Hopeless Romantic by Merenco

The songs on this album were all written during several sessions of Sarah Spencers' Songfancy 5 in 5 Challenge in 2018 (except for Long enough, which was written on the 13th of February 2019 and released on Valentines Day the next day).

This album is something completely different from what I have done in the past, musically. Creating a soft-rock album wasn‘t the plan, in the first place.

I just wanted to release some songs of the 5 in 5 Challenge and while going through the rough versions of 20 songs, it occurred to me, that there were a few songs, that kind of had the same vibe. Long story short, from the 12 original selected songs, 8 made actually made it. Long Enough was not part of any 5 in 5 Challenge, yet was written and released under the same conditions:

13th February 2019 The Prompt: Valentine‘s Day
14th February 2019 released on YouTube

Therefore, I decided to put it on the album as well, since it had this ‚Hopeless Romantic‘-vibe.

Originally scheduled for the 21st of February 2019, I had to postpone the release a few times and eventually came up with the 21st of August 2019, exactly six months after the original release date.

Making this album the way I did, was a first-timer for me. Just having a bunch of raw drafts of songs and then edit the hack out of them. A few of them already had some pretty neat arrangements, so it was just a matter of making it better. Then there were a few, which were arranged from scratch, so to say.

The title Hopeless Romantic is taken from The Eagles song New Kid In Town from their famous Hotel California album. To me, this song wraps up what the album is about: regret, doubt, this ‚what-if‘-feeling and lost love.

A Heavy Rain tells the story about someone, who lives with a partner suffering from depressions and sticks with him/her, no matter what. To me, it‘s not autobiographical and I cannot imagine, how hard it must be to live in a partnership like this. Although the song, at times, sounds very aggressive, it is a love song. I like the changes from aggressive in the verses to the more gentle pre-chorus and then opening up during the chorus.... and yes, there had to be a guitarsolo at the end ;-).

The song Underwater was the very first song I had ever written for the Challenge and, to be honest, I wasn‘t too proud of it. It turned out to be a gem, after all. After changing the key, defining a picking pattern and add some harmony vocals the song started to spread its shine and now it puts a smile on my face, every time I hear it.

‘Round Here is the only not-so-love-song on the album, still I felt, it had to be on it. It‘s a trip around the world to see, that we, the common people, just want to live in peace and many elected leader (worldwide) seems to forget that they are there to take care of us. Instead, they treat us like insects.... They should be grateful, to represent us, not use them for their own (sandbox)games... My two cents to politics in general...

Home... the feeling you get, when that special person is with you, no matter where you are and what you did...

Treasure is a kind of Hopeless Romantic Part 2 although this time, the two actually got together (long ago) and are now struggling to save their relationship. The solution might not be that far away... I liked the idea of two people in a room, desperate to do something but caught up in a vicious circle. Starting the song balladesque and almost crank up the volume in the last part, fits perfectly to the lyrics... imho.

From the idea to actually releasing a raw draft of Too Long on YouTube took exactly 16 hours (and therefore, fits the prescription for a 5 in 5 song...). How more hopeless can a romantic (M/F/X) get than thinking about a love out of reach on Valentine‘s Day?

The initial guitarpart for the song came to me very quickly. The prompt read: I‘d change everything, I‘d change nothing....
The lyrics are sort of inspired by Brad Paisley‘s songwriting (which does not mean, I‘m as good he is!!!). A lot of times, when you listen to his lyrics, it seems very obvious about what he is singing but then there‘s a little twist and the meaning of what you hear suddenly changes 180 degrees. In this song, I give it a try.
Change does not always means, it‘s getting better...

This I Your Life would have a female singer, that was the only thing I knew when I wrote the song for the Challenge and I planned it as a kind of singer/songwriter song. When I started working on it, the song evolved into a sixties kind of feel. I added some strings and brass and that was about it... After Sahra laid down the vocals I knew, this had to be the last song on the album... it would not get any better from here.

Nowadays, it‘s very easy to change the order of the songs. The order I put these songs in tell a little story. This is also one of the reasons, I decided to release these songs as an album and not as nine separate songs.
It took a lot of time and work to get to the final version of the album. Giving up has never been an option, but there were times, when I didn‘t know if I would actually make it to the deadline(s)... Nevertheless, it‘s out now and I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I had fun creating this album.

Pete

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