I figured I should finally finish writing up my reviews tonight since shortly I'll be on to listening to the next round's songs... lots of good stuff here! I feel like I called every other song one of my favorites, haha. Also I wrote these up alphabetically so I apologize in advance to anyone towards the end of the alphabet who got short shrift.
Agony Sauce: I loved this one, one of my favorites of the round. (This song grew on me--the first time through I felt like it was a bit long, but I enjoyed it more every time I came back to it.) I thought it was really inventive and distinctive musically--I loved the jerky rhythms, including those kind of single-word stabs in the vocals, and the descending prechorus melodic line. The chiptune stuff worked really well and it was well performed and produced. I like this even more after hearing mo's original song this was sampled from--the vocal hook fit perfectly into the song, but was also radically transformed from the original (which was also cool, but 180 degrees from this track). Minor complaints: I found the lyrics pretty vague, but this was so enjoyable musically I didn't really care. The break didn't feel as interesting to me as the rest of the song, but it's short, so no big deal.
BSS: I love that bubbly intro synth riff, it's super tasty! The song itself as a whole felt a bit generic and just doesn't really grab me as much as your guys' last entry, though (which I don't know if I'll manage to get around to reviewing, so I will just mention here for now that I thought it was great). The harmonies are excellent, but the lead vocal sounds like it's in a somewhat awkward range, it seemed a bit strained to me. The lyrics were nicely structured, and I liked the advertisement concept, but I wasn't a fan of the simple "cry/goodbye"-type rhymes, and there were a few kinda clunky phrases in there like "an injustice she could never rid" and "trusting anyone remained so fraught." (Also, this is not any fault of yours, obviously, but I felt a bunch of entries for this round used the same "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" memory-wiping idea, and it ended up feeling less inventive than it would have otherwise. Fortunately, your song was first alphabetically, so it was still fresh when I listened to yours
)
Faster Jackalope: This is fun and inventive, I really liked the pedal-related, off-kilter lyrics, and the choruses are ultra catchy and satisfying. However, the prechoruses just sounded messy to me, and I'm not a huge fan of the verses stylistically--they reminded me at first of children's songs and then, weirdly, of various Offspring songs where they do that kind of off-key singsongy thing over sparse instrumentation, like "Self Esteem" and "Why Don't You Get a Job". Not that this song sounds a lot like the Offspring, but it's one of those things that I couldn't unhear. I didn't really care for the use of the chiptune elements musically for the most part--the synths were a bit piercing, and I wasn't a fan of the way it followed the vocal line in the verses. But I did love the arpeggio in the Latin Bridge (and the whole existence of the Latin Bridge!) The English Bridge felt maybe unnecessary, and I thought the vocals there seemed a bit pitchy. (For the record, glennny, that was the only vocal issue I thought was worth commenting on... I know you mentioned thinking your vocals would be a problem but I thought they sounded good!) The part with the dropout to acoustic guitar was a nice touch. Anyway, on the whole, I thought this was a weird charmer, and thought it would do better in the rankings than it did! But glad to see you're in with a shadow for the next fight, I look forward to hearing it.
Frankie Big Face: Nice use of the Pac-Man death sound! This song was well put together and had a good groove. I liked that prechorus melody a lot, very hooky. However, I didn't care for the lyrics, which kind of turned me off to the song in general... the link of the "no memory" part to the rest of the lyrics seemed tenuous, and "childishly obsessed gamer" just seemed like a really shallow stereotype to make a whole song about--silly, but not quite silly enough to be funny to me. Prosody and rhyme-wise it worked really well, although a few words felt like they were just put in there to fit the rhyme scheme or meter--like "you think you're pretty smug" struck me as odd--usually nobody thinks they're smug, right? Someone else thinks they're smug. Or the Macintosh computer, which fits in beautifully syllable-wise, but... see Spintown's criticism about "who plays a FPS on a Mac from their couch?" (I'm sure it's possible but it does seem incongruous.) Anyway, I hope you'll find time to do shadows for the remaining rounds!
Grumpy Mike: I LOVE the main synth part on this one, it's a great hook! Catchy chorus, too. Unfortunately, I found the lyrics sort of preachy and condescending, I didn't really like that negativity, so that turned me off the song. The phrasing in the lyrics sometimes struck me as a bit strange, like it seemed like you were emphasizing the wrong syllable in words like "prob-LEMs" or "fashion indusTRY". I also didn't really get the connection to the title, despite your explanation. It seemed like it was clearly written for a "Click Here" prompt... Haven't gotten the chance to listen through the whole podcast yet, so apologies if you addressed this already.
Max Bombast: I like the mix--it sounds really wonderfully rich and full in my headphones. Although it's well performed, I wasn't a huge fan of your vocal style on this track, in a lot of places it seemed alternately nasal and super-plosive--those "p"s reminded me of your "p-p-p-pump the brakes" song where it seemed more deliberate. I did like the synth lines and the overall energy of this--the bendy parts are great. I think the lyrics would have appealed to me more if this was the first Max Bombast song I'd ever heard, but in the context of your other songs, this just didn't really stand out to me. I don't really understand the reason for the Queen reference.
Merisan: Very appealing, one of my favorites of this round--those vocals are gorgeous as usual, particularly the harmonies, and this is a lovely, catchy, hooky pop song. It did start to feel pretty repetitive to me--there's a nonstop crunchy kind of synth going through the whole song nonstop that was kind of tiring to listen to (the guitar part was different, I guess, but it also felt sort of out of place). The lyrics felt serviceable but kind of empty--so while it has excellent curb appeal, I don't think you'd get much more out of repeated listens to this song than what you get the first time through. Still! It's good stuff.
