MAGNA ALIQUA
released MARCH 8, 2018
ALBUM 14, RELEASE 37
What a mess. This was my 3rd album of 2018, but my 1st made with the knowledge that I was going to put out an album every month of the year. My idea here was to cap the song length at 2:59. Most notable is the introduction of what I call the "Magna tuning": DADF#BC#, which appears on 3 songs. "Invitation To Love" and "Gone For The Backing" were written, at least in part, in the same afternoon. "Invitation" was reworked before I recorded it, and it became one of the stronger tracks on the album. "Gone" emerged from a jam with some friends (hence the many songwriting credits). "Strangest Night In Will's Apartment" is about the night I drank my first beer. I wrote "Jars Of Me" after hearing Weird Paul Petroskey for the first time. "Scratching Post" feels like a sign of things to come, but something I wasn't really ready for just yet. The album highlights are far and away "Magic Square" and "What's The Point In Blaming You?". That last one, the album closer, carries the rest of the album on its back. It was the song I invented the Magna tuning for. It was the only song that threatened to break the 2:59 barrier (hence the fadeout). I think I even recorded it to a click. This album was recorded in Mixcraft, with a 1/4" to USB cable for the guitars and bass, a Rock Band 2 microphone for the vocals, and musical typing for the drums. This was how I recorded while I was at college for most of 2018, so a lot of my output from that year sounds absolutely dreadful. Do not do this.