Pepe, there are many reasons, and none of them are good ones in my opinion.
I was trying to remember the whole timeline of "the wait." I remember Jaymes Foster came into the picture in the summer of last year, as executive producer, and it was exciting. I remember researching exactly what an "executive producer" did, because I had no clue. An executive producer wears many hats, as needed, but the primary responsibility is to help find or select the songs. Other duties are to find musicians and songwriters, engineers and the other personnel needed to make a record. I remember thinking Back for More was a fun song, but I was anxious to see what else they came up with, like.... that couldn't be the best they had. I also remember an article from about this time last year, in which Clay said he had
already recorded songs that would fit four or five different albums, and he mentioned several different genres, and "love songs" was one of them. I remember that because I thought it intriguing since he had said he'd never been "in love" a while before, and I thought oooh....maybe he had fallen in love, since he said he wanted his second album to be songs that meant something to him. This is also when he said he was through recording, and made the comment that he would only record more songs if the theme was Mongolian polkas! I got the impression that the songs had been chosen, and recorded, and was basically done. Then I recall the interview in the Raleigh paper shortly after that, last December, in which he said something about wanting the respect of people he worked with, and that things were falling into place, and that he felt empowered. And finally, I remembered that he said several times he definitely wanted this CD to be more upbeat. My hope at that time was that we would have an album of mostly new melodic pop songs with the theme of love hopefully by Valentine's Day.
Then came the bit in Entertainment Weekly, saying Clay was going into the studio in March of this year, to record his album.
Something changed. I have no idea what happened, only what Clay himself has said. If he said Clive mandated, then he did. He da man after all!
Whatever happened, I have a beautiful CD, and even if I don't love every song, I appreciate the subtle stylizations and the more mature, intimate sound of it, if not the heavy handed instrumentation on some tracks, and I can appreciate the care that went into the production and
especially the stylistic vocal choices that were made. It's funny that two of my favorites were written or cowritten by Clay.
And I really, really, really can't wait for the next one.
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