Fly Me Over Yesterday (High Enough Reviews)

[Geoff WreckdoM]

All The Way

[Lonbobby]

Hey guys, just wanted to say before reviews get under way that my instrumental was made following all the rules and was inspired by the title. It's 4:20 in length and also check out the range of the piano part. Thanks!

Lon

[jack]

4:20 in length

and it's called "high enough". fair enough.

[blake walker]

4:20 in length

and it's called "high enough". fair enough.

now you're catchin' on XD

[Gemini6Ice]

Hey guys, just wanted to say before reviews get under way that my instrumental was made following all the rules and was inspired by the title. It's 4:20 in length and also check out the range of the piano part. Thanks!

Lon

Haha, I can't wait to hear it.

[Jim of Seattle]

I will not provide it, but I certainly hope Lonnie gets plenty of CRAP for submitting an instrumental, and that it turns into a big discussion of why for some reason instrumentals are frowned upon.

I mean so I'm not the only one.

[erik]

I will not provide it, but I certainly hope Lonnie gets plenty of CRAP for submitting an instrumental, and that it turns into a big discussion of why for some reason instrumentals are frowned upon.

I mean so I'm not the only one.

Sheesh, maybe it's because you preemptively defend your instrumentals against imaginary hypothetical naysayers, which actually calls more attention to your instrumentals and makes people want to naysay them, since they're already being accused of it.

[Gemini6Ice]

I will not provide it, but I certainly hope Lonnie gets plenty of CRAP for submitting an instrumental, and that it turns into a big discussion of why for some reason instrumentals are frowned upon.

I mean so I'm not the only one.

Sheesh, maybe it's because you preemptively defend your instrumentals against imaginary hypothetical naysayers, which actually calls more attention to your instrumentals and makes people want to naysay them, since they're already being accused of it.

Metacausality seizure!

[blue]

blake walker, all posting a song! right on, man. nintendo-free for 1 week and counting.

see you at the meetings.

[j$]

Blake Walker - nice glitter stomp, like the lolloping bass. Great vocal tone. Don't so sure about the double-tracking. And I wish the chorus stood out a little more. Maybe the music should get louder there rather than quieter. I get the feeling that you were going for NIN, but electro-stomp will do very nicely. Is this samples or played live? It has a live feel but something about the mix makes me wonder if it's looped up? Doesn't matter either way, it's good.

Deshead - this is lovely in a country-rock stylee. Nice work. I see deserts and cowboy hats. Five in a row?

King Arthur KA goes funky! Don't like the name-checks to the other fights, but otherwise great stuff. I like the weird breakdown at 'my highs aren't high enough' very much. Good bass work sir.

Lonbobby - heh, I like how you're so upfront in your tags! Great moody start. I get the transition but I much prefer the start to the more electronic end. Uplifting in an odd way. Smart.

Manhattan Glutton - I like pretty much all MG stuff I hear. This is suitably trippy and different. I am not sure the rock stylings of the vocal is a good choice, because it goes a little Bon Jovi from that point in (on a steel horse I ride and all that) but way to confound the genres! Nice wah in the background.

MoG - Bass is not loud enough! I know what this song is about! OK, in-jokes out of the way ... I like this song, but I think the guitar player should keep away from the bass notes ... ha ...

MC Crapalot - Not for me. I like poor june, singing high, on an acoustic guitar. The other facets of his personality don't really appeal to me.

Rik Gerblick - oh, metal! Shake that poodle hair A little muddy in the mix, but this is quite catchy, with some nice singing for the genre, and I like the chorus a lot. Not bad, not bad at all.

Wreckdom - I plead the fifth. Actually i quite like this one, as it sounds like 'early' wreckdom, only with better production values. I still don't find it funny though. I am clearly missing the point. [/blank stare]

Deshead or King Arthur - I am going to vote for KA, because it is as good as Deshead's, and I think if someone as shit as me can win a songfight, it's about time King Arthur won many more. Who's with me?

[nyjm]

i'm having a very comparitive day with these reviews.

