Is it really so strange?

I'd been talking about "Stylized" for a while; thought about the songs in my backlog; wanted to plan this the right way. Now everything's changed. I've basically written the entire album in little-to-no time and it's shaped into more than I'd imagined. Someone said recently (after hearing one of the new songs, "Coming Down"), "that's what I knew you could write. Writing in the here and now is you, not the old Punch Line stuff". He's right. New songs, like the aforementioned and songs like "Aggravation"; "You Won't Grow Up"; "The Denouement" and "It Didn't Matter" are all me now at 41. And it's nice to not have to share anymore. Time to be greedy and good at making music for the right reasons. For those who read this blog/know me and my musical output, I will be including "Serena" as it is my most fully-realized composition, but there is no way I would ever give this song to The Punch Line, nor any band. Only I can get this done properly, string quartet arrangement and all. Now I'm excited again, thanks to the ability to be unfettered. You know, all you gotta do is turn and quietly walk away. Time for all things new again: new life, new music, new words, new people. I've said previously it's time to jettison certain things (summer cleaning of the psychological closet).

And it's a great feeling.

"Dirt on the fire relights my desire; by fanning the flames of truth
I'm as insincere as the lines around your eyes...
...And it didn't matter--it was never going to be you"

Je suis libre pour chanter comme moi-même, non asservi!