ST17.4 Reviews - Micah Sommersmith

I need to preface my reviews by thanking everyone for participating in SpinTunes 17. For my first time running the contest, I have been thrilled with the participation and blown away by the quality of the entries. Counting both official entries and shadows, this contest has resulted in 98 original songs that would not have existed otherwise. What a gift. Thank you all and I hope to see you again next time.

Now the reviews, in album order, since I ain’t gotta judge nothin.

See-Man-Ski - Sometimes I Forget Myself

The incessant repetition, along with the gradually developing instrumentation and the emotion in the vocals, makes this song feel like an extended exercise in self-flagellation. This is not inherently a bad thing, but it took me more listens to get into this song than the other finalists’.

The line “I can’t work out” struck me as odd every time - I expect something like “I can’t work it out” or “I can’t work out why” but to me the phrase “work out” on its own refers only to physical exercise, which I’m quite sure is not the intent here. Is this a case of trans-Atlantic dialect difference perhaps?

Cavedwellers - What You Do

The opening guitar riff instantly reminded me of “That Thing You Do!”, though it took me an embarrassingly long time to make the connection with the title of your song and realize that the reference was deliberate.

The production, guitar work, and vocals are impeccable as always, though especially in this round it all feels a bit clinical. While your competitors used the repetition required by the challenge to dig into some pretty heavy emotions, this song is more interested in being clever than it is in actually feeling anything. Maybe this bothers me more than it would because a lot of the lines feel stiff and unnatural - “I really heard you” comes off weird, and lines like “What you done” feel very out of place, given that there are no other indications that this construction is idiomatic to how this narrator talks.

But of course, what bothers me the most is that you craft this song that so self-evidently elevates cleverness over emotion, and you don’t even manage to add correctly.

Also in Blue - Forgotten Cities

This is absolutely masterful. I don’t know how exactly you’ve pulled off sounding stripped-down and also full and lush - this sounds cinematic in the best way, like this would be what you would hear in a movie when a character is playing guitar and singing on an empty stage, and the film composer has added just enough sweetener to tip your emotional response over the edge. (Remember, people, emotional manipulation via music is actually a good thing. It’s kind of the whole point.)

If I’m looking for things to critique: The downbeat at 2:56 (“empty sky”) doesn’t have quite the impact I want it to - your voice is powerful but all that’s underneath it on the downbeat is a single note on the low guitar string. It doesn’t have the same impact as the corresponding entrance at 1:03.

Sober - Judgment Is Gonna Come

I don’t know if you’re familiar with the folk hymnal the Sacred Harp, or the associated singing tradition, but many of the songs are in neighboring sound-worlds to the one you’re inhabiting here. In minor-key Sacred Harp songs, there’s always varying schools of thought on how to treat the 6th scale degree - keeping it flat as in natural minor, or raising it to put the song in the dorian mode. It’s contentious enough that when I write hymns in the style I tend to omit the 6th scale degree entirely. I’ve internalized this very specific harmonic choice to the point that hearing that Dm - Bb progression very early in the song was actually shocking to me. I’m sure there’s very little for you to do with this information, other than to know that I experienced this song both as familiar and surprising, which I think all good art should be.

The interplay between the banjo and dobro is fantastic. Many of the banjo licks feel very familiar to me from hearing other music in this style, though perhaps that’s not fair to complain about: every style has some conventions that are so strongly baked in that they’re not even cliche anymore - I suspect it’s like listening to a rock song and thinking, “Snare on 2 and 4? I’ve heard that before!”. 

Regardless, this song is extremely satisfying to listen to. Your vocal tone, the instrumentation, lyrics, melody, and harmonic language all work together to form a unified, cohesive sound and a great tune.

SHADOWS:

All the Robots - Some of the Robots

Ryan came up with this song idea for Round 1, and while we didn’t end up running with it, his demo for the chorus was fully-produced and polished enough that we thought, why not bring it back for this round. It’s a catchy and fun tune. I don’t think my lead vocal quite did justice to the song, but I had fun for 30 seconds.

Jocko Homomorphism - Diagonal Zeal

This is a serious earworm. The vocal melody is instantly catchy, and the little synth flourishes are expertly placed. I can’t claim to understand matrix algebra any better after hearing it, but I can spell “diagonalizable” with much less hesitation.

The Dutch Widows - Been a Blast

A chill, unambitious song that nonetheless does some interesting things with the challenge by shuffling the lyrics of the A section into a new and satisfyingly contrasting B section.

The guitars that open the song before the vocals come in are really cool - the guitars throughout are cool in fact. The echo-y, spring reverb-y guitars that end the song along with the otherwise a cappella vocals remind me of some of the deeper cuts from the album Laid by the band James, a comparison that might not mean anything to anyone, but there it is.

Governing Dynamics - Don’t Break Me

This tune manages not to feel the weight of the challenge too heavily; the paucity of words is never noticed as a weakness. Nice job there.

The opening guitar riff feels familiar but it’s certainly engaging, and there are plenty of tasty riffs throughout. Your tendency to layer guitar upon guitar usually gives good results but there are times when the tuning and/or rhythm just don’t line up the way they should. There’s a section starting at 0:47 that has a few particularly twitchy moments.

Similarly, your trademark breathy vocals (which I’ve heard enough varied songs from you to know is an aesthetic choice rather than a limitation) tend to be unsupported which lead to frequent pitch issues. They also lead to some heavily aspirated consonants - at times I heard “Zon’t break me” in the chorus.

Hot Pink Halo - You’re My Type

The energy here is infectious and matches the playful lyrics very well. Love the drums and the groovy synths. A little brass goes a long way, and you’ve got… a lot of brass. I’d suggest more staccato stabs and fewer long sustained notes, as the long notes tend to stomp all over everything else going on. The final seconds of this song hint at a completely different sound-world, which I’m intrigued by.

All the Robots - Helicopter on Mars

I actually came up with the main hook instantly when I first heard several weeks ago that there was a helicopter on Mars; it came back to me when the helicopter actually took off for the first time, which luckily was during this round. It was just the kind of actual good news in the world that seemed worthy of celebrating, even in a dumb song like this. For this round I also wrote most of another song, which felt clever at the time but in hindsight was just pretentiously nonsensical. Ryan jumped on this idea and it came together quickly over the weekend before the deadline. This tune was an unwelcome guest in my wife’s head for several days, much to her annoyance, which I took as a good sign. 

Menage a Tune - Wild Karen

Very different environmental sound sample from last round, but just as effective! This is a fun little piece that wisely doesn’t overstay its welcome. The body percussion is charming, though I wonder what it would be like with some more instrumentation, a piano or guitar or even just a bass to give things a little more structure.

Jealous Brother - Dear Judge

This is delightful. When you first submitted this without written lyrics, I wasn’t sure that the twist would be coming, but I’m glad it did and you crafted it brilliantly. The shift in tone in the middle section, while using the same individual words, suggests that this is the seething internal monologue, while the opening and closing verses are the cheery external presentation given to the world. This is supported by your musical choices, as the outer sections feature a simple, cheery, I-IV-I-V progression, while the inner section follows a much more complex, serpentine chord progression. You do this while maintaining a cohesive sound throughout, so that the transition feels like a welcome development rather than a lurch into unwelcome territory. It’s great. Someone might complain that this is “too meta” - that person, whoever they are, can step on a Lego in the dark.