<b>Blake Walker</b> sounds like: marilyn manson
- sounds like a demo for mr. brian warner; the vocal melody and guitar riff are so familiar it's driving me up a wall not to be able to find the matching manson tune
- while this similarity is slightly annoying, the song really rocks out; a great way to open up this fight
- robo drums? the little drum break after the bridge sounds thin; there should be more driving low end on those skins

<b>Deshead</b> sounds like: the rembrandts
- lovely guitar sound, very warm but remains crisp
- really love the lyrics in the second verse
- its the vocal harmonies on the the chorus that evoke the rembrandts for me, or maybe the gin blossoms

<b>King Arthur</b> sounds like: king arthur
- great riff
- bonus points for including every single title for this week!
- the bridge/mid-section should differentiate itself more from the rest of the song; i would suggest rocking out (louder, faster) at this point, to give the song a little more immediacy

<b>Lonbobby</b> sounds like: tori amos
- when did tori amos join song fight?
- great change up there around 0:50
- this is fabulous; beyond the 4:20 length (which it took me a while to catch; i'm slow), the music also seems to evoke hills and valleys with its constant changes

<b>Manhattan Glutton</b> sounds like: candlebox
- great vocal harmonies
- the panned guitars are schizophrenic
- the lead vocal is too nasal

<b>Masters of Grip</b> sounds like: early beatles
- people tell me this a lot, but i have pass it on: in-to-na-tion; the singing slides all the place, but manages somehow to cling to a single note. it's therefore monotonous and out of tune.
- nice guitar solo

<b>MC Crapalot</b> sounds like: cheech and chong
- hehe
- but superfluous

<b>Rik Gerblick</b> sounds like: sammy hagar-era van halen
- bring the vox up a little; the edges are buried
- the music is fabulous; love the tone on the lead guitar
- an interesting mix of hard-rock guitar with a very pop-music melody; radio-friendly

<b>WreckdoM</b> sounds like: somethig on "the crow" soundtrack
- intro: i'm officially freaked out now
- i think some kind of effects (a la marilyn manson or coil) would be good on the vox

while i don't usually declare my vote, i think i'm with j$ on this one, especially since king arthur was the only tune i couldn't associate with anything (and believe me, i really tried.)

[Stevie Windsor]

but I think the guitar player should keep away from the bass notes ... ha

The bass player should have the top two strings on his bass removed to keep him in his proper place. He'll be wanting to hog the centre stage position next.

[j$]

Well, i am the photogenic one

[Andy Balham]

Well, i am the photogenic one

And I can't help being born with a can of beer on my face!

[king_arthur]

The old guy sez:

<b>Blake Walker</b>

In general, this is harder rock than I usually care for, but it's
very well recorded and everybody's in time and in tune, so I kinda
dug it. The different vocal sounds work together well, too.
Keeper.

<b>Deshead</b>

Nice sound, like the singing voice. Harmonies are sweet... okay,
I think I picked the right fight to be in to protect my "most fights
without a win" streak... unless J$ manages to friend-flood me or
something. This is really good. Definite keeper.

<b>King Arthur</b>

I've been working on trying to strip down my sound a little bit -
a lot of my previous songs used two guitars (or guitar and piano)
panned hard, which, with all the other instruments, made for a
messy mix. I've fired one of the guitar players to give the bass
player a little more room to be melodic...

<b>Lonbobby</b>

I appreciate you posting that you were doing an instrumental; I
don't object to instrumentals in songfight, just generally don't
vote for them 'cause I'm a words person. I'm not wild about the
drum kit sound you chose, but I like the song altogether... like
the way it rises and falls dynamically, I like it when the strings
come in. This is what an instrumental song should be - it keeps
changing and evolving to hold my interest. Keeper.

<b>Manhattan Glutton</b>

Even though the vocals are "high enough" in the mix, there are
words in the first couple lines that I still can't understand.
Maybe sneak a little more 1-4k into the eq on the lead vocal or
something. Basically, whenever the countermelody comes in, I lose
track of what the lead vocalist is singing. Maybe that backing
vocal line just needs to be mixed way lower. That probably sounds
really picky, but with the vocal mixed up front like this, it sends
a signal that "the words are going to be important here," and then
when I can't understand some of the critical words - "Once I broke
down in a ???" - it kinda bugs me. Keeper, though - please post
the lyrics to the lyrics thread if you haven't already, for when
I get around to listening again...

<b>Masters of Grip</b>

It sounds to me like you're singing at the bottom edge of your
vocal range, and I wonder if the vocal would've been less "pitchy"
if you'd moved the whole thing up a third or so, and if that made
it too high for the backing vocals, they're kinda expendable
anyway. In a lesser fight, this coulda been a keeper... it's a
good song, the vocal performance just doesn't do it for me. I
am saving this one in my "songs it might be fun to hxaro someday"
folder...

<b>MC Crapalot</b>

Okay, I guess somebody had to take this approach... it doesn't
quite work for me because, while you managed to capture the "really
high guys trying to make a song" vibe, what really makes something
like this work is if there was some clever thought put into the
writing of the song that tells us (the listener) something about
the main character that the main character doesn't even realize
he's telling us. Sort of a second level of meaning, and I didn't
pick up on that happening here.

