Demos

[Robert]

J confirmed on Instagram that the album will be out on iTunes and Spotify in a few weeks... for those looking for a cheaper option, it seems like it's on its way!

[klein]

that is indeed great news!

[Shawn]

Feb 21, 2020 16:40:57 GMT -5 LHfanMI said:

Feb 21, 2020 16:37:08 GMT -5 Shawn said:

Still no activity on my tracking page. Hope it didn’t get lost on the way.

@lhfanmi I’ve never been able to resolve order issues with Allswell. I’m guessing it’s just Jason but I’ve never gotten a reply.

You may still get yours today or tomorrow. My tracking says it only just arrived in Memphis a few hours ago, yet here it is up here in MI.

And thanks for the feedback...maybe there’s a chance it was sent separately, but I’m sure I’m just out of the money at this point unfortunately.

@lhfanmi - just a heads up. I reached out to Steve on Facebook and he says he does the orders. Do you have a FB account? If not, send me your order # and I'll let him know about your second copy.

[LHfanMI]

Feb 24, 2020 17:18:48 GMT -5 Shawn said:

Feb 21, 2020 16:40:57 GMT -5 LHfanMI said:

You may still get yours today or tomorrow. My tracking says it only just arrived in Memphis a few hours ago, yet here it is up here in MI.

And thanks for the feedback...maybe there’s a chance it was sent separately, but I’m sure I’m just out of the money at this point unfortunately.

@lhfanmi - just a heads up. I reached out to Steve on Facebook and he says he does the orders. Do you have a FB account? If not, send me your order # and I'll let him know about your second copy.

Appreciate it, I do have FB...I’ll give it a shot!
Thanks Shawn!

[Shawn]

No problem! If anyone else is having issues with an order Steve says to send him an email at hello (at) allswellrecords (dot) com. Sorry for the formatting, just avoiding the bots.

Looks like my copy got lost by the PO so he’s sending out another.

[Quintin]

Feb 25, 2020 16:04:38 GMT -5 Shawn said:

No problem! If anyone else is having issues with an order Steve says to send him an email at hello (at) allswellrecords (dot) com. Sorry for the formatting, just avoiding the bots.

Looks like my copy got lost by the PO so he’s sending out another.

My post office lost it for a few days, but they looked around the back and found it. My favorite songs so far are Ambien and The Place That I Fit In 

[Robert]

Just arrived and I'm on my first listen-through now. Lots of Elliott Smith here. Many of these songs share the same textures and keys, and sound exactly in the same vein as Butterfly and Through These Times (I expect of this batch, those were the two that were released initially). Jason is listed in the liner notes as playing all the instruments, which is interesting since there are some real keys- and bass-heavy songs on here. I feel like the first Ozwald record is a very very close direct descendant of this era; there were clearly a couple of records that Jason recorded during this time before the Lifehouse album came together that were significantly darker, moodier, and showed him dwelling more on himself than the 'look on the brightside' vibe that made the final cut. That said, I think several of these have a lot of substance compared to something like Undone or Days Go By; the middle of that album was always for me a part that felt more average or tended to drag compared to the stellar first five and last four.

Playing the Paper Cuts version of Goobye after this group, they sound written and recorded at exactly the same time. This is the Goodbye album we never got to hear! I agree that Place That I Fit In is a highlight first time through - awesome tune.

[ledvedderman]

Feb 29, 2020 21:38:56 GMT -5 Robert said:

Just arrived and I'm on my first listen-through now. Lots of Elliott Smith here. Many of these songs share the same textures and keys, and sound exactly in the same vein as Butterfly and Through These Times (I expect of this batch, those were the two that were released initially). Jason is listed in the liner notes as playing all the instruments, which is interesting since there are some real keys- and bass-heavy songs on here. I feel like the first Ozwald record is a very very close direct descendant of this era; there were clearly a couple of records that Jason recorded during this time before the Lifehouse album came together that were significantly darker, moodier, and showed him dwelling more on himself than the 'look on the brightside' vibe that made the final cut. That said, I think several of these have a lot of substance compared to something like Undone or Days Go By; the middle of that album was always for me a part that felt more average or tended to drag compared to the stellar first five and last four.

Playing the Paper Cuts version of Goobye after this group, they sound written and recorded at exactly the same time. This is the Goodbye album we never got to hear! I agree that Place That I Fit In is a highlight first time through - awesome tune.

Man, I can’t wait to hear this! Jason in Elliott Smith mode is one of my favorite versions of himself!

[LHfanMI]

Feb 29, 2020 21:38:56 GMT -5 Robert said:

Just arrived and I'm on my first listen-through now. Lots of Elliott Smith here. Many of these songs share the same textures and keys, and sound exactly in the same vein as Butterfly and Through These Times (I expect of this batch, those were the two that were released initially). Jason is listed in the liner notes as playing all the instruments, which is interesting since there are some real keys- and bass-heavy songs on here. I feel like the first Ozwald record is a very very close direct descendant of this era; there were clearly a couple of records that Jason recorded during this time before the Lifehouse album came together that were significantly darker, moodier, and showed him dwelling more on himself than the 'look on the brightside' vibe that made the final cut. That said, I think several of these have a lot of substance compared to something like Undone or Days Go By; the middle of that album was always for me a part that felt more average or tended to drag compared to the stellar first five and last four.

