Here are some reviews by me. I'll give you points for four different categories (composition, lyrics, performance, and production). These overlap sometimes; your choice of instrumentation, for example, can affect the composition as well as the performance category. You can get a maximum of 40 points for these four categories. Additionally, you can gain bonus points for general creativity (maximum 5 points) and for the way you fulfilled the challenge (maximum 5 points as well). If you 100% failed to pass the challenge, you will get 10 negative points challenge bonus. (None of the songs in round zero are affected by this.)
So, basically, you can get up to 50 points altogether, and my ranking will be based on these points.
bgm
Composition: 9/10
Lyrics: 10/10
Performance: 10/10
Production: 9/10
Creativity bonus: 2
Challenge bonus: 0
You manage to make the eductional lyric sound rhythmic and catchy, which is a big plus in my book. Solid composition, performance and production as well. No challenge bonus though, as I wouldn't call this an "origin story" (it talks a lot about the Emergency Broadcast System, but little about its actual origin) - this is just a minor flaw. Good song.
BSS
Composition: 8/10
Lyrics: 7/10
Performance: 6/10
Production: 8/10
Creativity bonus: 2
Challenge bonus: 1
I liked this song lyrically, but I'm unsure as to whether it's an "origin story". It's a good song, and I enjoy your singing as well, but the bass guitar (?) during the choruses gets on my nerves after a short while. What exactly are you doing there? Sounds like slapping, but weird, somehow. Also, I am not sure if trying to make a song fit two titles is a good idea. This one feels like a "Baked Out of My Gourd" song rather than a "This Is Not a Test" one. Still, solid composition, good singing and playing, nice lyrics, not bad.
Boffo Yux Dudes
Composition: 3/10
Lyrics: 4/10
Performance: 4/10
Production: 6/10
Creativity bonus: 2
Challenge bonus: 0
Not an origin story, once again (except for the spoken bridge). So no challenge bonus. This song doesn't have anything memorable in it, to me, apart from the "James Brown style breakdown", which is... um... strange. It gives you a creativity bonus though.
Cavedwellers
Composition: 6/10
Lyrics: 8/10
Performance: 7/10
Production: 9/10
Creativity bonus: 3
Challenge bonus: 4
Nice lyrics again, somehow transcending the concept of "origin story". It's an interesting way to meet the challenge, so I'll give you a nice challenge bonus! The recording, production, and performance sounds solid, but I wish it were a bit catchier. It doesn't stay in my head for long. This is why I gave you fewer composition points. The song still sticks out from most of the others - and I know what you are capable of. Looking forward to your round one entry
Cybronica
Composition: 6/10
Lyrics: 0/10
Performance: 2/10
Production: 3/10
Creativity bonus: 1
Challenge bonus: ?
If you don't post lyrics, you are lazy. It's not hard and it saves you from getting zero lyric points by me. Since this round's challenge is of a lyrical nature, you get no challenge bonus either. Posting your lyrics probably wouldn't have helped much in this case, though. I'm sorry, but I dislike not only your chosen style of singing, but also those synths... ugh. Didn't enjoy the messy ending either. You get a few additional composition points for your melody, which is cool. Better luck next round! And don't forget to post your lyrics!
DJ Ranger Den
Composition: 8/10
Lyrics: 7/10
Performance: 8/10
Production: 8/10
Creativity bonus: 5
Challenge bonus: 4
I enjoy your singing and piano. Somewhat jazzy, which I like. Production is fine as well, and your lyrics are charming and funny as usual. Cool way to meet the challenge as well, which gives you a nice bonus. Keep up the good work.
DuToVa
Composition: 5/10
Lyrics: 7/10
Performance: 5/10
Production: 7/10
Creativity bonus: 3
Challenge bonus: 4
Cool bass. The lyric and vocal performance is really stupid, but OK for a round zero entry. I am glad to see your production has improved from last year; I faintly remember some of your songs from back then to suffer from digital clipping or something like that. Also, you get a challenge bonus of 4 points because I liked your meta lyrics. An origin song about itself. Nice. Oh, and did I already say that your bass is cool?
Grumpy Mike
Composition: 5/10
Lyrics: 8/10
Performance: 8/10
Production: 7/10
Creativity bonus: 1
Challenge bonus: 4
Standard rock song. I like your vocals and everything here, it doesn't particularly stick out from the other songs though. This clearly qualifies as origin story, and it's a cool one, so you get a fat challenge bonus.
iVeg
Composition: 8/10
Lyrics: 8/10
Performance: 7/10
Production: 4/10
Creativity bonus: 2
Challenge bonus: 3
Listening to this with headphones, your voice does that digital clipping dearly behated by any audiophile. Production would have been OK otherwise, but I had to rate you down a few points there. I like your lyric though. It's slightly pretentious at places ("A voice from the midst of quiet", "Poetry in stolen moments"), but that's cool to me; as a prog fan (yes, right) I am used to that.
Everything else is pretty good, nice guitar, too. Feels very organic compared to some of your synth-heavier songs, and that's a good thing. Catchy tune, singalong chorus. There is a certain nasal quality to your vocal performance I don't like very much, but I guess that's just your natural singing voice, so it's OK.
