Katarzyna NINa Górnisiewicz | Detailed or mini-review submissions: song, EP/album | Suggest an artist

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Win The Day - Live Again (song review) (self-released, Win The Day, 2012)

Here's a song with a positive pop rock or even modern gospel feel that has hit potential. "Live Again" opens this self-titled album that includes 14 other tracks by solo artist Charlie Gathe, who performs under the moniker of Win The Day.

The song brings very human-centered, optimistic and simple dynamics. The arrangements were written for guitars (Charlie owns a Rickenbacker), drums and vocals. You will also hear some neat repetitive choruses as well as a few nice guitar solos present in the verses.
"Live Again" has an epic, yet light atmosphere that may fit a short film that illustrates people fighting against the odds, an illness or struggling with other unfortunate life events and ordinary day to day issues. In fact, Win The Day made a high quality promotional video for this song which should give you a good impression of the direction their music is taking.

Charlie's voice sounds pleasant. The weight of his vocals are light, so he can sing with a high voice in upper octaves, but at the same time his voice never goes out of tune. Moreover, there is a gospel-esque choir mixed into the arrangement towards the end of the track. You may think Charlie hired a few back-up singers to record these vocals, but you would be incorrect in this assumption. Charlie multiplied his own voice on several tracks and layered them to make it sound as though there are many other voices singing in unison.

A lot of creative people are known to receive inspirations and brighter solutions to their ideas in a deep state of relaxation. This is typically when the brain is generating alpha waves while either in a state of REM sleep patterns or semi-conscious dreaming. Although some people experience this state of mind before they fall asleep, others experience it when they first wake up or must achieve it by meditation. Having said that, many sensitive people have lucid dreams, but artists usually have vivid dreams about music, graphic images and motion pictures. Artist tend to make use of their dreams in their work, so it is not a rare thing that these pieces of art someday become valuable or famous.
Charlie admits that the idea for this song came to him in a dream, but he still had a chance to make a rough draft of it when he woke up before it faded into oblivion. He performed and recorded the basic elements of the tunes acoustic elements on his iPhone and this is how we got "Live Again".

The song was recorded, mixed and produced by Charlie Gathe and mastered by John Vestman. I would only pin one suggestion to the ending of the song, which is that it didn't seem to match the dynamics utilized in the beginning of the track. Other than that, the overall composition sounds very successful for a completely DIY release.

(Katarzyna 'NINa' Górnisiewicz, Fabryka Magazine, September 18th, 2012. Proofreading: Scott M. Owens)

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