Oh Roz. Of course you couldn't resist.
Firstly, our tastes in mixes and sounds is very different. With that in mind, I disagree with about half of your feedback.
I am fine with repetition. Repetition in dance music is vital - just like a drum loop. The arrangement is very close to the original with a few more repititions of the source. That's how it was made. That's what I had in mind when I was mixin' it. If that's not kewl with u, ok.
You don't think the lead is pretty? I do. I love that sound. It's one of my faves. I tried the bass without a slight reverb. Sounded like crap. Dimension expander seemed like it belonged with that sound. I couldn't find a clap/snare I liked, so I took a mediocre one and played it twice, stretching out the sounds to catch the ear. I'm not a fan of 1hit-and-then-it's-over snares. Or drum snares for that matter. And pads = no no. Pads don't belong in a club, yo. Only in chill and trance. IMO.
My goal in a dance mix is to have a BADASS kick, so of course, I overpower it. On purpose. The kick is the heartbeat of the track. The blood pumper. You spend 25% of your mixing time getting your bass kick right. I SUCK at mixing the bass kick and the bass. I know that. It's a flaw I have. But the bass kick is overpowering. And I like it that way. Again, it's cool if you don't. I like to feel that mutha in my STOMACHE even at low volume.
I heavily side-chained the melody because I felt like some of the notes that were on the beat weren't as important as the ones off-beat. I would have killed them all off (melody notes on the beat) for a more interesting perspective, but I didn't like the sound. Needed some of them to stay, so I kept all of em. At a lower velocity on the beat.
Now for the parts I agree with. I agree that the sounds stay the same, and that there are very little buildups/filters/dynamic changes. That's something I struggle with as well. Yeah I can work on that. That's some good feedback. Arps and gates = WIN. Yes I very well could have added a sexy arp or gate at the end for a sparkle. Great idea. When I wrote the track I just added 8 instruments in from start to finish. That very well could have been 15 or even 20, with the instruments/elements coming in at specified times for more interesting sounds/buildups.
Thank you for your interesting and somewhat superfluous feedback.