Don't hit me with a guitar (Brace Yourself reviews)

[Pigfarmer Jr]

Congratz, Jon. And THANKS!!

[Paco Del Stinko]

Congratulations, Jon. Well done!

[gizo]

Well done Mr Jon!

[JonPorobil]

Last week got derailed for me when I tested positive for COVID (boo!), and then spent the next two days getting unrestful sleep between coughs that feel like fire (boooo!!!!!), but I'm on the mend now. When I finally remembered to check here, it definitely lifted my mood to find that I'd achieved my very first solo win in 19 years of Song Fighting. Thank you so much for the votes and reviews, everyone!

Anyway, here are some belated reviews! I listened all the way through the fight a few times, then started skipping around. I estimate that I listened to each song probably 5-7 times over the course of two weeks (with one very unfortunate exception.... see next post). My three main listening modes were: 1.) An inexpensive pair of wireless in-ear monitors, 2.) My low-end studio monitors run through my DAC on my recording PC, and 3.) My car stereo, playing from my phone via Bluetooth. Each setting revealed something different. Without further ado, here are the individual reviews:


Berkeley Social Scene - Niveous once called one of my Nur Ein entries a "straight up line drive," which meant that he appreciated it, but it wasn't doing anything novel or interesting. That's how I feel about this. It's definitely not a bad song, but at the end I kind of felt like it was missing some extra ingredient to take it to the next level. I like the guitar riffs and lead parts. I really like your lyrics. The vocal melody is nice and well-sung. The most interesting part to me is the breakdown after the second chorus, when the flutes and background vocals shift the mood a little, followed by that synth solo. I'm not sure I agree with the decision to put a guitar solo immediately following the synth solo, but hey, you're a band, gotta have something for everyone to do. I'd like to hear a little more dynamic range overall - maybe some increased power in the choruses or some other sonic element to boost those sections and drive home the emotions.

Brown Word and the Big Whine - One of my favorite things about this song is the really satisfying "Thock!" sound of your snare. I really like how you mixed that. The slidey-smeary elements are too heavy-handed for my taste, but that could easily be a "me" problem and not a "you" problem. The processing on your vocals is really upfront and obvious - so much that I'm guessing it was intentional on your part. It sounds like you've pitch-bent it, added delay and reverb and a filter and maybe a rotary effect on top of all that? This kind of grungey psychedelic is pretty far out of my comfort zone, so it's possible that all this processing is exactly what this song needed, but I'd be curious to hear a more naturalistic take on the vocal. I'm not sure this rambling is helping you much, so I'll just... yeah.

Buku Chauney - Something feels "off" about this from the first seconds. I think it's the vocals - your voice here has a wavering quality that makes it sound like it's drifting in and out of key. Sounds like maybe you're channeling Modest Mouse a little, but without Isaac Brock's understated control. By the end of the song, either I've grown a little more accustomed to your performance, or you settled into it a bit more. I really love your bass playing and mixing here.

Duncan Martin - There are several approaches to incorporating a Song Fight! title into your lyrics. One way is that you can take your inspiration from it, and build the whole song around it. Another is that you can just write whatever you were going to write anyway, and find a way to sneak the title into the song. This feels a lot like the latter, which makes me feel conflicted about how to treat it for this fight. I like the song, for the most part. Your lyrics paint a pretty good picture of Texas Jones and evoke the emotion of his death quite well. You've blended synths with outlaw country in an interesting way. The moment in the arrangement when it drops to the handclaps is genuinely well done. But at the same time, "Brace Yourself" feels less like the title of this song and more like an idea buried in the bridge. Even the tag on the mp3 lists the title as "Texas Jones." It's possible I'm being more of a stickler than others would be, but I felt like the connection to the title was a bit too tenuous.

Idle Susan - I've listened to this six times and I still can't tell whether you're being satirical. Are you being critical of the consumerist kids, with their video games and social media? Or are you being critical of the adults who judge those preferences? Overall, in spite of some tasteful and compelling lead guitar work, the lyrics and vocals were a little too off-putting to me.

Jeff DeSantis - Phew, I love this. "Six out of ten of us are broken," that line gives me chills. The mix and arrangement are just perfect. Those background vocals create a vibe with an enviable economy. As you may have been able to tell from my lyrics and vocal performance this week, I'm quite receptive at the moment to straightforward sincerity and appeals to emotion, and you delivered. VOTE.

King Arthur - Another legend from when I used to be in every fight! Glad to hear you again. I've always appreciated your campy rockabilly guitar and synths, whereas the more stripped down arrangements were a harder sell for me, and so I felt a little trepidation going into this one, but the surprising addition of a tuba into the mix suckered me in. I do appreciate the playful mood built up with the seventh chords and the plucking pattern, and the cheeky arrangement.

