The penultimate track of Saturday Sounds 2022! One more to go. Also, looky at the same day service blog post!

With that said, this is not one of my favorites. I think there’s a decent groove in here struggling to get out, but I basically ran out of time to finish it. I even debated making this the next “Low Effort Chronicles” series.

I originally called it “Indulgence” because I played a synth line in it that was just freakin’ bonkers. I sort of fell in love with it and left it in for a while. Usually when I’m trying to come up with melodies, I frequently play a lot of dross and drivel before I hone in on what I think is a keeper. I also occasionally piece together melodies by taking my favorite bits of several takes and making the final piece out of this. It’s nothing new and it’s a standard recording practice; it even has a name, “comping” (short for composite).

Anyway, I usually have a pretty critical ear to my own melodies but like I said, I fell in love with something I made before I was done with it and that’s when being critical and objective is the most difficult. But I had rendered the track down and put it up privately on SoundCloud. Later the next day, I had to run some errands and I listened to the track. I like to listen to my stuff on a wide variety of gear, including my very basic stock car stereo, so I can hear major problems before they go out.

It was literally unlistenable. I forced myself, however, and decided, “holy shit, I need to throw that whole melody out. It’s terrible.” I may have a copy of it still, and if I do, I might post a sample here just so you can hear how excrementally bad it was. This was Thursday night, so as you might imagine, that left me with a tight timetable. I have no idea why I fell in love with this at the time. I wasn’t even drinking! It was certainly indulgent, but it was indulgence at the $3.95 buffet that the health inspector closes the next day!

So while I don’t think this track is especially bad, because if its rushed nature, it feels like a throwback to my early tracks where I had no idea what I was doing, versus now where I have some vague and funny notion that sometimes, like a blind squirrel finding a nut, I stumble into The Right Thing™. The mix is rough, but I do kind of like the dynamics of the break. The melody is at least listenable, but is kind of pedestrian, and doesn’t really vary much on reprises.

Anyhow, I hope you at least sort of like it. I really want to end on a high note, though. I *may* take my November mulligan this next week because as it stands, the idea bank feels a little drained. I’ve done 5 in a row which I think is tied for my personal best. Maybe I did 6 in a row early this year? (Pause) I had a 7 in a row streak in March/April.

On to number 40!