On a general note: coming into this, I understood "diss track" pretty narrowly, to the point of looking it up to see if third person would be OK or if it would have to be directed at a "you"! I was also grateful for Niveous's early clarification that rapping was not a necessary part of the challenge.
I really appreciated Chumpy articulating my issue with the lyrics in a lot of these songs--"Also, there is a difference between being angry with someone for legitimately shitty things they've done, verses petty insults designed to disrespect." There's a definite qualitative difference between genuine, heartfelt grievance and the petty ad hominem insults I was expecting. And like Spintown, I was expecting to see pointed, personal insults and not vague societal complaints.
Anyway! Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to write up reviews, and a special thank you to the judges--this is so very labor intensive, and there are so many good contestants in the mix. You have a tough job and I appreciate you all being transparent about your rankings and writing reviews. Also! I apologize in advance if I sound harsh in any of these, I kind of ran out of time to go through and rephrase things. I was impressed by everyone's entries, regardless of whether I sound like it or not--the general quality of Nur Ein entries this year is amazing.
Abominominous: Nice spacious groove, I like that organ sound and the guitars sound great. However, it did kind of overstay its welcome for me... at 3:50 I thought it was about to end and was surprised to find it going on for another minute and a half after that. (But I do like the harmonized lead bit there at the end.) Nice production and performance all around. Lyrics-wise, I think the lyrics are sharp and nicely written, but I don't think I ever would have called this a diss track. I appreciate it but it didn't connect with me personally.
Agony Sauce: Congrats! One of my favorites of this round and 100% a diss track. Great flow and variation in the lyrics and rhythms, funny insults that weren't too nasty, and it was all very clever and personalized (the "where a parrot's gone" rhyme was my favorite) I actually thought more people would take this approach and I briefly considered it but didn't really trust myself not to be actually hurtful. I guess my main complaint about this song is that it's so specific--I doubt it would appeal to anyone not mentioned in it, or even to anyone after this Nur Ein round is over. But since the people mentioned in it are most of the people listening, you played to your audience and it paid off! Well produced too! I like the slower grungey choruses and the speed up and noodling at the end. (Not sure I get what the "pump the brakes" part of the chorus is supposed to actually mean, now that I'm thinking more carefully about it. Glenn telling himself to stop insulting people? But why would he do that? Anyway, it sounds natural and not shoehorned in there.)
Berkeley Social Scene: hmmm... that opening riff is straight out of "Ceremony," but fortunately this goes off into very different territory soon enough that it didn't really bother me. It kind of felt like an awkward speed to me--not quite languid enough to be a slow song and not quite fast enough to be a rocker. The "Ray Charles" verse was great and made me laugh, even though the pedantic part of my mind was like "if you cut off your ear you can still hear stuff!" But the other insults didn't feel too inspired--"you were dumb" is not really going to destroy anyone's ego, you know? I also wish the rhyme scheme were a bit more complex, there were a lot of AAAA (or nearly so) series of rhymes that felt a bit too simple. Good production--I liked those long kind of melancholy guitar leads; and nice use of the prompt as a hook.
Boffo Yux Dudes: One of the songs that actually captured the spirit of the challenge, I thought--I was really pretty entertained and pleased that you decided to go with this theme, particularly for a song due on Mother's Day. The music was poppy and fun to listen to, although it got too repetitive for me after a while, and the phrasing didn't feel very natural for some of the lyrics, like the M&M line. I did not research to see which of these are existing jokes pulled off the Internet and which were originals (like I feel I've seen the "concentrate" joke before, but I still liked it)--either way, the song made me laugh. I particularly liked the scattered digs at the son like "And she’s stupid, too/If she said she loves you" and "she gave birth to you".
Faster Jackalope: What a fucking weird song. I loved it! One of my other favorites of this round. Musically lovely, I really liked the sounds of the banjo and mandolin together. The phrasing in the verses is super awkward (which I kind of figured was a deliberate choice? No rhymes in the first verse and then the Latin medical terms in the second?) but the rhythm of "one belly bump/and keep Olive Oyl warm at night" really pleased me, and "I can't takes no more" was great. I also like that you didn't put on weird novelty voices for this song--it made it far funnier to have these lyrics sung straight. And it's definitely a diss track.
Frankie Big Face: I really like your voice, it's nice to know you're feeling better! Great catchy tune--it feels very iconic. I can see the Bowie comparison someone else mentioned. Parts of the chorus melody kind of reminded me of "The Promise" by When In Rome (in particular, that "We've come a long way baby..." part makes me think of "I'm sorry but I'm just thinking of the right words to say...")--aspects of the production probably had something to do with this too. I didn't love the actual sharpest/dullest lines for a couple of reasons (they felt mean/condescending in a way the other insult lines didn't, and instead of sounding like a double insult it just sounds to me like you're rephrasing the same insult), but I did really love the dullest/fullest/cruelest rhymes and the overall sweet arc of that verse, and the general biting but affectionate timbre of the lyrics. I like the every-other-line chorus thing at the end there too. Personally, I don't think I would really characterize this as a diss track, but it's good stuff.
