A steady, if slower day of album work today. I spent the first hour listening to E.L.O. songs, and Roy Wood and a bit of Richard Tandy's concept album.
Recorded and added the vocals for Life As A Robot Guard, which used a vocoder lead which sounds like the robot voices from the terrible Star Wars 'prequels'. The chorus is sing normally and has rather a strong emotional quality. I'd never have guessed I'd be resurrecting such an ancient song, and making a good job of it. It's short, but now complete.
Also recorded some vocals and improvised backing vocals for P-L-Astic, then work on I Think You Love Me, which is perhaps even simpler than 'L.A.A.R.G.'. It needs more both structurally and in production terms. Its very minimalistic, thin, but pretty. It was about doomed love, a song sung by a robot, but it's so happy in musical feeling that it seems to need to be an actual love song.
Also listened to the three new Sparks' singles. Not as good as their early work, less musical variation in the songs. I started to ache for a break in these, some contrast, but no. Still, the songs are on par with the last album, better than the poor Hippopotamus, though not their best work despite the critics' opinion to the contrary. The critics praise them to high heaven, out of respect, a cheer for being alive and still working at their age, and out of nostalgia for a real band we can rely on, now that even people like Elton John sound like fake robots. At least there's no (audible) auto-tune in there.