Lichen Throat - The last fight I was in was "Garage Sale," and I never finished reviews. I felt bad about that. I wrote a three-paragraph review of your song and then didn't get to anyone else's. And then never posted my review of yours. Oops. So, I dip in and out of the community a lot - been stressed and time-poor lately. But one joy of that is seeing the dramatic improvement you make in the gaps. This arrangement hangs together better than anything else I've heard from you before, BY FAR. The tradeoff is it's maybe a little more "conventional" sounding than your usual, but it sounds like a real band! And your vocals! You're singing a clear melody, and singing it well! There's still a bit of "vocal drift," where you take a syllable to find the right note, but it's such a dramatic improvement from the last couple of Lichen Throat songs I've heard that I gotta give you credit for that. Now, I'm a pretty big trivia buff, but History is one of my weakest Jeopardy categories, so I don't really know what your lyrics are about, but I appreciate that they're well researched and that you've fit them into a melodic structure. A+ for effort here. I would genuinely listen to this again.

Mellfire Trifecta - This is too true for me to enjoy listening to it. I like the somber percussion-less arrangement here. My main complaint is that the lead vocal is a bit too up-front. It's not a heinously bad mix, but there's a touch of that "karaoke" effect where the lead vocal sits on top and doesn't blend as well as it could. The problem becomes more conspicuous when it disappears at the end of the song, as you duck the lead vocal to weave together multiple vocal parts, and these all hang together much better. I really like the performance choices for the background vocals, the chosen vowel sounds and the call-and-response harmonies. That acoustic guitar solo was also quite tasty. By any chance, do you listen to Dan Bern? Your song reminded me of some of his more recent political songs.

My Social Uniform - Oh yeah, that synth pop sweetness! I love the synth tones and the sweeping filters on them. That subdued guitar riff under the first verse sparkles. The way the tension builds with the percussion dropping out during the chorus, then builds to a completely different arrangement for the second verse - chef's kiss. The pitch-shifted background vocals work as a nice bit of texture. The one thing I don't think works 100% is the repetition of "self" in th chorus. My ear wants to hear some kind of back-and-forth effect there. Since you're singing "Self" three times, my inclination would be for the second "self" to have something setting it apart, like an aggressive EQ filter or something. At any rate, this was my #1 and repeat listens didn't change that. Easy VOTE from me.

Night Sky - That doubled jazz guitar/sax combo is hard to beat. You're clearly very comfortable playing the saxophone; the performance there exudes a confidence that makes the instrumental portions of this song shine. The lead vocals are unfortunately not as confident. There are two issues with the vocals: performance and mix. The performance sounds a little unsure of the melody, which might be a sign of lacking confidence in your own voice, or it might just be that you didn't have enough time to really get familiar with your own melody before recording. More practice fixes this issue, but it takes a lot of time. The vocal mix, on the other hand, might actually be a quicker fix. The vocals just sound pretty dry to my ear. In the last couple of years, I've become a huge evangelist for using delay effects, sometimes multiple concurrent delay effects, on a lead vocal. A single delay with a tight timeframe ("slapback" delay) can do a lot to make a lead vocal sound more "present" and spotlighted in the mix without pushing your volume level up too high. Couple that with some judicious reverb (just not TOO much), and it might give the vocal performance and mix that extra oomph it needs. Just to reiterate, however... That's some REALLY sweet saxophone playing.

Paco Del Stinko - I've been listening to your music for, what, 15 years now? So many of my reviews of your songs chalk up to "This is weird, but really good, and I like it." I enjoyed this song thoroughly, but I'm really struggling to point out specific aspects of the song and what made them work or not for me. The synth solo stands out, interesting tone. The slightly-off background chorus vocals help create that ramshackle mood. Your barely-audible whispers in the bridge are creepy. One thing you're a total master of is that vocal tension where it constantly sounds like you're just about to explode, but you never quite boil over, like a tightly wound spring. I don't think I have any negatives to point out here. You got a VOTE, good sir.

Pigfarmer Jr. - We often praise songs for their subtlety and nuance. I've seen reviews in this community that spoke positively about a song for rewarding repeat listens, with the listener discovering new things to like on a third, fourth, fifth listen. And then there's you, recognizing that there is a time and a place for subtlety, and that time and place are long before our country has spent nearly a trillion dollars of its people's money on unaccountably killing strangers overseas via remote control. This song isn't subtle or nuanced - nor should it be. Nuance could only weaken this song. You come at it with a righteous fury and speak your mind. I have virtually no complaints about this piece. It may not be my #1 of this fight, but I will vote for it, and I think that it was more successful at what it set out to do than any other song on the site this week. My one suggestion would be to turn down the newscaster voices, or maybe roll the high frequencies off their voices, to make it clearer sooner that these are sampled voices and not diagetic to the song. VOTE.