Grumpy Mike: Great vocals (that deep awooo sounds really rich!); I really appreciate your performance even though I am not a fan of that Chris Cornell style of vocal. Instrumentals are also well performed and the production feels just right for the genre. I appreciated the Jerkatorium podcast discussing this, because I didn't have enough Nur Ein history under my belt to understand this, and spent quite a while trying to figure out what this song had to do with actual reigning champs Merisan. That being said, I appreciate that the lyrics apparently have a lot of specific references, but they are all worked in very naturally--nothing stuck out to me as being shoehorned in. I'm 50-50 on how much of a diss track this is--the attitude is definitely right, but the actual insults seem kind of thin on the ground; much more of it is about the challenge to the target.
IVeg (shadow): Really enjoyed the verse lyrics--I think you have a gift for vivid character studies and interesting, poetic phrasing. "She thinks she's so hot but she's not" felt overly simplistic to me, even if it's supposed to be a play on the whole winter metaphor. It also seems to be the only real diss in the lyrics--the rest just felt like description to me. Love the melody in the chorus, it was a nice use of the title and it's catchy, I think with a slicker production it could feel like a lost new wave synthpop gem. Do sleds have brakes? Actually, don't you live in Hawaii? Maybe I shouldn't be asking you. It snowed here like 3 weeks ago.
Lichen Throat (shadow): I've really been enjoying the productions you have been putting together for Nur Ein! I like the arrangement for this one, it has some nice movement and lead melodies; instrumentally, it reminds me a bit of some song off The Magnetic Fields' "Charm of the Highway Strip"--I'm thinking "When The Open Road Is Closing In" but not 100% sure if that's the one. The vocals have some good moments--"telescopic philanthropy" and the end of that verse from "Mrs. Jellyby" to "in your town" were delivered quite nicely, although there are also still a number of pitchy or off-time vocal parts elsewhere that could use some work. Good lyrics, I like that this is a fairly scathing diss track presented in an understated, 19th-century sort of way, and I'm enjoying seeing you flesh out your Bleak House concept album, even though I've never read the book.
Lucky Spoon: Sorry to see you're out--I hope you keep submitting shadow entries. I thought this song delightful and your ranking was unjust! (Although it was also probably more a reflection of how many good submissions there were this round than of yours not being up to par.) Quirky, charming, and distinctive, excellent vocal performances throughout (shoutouts to the mouth trumpet, I LOVED the mouth trumpet; the spoken word in the middle, which was delivered really cleanly; and the background wailing behind the 2nd chorus, which I'm not sure I've seen anyone mention yet but it's GREAT!) I also really enjoyed the positive message and the "diss-tracktion" pun; I thought the lyrics were well put together in general--although I would not have categorized this as a diss track either.
Mandibles: Sorry to see you guys go! And I hope you do shadow entries! I love the sound of those electric guitar arpeggios! Lots of story here, and lots of disses! The vocals aren't really up to what I would consider your usual standards, they seemed a bit pitchy and oddly restrained. I wish you'd posted the lyrics, I probably missed some stuff; but I liked some of these insults a lot, like the bit about "ask the sound guy to leave you out of the mix" and the "driving 54" part. The "psychoanalysis" and "malice is" lines felt kind of clunky, as did the syllabification verse, but i couldn't quite make those lyrics out so perhaps it was intentional there. I thought the "We clash over money..." part was really nicely written and delivered, the words just tumbled out there in a really pleasing way. The little burst of drums at the end confused me.
Max Bombast: This song is really catchy and memorable--it's been periodically stuck in my head since listening to it, and I'm not sure I can say that about anyone else's songs I heard this round, no matter how much I liked them at the time of listening. I like the singing, BUT I cannot sign on for the "P-P-P-Pow" bit, I just have this visceral dislike for it stylistically.
Merisan: Gorgeous harmonies and shimmery guitars, this was really beautifully put together and I really enjoyed listening to this. (Side note--I couldn't really figure out what it was supposed to be about as I Googled "12000 years" and ended up finding a bunch of articles about a comet crashing into the Earth.) Minor complaints: it didn't seem to go a whole lot of different places musically, and it seemed to end rather abruptly, so I'm not sure how many repeat listens it would hold up to for me, but the first however-many listens have been very enjoyable so maybe I'm just making up imaginary complaints by Future Owl. It's also not really much of a diss track to my ears. But whatever, it is lovely and dreamy, and hooray for smashing the patriarchy!
