A couple notes:
The singer's singing was even more annoying before I worked with him on it. He's not being derivative. He's literally just trying to best he can.
I am not responsible for the lyrics, and found them to be a little too cute sometimes, and some of them I really liked, but that's not my department. I only asked him to change stuff when it was really fucking stupid, which was twice, and the original band name, which was horrific.
"I'm Not In Love" was not my template.
Deceptive Bends was. The hallmarks I took from that were the Rhodes 88 through the MXR Phase 90s, and the background pads, which I did myself. The Crumar through the phaser is pure Gary Wright. The band was kind enough to leave me alone with the tracks, and do whatever the hell I wanted, and so all the little ear candy things, like the slide, the acoustic, the string ensemble, the glock in the chorus and the solo were all me. They liked everything I did, so it all stayed.
The solo was actually a scratch, hoping a sax would later do it, but they wound up liking it.
It's ironic that Fletcher gets bored easily, and can't pay attention long enough, to a song that is exactly about that. BTW, one of these days, I'm dying to hear a song that Fletcher has produced, engineered and mixed. I'm curious to know what his aesthetic is. Will you please post some?
For those that found that too boring, here's something up tempo, that I got to vomit 1977 all over. Maybe you can pay attention long enough on this.
Steady Diet of Nothing