One thing i’ve started to notice after relistening to both of my previous demos as well as the 7-hours of audio i’ve got lying around on my computer is that my songs always lack momentum when i first play them. Sure, i’ve established a rhythm, but i’m more concerned with singing the melody well for the first time that i am with finding the frenetic pace that suits the song the best, and it shows: “Bridge,” “Deadweight,” “Under My Skin,” & “Lost” are all noticeably lacking in momentum in their early recordings. However, what they do clearly possess is a sort of naive take on the melody of the song that i can never retrieve; certain inflections become locked in after the early performances of the song, but if you catch one of the early ones you catch what my first songwriter instincts were before ease of performance and repetition takes over. The question is: which one is more desirable? Is the naive melody just me figuring out where a song needs to go, or is the gaining of momentum just my tendency to race faster and faster as i get more comfortable? Maybe there’s some sort of middle ground where a song should be recorded for posterity; even slow songs like “Crashing” have picked up several beats per minute since first recorded, and i’m not sure if i can slow them down enough for this record. [for proof of this momentum stuff, listen to a Trio with “Lost” in it, and then go listen to “Lost” at AMkitchen. Trust me, i’m not imagining it…]