KEVIN SAVINO-RIKER - My Daughter
The music had me impressed off the bat. I was leery of whether or not Mr. Savino-Riker could manage to not rock, but the Irishicity of this song was decidedly not rock. It was also rather effective for setting the mood. The last minute is arguably unnecessary, but I don't think it hurts anything, either. This may be the single best Kevin Savino-Riker song I've heard.
ROSS DURAND - You'll Be gone
At first, I thought this was from the point of view of the doctor that delivered the baby. Whereas that strikes me as both incredibly emo and fairly amusing, it's a lot sadder when it's from the point of view of a mother giving up her baby upon its birth. That's pretty damn sad, Ross. And the song is pretty damn good.
EDRIC HALEEN - The Star
I will be astonished if this hits an iPod; it's not exactly pop music. I like it, it's impressively unique, even with a bit of "Edric's Thing" shining thru. And, perhaps I'm in a minority, but I actually l laughed when Bethlehem came up. Listening to this, I was so enthralled in the story, especially after the description "they almost looked human", that I'd forgotten completely about the "birth" element of the challenge. And, for some reason, the Bethlehem thing struck me as pretty well hilarious. Overall, it's a great performance piece, but it didn't offer the connection that others did.
CALEB HINES - Will You Miss Me
At the first line of the chorus, I got chills. Something about the question and the chords, I guess. The only thing about this I'm not really thrilled with is the rhythm structure on the second half of the first verse lyrics. They just seem...odd. Everything else, though, makes for a top notch guilt trip.
STEVE DURAND - Her Mother's Eyes
The lyrics to this are really great. It's not a bad song. It's just... This music sounds like a road trip montage in a buddy movie. It's very upbeat and...well, jolly. This is jolly music, Steve. And that's perfectly fine. But it made me chuckle when the song ended, thinking about two guys montaging from Jersey to Cailforn-i-a where they plan to "make it big". Again, this is just where MY head goes. Darker, less "keep your chin up" music, and this woulda been higher up my list.
GOVERNING DYNAMICS - Revolving Door.
I'm going to be honest, here: I was expecting something sadder. I mean, to me, asking Governing Dynamics to write a sad song about anything is like asking Ray Charles to play piano without looking. I expected something more along the lines of the doctor delivering a baby and accidentally drops it into a wood chipper, and then a radioactive comet hits the hospital parking lot and everyone not instantly incinerated dies a slow, burny, melty death. Perhaps I expected too much. It's not a terrible offering, GD, but it sounds a lot like "I Dropped The Ball" by Maybe Next Time.
THE OFFHAND BAND - Will It
The verses are one thing; I like the weird rhyme scheme. I like that there's a birth defect without getting specific about it, and that the parents are disappointed immediately and forever. I mean, I like the concept, not that it happens. I mean, as a fictitious concept. Oh, you know what I mean. Anyway, the thing I can't handle is the chorus. The music there sounds like key mashing, like you're hitting the wrongs notes for the chords you wanted. (It almost sounds like a Sara Parsons chorus.) Almost every chorus note sounds wrong. It's a huge distraction and really hurts the presentation.
SARA PARSONS - It Had To Be You
Musically, the verses are fine; the chorus is really frustrating. If this was a radio song, I'd be changing the channel every time before your chorus came up. From a technical standpoint, this isn't about birth. This is about crib death. Now, granted, crib death sucks major ass. But it tends to occur well after the birthing process. As judges, we've let a lot of things slide in terms of ranking placements, but this is twice now that you've skirted the challenge, as far as I'm concerned, and that's granting yourself a little too much liberty.
CHARLIE MCCARRON - A Song For Sam Bell
In an attempt to highlight the fact that I'm being much nicer in SpinTunes than I am in my Negative Reinforcement reviews, I will cut out all of my colorful thoughts and strip this down to two points:
1. This is about "Moon".
2. That is a movie about being on the moon. Not about birth.
This is gonna sound like the Joe Wants Sara To Win but Sammy, I level the same critique here that I did in Jules' comments.
ReplyDeleteSara's song is as much about a Birth as is someone who's song is about a supernova MILLIONS of years before the birth of Christ, that was undiscovered under at least Thousands of years after the birth of Christ.
So to use that as a reason for your placing...?
Inconsistent.