December 28, 2023
I think I’ve got the order of
the new album nailed down!
After updating the rest of
I started playing around with
the order of all of them.
Usually when I get to this point
I start listening through them
to see if there is an overall
story being told.
The way I have them
organized now
makes a lot of sense.
Given that the album is called
“Beautiful, Terrible”
the idea is that there are
contrasting moments in life
like “Shadow” and Light”
as I’ve discussed previously.
The terrible things that happen
to us in life help give meaning
to the beautiful things which occur…
And vice versa.
This album really follows that,
starting with songs that
represent the terrible
and ending with songs that
represent the beautiful.
After listening through them
and really contemplating them
this week I finally settled in
with a good order I’m happy with.
With that, there are a couple songs
that I felt like didn’t fit in
with the overall flow
of the overall story being told.
I like to consciously make these
decisions based on this overall
story arch that I’m
trying to attain.
There may still be room for
one surprise song though haha!
Usually that happens towards
the end of recording all the songs
on an album..
One song might crop up
out of nowhere,
and I’ll know exactly where
to place it amongst the others.
We’ll see if that happens
this time though since
I’m pretty happy with the
order and overall story now.
Now that everything feels
more structured,
I feel like I’m going to be able to
make better decisions on
each song as I finish recording
the individual remaining songs.
You may notice that 3 of the songs
are also on the Mind Cycles EP.
A little backstory on that…
Those three songs
I started recording them
back in 2020 when
this album was originally
going to be called
“Beautiful, Terrible Lies”.
When the world shut down that year
I hit an all-new level of depression
as I’m sure most of
the world did at that time,
and I had to step
away from music for a bit.
I had finished those three songs
before the depression got too bad,
but when I finally came out of it
and was ready to continue
working on the album
I had a couple other
songs crop up that I
didn’t feel like they fit with the
whole “Beautiful, Terrible” theme
so that’s why I released
those three songs early
on the Mind Cycles EP
to give listeners
a taste of the upcoming
“Beautiful, Terrible” album.
My hope is that if you have the
Mind Cycles EP, that those 3 songs
will have even more meaning
when heard in the context of
the full “Beautiful, Terrible” album.
:)
Anyway, I’m very excited to
have this more structured
direction heading into 2024!
And I’m looking forward to
continue chugging away at this
album until it reaches
exactly what I envisioned it to be
back when the idea for it was
conceived back in 2020.
/n8
“Fenwick & the Futures