Purdy Lips - The main thing I notice, even after several listens, is your lead vocal exploding out from the brief intro. It's front-and-center, absolutely no danger of getting lost in this mix. My recommendation would be to turn the vocal fader down a little; I believe you have ample headroom to do that without losing clarity in the mix. In its current state, I'm having a hard time focusing on other elements of your arrangement and mix to comment on. One thing I like is that synth horn lick that comes right after "It's gonna be fine." I also like the drums throughout, and wish the mix left more space for them to stand out.

Robyn Mackenzie - I like your six-eight groove and sultry vocal. As the song goes on, my ear was a little thirsty for more sonic variety - maybe some changes in the guitar pattern or more drum fills? When the first prechorus came around, I thought it needed a little more oomph, but then you added those staggered harmonies to the second instance of the prechorus and it was very satisfying to me. I really enjoyed this song overall, and it was my favorite on my first listen through the fight. On subsequent listens, I found myself wishing it would kick up a notch. The overall vibe, even in the loudest and most intense parts of the song, is a bit "chill" for lyrics about fighting dragons and black knights from Hell. Regardless, this was still an easy VOTE, one of my favorites this week.

Rone Rivendale - Well, Rone... You're an interesting flavor of tea, and no one can take that away from you. I haven't listened to one of your songs in probably 10 years before this week, so it's interesting to see ways in which you've improved and ways in which you haven't. I still feel that your synth and drum programming have a meandering quality that implies a lack of confidence or a strong melodic throughline. I think that, in turn, affects your vocal performance, because when it comes time for you to lay down your vocals, you can't hear a strong pulse or melody to follow along to. However, last time I listened to your music, if I recall, you had really out-of-control mouth sounds - sibilants and plosives overwhelming the mix everywhere. That's not the case here. I saw earlier in the thread you were concerned that the vocal gets lost in the mix thanks to how you recorded it, but I think you may have misdiagnosed that problem. Yes, the vocal isn't as upfront and present as it could be. I think that's less a factor of the vocal recording itself and more to do with the lead synth sound. Now... I do actually like the synth sound, and I think there's a potentially compelling idea here in that you've got this percussive synth tone playing a highly chromatic melody while your lead vocal melody struggles to find purchase with it. However, the percussive quality of that lead synth is a little overbearing - I think you could apply some EQ cuts or an envelope shaper to make it less abrasive to the ear AND carve out more space for your lead vocal at the same time. If that's still not enough, maybe you can add an EQ boost in your vocal at the same frequency you're cutting from the synth. I also encourage you to try playing or programming out your lead melody on a different instrument, such as a conventional piano or a square wave synth, and then try singing along to that. You can cut the melody instrument out after you've gotten your vocal part recorded, but I think having something to follow along to will improve your vocal performance by like 300%. No vote, but I do admire your tenacity and commitment to making music YOUR way.

See-Man-Ski - You pull off the country-adjacent waltz vibe really well (even though I'm a little surprised not to be the only 3/4 song this fight... heh). The arrangement and mix are top-notch, which is to be expected from you. There are a couple of performance nitpicks, mostly in the ending section, where some of the high notes come across pitchy (I know... pot, meet kettle, etc). A couple of times it feels like your doubled lead vocal strays a bit too far and weakens the effect (notably the last line of the first verse). One nitpick that comes to me on a 4th or 5th listen is that I think the drums might not be miked appropriately for your genre - that kick drum booms like an alt-rock song where the sort of resigned mood of this song calls for maybe something a bit more subdued? As you can see, I'm super reaching for something to criticize. I love the little vocal run that develops on the phrase "Brace yourself" throughout the song. Back to the high-note section at the end... That section seemed so much like a bridge to me that, even on repeated listens, it keeps surprising me that the song ends right after. I've been wondering whether I'd have liked to hear a final repetition of the chorus after that B-section, and ultimately a think not, but maybe it's an issue of arrangement and not structure, per se. Lingering on that last "yourself" before the final "...to blame" and giving your instruments space to find better concluding notes might make the ending feel less sudden. Or the opposite might work - dropping all the instruments for the "...to blame" part and bringing them back in for the outro? I don't know, maybe I'm beating a dead horse or something - I just felt like this was one of those "80% there, but the last 20% is the hardest part" type songs, and I'm thinking of what might have given it that extra sheen.

shrts - Yep, that's short. It passes right over me every time through the playlist. I like the whiny guitar in the left channel. The vocals are spot-on, both in performance and in how they sit in the mix. But, alas, every time I'm starting to get into this one, it ends. I really do appreciate brevity. I'm more likely to complain that something is too long than the opposite, but in my opinion, this song takes "leave 'em wanting more" just a step further than I'd like.

