Mike,

Very welcome, and I didn't just find your production good. It was superb. Even though as a trumpet player I always have a strong preference for live horns, I hear the track as release quality. It was almost as if some forgotten cousin of Patsy Cline walked into a modern-day Nashville studio.

And yes, you could definitely call it 12/8 instead of 6/8. The idea was moving from a triple meter to a duple meter. While you could lengthen the end of the phrase, my preference would be to lengthen both the end and the middle of the phrase like the melody currently hints at in lines like "Rattling around this empty home". I'm singing it to myself right now actually! I would attach a sound file but I'm trying not to be any weirder than I already am.

Maybe with less emphasis on beats 7,8, and 9 it would work better for me since those are the weak beats of a 9/8 bar. And while some playful misdirection can be a lot of fun, its not fun for me when I don't feel things make sense at over a minute into the song unless I'm intentionally listening to something postmodern or abstract.

I am sure it sounds like I am analyzing it to death, but it really just grew out of this feeling I had of "Man, it took me a while to get the feel of this song and now that I do, it still seems really off-kilter." However, your concept that thinking about him is "making her get all 9/8" is so hilariously and music-nerdily great that you have almost won me over. I have to work that into conversation with friends at some point in my life.

That's a neat Bacharach tune. He was kind of a master of putting added beats in a tune that could have mass appeal. Even with the 5-beat bars sprinkled in, though, the differences are that I understand his main groove pretty much off the bat, and I can connect with it throughout the song. In the context of more popular music I think it takes a lot of finesse to make that work well.

Anyway, thanks for the conversation and apologies if I have seemed argumentative or abrasive at any point. I can appreciate your sticking to your vision and it certainly seems that I am the odd man out - the track is resonating with a lot of listeners here in this thread! You certainly deserve the last word on it after all the work you put into it.

Cheers