Ken Mahru
Composition: 5/10
Lyrics: 0/10
Performance: 7/10
Production: 8/10
Creativity bonus: 1
Challenge bonus: ?
Sorry, no points for lyrics because none were posted. (Title was included sufficiently.) I warned you - you snooze, you lose.
Nice guitar, but not very interesting. This is a typical round zero entry to me. As with the Cavedwellers' song - you can do some really good songs, and I don't doubt you'll do so in the next rounds. Looking forward to Boilermaker.
Levittdown
Composition: 6/10
Lyrics: 5/10
Performance: 2/10
Production: 5/10
Creativity bonus: 0
Challenge bonus: ?
I like the intro. I hate the autotune. This makes you lose a lot of points for performance, and production as well. Weird lyrics which, I'm afraid, I don't quite get. Does it qualify as "origin story"? Not sure.
Micah Sommersmith
Composition: 8/10
Lyrics: 9/10
Performance: 8/10
Production: 7/10
Creativity bonus: 5
Challenge bonus: 4
Harp bonus: 1
Weeeeeeeiiiiiiiird genre change, man. Weird Al on speed. And if you exaggerate it a bit more, you'll sound like System of a Down doing Vicinity of Obscenity, or whatever (you can count that as praise). It's a bit long-winded to me, but I like your accordion. And your harp. If that's a harp. This is super creative, so huge bonus.
Michael J. Samuels
Composition: 7/10
Lyrics: 0/10
Performance: 6/10
Production: 7/10
Creativity bonus: 1
Challenge bonus: ?
Sounds like it starts and stops all the time. Is this Nur Ein VII, round 2? Nah, it isn't. Also, posting lyrics isn't
that hard, is it? That being said, this is a nice harmless little tune. I prefer your more shoegaze-y stuff though. Needs more reverb. (No, not cowbell.)
Paco del Stinko
Composition: 8/10
Lyrics: 10/10
Performance: 8/10
Production: 8/10
Creativity bonus: 4
Challenge bonus: 4
I laughed out loud at your lyric. The challenge is fulfilled quite creatively - huge bonus. Also, cool guitar solo and everything. Good Paco stuff.
Pepper Jane
Composition: 8/10
Lyrics: 8/10
Performance: 6/10
Production: 5/10
Creativity bonus: 1
Challenge bonus: 2
The "ad lib" part is funny. Apart from that, it sounds a bit thin, perhaps because it's only G&G (that's guy'n'guitar, or girl'n'guitar in your case, if you don't know the term). But it's OK.
Potato Dentata
Composition: 7/10
Lyrics: 7/10
Performance: 7/10
Production: 6/10
Creativity bonus: 2
Challenge bonus: 1
You don't eat that potato, that potato eats you! G&G again, and not really an origin story, again. I feel like I don't need to mention the latter anymore. I like the chords/guitar melody during the verses. There's a tritone in there, right? I like it when people are creative with their chords.
Rabid Garfunkel
Composition: 3/10
Lyrics: 1/10
Performance: 8/10
Production: 6/10
Creativity bonus: 5
Challenge bonus: 3
Ugliness bonus: 2
The intro really makes you sit up and listen. It's a really ugly song, super ugly, uglier-than-thou, ugly to the max. Therefore, you get an ugliness bonus. I enjoy listening to this. I enjoy listening to early TMBG Dial-A-Song demoes, Throbbing Gristle, and the most experimental Animal Collective stuff as well, which is to your advantage here. Keep doing your weird thing.
RankCorps
Composition: 2/10
Lyrics: 0/10
Performance: 2/10
Production: 4/10
Creativity bonus: 1
Challenge bonus: ?
Ah, we have some fartcore here. I'm talkin' 'bout that big fat farty bass line. This is the bad ugly, as opposed to Rabid's good ugly. Distorted vocals + no lyrics posted makes for a nice listening experience especially when trying to rank the lyric. Thankfully, I don't have to bother with that, I just give you zero lyric points. Cool, huh?
Solo Frijoles
Composition: 7/10
Lyrics: 9/10
Performance: 8/10
Production: 8/10
Creativity bonus: 4
Challenge bonus: 4
I like the guitar here. This is not your best song, but good enough for a round zero entry. Lyric is especially well done and gives you a bonus.
Strangely Brown
Composition: 8/10
Lyrics: 7/10
Performance: 5/10
Production: 8/10
Creativity bonus: 3
Challenge bonus: 4
I understand that rugby is very dear to you, but it's only remotely interesting to me, and this song suffers from being too long. I was unsure which one of my four categories should reflect this, but I eventually decided it to be a "performance" issue, so that's the reason why I gave you fewer points there. I like the spoken word though, it's hard to pull it off without sounding super cheesy. You get a creativity bonus for it. Also, this is definitely an origin story, so I'll give you a challenge bonus, too.
Zack Facco
Composition: 2/10
Lyrics: 2/10
Performance: 1/10
Production: 3/10
Creativity bonus: 1
Challenge bonus: 0
Lyric doesn't rhyme, has no recognizable rhythm and is not an "origin story". Sounds like it was copied from some book or whatever. The backing music doesn't help, either. Alfred Nobel's life surely is interesting; this song is not. Sorry, but I don't like this.