Stacking Theory - This was one of my favorites on a first listen, and I still really like the hook of "Brace yourself / The nights are gonna get darker." But on repeated listens, I noticed I wasn't enjoying the first-verse buildup that much. The song really opens up when the slick bassline and layered vocals come in, but feels like it has trouble coming together before then. Especially the vocals - the lead vocal on the first verse doesn't sound nearly as tight as any other vocals in the rest of the song. Even so, this did get a VOTE from me.

Sweeney Toad - I honestly think there's some kind of genre bias or aesthetic difference that keeps me from getting into any of your songs. I can recognize that you worked really hard on this, and there are some really interesting word and performance choices, but almost nothing about this works for me. The hyper-compressed kick drum dominates the chorus mix, and I'm sure that's an intentional choice on your part, but the discomfort doesn't appeal to me and I get frustrated at how that kick drum fights for the same audio space as your vocals, so I can't make out some of your lyrics (you're the best, you've got... something?... on your chest?). In the end, I don't have much positive to say here, but I also think you should probably just disregard my opinion and focus more on feedback from the people who jibe better with what you were going for.

Toby Roktot - On the second and third listens through this fight, I spent the first couple of your verses thinking "Wait, wasn't this the guy singing about his kid being born? No, I must have mixed this up with someone else, as this is clearly about a bar fight." Then the verse about the baby comes up and I realize it was the same song, and I wonder what the connection is. I thought maybe you were telling the story of how some bar fight made you run late for the birth of your son or something... Finally I caved and read the lyrics in the lyric thread. Based on actually reading the text, I see that each verse is a different scene - V1 is about participating in a rodeo for the first time, V2 is about a bar fight, V3 is about your son, and V4 is kind of the sum-up verse but also largely about your wife. The connecting thread is the different ways in which you had to "brace yourself," two of them physically and one emotionally. But what's gained by juxtaposing these three very different experiences against one another? Is there an implicit comparison of, say, kneeing a loudmouth in the groin, and meeting your son's eyes for the first time? I really liked the wife-and-son parts, and thought they were strong enough to be the whole song, but I can see how maybe I'm missing the point by suggesting that. Your mileage may vary, I suppose. I like the harmonica playing!

WreckdoM - Of all the songs in this fight, yours is the one that grew on me the most with repeated listens. At first, I found the "Southern Culture on the Skids but cranked up to 11" style vocals a little off-putting. And, I mean, this isn't my first WreckdoM rodeo, y'know? The uncertainty in the lyrics puts this on uneasy territory - it's a difficult emotion to encapsulate in song. Diving full force into a hook that ends in "I don't know" creates a tension that the song never resolves - nor should it. Other elements in the arrangement bolster the lack of confidence, especially that quavering theremin. But you've really nailed something down about this particular moment - it's still the opening month of a year whose identity we're still waiting to discover. Anyway, yours was the only song this week that started as a no-vote and then I ended up VOTING for it. Such is the power of WreckdoM. Long live the WreckdoM.

[JonPorobil]

And then one last review, for the song that got away.

I manually clicked each song and "Save As" when the fight was posted, so I could listen locally throughout the week, but apparently I accidentally skipped over poor Markesetgo, who only got two votes, but would ABSOLUTELY have received a third from me if I'd been aware of their song prior to the votes being counted. Unfortunately, my first listen to this song was only about half an hour ago.

It starts off unassumingly enough, with the tentative disjointed piano notes, and I almost mistook this for a troll entry, but it quickly finds its footing with the introduction of a drum machine, bass synth, and a kind of ersatz samba beat. This reminds me of some of the more experimental New Wave bands, especially Big Audio Dynamite. It also reminds me of Jim of Seattle... Jim, is that you under a new name? Anyway, I deeply regret missing this one until after the voting was done, but I'm glad I caught my mistake eventually.

[Duncan]

@JonPorobil those are some thorough reviews. Congrats on the win--well deserved. I read them all -- and sorry to hear about the COVID. I've gone in and out of taking the title prompt too seriously over this first year of Songfighting. In this case it was a take-off on the chorus line my sister and I wrote as kids, and then trying to write it for a theme of "bracing" for climate change and end times. In the end, that just resulted in just a single instance of Brace Yourself in the bridge, so point taken. It will likely live on as TJ, not BY. The big prize was to send my sister this old turd all polished up after 30 long years.

[lichenthroat]

@JonPorobil I echo Duncan's comments. Thank you for the comprehensive reviews, and congratulations on the win. I really liked your song. I meant to write reviews, and I would have written great things about it.