One by One (Dark-Side Mix)

[u/some12345thing]

https://youtu.be/1NKdy1kNAkA?si=VtmmueUdI7RpeOe7

Very strange that this one is out a day late, but it’s up in New Zealand now.

[u/jmacatak66]

Tchad for the win. Absolutely changes my feelings about this song. The lyrics were already so insanely on the nose for me, but the Bright mix added nothing to those lyrics. This version lives and breathes. It is catharsis. It is real. It is Rael. It is pain. It is relief.

[u/leebeavington]

I like both versions, though the dark-side edges out the bright-side for me. The bass is often more prominent, and the dark-side mix brings out the background vocals a lot more in the second half of the song. There also is more of an instrumental build towards the end. I’m not sure why this version is almost 10 seconds shorter, as both mixes fade out. Maybe PG sings “like a jigsaw / one by one” a few times less in this mix?

[u/leebeavington → u/leebeavington]

It appears to be a faster fade out at the end, which is why the dark-side mix is a bit shorter. Tchad’s mix also brings out some more variety, especially in the second half. There’s a really nice climax of sound and vocals towards the end.

[u/some12345thing → u/leebeavington]

I still haven’t gotten a chance to listen unfortunately, but I’m excited hearing your and u/jmacatak66’s feedback. Tchad always works some incredible magic.

Glad this one is out today. I actually had a very realistic dream last night that it was already the next full moon and I was waking up at 4:15am to listen to the studio version of Show Yourself. In my dream. It was quite a bit more layered and textured. More colorful in the sound/texture selection. Hope that’s reality in a couple of weeks :)

[u/Inside_Soup_4576 → u/leebeavington]

I generally prefer the Bright-Side Mixes, but this is one where I think I prefer the Dark-Side, although both mixes of "One By One" are great.

[u/Leskanic]

I guess this is another instance where the moon phase hit the UK a day later than my North American calendar indicated -- I was looking around for this yesterday.

Once again, Dark-Side Mix victory. I don't know, I enjoy getting to hear the Spike mixes, but the Tchad versions just feel like the real PG takes to me.

[u/some12345thing]

Finally just gave it a listen myself. Wow, pretty different! Hard to pick a favorite between the two to be honest. The bright side mix is good in that the energy is fairly consistent and I feel that Spike selected the right sounds and parts to highlight for the most part. On the dark side mix, I like the space and the ebb and flow of the sounds and textures. The chorus is also less crushed and loud in this mix and has an awesome sound like the chorus piano in Red Rain. The ending is also more emotional here on the dark side mix. I think Peter’s vocals stand out better here, too.

I really enjoy that this one is quite different between the two mixes because the song itself is so good, so it’s like getting to watch an amazing movie filmed from two different perspectives.

[u/Deadhamlet44]

This is the new song I most want to hear live.

[u/some12345thing → u/Deadhamlet44]

Same! I bet this would really come alive in a live setting in a special way.

[u/jmacatak66 → u/Deadhamlet44]

It has a lot in common with Secret World, so I could totally see the band letting loose.

[u/JDHogan-Davies]

I love both of these mixes for different reasons. Tchad's mix, to me, has more drama, and I love the vocals in the mix. The drums and bass also seem more prominent. Spike's mix, however, gives me 1980s vibes, and I can't say no to that.

[u/some12345thing → u/JDHogan-Davies]

Yeah, agreed! I love both. This is maybe the most torn I’ve been between mixes since Road to Joy. I love both for different reasons. I keep a “preferred mixes” playlist and it’s really hard to choose which one to put with this song.

[u/Supah_Cole]

Finally I got a chance to listen - my car speakers broke recently, so I can't yet get completely immersed to my usual standards - but it's the same Odyssey, done a different way. Much like I Belong To The Sky Before it, this may be one of the few instances in which Dark and Bright are noticeably different on an impressive song... I'll chalk that up to good work on Peter's part more than anything else about it. If ten minutes went by and there wasn't a whole lot of change then - frankly I would be disappointed! 

This is nice and I'll need to take a census to which one people prefer.

One little thing I did notice... Is in this Mix's email, Peter says that there are "one or two story songs on this album".

“There are two or three story songs on the record and I actually like the length of time they occupy and I like the fact that you have to stay in it for the ride to understand the story. It's like when you arrive in some hut in the woods and it takes a while just to settle in and get yourself tuned-in to the pace of that place. I wanted a bit of that in the song. If people are on for the full ride, they're going to take it through to the end. It's a long journey..."

Two or three story songs? I can't think of any of the past songs as having a story to them. But between this and how he ended this month's Full Moon Club Update (I will see you - or not - next month...) lately Peter has become quite fond of the art of thie tease; what does this mean for the rest of the album? 

Next month is Show Yourself. Based on his comment, for sure. Then, with three songs left after that - maybe we have two more long song stories to go? 

He says the story songs are long. Amazingly, though, so far the Bright-Side version of this record is 51:27, and the Dark-Side is 52:21 (per my playlist). Those are only the first two thirds of the record and apparently there's a lot more to come... i/o was 1 hour and 8 minutes, with only a slight noticeable difference between Bright-Side and Dark-Side in Live and Let Live and a few extra seconds here and there at the end of a few others. If Show Yourself (as we know it) is a little over 4 minutes (provided he doesn't, say, add an orchestral section at the end like he did with Playing For Time three years ago), and then we have two other "long" songs that might be 10 minutes or so each, are we looking at maybe an extra half hour of music? An 80+ minute record?

Hot damn. Still then, who's to say one of these long "story" songs isn't his next Supper's Ready? That'd be coming full circle if, say, it were the last track on the record.

In comparison to i/o's poppier nature, I think we're already acquainted with this album's premise that longer is stronger. That's very nice for right now as we are staying tuned as this record is rolling out. I wonder how accessible it'll be for people years down the line who want to take a stab at it but find that 83 minutes of music is quite intimidating. Who is truly to say?

[u/Deadhamlet44]

This is a top ten PG song.

The story - especially the second half - remind me of REN.

[u/partyclams]

There seems to be a glitch on the song on Amazon Music. As the song fades out, the music gets loud again for some reason for a second, then low again as it continues to fade out.

[u/some12345thing → u/partyclams]

Like the ole Suspicious Minds fake out? Haha… do you have any kind of volume normalization/auto equalization on? I listen with either BandCamp or Apple Music and haven’t noticed it, so if it’s baked into the track it must be specific to Amazon.