TEAR THE NIGHT APART
released JUNE 1, 2018
ALBUM 18, RELEASE 46
When I made this I thought I was really crushing it. I was really trying to make a good album. Every song was at least 3 minutes long, because that's the length of a pop song as someone probably says. Each song had its own cover, which was on the Bandcamp page until just now when I deleted each song's unique cover art. None of them were very good and I never felt like the images added anything to the songs.
"Tear the Night Apart" is actually solid. I always sorta disregard this one as a weak opener, and it is, but on its own it's not bad. "Perfect Hide" is a kind of song I don't really write anymore. If I wrote this now it would probably be a lot faster. "Same Space, Different Plane" rules. I don't write a lot of songs these days that completely change like this one does, but the intensity is definitely something I've been trying to do more in my music. This would be a fun one to play live. Great bass. "All In Unsure Faith" is okay. Kind of plain. The mix isn't too bad besides too-quiet vocals. I know the end bit is from an older song but I can't remember which. Shockingly good drum fills too. I wrote "Silver Hallucination" last, because I wanted a longer song at track 5. I'd just heard "Hallogallo" by Neu! for the first time and thought "hey what if I did that?" without knowing that, by the end of the year, my life would be changed forever by Stereolab, a band who took that song to its logical conclusion on its way to becoming one of the greatest bands of all time. "Skeleton of Hope" sounded like a hit to me. It actually still does.
I realize that I've fallen way behind on writing this ego trip of a website. I've been busy. That's a good thing. I should probably start using this place to post news about what I'm doing. I hate Instagram so fucking much but I feel like I can't leave. Wow, I used the word "I" 10 times in this paragraph! Cool.
"May The Day Take Me Away" isn't very good but it is notable for featuring my dog Penny in the beginning. We had her from 2014 to 2022. I still miss her. Not important. I think I envisioned "Mechanical Bird" as something bigger than whatever this is. It's just kind of limp. I think there was a demo that was quite different. "Where's The Signal?" was an attempt to write a song with multiple basses and no guitars. The vocals are too quiet but maybe it doesn't matter that much. It's not really that kind of song. "Sisters In Arms" feels like reaching for a purpose. It's within reach, but it just can't quite mean anything. "Third Generation Diamond" was the hit. I spent a lot of effort making a music video for it. I got approved to add a Photo/Video minor at TCNJ because I showed the department head that video. When I was working on the song, for whatever reason, I couldn't figure out a bass line, so I asked my friend Jared if he wanted to give it a go. He is the reason HW ever existed as a band ever. This would not be his final appearance on a HW recording. The song's good too. "Dear in Headlights" isn't much but it is basically a finished version of an old Third Seed song (3rd solo project, last one before HW, recorded entirely on 4-track) called "Fade Out". That one bit is great and the rest is nothing.
Good album. Sure. Why not.