3rd Watch (finally!)

[seteca]

I don't like this version at all. I've listened to it many times now and my opinion isn't changing in the least. The song has totally lost its energy, the adrenaline-factor, it's "edge"...whatever you wanna call it....it's not there anymore.

Why has the guitar work been cut down so much? And the parts that have been left in have been edited themselves into parts "that could have been great", and which would seem unnecessary to someone who hasn't heard the original version.
I can't believe that "insane laughter" connecting the parts of the chorus has been removed. It's things like that which always made a song "signature Lindsey Buckingham/LB with FM".
Couple the "normalisation" of the song with the fact that it is distinctively slower than the original, and it sounds simply boring. All the energy of the original is missing. I know this song was used for "3rd watch", but it now sounds like it was specifically made as the soundtrack to a TV show. The instrumentation verges on elevator music.

Stevie's vocals: The vocals themselves are good, and I was very happily surprised that she managed (as someone mentioned before) to go that high during the chorus, and I am really looking forward to hearing her new songs. However, I cannot stand the way they've been mixed into the song: they are far too forward in the mix, and totally not balanced with Lindsey's. It sounds more like a Stevie song with Lindsey singing backing, rather than a harmony between the two. It's so uneven that it sounds almost like the song was produced by an amateur on a home mini-studio. Perhaps the mix will sound differently on the actual CD, but I doubt it.

The only good thing left about this song is its amazingly catchy melody, which will go round and round in your head all day even if they remove all vocals, replace the guitar with a trumpet and use elephant sounds as the lead.

I hope, HOPE, that Red Rover, Come and Murrow have not received the same treatment. I am almost certain that the latter two have been dramatically changed, but I pray that Red Rover has been left exactly how it was, and will be a Lindsey solo song, like NGBA on Rumours. Its track-time for the album seems to be practically the same as the GOS version, so here's hoping...

"Pushing envelopes"...eh?

All JMVHO.