How to live your life with (Almost No Regrets reviews)

[Pigfarmer Jr]

If I die young, bury me in satin
Lay me down on a bed of roses
Sink me in the river at dawn
Send me away with the words of a love song

[Pigfarmer Jr]

Please place your lyric in the appropriate position: viewtopic.php?t=12610

[Lunkhead]

Songs posted!

[the panna cotta army]

Awesome song by Strangle Me Torso

[joshw]

Add - Love the warm and fuzzy feeling here, the synth textures here feel like a warm blanket. The vocoder-y thing is a strange choice but works weirdly well. The bridge chord changes come out of left field in a great way. I was worried when I saw the length of the song but the whole last half of the song is great and more than earns the length. Love it!

Pigfarmer Jr - The intro gave me Mike Viola "We May Never Be This Young Again" vibes, which is a very good thing in my book. Like Add's, this one just feels good. Definitely isn't breaking new ground, but it doesn't need to, it's super well executed and performed, and fits the title perfectly. I love the unexpected ending.

Dusty & the Hobo Jungle - Wow, third song in a row with a full band a well-thought-out arrangement, this was really rare Back In The Old Days. Fun chord change here, and the sparse but soulful vocal works great. The bridge is great, I'd love to see a little more elegant transition into it.

Sumner Sloane - I love the refrain and the instrumental section after it. This is a straightforward but effective take on the prompt.

Berkeley Social Scene - Nice throwback indie-twee feel in the verse, into a Cars-tastic cahorus. The prechorus chord progression is fun. Oh man, that chorus is catchy. Solid lyrics, too.

Strange Me Torso - Who let this rube in the fight? There should be an audition process to submit here.

[Pigfarmer Jr]

Add: Is that a vocoder as doubling/harmony? It's interesting and cool and maybe not mixed perfectly but the effect works for me. The almost / no regrets sound like different takes but I think they need panning or an effect or something for them to work until the higher range 'almost' kicks in and it works wonderfully. This arrangement is very interesting, creative and I'm digging it. My nitpicks are just that, nitpicks.

Berkeley Social Scene: The whole mix seemed just a hair more muffled than usual. Maybe the guitars are the exception? I like the bass line and the 'almost no regrets' refrain on the chorus is a good touch, a bright spot in the mix. That opening riff / bass line is tasty and I love how you use it as a proper hook. It's great. The guitar solo works great for me.

Dusty & the Hobo Jungle: This has such a great laid back feel to it. Again, the bass line works great. That's great separation in the mix. The vocal maybe buried a hair with the guitars just before the "But I'm over you" bit. I have a hard time making out the lyric. (Thanks for posting in the lyric thread.) Catchy chorus, cool solo. One of my favorites of the fight.

Pigfarmer Jr: Almost what I heard in my head. The abrupt ending was partially because I figured it was long enough as is. (How would I know that 4:00 songs were a thing this fight?)

Strangle Me Torso: I love this melody. There's a texture to your guitar/vocal intro that is so tasty. That chorus soars in just the right way. I love how it hits hard before the solo comes in. I'll be honest, I saw 4:07 and was dreading it a bit but it turns out that it worked perfectly. Another of my favorites of the fight.

Sumner Sloane: Apart from timing issues at around 1:20 (in the guitars) I found this a good G&G take. (Yes, I know there's some lead/single note bits in there.) Maybe a hair thin of an arrangement compared to all the others but I think it works well as is and is a nice change of pace in the playlist. The only song under 3:00 which I mention for no particular reason.

My two favorites were Dusty & the Hobo Jungle and Strangle Me Torso

[Phil. Redmon.]

Add - I love the way the song keeps coming back, it acts like it's done and then has more to say. I really like the descending key bit at every chorus. Whole thing is very pleasant on the ears. Listening again i am struck by how much of a space is created by this song, the parts come together and around the 2 minute mark you get a full sense of the world this song exists in.

Pigfarmer Jr - this has a pleasant lurching chug, a tumescent throb. good for swaying back and forth and hooting. AS an aside, do you think the name Soul Asylum was a play on psilocybin? Me neither. I get the feeling that this guy in this song actually does regret leaving her. Like, thou dost protestin', a bint munch, you know? It's good (that's my official verdict!)

Dusty & the Hobo Jungle - sorry if this is too obvious a thing to say, but, my word this sounded like jack johnson at first. I used to work with a dude named hector that listened to him every day, like, almost with his eyes closed? This is nice and sweet, shame about Bob, ha ha

Sumner Sloane - Hee hee, that's a very good name. I'm getting more than a little Gerry Rafferty from this song. Like if they wanted to use his song in a show and they couldn't get the rights. Loving the powerful attack of your "snare" strum. And i love the ACK of the second "I could feel." Nice tune, good atmosphere. Hm yeah, i do really like the bits where you push the vocal, they pop out nice. ENJOY'D.

Berkeley Social Scene - There was (is?) a great bar / restaurant in minneapolis called Mayslacks and I would totally eat their roast beef sandwich while this song was on stage. I really like the chorus, "almost no regrets but i wish i had less", that's very sharp, very effective. Ha ha, I really like it! Good contrast between voices. A nice struttin' rocker.

Strangle Me Torso - This is beautiful. An unexpected turn at the second chord! Man, this song is written. I love the way every single chord subverts expectations (in the first half, anyway). A very interesting listen. Bless this guitar solo! IDK if it's too late to vote but i vote for this.


This was really nice. I'm sorry to have been away so long. Everybody did great.

[Lunkhead]

Berkeley Social Scene only regret is not winning by a wider margin.