When we proposed the palindrome challenge, we very purposefully offered a wide range of interpretations, hopeful that it would spur your creativity and result in a diverse group of songs.
You did not disappoint. The quality in this round is incredible. Since I don’t have to rank anyone, my reviews are presented in album order.
David G Harrington - Was it a Rat I Saw
You’ve got a solid concept and good lyrics, although your engagement with palindromes appears to be limited to the title hook (my band All the Robots did the same thing, but we’re not in the running).
Your voice is in fine form, and the individual musical elements - the bass, the drums, the horn stabs, etc - are all great, although the energy really does not let up at all from section to section; across nearly 5 minutes it gets wearying. Ease up the intensity on the verses and the bridge so that the chorus can pump us back up.
See-Man-Ski - Never Odd Or Even
Your lyrics are great and your voice is in fine form, controlled and confident while also displaying a lot of emotion.
There are a lot of musical choices I am less fond of. The piano, especially in the beginning before the other instruments come in, feels very stiff: chords hammered on each downbeat with little dynamic variation or expression. When it’s a supporting character within the full band sound, that’s less of a problem but it doesn’t make it much fun to listen to on its own.
There is a lot of empty space in the vocal melody, especially in the chorus: “Life… is never… odd… or even” gets tiring to listen to, especially as it uses that E-D interval so much. The second half of the chorus, where you go higher and display some cool melismas, makes for a welcome change, but more variety in the core melody would be welcome.
rackwagon - Backwards in Heels
There are some fantastic instrumental choices here - chiefly the guitars, including the crunchy riffs during and after the chorus, and the gated chords on the downbeats in the verses.
The backing vocals are cool in theory, but mostly end up muddying the texture and making the lead vocal more difficult to understand. I’m not sure if that’s an arrangement flaw or a mixing flaw, but it doesn’t quite work.
The lyrics are good, if perhaps a bit oblique. Your point comes across but it takes some work to get there.
EmKayDeeBee - In Words Drown I
Here’s a great example of a cool initial idea - the sort-of palindromic “‘E moored in the lap of a palindrome” - suggesting a specific musical flavor - sea shanty - and I’m glad that you went for it. The fiddle and harp are fantastic, and the melodic and harmonic choices are just right for the style.
“I will say it again / Again it say will I” is a ton of fun to sing along to, if syntactically dubious at best. Your choice to add vocal harmony on this section and the repeating “‘E moored in the lap of a palindrome” is the right one, but I feel like you should go all out with raucous group vocals here. Additionally, the block chords from the pianorgan and the rather stiff snare drum mean that this song doesn’t quite have the rhythmic drive that it should - I think it would benefit a lot from either a strummed string instrument (guitar, mandolin, etc) or more percussion (bodhrain, tambourine, shaker, etc), at least in certain parts.
Good Guy Sôjàbé - Deified
I get the lyrical theme of betrayal by someone held in high regard, but the details are very sketchy. I suppose that’s alright. The line-unit palindromic form of the verses doesn’t seem to add much: each line stands on its own already, so presenting them again in reverse order doesn’t really change their meaning or convey anything new.
The word-unit palindrome of the chorus is a mixed bag: “Riddle this to answer the call / Call the answer to this riddle” is solid; “All my giving, was it wasted? / Wasted it was, giving my all” less so, not helped by the odd vocal phrasing of the last line.
You pull off the musical palindromes with more success; the guitar riffs are catchy and feel natural in both directions; likewise the chord progression of the chorus. The verses and chorus sag a bit, while the bridge feels manic. For me, the energy level never quite settles where it feels like it should be.
Vom Vorton - Won't Lovers Revolt Now
“Won’t lovers revolt now” is a great line, and you do a great job of constructing the song around it, but the delivery of the line itself leaves much to be desired. It could have been a rousing anthemic hook. It could have been a plaintive cry. It could have been an ironic smirk. Or… I guess it could have been four staccato shouts, rhythmically isolated from each other, and isolated from the rest of the song by an extended instrumental section. I won’t tell you that choice is wrong, but it does seem almost calculated to annoy me the most.
