Freckles

"Freckles"
Demo by Rivers Cuomo
Recorded	2010
Songwriter(s)	Rivers Cuomo, Brendon Urie, Spencer Smith
Status	Unreleased

"Freckles" is a demo written by Rivers Cuomo with Panic! at the Disco frontman Brendon Urie and drummer Spencer Smith. The song is not currently in circulation, but has been described by people who have heard it.

Overview

"Freckles" was written in 2010 after producer Butch Walker introduced Urie and Smith to Cuomo, who had recently worked with Walker on Raditude. The two worked with Cuomo at his home, and wrote the song in a four hour writing session.

The song was demoed and in contention for Panic! At The Disco's then-upcoming album Vices & Virtues, but ultimately went unreleased as more songs were written. Brendon Urie also felt it didn't sound like a Panic! song and thus didn't fit with the rest of the album. It was briefly in contention for Weezer's 2014 album Everything Will Be Alright in the End but, similar to Urie, Rivers Cuomo wasn't sure it felt like a Weezer song and thus wasn't used.

Urie and Cuomo would later collaborate on "Victorious", a single from Panic! At The Disco's 2016 album Death of a Bachelor.

Descriptions

Description by anonymous A&R assistant

Freckles (8/10)

-Interesting synth intro, pretty cool

-Love the “la la la” vocal part

-Verse has got a cool retro 90’s feel

-The vocal melody in the chorus doesn’t grab me as much as the “la la la” part does

-The chorus melody would be the only thing I’d want to change however, rest of the song is really cool.

-Harmonies sound awesome

Description by AllThingsWeezer user the nest

it's so funny that Freckles has popped up here. that was definitely one of my favorite EWBAITE demos, even though it absolutely didn't belong on EWBAITE. in the song, Rivers lyrics use freckles as an analogy to a constellation. The song is about a long distance relationship.

the person is right about the "la la la la's".......at the time i kinda compared it to the intro to Chelsea Dagger from the The Fratellis^[sic], only because the la's grab you right away at the start of the song. however that's the end of the comparison, as Freckles definitely is not a "singalong in the pub, drunk" song the way Chelsea Dagger is & perfects.

the song chugs in the middle which is really cool and kinda heavy. there were so many of these type of songs that you just kind of forget about how great they were. i wouldn't say it was a song that would be some massive single - it wouldn't. but it's a great song that with some heavy guitar & bass added i could actually see fitting on Van Weezer.

although in retrospect i can see his influence, i honestly didn't know that brandon urie was involved with it; Rivers doesn't really let on who he's cowritten a song with until it gets further along & decides to pursue it. i always have thought that's because he doesn't want a big name cowriter attached to a song to influence how the song is initially received in the early demo stage.

Freckles was so catchy & simple the lyrics stuck in my head big time. It's definitely not everything but here's what I remember:

We talk almost every night
And now my battery is dead
I close my eyes to go to sleep
But you're still in my head
I hear you each and every night
I see you when I turn out the light

Your freckles are the dust to a constellation
The distance between where we are
And where we need to be

It's starting to feel like I can't go on
I look at the distance, I want to throw it away
What can I say

Take what you love, what you don't throw to the ground
The air that surrounds me, it's really amazing
It sets me free

Your freckles are the dust to a constellation
The distance between where we are

And where we need to be

See also

• List of Rivers Cuomo songs
• Victorious
• Panic! at the Disco
• Crazy=Genius
• Turn Up the Crazy