Mihkay - "Everything Changes" [demo]

Everything changes but Lenin lives forever (4/10) OK chaps. Here is my final demo for this year. Everthing changes- This song was conceived while standing on a pile of rubble on the South end of the Forth Bridge in Scotland. The rubble was the remains of a hotel built in the 1960's. Now, 30 years later it was gone. No bad thing, but made me think, especially as there was one of those wonderful Scotish summer sunsets at the time. 30 minutes later I wrote most of what became "Future shines" (On Mihkay Demos). It was a good day for me. And on a more recent, personal note.... and not such a good day........ ." .......there was a paper mill at Guardbridge until July 2008" Dress to kill - While working,I ended up becalmed fot a few days on Ibiza! Not my natural habitat. Too hot too dusty and full of drunk Brits! lol. I don't dance so I was a fish out of water. This song is the result. The cover is a photo shot by my girlfriend Sue, in Podolsk, just outside Moscow earlier this year. I'm sorry the title of the review is a comment on the cover, not music, but I just couldn't resist. As for the music. I know it's just a demo, but still, I listened to some demo albums made by other artists, which were so good I kept them in my collection and listen with pleasure. Unfortunately, that's not the case here. Both songs are simple pop rock played by a one-man orchestra on guitar, bass, drums, keyboard and vocals of course. I guess that already puts him out of the crowd and requires quite a talent, but I won't raise my points because of that. I rate general listenability, which for me is limited. On my scale good recording starts at 7/10. The main problem for me here are uninteresting melodies, which lower the rating to 5/10. Production or technical issues lower it one point more. What issues? Firstly, the drums. They are monotonous and overwhelm the rest of instruments. And their sound is very flat. All of this makes for a really tiring effect. I think they would be tiring even if they were exceptionally good, but they are weak. Use and placement of guitar, bass and keyboard is much better, maybe except for the "piano" sound on the second track, which is quite artificial. I also didn't like the guitar effect at 2:53 of the first song. It is out-of-place there, doesn't fit in this song. Finally, the vocals. The artist should work on his voice, because now it just lacks power and confidence. But it is not a disaster either and definitely there is a room for improvement. Don't get me wrong. This is not a bad album. My main problem with it are boring melodies and this is a very subjective issue. What's boring for one is great for the others. There are many top pop rock bands, which for me have only boring tunes. Yet they are still on top and many people love their songs. So for someone else technical issues could mean lowering the rating not from 5/10, but from 10/10. If you like pop rock and have free 8 minutes, you might check this out and who knows...? Moreover, it is clear the artist is still learning (and eager to learn). So with better production skills, slightly better equipment, some singing lessons and a bit of luck in composing catchy tunes, he might come up with a real blockbuster. Again - who knows...? So a pop rock fan could keep him on a watchlist, just it case "everything changed". By the way, I briefly listened also to "Mihkay Demos", just to have some comparison and my first impression was that those songs were better. Maybe they were worse produced (as the artist wrote himself in the album's description) but they were much more diverse with regard to accompaniment. The melodies didn't catch my ear either, but because of the interesting arrangement, my attention was more focused.

Royalty-free music for professional licensing [Artist's Myspace]