So... most of you already know by now I was reviewing "Perfume" yesterday and sharing tons of info with you in the Music News thread and Britney's Base. Even people at Exhale took part of this kind of live chat about some details of Perfume.
This was possible because I got hold of what I thought back then the only version of the song. After the Single Version was released it was clear that the version I was listening before wasn't the same one because the Instrumental was completely changed. Her vocals however are just as I described them.
Here's the list of what changes in this Second Version of Perfume compared to the Single Version:
- First of all I mentioned a "magic sound" sample that starts playing in the intro and is also heard in the outro.
- The laugh we hear in the intro is still present (I mentioned this yesterday too).
- There are no synths at all, unlike in the Single Version where it pretty much invades the whole song from start to finish. This changes the mood of the song.
- There aren't any silent periods where it builds up to the next moment of the song (like the one before the 1st chorus and the one before the 2nd verse).
- The piano stem is totally acoustic and sounds clean, unlike the one used in the released version.
- There are guitars playing in the background of the chorus (as I said before) along with the acoustic piano and subtle strings and that's pretty much it, that part isn't as saturated as the other version with a bunch of instruments playing in the backgorund.
- The beautiful strings that start playing before the 2nd verse aren't not present here.
- Percussion explosions that sound like the ones from the Love Is War demo.
- The general feel of this song is more "raw" as Dr. Luke described it, but only regarding the instrumental, all her vocals are untouched.
- Backing Vocals in the chorus have been decreased, subtle backing harmonies in the last hook.
- It also sounds kind of slow-paced because there are no synths rapidly playing the whole time which is what makes the Single Version sound fast-paced. The lenght of the track is the same, though.
Overall this "Stripped Version" sounds darker in comparision with the Single/Released Version and also more intriguing, that's why I called it a "brighter version of Diamonds".
I'm not sure at this point if this take will be released as either a Bonus Track or "remix", but it's probable that her team decides to release this in a near future, so please avoid asking me to leak it or post a snippet.
In fact you've already heard an awful snippet of this version that was edited to isolate her vocals but the quality was horrible to begin with, the snippet that leaked yesterday.