This is, like, the best sort of comment a mixer can ever get - or at least, the best comment this mixer can imagine. <3 Thank you so much for taking the time to let me know your thoughts about it!
The jumping off point for this mix was, of course, the two songs that you mentioned as key when you were writing - Lights and Fear. I admit, I also went through the mixes *you've* created in the past to try to get a better bead on what sort of music you enjoy, and once I saw that you'd put the Lucksmiths's cover of a Smiths song on one, well, I just grinned. Clearly we have similar tastes in music!
I've always wanted to put Dustbowl Dance into a Tarsus mix, and - while I wouldn't have shoehorned it in here if it didn't fit your fic - I thought that the anger that Jim (rightly) has about everything Tarsus, including his crew's actions let the song fit into the narrative. And then, after reading your story I immediately thought of Lippy Kids as the song for Jim & Riley looking back on their time on Tarsus IV. So those were the four songs I immediately had as tentpoles to build the rest of the mix around, and the rest came in bits and pieces to fill in the cracks and keep the mood of the mix cohesive.
Circuital was one of the last pieces put in. By that time I had a lot of songs with the theme of home/returning/circling back and stars/sun/sky, so I was looking for a piece that would pull all of that together, as well as set the tone in a manner similar to what your prologue does. Plus, as much as I enjoy Fitzsimmons, I just can't open up a mix with his music.
You pinged Find it in Me and Add My Effort perfectly - they're songs for Jim & Bones, showing their uneasy but caring relationship, and both are there to show that things are *not* okay, but maybe they could be eventually.
Northern Skies continues pulling the tempo up in anticipation of Lights and, like Lights pulls in the theme of thinking about heading back & past mistakes & going on anyway. And then Night Squall is a transition piece for the look back at Jimmy's life on Tarsus.
Lippy Kids just fit perfectly, and then Easy pulls the tempo up a bit and is a reminder of all of the dreams that the Tarsus colony would never end up fulfilling. Fear I almost certainly would have put into the mix whether you'd mentioned it or not, because, as you said, it's all about Jim and Riley and how life took a dramatic change for the worse. It works so well!
I Believe in Outer Space was meant to bring in, hmmm, the faith that children have that things will turn out okay? I guess I imagined that that children on a colony like Tarsus would expect that Starfleet will make things better, when things start to turn worse. But Starfleet isn't there - and then we have the Enterprise crew going through the same emotions, finding out that the colonists were abandoned and betrayed in some very real sense. Even if Starfleet didn't know about the problem, they should've known, you know? Running For Home brings that betrayal into focus, with Jim's home gone and Kodos to blame. And I loved the chorus, which I think again spoke to the high ideals of the colony and how much those have been trod into the dirt. And, yeah, Dustbowl Dance is all of Jim's anger at what's occurred, and also some of his (misplaced) guilt at not being able to make things magically better.
I'll go through the rest of the songs if you like, but I'd also love to hear your (uninfluenced) opinion on them!
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The jumping off point for this mix was, of course, the two songs that you mentioned as key when you were writing - Lights and Fear. I admit, I also went through the mixes *you've* created in the past to try to get a better bead on what sort of music you enjoy, and once I saw that you'd put the Lucksmiths's cover of a Smiths song on one, well, I just grinned. Clearly we have similar tastes in music!
I've always wanted to put Dustbowl Dance into a Tarsus mix, and - while I wouldn't have shoehorned it in here if it didn't fit your fic - I thought that the anger that Jim (rightly) has about everything Tarsus, including his crew's actions let the song fit into the narrative. And then, after reading your story I immediately thought of Lippy Kids as the song for Jim & Riley looking back on their time on Tarsus IV. So those were the four songs I immediately had as tentpoles to build the rest of the mix around, and the rest came in bits and pieces to fill in the cracks and keep the mood of the mix cohesive.
Circuital was one of the last pieces put in. By that time I had a lot of songs with the theme of home/returning/circling back and stars/sun/sky, so I was looking for a piece that would pull all of that together, as well as set the tone in a manner similar to what your prologue does. Plus, as much as I enjoy Fitzsimmons, I just can't open up a mix with his music.
You pinged Find it in Me and Add My Effort perfectly - they're songs for Jim & Bones, showing their uneasy but caring relationship, and both are there to show that things are *not* okay, but maybe they could be eventually.
Northern Skies continues pulling the tempo up in anticipation of Lights and, like Lights pulls in the theme of thinking about heading back & past mistakes & going on anyway. And then Night Squall is a transition piece for the look back at Jimmy's life on Tarsus.
Lippy Kids just fit perfectly, and then Easy pulls the tempo up a bit and is a reminder of all of the dreams that the Tarsus colony would never end up fulfilling. Fear I almost certainly would have put into the mix whether you'd mentioned it or not, because, as you said, it's all about Jim and Riley and how life took a dramatic change for the worse. It works so well!
I Believe in Outer Space was meant to bring in, hmmm, the faith that children have that things will turn out okay? I guess I imagined that that children on a colony like Tarsus would expect that Starfleet will make things better, when things start to turn worse. But Starfleet isn't there - and then we have the Enterprise crew going through the same emotions, finding out that the colonists were abandoned and betrayed in some very real sense. Even if Starfleet didn't know about the problem, they should've known, you know? Running For Home brings that betrayal into focus, with Jim's home gone and Kodos to blame. And I loved the chorus, which I think again spoke to the high ideals of the colony and how much those have been trod into the dirt. And, yeah, Dustbowl Dance is all of Jim's anger at what's occurred, and also some of his (misplaced) guilt at not being able to make things magically better.
I'll go through the rest of the songs if you like, but I'd also love to hear your (uninfluenced) opinion on them!