u/Myrtle_Nut

At 41 years-old, my wife is set to release her first album. I am immensely proud of her and honestly feel like she's hit a bit of a renaissance entering her midlife. Her album is incredible, top to bottom. I say this as a music fan, not a sycophantic husband, though I admit I share much of her music sensibilities.

My point in the above, is it's my opinion that she has the 1st prerequisite out of the way. The music is good, great even. And the mixing is more than adequate, albeit not studio quality.

Supposing I'm right about the quality of music, I'm asking a couple questions, because I want her to get this release right and to reach an audience, and hopefully get some momentum. Her music should appeal to indie fans who like Weye's Blood, Father John Misty, Frank Black/Pixies, etc.--so a pretty broad indie appeal.

Since the music will be able to be released soon, my questions are:

What should she do right now that other artists make the mistake of not doing before releasing their music?

If she believes her album has multiple "single-worthy" songs, should she release streams of those singles before releasing the full album? If so, how much time should there be between each appetizer, and then the main course?

I started a TikTok for her, but all I have are clips from music videos with early draft versions of her songs. The videos have visual appeal, but she currently has no way to build an audience outside of TikTok and youtube (where full-length versions of these videos live). Should she be trying to build a tik-tok audience without having any landing page and streams available?

Voice isn't what it once was, but this song is such an all-tiime banger. Cool to see them on KEXP.

My wife is stressing hard because she thinks the vocals in her final mixes sound muddy. I think she might be a harsh critic, but I do hear what she is saying. The mixer is a friend and has done a wonderful job, but he may not be attuned to the intricacies of the voice. He has consulted in two others with a history of mixing, and they have no notes on the vocals. Could any pro out there assuage her concerns, or perhaps share her concerns?

Here are two drafts of one of the songs:

This is the latest draft. My wife claims her mid and low range are nasally/muddy and get swallowed in the music at some points: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EAu6Ii3l3eh-2KzCRe1bd2Knjf8CueZW/view?usp=share_link

This is an earlier draft. My wife claims the vocals are brighter and closer to what she is looking for: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1idgy5CXn2e9tpo4NabqSy18GBIMrqT5-/view?usp=share_link

This is one of those songs that will probably get reposted to r/crappymusic, but I think it's kinda bangin'.

A real mixed bag with this show. Bamford was terrific and the improvers were funny. But holy shit, the host was railroading scenes and the improvers were calling it out in not-so-subtle moves. it was honestly hard to watch at points. I’m left wondering how exactly Dan Black is able to convince improvers to come on his show.