The end of the month has snuck up on me once again, sending me scrambling to find something I could upload. This was about all I had.

This is the last of the 7 songs that I recorded earlier this year for February Album Writing Month. This is another song in the style that FAWMers have dubbed 'Casiocore', which means that it shamelessly revels in cheesy keyboard sounds and rhythms (another example of Casiocore can be heard in my song "My FAWM-y Valentine"). For this one, I went the purist route and used a pre-set rhythm/chord combo on an actual Casio, and then added some extra bits with a Yamaha. I knew I wanted the chorus to be one line repeated over and over, and I knew how I wanted the rhythm of the line to go. The first thing that came to mind was "I'm better off alone", so I wrote the rest of the lyrics around that. Of course, it didn't take long for me to realize that my chorus was blatantly ripping off that of Nirvana's "Sliver" lol. Oh well. :/

So, the verses are obviously based on the Kubler-Ross model of the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. It's meant to be debatable whether the singer of the song has really reached 'acceptance' as he claims to have done, or whether he's really still in stage one, denial. Then again, I went and named the song "Stage One", so I guess that pretty much tells you which of those I had in mind when writing it.

The vocals on this aren't exactly what I'd like them to be. I had to sing lower than what I'm used to at the beginning... and then for the part near the end, I had to sing loudly, but not loudly enough to wake up anyone at my place (it was between 2 and 3 AM when I recorded the vocals). I had planned to redo the vocals before I uploaded this, but much to my frustration, I haven't been able to find my mike lately. Looks like I might be working on instrumentals for a while.


"Stage One (I'm Better Off Alone)" (3:06)
Written and recorded February 2008


They say stage one is denial
But all I can do is smile
Anger is the next stage
But I don't see why I should feel rage

(When) I'm better off alone (x8)

Stage three, time to bargain
But I've no use for such jargon
Stage four is depression
But I must make a confession

(That) I'm better off alone (x8)

Was this not your expectance
I've already reached acceptance
You thought I'd be grieving
But I'm laughing while you're leaving

(And) I'm better off alone (x16)