ST16R1 REVIEW - Joe 'Covenant' Lamb

Hello all.
Please remember I say the below with all best intentions and familial love in my heart…

Overall, the musicianship in this round has been pretty astounding.
There are, no doubt, some GREAT musicians in here. But it seems to me that too many people have been focussing on the music and forgetting that the vocals should be equally (if not even more) important as the music.

I fully appreciate that not everyone has a full studio set up.
But you all have mics, and multi tracking software is available FREE in many places.
(And if I could make my Shadowland album using an old “Quickshot” stick mic and a pair of Sony Walkman (yes, that’s how old it is!) in-ear phones… then so can you guys and gals with the amount of stuff out there.
As seems to happen a lot, in these sorts of contests, too many of the songs below suffer from badly recorded/mixed/unpracticed vocals, and to be brutal, the writing/recording of the vocal parts often seem to be a secondary thought.
But then… I’m more a vocalist than a musician, so I guess that’s where most of my criticisms lie. But I say nothing in a sense of cruelty… only to hopefully give pointers to round things off.
I know it’s not a “how well you recorded your song”-contest - but if the listener can’t hear it as YOU can hear it in your mind, then it’s not going to come across well. There are songs below which would have scored MUCH higher had they been recorded with a bit more finesse and/or time taken, to really put the finished article across. But I can’t score on how well a song “might” sound.

So, with that in mind…
My top to bottom:

Glen Raphael: Can’t disagree with Glen’s own comments on Bandcamp – but this is a classic case of how to do a “live” ambient recording. I can only imagine Glenn has run through this a good few times before hitting “record” And that makes all the difference. Chorus is really good, middle-eight diverts from standard melody, interesting switches between verse/chorus/mid. Would LOVE to hear a proper studio version of this.

Steve Stearns: Funky! Kinda reminds me of Harry Nillson. (The chorus is a bit weird, but I don’t mind weird!) Liked it.

Nick Work: Yeaaahh.. I liked this one a lot, a decent workhorse of a song, just nicely done! Meets the challenge head on and does it well.

Rob from Amersfoort: Very Beatles/Lennon vibe from this (Yes there is!) Simplistic, yes, but message put over very well, excellent production, vocals clear despite effects.

Ominous Ride: I’ll go with the concept as it’s viable to say these are your impressions of the thoughts running through his head in that scene. Well recorded and produced. Musically it’s fine and a pretty decent song (The ‘2nd part’ of the chorus is its weakest point)

Ross Durand: Spot on challenge – like the song, good musicianship, well written Nothing to fault.
(Pedant - *He hit him with the hilt of his sword*!)

Faster Jackelope: Cannot fault the musicianship here (A bit Zappa-esque at the start!) I love the music in this one, but lyrically it needs a lot of work as they seem all over the place structurally (rhyme scheme of 1-2-2-1/1-2-1-2/1-1-2-2 is a bit jarring) It’s an odd entry, but a very quick 4 minutes and I can’t help but place this high.

Temnere: Excellent guitar work (Jealousy) Cannot fault the musicianship. The lyric is a bit weak, but not enough to hugely affect the song itself… it didn’t need to be 4½ minutes long though.

Jocko Homomorphism: The DEVO is strong with this one. Lyrically it seems a bit.. stretched… I also couldn’t help but wonder if this would have worked better with audio samples from the movie.

Caravan Ray: Bit of a Tom Waits vibe from this one, but the kick into “rock” loses that vibe and, to me, ruins the production. Vocals lost in the mix, and then turns a bit Fleetwood Mac-y. Ending is pretty weak.

Outlyer: I liked the minimalism of the opening to this. Sounds very good, but then came the ‘rap’ part which just threw me out of the song. Seems a bit sparse and rushed?

Boffo Yux Dudes: This song has a GREAT build up which just suddenly stops and goes nowhere but back to another build up. Nice bassline! (I also made another note which looks like it says - “Gotd too song too quickly!” – If you have ANY idea what I mean by that, let me know!!!)

Jerkatorium: Well played, well recorded, good structure (But the gap in the “… In the future” doesn’t work twice. Lyric… a bit weak in places.

Timothy Patrick Hinkle: Shades of Jethro Tull (no bad thing) Not really much to comment on, decent enough song, but can’t say it’s one I’d listen too often. A mid table effort.

Governing Dynamics: Sublime guitar work. But melodically it’s a bit all over the place. Production is good, but not great, and was surprised by the very understated guitar solo. It’s not *bad*, and I know GD can do better than - this but can’t go on past stuff.

Mandibles: Really bad recording… (A bit “Leaves Eyes”-y – which isn’t bad!) Lyric gets a bit forced in places. Wish it was better recorded as this sounds like it could be a glorious epic… as things stand, middle table.

"BucketHat" Bobby Matheson: I could hardly hear this one, even on full volume. From what I could make of it, it sounds very well done in places, but a little bit plodding – marking lower than it probably should be, but I just couldn’t get to grips with it being so quiet.

Vowl Sounds: This really reminded me of ‘Blondie’ (which is no bad thing) but then it doesn’t hold the attention too well, too samey all the way through. (I’m, not 100% sure it hit the challenge, but not enough to question it)

Menage a Tune: I wanted to love this. Challenge excellently met, Harp is GLORIOUS, but the song suffers from being a bit pedestrian melodically, and simplistic lyrically (and is also overlong). VERY ambitious structurally, (The most ambitious of the round, I think) which sadly does not work in this live recording. (Doing something like this ‘live’ means it should be practiced for WEEKS to get it spot on, and it has to BE spot on to work.) Had this been multitracked (and edited a bit more), I might have had this song in the top ten.

The Quantifiers: Love the music, but the song seems as if it’s been a one take recording and suffers from that. Needs a lot of polishing, and, for my tastes, upped in tempo quite a bit.

Lichen Throat: Interesting musically, but melodically atonal, very repetitive and oddly structured. Vocal seemed tacked on. Would make a good instrumental if developed. but then, that’s not a song I suppose.

Jeb and Iwa: (Why is Jeb’s “J” a cursive Z) That aside… I did find this one acoustically interesting, but the vocals were hard to decipher (again, sounds like it was recorded live and in one take) This SCREAMS for a re-mix/re-recording to me, but as it is, it has to sit low in my list.

Good Guy Sojabe: Shades of bowie – a very ambitious attempt which I don’t think came off, again vocals lost in the mix.

Pig Farmer Jr: Opening would have been good for a lead up (very soundtrack-y) but for an intro into a very short song, it seems like just killing time. But then I was expecting some kind of “Hard Rock” vocal... and didn’t get it. And then a pretty insipid ending. (Extra pointage for using a film sample though!)

Mike Lamb: First of all – Bonus point for Surname alone! Unfortunately, the song didn’t really hold together for me. Unsure of challenge meeting, vocals and lyric are a bit unpolished. Nice guitar sound, but not enough to lift it.

The Brewhouse Sessions: Very nice guitar work. But the vocal sounds too contained and muddy in the mix. Melody sounds as if it’s being made up on the spot, though.

Jordan Carroll: Yes – I listened to the end. Not sure if it meets the challenge well, but ultimately doesn’t matter. Sadly, not my favourite.


The Shadows

Micah: I could not help but wonder how this would do against a hip-hop beat…!! (Too many chins!) – Would have placed around mid-table.

Brian: This isn’t playing fast and lose with the challenge, this is ignoring it!!  (Would have DQ’d to be honest, but a good song (A bit “Old Skool Coulton-y” for my tastes though) 😊

Ducky: Well! How interesting was THIS?! 1920’s lives! One of the best of the whole bunch. This would have been top five, easily.