I like the 6/8 shanty vibe the thing starts on. The main motif is really catchy. I think the transition from the beginning to the main melody is a bit too abrupt, mainly because of the change in volume. Like you said it's a bit too messy when it comes to audio leveling, everything seems to be too close together which makes it kind of hard to pick out anything concrete. I really like the arpeggios that start at 1:14, And it really nicely transitions to the same motif but in a different key, which makes it even harder to decipher. Overall I'd sum it up just like how you did, there's a lot of clutter here, but there's enough of the good stuff, like the melody or chords to make me like it a bit. I really like the ending.