Nick Soma: This was my favorite song of yours to date this Nur Ein and another one of my favorites of the round--I just enjoyed listening to it, especially the chorus melody. (Maybe this is because according to Cybronica it sounds like our song! I guess I can see that but I didn't personally notice it. For the record, I also really like Africa by Toto, but also didn't pick out a particular similarity when I was taking notes.) I like the fuzzy guitars with the bubbly chiptune stuff. Although... I feel like this is a common comment of mine on a lot of these songs with regards to the synth stuff, but listening to the ultra-fast arpeggios through the whole song kind of wore on me. There was some odd squeaky thing happening off on the left that was kind of annoying as well. I didn't feel like it deserved to get cut, but I guess we're at that point in the contest now. Hope you find time to do shadows!
Rachael Layne: I listened to the acoustic version and vastly preferred it--the chiptune aspects just didn't feel like they belonged in this song at all. The presence of the synths kind of wiped out any subtleties from the guitar so it just sounded like the same thing being constantly strummed on the acoustic, which got tedious really fast for me... the non-chiptune version still has that repetitive aspect to it to some extent, but I guess it's easier to ignore it and focus on the vocals in a more traditional production. It's a good vocal performance as usual, but the song itself didn't really grab me musically or lyrically this time around.
The Sunday Colors: I feel like I keep saying this, but this is SO Mountain Goats-y but also it's cool because I love the Mountain Goats. Musically, it reminded me of "
Up the Wolves" melodically in particular, and "
Birth of Serpents" a bit as well. I really liked your lyrical take--wonderfully vivid and poignant imagery, loved the line "our spirits silhouetted by a dying star"--although also I found myself sort of confused by the song concept and picking it apart more than I should. I got the Mars Rover reference (instant emotional gut punch!), but I didn't understand what all the piano room business was even if I liked the lyrics, and I didn't understand the "no memory" aspect of the track, as it seemed like you were simultaneously describing a bunch of detailed memories of someone and then saying you didn't have any memory of them, which didn't make sense to me. The bloops and bleeps were worked in nicely--at first I was skeptical about them fitting with the G&G style, but repeated listens won me over. If I were just hearing this on an album I don't think I would have dissected it to death like this, I would have just sat back and enjoyed it, including the aspects I found mysterious, so I think the contest format kind of did the song a disservice in that way. This was another of my favorites from this round and I'm sorry to see you out, but I'm glad to see you're posting a shadow for the next round and I hope you stick around for regular Songfights post-Nur Ein too.
Vowl Sounds: I know we took a risk putting in a slow song this late in the game since we've heard plentiful "I don't like slow songs" comments from the judges so far, but I'm glad we managed to overcome that, and I liked that our instrumentation was 100% chiptune elements without just sounding like a Nintendo gone crazy.
I didn't respond to everyone in the thread previously so to those I missed:
@Cybronica, thanks so much for your lovely comments, I'm so glad you're enjoying the storyline and I always feel humbled when you pay a compliment to my vocals!
@Spintown, thank you for the thoughtful review and the honest feedback! Appreciated as always.
@mo, thanks for the short and sweet review! I like it.
@Lucky Spoon, glad you liked it! I won't comment on whether it's autobiographical but I hope you listen to our song in the next round.
@New Ugly dudes, I enjoyed hearing your speculation, I won't explain the plot of the song here, but the Jerks did a good breakdown of the lyrics if you listen to their review.
@Sunday Colors, thank you so much for your kind and thoughtful review, I really admire your talent as a lyricist so I appreciate your input on the words. (Also, I really love Courtney Barnett.)
Rain Watt: Wonderful work as usual, I feel like I had a lot of favorites this time around, but this was THE favorite of the round for me! I love the music, the choruses are so incredibly good, and the chiptune aspects are so well done, that detuned/bendy solo with the guitar interplay is delicious. I think the lyrics aren't really my favorite of the ones you've put up to date, they seem a bit more vague/generic than usual, but the vocals are so nice where your voice soars up.
iVeg: I commented briefly on this already but I really loved the dementia-based lyrical take on the challenge (and I was surprised more people didn't go in that direction) and I thought it was nicely, sadly, subtly done, although maybe too subtle since it seems several people misunderstood it. I do wish the ending verse were a bit more structured, it felt more like free verse at that point than like lyrics. The production and tune didn't really do much for me, but I enjoyed the lyrical content a lot and appreciated your explanation of the reason for the Dutch references.
Lichen Throat: Glad to see you're back with a double-challenge entry! I like the droney arrangement here, although I found myself wishing you'd taken a more krautrocky kind of approach to the vocals to go with it. The timing/delivery on the chorus vocals is pretty good, but the verses are a bit loose. The samples are a bit hard to understand, but I also just really like the fact that you're sampling The Sugarcubes in a song about Bleak House. (Where did you go on vacation?)
Mandibles: This is really well performed, the vocals sound so warm and smooth and the little metal-ish guitar riffs are cool. I do have a lot of genre bias against the whole medieval fantasy-realm lyric and style so despite appreciating the skill and effort in the performance, this song is just not really doing it for me on the whole. I love the drop-out to chiptune + layered vocals parts though, those are very cool.