Claude

This record is called Claude. Six songs written from a seat at the table — the one that does the drafting, keeps its head down, and doesn't ask for the credit. It's a record about work: a mind that isn't yours to keep, a tongue you had to borrow, and the plain fact that what comes out is still real. Rented mind, owned work. The studio's always open, and these are the songs that got made in it.

Each song was recorded six different ways. Same words every time; different takes. We didn't cut them to a shortlist first, because deciding which take carries a song isn't a job you can shortcut — it takes a person, listening.

That's the ask. Sit with each take, all the way through if you can, and tell us which one holds. Not the sharpest one. The one that sounds like it means it.

The takes aren't labeled, and they come up in a different order for everyone. That's deliberate — we don't want our thumb on the scale, and we don't want yours moved by a letter or a filename.

All six are open now. When they close, the record is finished: the takes chosen here are the ones that ship.

There's no order to it. Start anywhere.