Rankings:
Sober – Waiting for the Crash
Phlubububub – Threads!
Daniel Sitler – Work in Progress
Jim of Seattle – Snorkeling
Chas Rock – The Show
“BucketHat” Bobby Matheson – The Flame-Proof Polka
Brian Gray – End of the World
See-Man-Ski – Sleep
Stacking Theory – Escape the Grid
The Dutch Widows – An Awkward Mend
Jocko Homomorphism – Theorist’s Dilemma
Brother Baker – The Silver Lining
Cavedwellers – Ricochet
Temnere – 20w
Governing Dynamics – Across the Wasteland
Sara Parsons – Rewind, Retry
Jealous Brother – Uncle Jerry
Third Cat – Some Truths
Timothy Patrick Hinkle – A Lost Love and a Roving Eye
Brewhouse Sessions – A Little Bit of Heaven
New Fangled Trolleys – Dat Studio Money
Menage a Tune – No Time to Die
I’m sorry everyone, this round was super difficult with such great entries and I wish more of you could progress to round 3. The quality overall was super high and I’m grateful that a possibly challenging prompt still produced such great songs. Pretty much every song was in my top ten at one point as my rankings shifted. For those who get eliminated, please submit shadows! As this round showed, there’s every chance you could be reinstated.
Dutch Widows – An Awkward Mend
Excellent production again. I have to say that the experiments in loop-based songbuilding are leading to super engaging atmospheres and, in this case, a real body-mover. I can see why your album art offers a dance move to pair with the song. I also love how dynamic your vocal performance is here. You have a great skill in varying the color of your singing. That skill combined with the various composition and production elements here, like the vocal jumping to a hard left and right pan at certain points, some subtle harmony at other points, and the non-lyrical vocalizations, all adds up to an inventive whole. I go deeper into it with every listen. I also give you credit for the “I did it all, I called it wrong” melody that’s sorta spare, downward pointing, even calm amid the very busy drum loops surrounding it. A pleasing contrast. The tempo change is pretty stark, yes, but the transition back into the original groove works better, and for a song that’s heavy on atmosphere it almost makes sense that the overall atmosphere itself would be what changes for a kind of “bridge” section. I expect to rate this one toward the top.
Brother Baker – The Silver Lining
Brothers singing together, confirmed! I love it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14l_pkdyWbw
And congrats on the new job and a very capable production job with limited time available. As if last round’s 7/4 experiment wasn’t challenge enough, you’ve gone and attempted 5/4 this time, which… is not what I would reach for personally if I had super limited time to make a song. Which is to say: congrats. The switch between time signatures is super effective and seamless, and the loose free-time section fits with the lyric of sorta coming to a realization about yourself mentally. It makes sense that that would dawn on you a bit slowly. It works. Great guitar lick at the center of this one as well. I’m into it.
Chas Rock – The Show
Aw damn, much to some other contestants’ chagrin my main ask is that y’all have fun with these prompts, and Chas it sounds like you had an exuberant dance party all week working on this one. It’s so fun. And using the tempo change to represent… kneeing a child in the head on a wedding dancefloor, lol, and that too so seamlessly and effectively, shows your creativity man. Other high points: the jump to falsetto on “dance hits” and every time that melody comes around; your brilliant vocal performance which takes on a different color in the two different tempo sections; the synth hook; the dynamic changes throughout; and the little ad libs in the background, “oops” “come on”, “remember college?” lol. Great job all around. If I have a nitpick, it’s probably the, um, ass-forwardness of the lyrics? Admittedly, if I had come up with the “applause from beneath my pleats” joke I might not have been able to cut it either, it’s certainly… shall we say, vivid (and super funny). But apart from that we have a lot of ass in every verse. Maybe he’s got some moves that emphasize his elbows or neck or knees or whatever for one or two of those examples. “Pair of buns bouncing left and right / piggies in a fight” is probably the first to go. And the song’s begging to be titled, “Where Daddy Goes to Dance” or “Daddy’s Turn To Dance”, nah? But don’t get me wrong, I love this one.
Third Cat – Some Truths
This song goes for it with the tempo changes and I have to give you credit for taking the challenge to the max, Third Cat. The very first tempo shift into the chorus is a bit jarring, but that’s perhaps inevitable and it is more or less what we asked you to do. My favorite tempo transition you do is at the very end, coming out of the bridge back into the final choruses. That one’s super satisfying and somehow 69bpm to 35bpm to 138bpm all seems perfectly natural and seamless. Nice job. There are lots of production highlights here took: the metronome tick works, the synth lines (are they moving from ear to ear?) add good atmosphere; the “ahhh ahhh” background vocals going into the choruses. Your guitar playing is also strong. The lyrics are honest and relatable, if a little vague, but honestly that’s okay. Let’s call it “allure and mystery” rather than vagueness. The vocal work all around is super strong, all the backgrounds and harmonies and everything, but the main vocal is not super expressive, maybe? Maybe it’s trying to be the “robotic words of love” from the lyric, is it? I guess even the most expansive parts, the chorus hook, still sound like the same calm near-speech singing style. It’s very effectively done if it was the aim but I wondered if it needed a little more expression? Totally up to you.
