Everyone here has added lots of great comments and I havent been through this enough to maek such thoughtful and detailed or even great sweeping comments. But I will anyways.

Matt, I have always liked your voice, and putting "sinking guilt" on a compilation as the first song was a great choice i made awhile ago. Your voice sounds much better on a nice set of speakers than on my cheesy iTunes. Constant in Opal sounds really good, very dreamy, and maybe for the first time ever i heard the lyrics "in hearts suspicion flowers" for what they really mean.

I do like everyone else's work as well. Of course I would be lying if I say that I was incredibly enthused by all the covers, and I was never great at either compliments or thank-you notes, but initial hightlights were:

* an excellent version of "authority," made heart-wrenchingly personal

* John's sexy voice! This goes for longhouse, too. an amazing and surprisingly SeXY voice works great with both "Fading Away" and "The Night is very Soft" . . . you actually brought these two storylines together for me -- both elements of one story.

* the sheer professionalism of Tony's fretwork, mat's recording and "loveblind." Tony, you've got good hands there!

* i also liked alt's lyrical "arrangement" whether it was planned or not. fits perfectly, and i think i dreamt about it, too.

* and Daniel, yes, you do have a good voice. What I insist on with most artists is a strong voice, although that rule is broken in my record collection a number of times...i have many exceptions. yours is not an exception.


I dont mean to leave anyone out -- those are my initial thoughts only. This is great and I enjoy it immensely. I am glad i have a week or two before //U arrives if only because I can listen to this.


Thank you to Tony for your kindness, persistence and belief in all of artists to turn this thing out!

Steve