The production is, to me, strongly reminiscent of You in Reverse-era Built to Spill, which I enjoy, although like much of that album, this does feel longer than it needs to be (again, that middle instrumental section is mainly to blame). The melodica section is fantastic, as is the lift at the end of the verse stanzas (e.g. on the word “hall”).
Jealous Brother - Dumb muD
The palindromic acrostic is a brilliant idea - exactly what we meant in the challenge when we said “Maybe you'll come up with some form of palindrome we haven't thought of!”
Your palindromic guitar solo and riffs are tasty; it appears you disregarded rhythm as a necessarily repeating element in favor of pitch alone. This is a perfectly valid choice and made these parts feel natural rather than contrived.
The vocals are strong; near the end of the song at 3:16 you jump up on the last repetition of “Cause we’re stuck in the dumb mud” that’s much less controlled than the rest of the vocals.
Also in Blue - Mr. Alarm
This song is just a delight, and a nice display of the more light-hearted end of your emotional range. I love how the beginning of the second half of the lyrics is treated musically as the bridge - there’s a satisfying variation in the music even as the lyrics are repeated.
My only complaints about this are that the acoustic guitar palindromic riff is not quite rhythmically nailed down, and I can hear where it’s been cut-and-pasted; and that I think the organ solo in the middle goes on for just a bit too long.
Cavedwellers - Fun E nuF
I fully expected you to deliver a quality song with this prompt, and on the whole you didn’t disappoint. The rhythmic and melodic palindromes are tasty: natural-sounding enough that you can sit back and enjoy them, with the added bonus of rewarding closer listening. I appreciate the phonetic palindrome of the title, which almost no one else did, as well as the ABCBA rhyme scheme.
The lyrics are mostly perfectly straightforward - maybe even more so than the typical Cavedwellers tune - which makes the letter-unit palindromes stick out as unnatural. “The strap parts in fits and starts” is particularly head-scratching, but even “You jump off the line like a race car” is, I think, not the phrase you would have chosen had you not been trying to shoehorn in more palindromes.
The Dutch Widows - A Wapiti
“I tip away a wapiti” is a really delightful palindrome, and it makes for an exquisite chorus hook. In fact, the melodies throughout the entire song are great, and if one doesn’t pay any attention to the lyrics (which is a perfectly valid way to listen to music), this song is a blast. The vocal delivery is on point, the guitars are tasty, and the arrangement packs a punch.
When you do pay attention to the lyrics, things are less compelling as you realize that there’s very little thematic connective tissue holding it all together. At least it’s consistent, as your non-palindromic lyrics seem to make about as little sense as your palindromic ones. (I really want “Monotony in selflessness / I have neither grace nor experience / Assuming that will make me no braver” to mean something to me, but alas I’m coming up empty.)
Again, the song is very easy to enjoy, but as a songwriter I chafe at the relentlessly nonsensical lyrics. A life in palindromics is mighty but moronic, indeed. Maybe the song was a brilliant meta-commentary on itself all along, in which case the joke is on me.
Hot Pink Halo - I Hear The Roar
A walk through a garden labyrinth is calm and meditative. Theseus’s walk through the Labyrinth of Crete was a matter of life or death. You’ve managed to capture a bit of the feeling of both with your song - the instrumental suggests a compelling balance of turbulence and calm.
I would not have made the connection between palindromes and labyrinths but it’s a brilliant one. I appreciate a set of spare, carefully-chosen lyrics. I want more of a sense of portent at the Minotaur line - it’s the hinge of the whole song and the only line that’s not repeated, but it doesn’t have the sense of a turning point. It could be a more compelling vocal melody, some extra instrumentation, vocal harmony… it feels like something extra there, for the ending of the song to then return from, would drive home the in-and-back feeling of the song.
