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To Bob Pickens CO of Dennis Pickens
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Hi Robert

Thanks for submitting "Closer To You"
I feel I must approach this song from the "artist" aspect as well as the song aspect as Dennis is the artist and is submitting not only a song but himself in this case.

First I wanted to mention that the song and whole package was very well put in place, in other words it sounded and felt exactly has is should for the genre/genre's it's targeted for.
Great match of vocal, sound and style with music, playing performance and overall production. As a matter of fact the demo is very near Broadcast Quality, with a bit more tweaking mix & mastering wise it is BQ.
Within five seconds I could tell Dennis had made a serious commitment to his music and career.

The song is good, there are hooks and emotion in both the words and the melody and also hooks in the music, music, bass lines and rhythm section. You would not believe how many writers do not give much attention to the rhythms of there songs. It is easy to sing, memorable, emotional and well arranged. That is where the strengths of the song lied, I did notice that it didn't really have a lot of zip or substance lyrically, not that is wasn't well written but it's content. It was relying heavy on personal emotions more than a unique way of saying something common or use of imagery,more interesting. More a mixed bag of lyrics so to speak.

Allow me to use other artists as an example to explain the level and place for this song. I have heard and seen Hootie & The Blowfish a few years ago. They had top charted hits with songs that did not have anything lyrically or musically better than this song has. Now this is not what your gonna ever hear someone you submit songs to from a high end company talk about.
They'll say NO to your song but won't say "yeah I know a song we did say yes to wasn't any greater than this one we're saying No too"
That is what many writers,artist's,bands, etc... who reach a certain level of quality have the hardest time dealing with.

Back to the song, if this was Hootie this song becomes a hit or semi successful song, depending on what they decide to push of the CD and in what order. The lyrics here aren't saying anything very new or fresh but neither was "It's crazy but it's true "I Only Wanna Be With You" But that's partly a case of who get's lucky and the breaks and who doesn't.

This song like many of there's would do well in concert with the fans as well. I still don't feel it is a "Break Through Song" really but can see it doing fine after the artist broke through.
Certainly an album cut with a possibility of a late single release.

The Artist - Again the tone and style Dennis has is very contemporary and soft and pleasant to the ears. My main nit would be, lack of dynamics vocally, While he sang with heart there was very little dynamic here or range. The double bass powerful bridge and final chorus flowed and built up musically fine but the vocal didn't quite deliver. He seems to stay at the same level and intensity from the first line until the last pretty much.
As with any artist I would like to hear a 3 song package of Dennis to see if what I just said is a constant throughout his material and what other songs he might have.

I feel Dennis is definitely good enough to be given the chance to play some other songs for us and see what we think from there.
Please submit another song at your earliest convenience. Use the code 1864 when submitting this way it will come straight to me and put on top of the pile.

Very close guys! Keep at this!

Thanks
Mr Knowitall
Sublevel Music NYC