Although it was about twenty years ago I remember being eighteen and having my heart broken for the first time. The cliche is true that the first time is the most emotionally devastating. You don’t know what to do and everything seems like a meager attempt at escape.
Mikel Hopkins aka Co. more or less writes about heartbreak on his four-song EP entitled It’s All For You. The EP starts with “Wilt” which is slow moving with a jazzy groove. It was a solid mix of sounds and also had some catchy melodies. The lyrics avoid cliches but certainly seem to revolve around heartache. He sings, “Everything I touch wilts / Every second of love kills / So I drink Nyquil and take pills 'til it's not real / Every breath is an aching gasp.” “What Did I Find?” is a highlight. The song is again jazzy but even more catchy with a great groove. The xylophone or vibraphone he utilizes adds a nice ’70s touch to the song. “Drown Me” which is another solid song. I really enjoyed the groove and the synths he adds in. The bass line is also really smooth. The lyrics are pretty straightforward and didn’t need a whole lot of explanation. “Dream of You” starts off very strong. Hopkins’ smooth buoyant jazzy drumming with soft melodies are on the mark. The groove is funky but also very atmospheric. It’s All For You is a DIY bedroom project and has a lot of the common issues I hear when artists present me their demos in the studio. There’s a couple of relatively simple things Hopkins can do to clean up his mixes. All the songs have too much low end causing muddiness overall but also make his vocals thin and hard to understand. In this case the muddiness seems to be coming from 200hz - 400hz. I would recommend doing some EQ cutting to the bass-heavy instrumentation to open up the mids and highs. I would also recommend some subtle boosting on the vocals somewhere between 1khz and 4khz. Musically, I enjoyed what I heard from Hopkins. He’s a diverse musician with talent in multiple areas and I am very interested to hear him evolve. I also need to mention that heartbreak gets easier as you get older. By the time you’re thirty heartbreak really isn’t a thing you have to worry about anymore. On that note creating and making music has only always been one of the best antidotes for heartbreak.
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