@Bri_L I only act for fun (both cinema and theatre), but as a professional singer for many years I can tell you about CDs. By the time a CD reaches the shops, I must have heard each song 1000 times, in 20 different versions. I’ve heard it without the piano, with the drums really high, with voice, without voice, with two or three voices, and with a voice that has been so electronically mutated that I don’t recognise it anymore. I’ve heard each song on a variety of different CD players, walkmans, in mp3 format and in my car stereo (which is supposed to be the “ultimate test”).
So as you can imagine, I’m sick and tired of it. When the CD comes out, I’ll make sure not to listen to it for at least a year, maybe longer. I only started listening to my 2003 again in 2007. By which time I could be more objective about it, and try to imagine that it wasn’t mine and judge whether I would have bought something like that. It’s always hard to do that, but after such a long time I think maybe I can do it.
Funnily enough, looking back now makes me a lot stricter and I wish I hadn’t allowed some of the things I did to be published like that. Back then I thought they were “good enough” but now I’d rather go for quality than quantity.