so i’ve been thinking about this off and on for awhile. the track listing is fairly important, you know? you want to start off strong, but then you have to take it down a notch….there are a lot of rules.*

anyway, starting with ‘king forever’ seemed to be a pretty obvious choice, given that it’s probably been the most polished and it’s one i’ve played the most and gotten a lot of positive response to. ‘bethany’s song’ was always going to be a bonus track, so it was always going to be last. the reason being that i did want to include it but i wanted to separate it from the rest of the songs because of its nature.

then i thought ‘you are never really gone’ would be a natural choice for the 12 spot – it’s a great closer, i think. kind of sums it up. then i knew i would want ‘not the end’ to be in the 4 spot, for absurd and ridiculous reasons that i am not prepared to go into here.

so that left 8 songs to put in, which we worked out last night. it was kind of like putting a puzzle together — you don’t want too many of the more upbeat songs in a row, or too many of the slower songs in a row, and you sort of have to mind the transitions.** so we made a playlist in itunes of the final mixes and listened to beginnings and ends and i’m pretty happy with where it ended up. there’s only one transition that’s a bit weird…but then again, the record wasn’t written as one of those where each song specifically flows into one another. (although…if any success should come of this endeavor i would love to make such a record in the future).

so with that we arrived at — bah bada baaaaaaaa! — the final track list.

1. King Forever
2. Rise
3. Cannot Escape
4. Not the End
5. Consume
6. Nothing Else
7. Bring it Back
8. Great
9. Questions
10. We Live
11. Beautiful
12. You Are Never Really Gone

Bonus: Bethany’s Song

there we have it, people. it’s offical, and it was sent to the mastering man this morning. now i’m just toying around with design bits and awaiting the first mix of the mastered record…very exciting.

*high fidelity fans may recognize this bit of hommage. priceless.

**these rules have no basis other than what i think makes sense. hey, i’ve never done this before – making it up as i go, here.