<b>Rik Gerblick</b>

I like the dynamic variation between the different parts of the
song. Wish there'd been a little more variation in the chord
pattern at the start... or if you'd used the chorus chords for
the intro rather than the verse ones... okay, I think that's a
"double verse" at the start, so you could've even inserted a
couple other chords between the two verses. Overall, I like the
song, like your voice (wish it was mixed a little higher, but
that's the old guy talking)... it just started out very repetitive
musically, and by the time you started giving us some different
chord patterns, my mind had already decided it was very repetitive.
Keeper.

<b>WreckdoM</b>

I'm currently taking courses in "interdisciplinary arts" at ASU,
and one of my first-semester discoveries was that most of the
teachers there are artsy types who want people to be doing very
weird stuff like this... which I think you guys have really
mastered. Unfortunately, it's a style that doesn't particularly
appeal to me, but then I used to feel that way about jazz, too.
Sometime this fall, I think I'm gonna have to just sit down and
listen to the entire WreckdoM catalog and develop an understanding
of what this music is and what goes into creating it. Props to
you guys for sticking with what you set out to do.


Wow, an incredibly strong fight - fight of the week for me,
definitely. I'm voting for myself (I know some people consider
that uncool, but, believe it or not, I actually would like to win
this thing some day), but won't be surprised if deshead winds up
the winner again this week...

Charles

[Jim of Seattle]

Again with the recorded reviews:

Blake Walker
http://www.jimowen.org/Songfight/Review ... ding41.wav
Deshead
http://www.jimowen.org/Songfight/Review ... ding42.wav
Lonbobby
http://www.jimowen.org/Songfight/Review ... ding43.wav
Manhattan Glutton
http://www.jimowen.org/Songfight/Review ... ding44.wav
Masters of Grip
http://www.jimowen.org/Songfight/Review ... ding45.wav
MC Crapalot
http://www.jimowen.org/Songfight/Review ... ding46.wav
Rik Gerblick
http://www.jimowen.org/Songfight/Review ... ding47.wav
WreckdoM
http://www.jimowen.org/Songfight/Review ... ding48.wav
King Arthur
http://www.jimowen.org/Songfight/Review ... ding49.wav

[deshead]

Deshead
http://www.jimowen.org/Songfight/Review ... ding42.wav

Heh, thanks very much Jim. Great review.

(And FWIW, the "oatmeal" at the end was intentional. I wanted something lush that sounds a little different every time you listen to it, rather than a more conventional guitar solo. Though judging by your thoughts on the rest of the track, maybe I put my song at odds with itself.)

I've fired one of the guitar players

Heh, did you at least secure his vote first?

[king_arthur]

I've fired one of the guitar players

Heh, did you at least secure his vote first?

Actually, the one we let go of is the one who actually gets around to listening and voting occasionally. The one we kept is the one who is so far behind on even listening to the new songs that this is the first time in about two months he's actually voted for anybody (and, FWIW, if I don't have time to at least listen to all the songs in a fight, I don't vote).

Yeah, I know, a better man would have voted for you. I'm sorry.

Charles

[roymond]

I've fired one of the guitar players to give the bass
player a little more room to be melodic...

You are ruthless and heartless. Wait until the union hears about this!

[Rik]

A little muddy in the mix

Yeah, the mix is terrible. I over-compressed everything so I could boost the overall volume of the track. The first mix sounded better, but was too quiet.

- the music is fabulous; love the tone on the lead guitar

Thanks, I'm still trying to find the 'right' recorded guitar tone for me. Crunchy and distorted, yet still clear enough to hear the melody and not just sound like fuzz (I believe the term is 'Beefy'). I appreciate the nod on the lead tone.

Rik Gerblick
http://www.jimowen.org/Songfight/Review ... ding47.wav

That's no lead vocalist, that's just me. Unfortunately, there is no band, again just me. But to be honest, thats due to the inability to find a good drummer. Thanks for the compliments on performance. As for song content, well yeah, nothing special. But that's why I'm here, better songwriting through the practice of writing and reviewing songs every week.


Thanks for the reviews so far. I've listened to a couple of the entries in my fight already, but haven't had a chance to hear all the songs for this week. Reviews to come...

[SaxManRunning!]

You've won a few fights havent you king arthur (charles)?

I thought I remembered you winning the last time there were three categories.

[j$]

No, he hasn't - and it's a travesty, imo. But the more I say it, the more I curse it, so I'll shut up.