A full day working on the music packs. All tracks were re-rendered from 24-bits. One, Sea Monsters from The Spiral Staircase appears to have been the 2008 version all along.
Most of the work was creating the artwork (Steam stores require a lot), but there were lots of other jobs; creating the pdf booklets for each pack, setting up the store fronts, converting the tracks, testing, compiling, uploading. I need to work out a release plan and schedule.
I'm uncertain about which track or tracks to release as a single from the new album. Six came to mind as good for this. I removed Incomplete Version, and Cat Parasites from that list because they are too long in an era where short matters. Perhaps it always did. Long singles always make record companies nervous, from Hey Jude to Bohemian Rhapsody. Would the latter be a hit now, if Queen were exactly as popular/obscure now as when it was released? No, because now people stream music. When a song is played on the radio, the presenter plays almost all of it, but the vast majority of streamed songs are fragments.
I digress. My options leave four that I think are the best for length, for the 'typicality'of the album, and for instant appeal: I’m In Love With My Car, Excessive Consumption Has Laxative Effects, Style Guru Fashion Queen, and Cat Covid.
Which to choose? This can be hard. Simon Ladley once said, upon hearing Kimono My House, that 'This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us' stands out as the best track, as only good song! For me that's not true at all, I think many songs there are equally as good, and that his thoughts were only due to knowing that song so well; a prior experience bias.
What criteria should I use? Am I aiming to please and instantly catch new listeners or show off my best or my most eclectic? All have merits, pros and cons. Maybe I should (will?) release each one as a single anyway at some point.
I just remembered that another thing I did today was record the vocals for the Mark Sheeky Show theme. I made up some words there and then:
It's The Mark Sheeky Show
It's The Mark Sheeky Show
It's lots of fun for everyone
It's The Mark Sheeky Show
Not Shakespeare, but the mood is joyous. The whole thing sounds like an advertising jingle, which is perfect. Every short song should sound like an advertising jingle. I like adverts. I think it's bizarre that Twitter wants me to pay to see the inane comments of strangers and switch off the safe and imaginative advertising! They should offer a version where you only see ads and your own tweets. That would be the ultimate statement of the moment.