Nick Soma: All the instruments sound great, love that bass! and the funky guitars! and the percussion! (so much vibraslap!) "Listen to the rain fall..." has a wonderful melody, but I liked it more than the actual "pump the brakes" chorus. I appreciated the explanation of what the track was about as I had a bunch of half-baked theories about Charlie Sheen and Trump and Reagan. You have some wonderful-sounding turns of phrase in the lyrics, like "phlegmatic sheen," "almost anesthetized," "Show off your bling-bling, there goes a Persian king/but to me he's just a peasant" but I thought the rhymes for "brake" seemed a bit too obvious. (I say this having put the exact same "mistake" rhyme in our song too, so pot, kettle, etc; but I think repeating it so many times pushes it to the forefront.) Some good disses in here.
Rachael Layne: Great vocal performance, and I really loved the melodies in the prechorus and chorus. instrumentation sounds great, I like the little guitar licks and runs between vocal lines, there's a particular ascending bit that sounds slightly dissonant and I really dig it. Lots of disses! However, I kind of wished they were more creative; things like "you're an idiot and a loser" are insulting but not terribly specific. The "buffoon" part is controversial but I liked it! But I will admit it doesn't seem like it fits into the rest of the song stylistically. (Maybe take it out for the radio edit?)
Rain Watt: I haven't gotten a chance to finish writing up reviews of any earlier rounds, so I haven't gotten the chance to say this yet, but I wanted to tell you I have been super impressed with your songs so far and they've been favorites every time--they're just totally up my alley genre-wise; and they are catchy, thoughtfully produced and well written and performed, and feel honest and heartfelt. This is no exception. My main complaint about this song is just the thing I mentioned up at the top of the review, that I wouldn't call this a "diss track" so much as a song expressing justifiable rage. And the phrasing "I don't think that that is fine" feels slightly awkward to me, also. But in general I just really loved this song. I like the little parts where your voice feels like it's cracking from the intensity, and the lyrics from "i'm not saying that you killed someone..." to "...i hope you have no-one left" are brutal. Just keep doing what you're doing! If you are actually 23, I'm kind of mad that you're only 23 and making such ridiculously good music!
The Sunday Colors: I am also going to give you a shout-out for being right up my alley and making music I am really loving. The bareness of G&G arrangements means you don't have anywhere to hide shabby songwriting or performances; and this one sounds really good, nicely recorded and performed. I love the Mountain Goats and this is VERY Mountain Goats-y (right down to mentioning Dilaudid!) but with better singing. (Sorry, John Darnielle!) Great storytelling, harrowing and sad story told with evocative lyrics, and I love hearing the ringing out of the open strings with your intense strumming. And I like the little exhausted breath you left in there at the end. Main complaint is the same one as above, it's not quite what I'd call a diss track. I think you had my favorite lyrics this round (well, maybe a tie between yours and Agony Sauce's, but your songs don't really exist in the same universe, so I can have two favorites.)
Third Cat: I really enjoyed the specificity of your lyrics this time, and there are parts of the melody I really liked, like "leave me alone/don't even call me on the phone". Some of the other parts of the melody just wouldn't stay in my head. The vocals seem a bit too loud. As usual, I like your creative use of effects, although the production as a whole didn't grab me (might be the vocals drowning it out). I feel like it's not a diss track so much as a description of a nasty character, but there's some good vitriol in here, those last lines in particular. I just looked at your notes and saw you weren't happy with your vocal performance, but I didn't notice any issues...?
Ujn Hunter and Friends: I wish this got a bit louder and bigger--I know you can do that well, and it felt like you were holding back, or something. I'm apparently in the minority, but the prechorus where this drops back to just vocals and guitar strums didn't really work for me, vox/guitar didn't sound coordinated, but less in a devil-may-care punk rock way and more in an amateurish way. I do really like the vocals and the guitar solo, which is full of attitude. (Can I say that about a guitar solo? I will say it anyway.) So-so on the diss meter. I liked the verses more than the choruses, but the chorus is pretty catchy.
Vowl Sounds: I think VV was slightly dreading this challenge, but I guess I'm more mean-spirited than him. Or maybe just more American and willing to be rude. But I relished the process of coming up with some nasty things to say! And I loved the power pop instrumental Vom came up with and all the dynamic arrangement changes and flourishes once we got the structure settled--my favorite little touch is the triumphant synth note heading into the chorus after the "fine and empty space" break.
Also, my dumb cat wouldn't leave me alone when I was trying to record vocals for this, and I ran out of time to listen back to all my tracks before sending them over to Vom Vorton Saturday night, so I just attached three takes of the main vocal track and asked him to check for cat sounds and try to comp together the good takes. Attached for your enjoyment is an outtake he sent back, "Pump The Catnip" ft. Miss Lily Kitty. And cat tax.
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