Blue Hyrda:
The beat and instrumentation here are very cool. One of my favourites just in terms of ...vibe at least, but the "lyrics" are a real cop out. Just repeating the title over and over again is on the lazy side, IMO. (I'm aware that some people don't care about lyrics, apparently. I'm not one of those people.) I really liked this the first time I listened to it, but on repeat it loses its shine.
Chris Club and the Cabin Fodder:
Love the guitar tracks. The vocals are come in a touch hot. The off kilter doubling is a bit rough to listen to; I'd like those to line up more neatly. The experimentation with panning on the lyrics is unusual but interesting. This is very short. It sounds like the start of a song that you could maybe workshop a bit more.
The Freezing Hands:
That staticky beat at the start is fun. There's something happening with the mix where the volume of that sounds great, but then the lyrics hit and everything drops right down in volume. I enjoy all the instrumentation but the lyrics sound like a first draft and are a a bit lacking in effort for my liking. Cool sounding song in general though.
Hostess Mostess:
Lovely tone on those vocals. It'd be cool to hear this a bit faster and more energetic. That little instrumental break is pretty fun.
Hot Pink Halo:
This is me, with a song about our local racist, conspiracy theory addled bee keeper, who consistently seems to post left wing quotes on social media to justify her growing fascism. Also she has never once un-soured her facial expression or acknowledged me when I've smiled at her dog while out walking. Probably knows I'm an immigrant. Contains real live flute samples recorded through my vocoder pedal, which was immensely fun. My flute's name is Leon the Unprofessional. I bought it in France 10 years ago. I'm going to Paris in two weeks; what souvenir instrument should I buy this time?
Jeff DeSantis:
The lift on the chorus (pre-chorus? it doesn't quite feel entirely like a chorus with "but it all adds up to nothing" as a refrain line) is very swish. I like this one a lot. Grows with multiple listens.
Johnny Cashpoint:
Wait, has someone else done the Optional Challenge!!!?! Maybe I'm just daft, but I think this is the first song other than mine that I've heard a flute on! I like the beat and guitars on this quite a lot. The song itself doesn't really seem to stick with me, not sure why, could be genre bias, could be because the vocals are recorded/mixed in a way that buries them and makes them a bit difficult to parse.
The Pannacotta Army:
I love everything about this except the lyrics. I realise the title of this fight kind of boxes us in a bit to a particular perspective or bent, but the lyrics feel too much like "yucking someone else's yum", for want of a better term. Plus I just very much like Almodovar and, unrelated to that, am thrown for a loop every time I hear the kind of strange pronunciation of his name at the start there.
Rone Rivendale:
You know that you're popping, so it feels redundant for me to say it here, but, oof, those pops! We have some terrible, incredibly cheap microphones at our local open mic. They're very difficult not to pop on, so I've bought a couple for home (literally €12.30 each) and have been practicing my mic technique on them. I find that setting the mic a little lower than my mouth and singing over the top of it from a slight angle is an improvement. Love the little "are you ready? ok" intro part.
Single Pint of Failure:
That little bassline walk up. Chef's kiss. If I were to change anything I'd remix the vocals to be a little warmer and I would also force you to sit down and write the rest of the song.