Ominous Ride - La Minimal
You know how sometimes you’ll see an image online that appears to be a macro photograph of, like, water droplets on skin or something, and you think, “That’s pretty cool”, and then you look at the caption that says “This is a pencil drawing” and you’re like “WHAAAAAAAA…???”? This song is kind of like that.
The trademark Ominous Ride atmospheric production and vocals are on full display here, to great effect. The lyrics don’t seem to mean a whole lot, but they sound natural and flow easily. It all adds up to a great listen. Then you examine the lyrics and notice the palindromic structure of every stanza, and you’re like “WHAAAAAAAA…???”
I mean, yes, semantically the lyrics are a brick wall, but syntactically they are gleaming gossamer threads of beauty. It’s a testament to the flexibility of the English language, in which so many words can serve as multiple parts of speech, and changes in word order result in different but equally valid constructions; and it’s a testament to your cleverness in fully taking advantage of these qualities of the language. I mean, the fact that you embedded rhymes in there! And lines like “I trust that all is good” / “What good is all that trust” - “Trust” is a verb and a noun! “Good” is a noun and an adjective! “That” is an adjective and a conjunction! Seriously, people, look at this language we have! Look at what Ominous Ride has done with it!
Jon Porobil - Boomerang (Viv & Hannah) (feat. Mo Ouyang)
I love the story here, how it features the palindromic idea of leaving and returning. This is a great interpretation of the challenge, even if some others went for flashier, more impressive takes.
I love the specific details of the lyrics (Bloomberg News!), and the opening stanzas expertly thread the “appropriate amount of teenage horniness” needle.
I haven’t always loved your higher range singing, but here it’s controlled and confident and it works well for the song. My four-year-old asked if it was a boy or a girl singing, which I offer as a compliment but you can take however you like.
The brass falls into the uncanny valley for me, but otherwise the arrangement is beautiful. The “come back baby back” hook is instantly catchy, and there are lots of other great musical moments throughout. The “boomerang baby” interjections during the fadeout feel out of character with the rest of the song.
The “pool ABBA loop” line is a bit too cute - the song’s story is compelling on its own and its effectiveness is undercut by serving as the setup for an awkward punchline. Sometimes a song outgrows its initial inspiration and needs to leave it behind, and I think this is one of those times.
Sober - Until the Page is Torn
In religious literature, palindromic structures are often used to indicate completeness or permanence. I’m getting something of that sense in this song, which depicts two people weathering some kind of “storm” - amid the uncertainty, the only thing that is certain is the relationship itself - “Cause I'll be here from the end until we begin.” While the details are sketchy, the emotional core is communicated perfectly well through the choice of words, the structure, and the musical choices.
Speaking of musical choices, those palindromic banjo and mandolin riffs are great. They’re not particularly complex, but they are idiomatic to the instruments and the style, making them more pleasant to listen to (and probably more fun to play) than something more purposefully clever would be.
My only real complaint about this song is that there’s some rhythmic uncertainty in the second verse, in places like “It’s all I can think to do / Back to the beginning with you”. It sounds like you conceived the melody to go with the forward verse, and parts of the backward verse feel a bit shoehorned in.
Menage a Tune - Looking For Fairies
This is lovely. The pitch- and tempo-shifted harp still sounds great. The audio samples are used to great effect, and you capture a bittersweet memory. Nice job.
Cybronica - Serenade
I’m a little surprised that no one else attempted the full-song audio palindrome, though after all it is an obscene amount of work, as I’m sure you discovered.
You wisely let your voice take center stage; it’s lovely whereas the synth patches are a bit cheesy. This song is best enjoyed by sitting back and letting the waves wash over you. Very good stuff.
All the Robots - One Megaton
The line “One megaton did not age me, no” was written by Ryan in 2012 for a different wordplay challenge (it ain’t cheatin’ if you ain’t competin’). Ryan wrote the music and lyrics for the whole song. I supplied accordion and lead vocals and encouraged him to steer into the TMBG “Lucky Ball and Chain” vibe. We had fun.
Thank you for your review!!!
ReplyDelete