost some "magic" in recent years and i'm sure it's because her life has straightened out quite a bit. Her lyrics seem to be interesting whenever she's referring to her past life or some sort of drama or trouble (ie..."Fall From Grace", "Trouble in Shangri-La"...)

She used to say in the past "you can't possibly write good songs if you're happy all the time...you have to be somewhere between tragedy and happiness..." And i've been thinking about this quote a lot lately basically because for me her music and lyrics aren't what they used to be. It just is what it is and that's it. I'm not saying this to criticize at all. It's just that there's an "eerieness" that seems to be missing and that's what attracted me immensely to her style.

Above all, believe it or not, i DO like the song. I would probably also like it a bit more if Chris was in there. Again, for me, she's missing in FM. But, we must soldier on. I like the "darkness" the finished version has over the demo version. I was surprised by that. The demo has a bland feeling to it so initially i was worried. But Lindsey has worked his magic. God how i love his style. I'm at work right now and i don't have access to hearing the song but i'm imagining it right now and all i hear is his guitars. I like the ending too with the guitars and alternate vocals going back and forth. I also like the second verse for some reason. I don't know the words offhand but i think it's the last line in the second verse before the chorus comes back....i think it's something along the lines of letting your pain become the darkness or something. Anyway, i wish she would go off a bit on that one. In other words, you know how "Planets of the Universe" is? Well, i love the extended ending to that song cause she goes off in that classic style. She needs to do that a bit more.