Bleachers “Gone Now” Album Review

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Songwriting powerhouse and Fun. guitarist Jack Antonoff channels the raw emotion of loss, love, and the New Jersey suburbs into Bleachers’ sophomore album “Gone Now.” The three time Grammy award winning Bergenfield native has garned attention as a songwriter for pop icons like Taylor Swift, Lorde, Carly Rae Jepson, St. Vincent, Sara Barellies, and many more. However, the versatility of his writing and musical talent truly shines though Bleachers. Tracks like “Lets Get Married,” “Don’t Take the Money,” and “I Miss Those Days” are upbeat pop hits made for dancing around your room or jamming out in traffic. While tracks like  “Foreign Girls,” “All My Heroes,” and “Goodmorning” are emotionally cathartic and effectively poignant. Gone Now is truly a nostalgic symphony of synth and saxophone, and one of Antonoff’s best records to date. For fans of: Walk the Moon, Steel Train, Lorde, Depeche Mode
Rate: 9/10

Tracks:

1. Dream Of Mickey Mantle*
2. Goodmorning
3. Hate That You Know Me*
4. Don’t Take The Money*
5. Everybody Lost Somebody*
6. All My Heroes
7. Let’s Get Married*
8. Goodbye
9. I Miss Those Days*
10. Nothing Is U
11. I’m Ready To Move On/ Mickey Mantle Reprise
12. Foreign Girls*

*Recommended 

Editing Audio with Audacity

http://www.screencast.com/t/5tXezet4j

I absolutely love music, as you can probably tell, so I was so excited to get the chance to learn how to use audio editing software. I have minimal experience working with Adobe Audition from working at my college radio station, but this time I chose to use Audacity, the open source and free alternative. I chose to use two songs by one of my favorite artists, Bleachers, mixing the songs “Wild Heart” and “You’re Still a Mystery” off of the album Strange Desire. Like most things, getting over the learning curve is the hardest part, but once you get there its not too bad. I learned how to navigate around and tried to figure out what each tool was and their function. I already knew the best way about it was to make individual tracks and align them how I wanted. So I imported each song as a track aligned them end to end, and then recorded my promo with a pair of headphones with a mic. From then I had to mess around with the volume, amplifying my voice and bringing down the track so that I could be heard, without distorting the audio. From there, I attempted a crossfade between tracks, as well as a fade at the beginning and the end of the commercial itself. The “fade in” and “fade out” functions became my best friends in that right, as they automatically gave my audio an even and gradually fade in the volume. Overall, I had a lot of fun with it, and was proud of the product that I had mixed and created myself. It gives me a new respect for all of those amazing producers, like Jack Antonoff himself, out there! Check it out at the link located above and let me know what you think!