BTW, thanks for the feedback.
I find that the arrangement of the song is more important than the actual mix. No matter how good the mix is, if the flow of the song isn't working, then everything else is a waste of time.
I felt that the intro was lacking in the sense that it didn't set up the overall feeling and vibe of the song. To me, the focus needed to be on the vocals, and the weird drum pattern was too distracting.
I created the loop by taking the a very small section at the very end of the piano track. It sounds like someone getting up or closing the lid on the keys. I boosted it up, added some reverb, then looped the section.
I found a bit of piano that would work nice looped under the chord progressions, and to me it set up the overall feeling of the song better.
I also found the guitar instrumental after the first chorus redundant, and I wanted to get back into the verse quicker, so I cut that as well.
Then, I found that the "epic" section had no impact, so I put in aproper break. Cut the vocal, and timestretched the word "confused" and the " But not alone" section of the vocals.
I also lost the "Lalala's" because I found them too cutesy for the song.
I also was annoyed by the inconsistent rimshot, and used one of the rimshots that sounded good, and pasted it overtop of the others. I also did that with a couple of weak snare hits as well.
And cut out a snare hit here and there all-together, as they didn't make sense to me.
