The Demos Thread

[Mr Richey]

Thought it might be worth opening a new thread for discussion of the demos. There's some interesting stuff this time around; previous demos haven't really interested me a great deal but this bunch are worth a listen. Some interesting lyrical differences too. You can really hear how these songs developed and matured into the final versions that made it onto the album.

Just a few thoughts from me; "Let's Go To War" is just the bare bones of an idea. "Futurology" is an acoustic lament sung (very well, as it happens) by Nicky. "The Last Jet To Leave Moscow" has a home demo quality that makes it feel very intimate. One of the big surprises for me was how beautifully Nicky's voice gels with the arrangement on the demo for "Divine Youth". As much as I enjoy the album version I would happily have taken this version. "Black Square" has a lovely finger picked intro that is reminiscent of Nick Drake and "The View From Stow Hill" is similarly Drake-esque.

[Europa Gluten Free]

Great idea for a thread.

I think the demos are fantastic on this album. IMO the produced album trails off in the 2nd half with what appear as weaker tracks and non-inspiring guest vocalists. But the demo versions of these songs are wonderful. The stripped back production is very 2nd half KYE or SATT b-side-esque and they really get to the essence of the tracks. Weirdly the best songs on Futurology - the title track, EGDM, WMTTB etc don't work in demo form but the weaker tracks imo in the 2nd half of the album are very beautiful as demos.

Check it out people!

[gladstone]

Well it's a good job I like the album so much because it's a pretty safe bet that I'll never listen to those ever, ever again. Ever.

[The Quatercircle]

Yeah I'll never listen to them. No interest in demos unless it's out of some sort of historical curiousity but this album was just released so...... .... ....

[someone, somewhere, soon]

the only demo that has stood out throughout the entire JFPL / PFAYM / RTF sets is the version of This Sullen Welsh Heart, for obvious (fucking) reasons. the rest have all been too near to the finished results to really have any worth - will wait to see if this set suffer a similar fate.

[mickburkesnr]

You can definately tell with a lot of the songs that they were written at the start of the writing process. The Futurology demo wouldn't sound out of place on Rewind The Film.

The one thing I did do on Monday was buy a pair of studio monitor headphones from Amazon. The album, however, came in before the headphones. So I ended up listening to the demo disc first with my old cans and then played the finished album on the new cans.

I tell you what, it opened by eyes to the recording process. Next time you get the chance of listening to an album that has a demo disc, listen to the demo's first!!!

[savemejebus]

Originally Posted by someone, somewhere, soon

the only demo that has stood out throughout the entire JFPL / PFAYM / RTF sets is the version of This Sullen Welsh Heart, for obvious (fucking) reasons. the rest have all been too near to the finished results to really have any worth - will wait to see if this set suffer a similar fate.

kinda harsh to include the JFPL demos in there, they stood out in many ways as being different.

As to these demos, I'm replacing the album version of Black Square with the demo so that I don't have to skip the song constantly so I'm very happy to have them. I find the demos fascinating to see how Nicky is growing as a songwriter, he's come so far both as a musician and a writer/singer...as long as he avoids his 'shouty voice'. Mayakovsky was doing ok till he started bleating...