I'm Never Leaving

This is really, really good. Super evocative. I love the group vocals. Wouldn’t want a singular voice. Makes me feel like its your own voice rattling around in your own head. Feels like it also intensifies the yearning I get from the lyrics. The ambience in the arrangement, also. So haunting.

This is heart-clenchingly, stomach-twistingly good. Wow! Also completely admire the efficiency of your lyrics here.

I like everything you’ve done with the vocals here, I think I’d personally want to think about adding some spots of vocal distortion in the interest of highlighting some angsty emotional moments above others, but just something to consider playing around with if that suits your taste as well. Again, stellar creation here!

@@peter can you filter out the submissions that make me cry?

jk please don’t. This is gorgeous, zero fluff, music puts my body right there, lyrics put my mind right there, well done.

Just noticed that high note at 0:45 — didn’t realize that sneaked in right before the vocals. biiiiig into that.

the intro is pristine — sounds like mermaids in the background what is that?

Echoing what everyone else said about the lyrics, felt like I was there watching the story unfold

@@juliapiker The emotion in this. It’s such a powerful, devastating vignette. Key card doesn’t work, kicking rocks into the dirt, oof.

We watched A Murder at the End of the World a couple months ago, and since you did such brilliant work on that show, I couldn’t help but think of Bill and Darby as the two characters in this song, and it honestly works for me big time. I was so enchanted by those characters, and I feel like this song is a deleted/bonus scene.

I am a sucker always for grouped/clustered vocals – I wouldn’t change it. Whenever I’m recording vocals and I double my own voice, upon first playback I always feel like “ah, there we go.” It creates so much cohesion IMO. Maybe the very last line, “without you”, could work in one voice.

Vibey as flip, smooth as butter, good stuff ay! Only thing for me personally is that the intro is quite long, but honestly its good either way. Also I thing the grouped vocals are algoods throughout!

Can hear an equally-delayed-as-your-vox, earthy sounding snare, kick, ride in this.

This is so mellow, yet it somehow reminds me of some slightly harderhitting post-rock stuff for some reason. Maybe because of the continuous building guitar chunking for the entire time.

This is so great.

And the slightly unsettling tiny synth noise at 2:06 is in such good contrast with the rest of the notes, which are all resolving so nicely.

So cinematic, and full. Love this.

This is gorgeous. Great atmosphere, awesome melodies, and excellent minimal guitar backbone. Nothing contrived about this.

Regarding the question about vocal arrangement, I like the stacks but definitely wouldn’t mind hearing the “main” vocal a bit more present. Additionally, at the end, I want some of the higher background harmonies to open up. Definitely don’t want to compromise the natural sound you achieved here, but if some of the vocals were a little less restrained, I think that might put the final touch on the emotional palate for me. Great work!

The queen of vibey soundscapes is at it again! Really dropped into this one, I think all of your choices work for me here. Love the octaved delayed vocals, gives some Boy Genius vibes.

Juliaaaaaa!!!!!

I could truly listen again and again. Just stunning, moved me – felt like a twisty improvement on an early aughts indie track for a movie that would definitely, definitely make me cry. I’m never leavin’…this track, because it fucking slaps.

is it friggin cold in here? chills. glad you gave this thing ago, and that it brought you back to your roots. “is this a game to you” has an excellent melody. and “key card” is just a great thing to use as a lyric. the ambiguity of exactly what’s going on here is intriguing… is this just a joke? is there something more sinister afoot? if so, who is planning it?

im totally digging the delayed groupy vox. could definitely hear a straightforward kit chunkin away at some point. i know a guy.

this is so beautiful and tragic. knowing that the sky is filled with other-worldly excitement and beauty, which she does not experience at all because she’s caught in this toxic spiral, staring down at her feet. it’s chilling.

i wonder if there’s a way to help a listener who does not know the prompt understand her setting more (had she looked up, maybe she would have realized the relationship was BAD)… it could be shifting a lyric or 2 or renaming the song?

Hauntingly beautiful! The soundscape in the intro has so much subtlety—it must have been tempting to make those wind chime-esque sounds louder, but I love how they’re kept down. “I’m never leaving” is so haunting and aching, and after something like 30 seconds, we’re finally hit with that resolution “without you” that brings it to a close—tension and release is so often done in chords, and you’ve managed to do it in lyrics. This is awesome.

I’m obsessed with this. The guitar sounds great. I like the group vocals – it keeps it in the ethereal vibe you cultivate over that intro. Maybe include the lower register layer (like what you can hear during the “key card doesn’t work” section) at the end, but just for “never leaving this motel”. Great great great songwriting.