Who should review my album before release?

[ViolaGhost]

I'm working on short album to release sometime before the end of the year. This'd be the first commercially available work I'd put out. I know that's not a big deal anymore, but (like most artists, I'm sure) I want to offer the best of what I can do. My question is, once the music is written, what's a good way to get feedback for final tweaks? I recently graduated college, where composition lessons involved bringing my work in, getting it critiqued, and "fixing" it. This is clearly not the case anymore. The other issue is that I have heard these tracks about a billion times, so I can't tell good from bad anymore. I like them. Is that enough? Where is the balance? I know a friend of mine would go to shows that played music similar to his with an iPod and good headphones, and would pop them on people's heads (with permission, of course ) and ask for feedback.

 

I didn't really want to run the tracks by all my friends, because I think the opinions may be biased, and since they'll be my first listeners anyway, I wanted to present them with a finished polished work. Any suggestions on who I should turn to/your own experiences?

[ski]

It all has to start with you. You have to like what you've done first and foremost. Then again, you haven't said what style your music is, so if it's (say) contemporary classical then you're best off letting the chips fall where they may as opposed to (say) dance music, which needs to be as crowd-pleasing as it is a product of your own sense of self-expression.

 

Start by taking a break from listening to it for a week. Then make a point of listening to it with fresh ears, but listen to it casually (preferably at a low level) while you're doing something else entirely (i.e., do some dusting and straightening up in your studio). I find it highly enlightening to listen back to my tracks while I'm distracted. It points out all the flaws! Then it becomes a matter of how much more time (and possibly money) you might spend to improve the things that bother you.

[ViolaGhost]

It all has to start with you. You have to like what you've done first and foremost. Then again, you haven't said what style your music is... I find it highly enlightening to listen back to my tracks while I'm distracted. It points out all the flaws! Then it becomes a matter of how much more time (and possibly money) you might spend to improve the things that bother you.

 

Thank you for all the fantastic advice. I'm writing electronica, but with a strong classical (orchestral) influence - think Daft Punk's "Tron" score. So, some beats, but not really a dance-floor type thing. Listening to my drafts casually is a new idea - I always listen very intently when I come back to my work, so I'll give it a try! It's always hard to figure out what critique to listen to and which to let go - but I guess at the end of the day, it is gut feeling as to what I want to put out, right?

[thedivisionbell]

Very often, your friends are the very worst people you could ask for a review. Especially with vocals. They are always too biased.

 

I could add to ski's valuable advice by suggesting you listen to them on a non-ideal system - the Mac's inbuilt speakers, car stereo, phone speakers(!) etc. Helps you know what the others will hear.