Songs of the Day

OK, time for the final three tracks on the album: "Closer," "Give Up," and "Kicks."
"Closer" starts off pretty cool, melodically quoting "In My Room" by The Beach Boys (more or less), which is cool (although I'm sure many people won't be able to decipher that).  I like the layering of the voices on this one, but the beat doesn't really support it the way I'd like/expect.  This is another track that falls victim to the "over-produced" vibe that many of the songs on this record have.  There's just too much unnecessary sounds going on - the track would be much more affective were it a little more stripped.  The chorus has a haunting feel to it that's cool, but there isn't much about this track that really captures me.  Eh.  I like that "Give Up" has the single vocal line without any effects in the verse, which is something that isn't common on this record - nice to switch it up a little bit.  This beat has a little less going on than the previous, which I like, and also gives you a chance to pay more attention to the vocals (since you're not getting distracted by all the bells and whistles of the beat).  Her vocals could be brought up in the mix a little bit though, the combo of her low mix and breathy vocals makes it difficult for me to understand anything she's saying, which is always a bummer.  Decent track, nothing to write home about though.  I like "Kicks," but it, yet again, is another track that I feel is overproduced.  The chorus is really catchy, vocally speaking, but I'm distracted by all of the bells and whistles going on in the background.  And I dig that the verses are much more bare, but even in the bareness, there's not enough cohesion for me to really get behind it.  All the random vocal samples throughout it are cool, but could be placed better.  Just like this record, this track had a lot of potential to be cooler than it is.  That being said, it's probably my favorite track of the day, mainly because of the vocals in the chorus.  Again, decent, but I still like a couple other tracks better.