Playing the Paper Cuts version of Goobye after this group, they sound written and recorded at exactly the same time. This is the Goodbye album we never got to hear! I agree that Place That I Fit In is a highlight first time through - awesome tune.

Agree with a lot of this!

Admittedly, I’m too lazy to break it down song by song, but a few things to point out for me too. A lot of this definitely fits with Goodbye. I think Remember Me ultimately turned into Walking Away, and I think Never Going Back fills out a trifecta with Goodbye & Remember Me. NVG has a really creepy feel to it that sounds like Jason was trying to get it put on the Donnie Darko soundtrack. Even Remember Me I think could fit on a similar movie soundtrack.

I also had the same thoughts about Days Go By. A few of these tracks could have easily replaced that on the yellow record. All The Same is not my favorite on this album, but it seems like it was 99% finished and has a similar vibe to the yellow record fillers like DGB....whhhhhy didn’t a song like ATS make it? We didn’t need DGB released 2x!

I tend to feel like Place That I Fit In is a highlight, but would’ve worked much better on Almeria to pair with a song like Barricade. This whole set of songs makes me wonder how much outside influence he has had in picking which songs make it to records. Many of these (if finished and cleaned up) are far better than some of the fillers we ended up getting!

Sleeping With The Lights On is very Ean-esque to me. Read Between The Lines sounds like it could have made his album too if there were some added “rap verses” for Ean and Jason just on the chorus.

So Much To Lose is very raw and emotional too. I love this one as well.

[Quintin]

Ambien sounds very Stanley Climbfall-era to me, unlike any of the other songs. My favorite is Remember Me, its simple, but speaks in volumes. I also really like Sleeping With The Lights On, but the walkie-talkie effects kind of ruin the vocals IMO. I believe What You're Looking For had the most time invested in it, and it's extremely similar to Butterfly. The guitar effects might even be the same

[ledvedderman]

Well, Robert’s post convinced me to order it on Friday! Really looking forward to hearing it!

[Robert]

Mar 2, 2020 11:04:24 GMT -5 ledvedderman said:

Well, Robert’s post convinced me to order it on Friday! Really looking forward to hearing it!

Haha I'm glad! Hope I didn't oversell it. The production isn't quite there on many of the tracks, so the overall sonic qualities are somewhere between Butterfly and the Running Away demo that got put out, just so you're aware. The mixing and mastering is very muddy (similar to some songs on Paper Cuts, and equally varied to that album/compilation). I think you'll enjoy many of these tracks Brian; can't wait to hear your thoughts on them.

[Robert]

Mar 2, 2020 10:37:47 GMT -5 Quintin said:

Ambien sounds very Stanley Climbfall-era to me, unlike any of the other songs. My favorite is Remember Me, its simple, but speaks in volumes. I also really like Sleeping With The Lights On, but the walkie-talkie effects kind of ruin the vocals IMO. I believe What You're Looking For had the most time invested in it, and it's extremely similar to Butterfly. The guitar effects might even be the same

That's an interesting take on it; I was thinking something similar, as I get Just Another Name / Anchor vibes from it somehow (perhaps the key or monotony of the guitar parts?).

I also think that Always Be In Mind on the Ozwald record is a direct descendant of Remember Me - the melody and everything is strikingly identical for much of it, though the instruments used are different. What are everyone's thoughts on that?

[Quintin]

Mar 2, 2020 19:29:26 GMT -5 Robert said:

Mar 2, 2020 10:37:47 GMT -5 Quintin said:

Ambien sounds very Stanley Climbfall-era to me, unlike any of the other songs. My favorite is Remember Me, its simple, but speaks in volumes. I also really like Sleeping With The Lights On, but the walkie-talkie effects kind of ruin the vocals IMO. I believe What You're Looking For had the most time invested in it, and it's extremely similar to Butterfly. The guitar effects might even be the same

That's an interesting take on it; I was thinking something similar, as I get Just Another Name / Anchor vibes from it somehow (perhaps the key or monotony of the guitar parts?).

I also think that Always Be In Mind on the Ozwald record is a direct descendant of Remember Me - the melody and everything is strikingly identical for much of it, though the instruments used are different. What are everyone's thoughts on that?

Thinking back to it, Ambien and How Long are practically identical!

Also I just listened to Always Be In Mind and I can hear exactly what you're thinking. The main difference though is the acoustic guitar instead of the electric guitar.

I'd also love to hear anybody else's thoughts on it!

[ledvedderman]

Mar 3, 2020 17:46:00 GMT -5 Quintin said:

Mar 2, 2020 19:29:26 GMT -5 Robert said:

That's an interesting take on it; I was thinking something similar, as I get Just Another Name / Anchor vibes from it somehow (perhaps the key or monotony of the guitar parts?).

I also think that Always Be In Mind on the Ozwald record is a direct descendant of Remember Me - the melody and everything is strikingly identical for much of it, though the instruments used are different. What are everyone's thoughts on that?

Thinking back to it, Ambien and How Long are practically identical!

Also I just listened to Always Be In Mind and I can hear exactly what you're thinking. The main difference though is the acoustic guitar instead of the electric guitar.

I'd also love to hear anybody else's thoughts on it!

I’ve got some thoughts that are pretty similar to you guys, but I’m battling round two of the flu this year. That will get me a few more listens in, but #Prayers4ledvedderman