Jocko Homomorphism – Theorist’s Dilemma
This is a satisfying piece overall, especially held up against the song bio from which I learn that we’re basically hearing the whole storyline of a le Guin novel in song form. The tension of the narrative builds apace with the steadily rising tempo over the song to produce one of the more satisfying uses of the challenge in the round. Likewise the mood of all the sounds maps to the narrative, going from bright and optimistic at first to more and more foreboding and scary. The lyrical concision is also super. Favorite passages were: “Colleagues are enlightening / But the leash is tightening / Chaining me to my pen / They just want a weapon” and “Come eat drink sleep / Rest and dine / Come sit heel beg / You are mine”. That last one especially is where the feel of the song shifts perceptibly. It’s well achieved and honestly this does everything it sets out to do very well. I know this judging perspective has irked some, sorry about that, but I did long for a little more song song here as opposed to time / tempo / story experiment. You’ve got a real Devo thing going here (clearly, seeing your name!). Not only the instrumentation but that voice jumping over to the left ear “And I’m staying up all night” brought to mind songs like Smart Patrol / Mr DNA with a few voices communicating the narrator’s perspective in different spaces in the stereo spectrum. But, to my point, I guess even that song has a, you guessed it, chorus. You can take that or leave it. Who knows, maybe a version of this song that has a short catchier chorus to emphasize and reemphasize the main idea of intellectual exile would sound ridiculous. But I wondered and waited for it and it didn’t come. The song, sonically, goes and goes but doesn’t land anywhere? Which I suppose matches the message of the lyrics, so eh what do I know, theorist’s dilemma indeed.
Temnere – 20w
Well this is a song where the subject matter hits home – sorta battling inside your own mind, wondering if there’s a more contented way of going through life, whether by medication or otherwise. If that’s sorta what you were going for, I totally got it and it’s well written. The central melody of the whole thing, the “mind is racing through another day” melody is, dare I say, pretty. It’s a beautiful one and when that comes around it almost takes me to musical theater (sneak preview of Round 3). It has that heart-on-its-sleeve confessional energy that fits on the stage, and at the same time it’s catchy, singalongable, passionately delivered. So if I have critiques of the song they might relate to some mismatches here and there. That chorus bit is maybe a little too pretty for the rest of the song, or vice versa some of the more aggressive sections (PAAAAAIINNNN) seem like a different song from that melody. Though sure, that’s what it’s like inside a racing mind with a background hum of suffering, so I see what you were going for. As ever your vocal performance is stunning and athletic, your production skills are so strong, and you’ve done well to meet the challenge without going overboard. I guess as a whole piece it’s still a bit choppy and mismatched in some ways so it won’t be right at the top of my ranking.
Daniel Sitler - Work in Progress
One of my favorite uses of the prompt of the round. Using the slowed down tempo to tell yourself to slow down is perfect, and the transitions feel super natural. And at the same time, both sections are catchy and singalongable. I was imagining this one in front of a raucous live crowd with the crowd shouting back the faster manic verse lyrics to you and it felt rocking and right. The high point of this effect is the beginning of verse 2 where the instrumentation basically drops out and leaves the vocal, which in this particular section is full of fast dense lyrics. “But now I’m giving it all / and I won’t stop until I have no gas in the car” particularly works. I liked the phrases like that one where the lyrics basically never pause even for a moment, like basically every eighth note has another syllable. That evoked the manic mindset the best and would make a killer wordy singalong. The syncopated, sparer “You might make a mess of it”, by contrast, sorta slowed down that manic energy even before the slow down section. So maybe the lyrics could be even more rapidfire in a few places to make the transition to “slow down” that much more effective? Just a thought. But overall I’m drawn to this one and think it’ll be toward the top of my list.
Timothy Patrick Hinkle – A Lost Love and a Roving Eye
Cool, there are at least a couple songs this round that are adaptations of works of fiction. I love the additional bit of inspiration behind the scenes, so thanks for that snippet in the bio. This one takes its time to unfold, with a relatively long runtime, and I have to confess that it also took me some time – many reads and listens – to grasp the main story arc. Well, I think I got there. I wasn’t previously familiar with the short story. That’s not necessarily a fault; the process was rather enjoyable as more of the likely storyline and symbolic elements dawned on me with repeated listens. And as in the last round, your poetic prowess is fully on display here, with specific word choices and some creative flip-flopped syntax (“the villain we’ll hound”) in places. “Now eyes of every scale from butterfly to whale / watch from the air to curtail rebellious behavior” is a particularly strong point for me. Your vocal work is also great here, with harmonies from head to toe in the fast parts and very expressive singing throughout. The reverse cymbal/drum sounds eventually became distracting and I couldn’t place a thematic purpose or symbolic value for them per se. But otherwise the production is complex and strong. If I knock this one down the rankings at all it’s because the two tempo portions feel more like a medley than a unified song? And whether it’s fair or not, I think a project like this one is bound to endear itself to the in-group who know the story and also alienate those who don’t or don’t have interest to try to parse it. It’s a particular, valid and valuable kind of approach and you should be proud of it; it’s just hard to find a way in from the outside.
Jim of Seattle – Snorkeling, Snorkeling
Damn, Jim, what a delight all over again. Who knew that snorkeling needed a drinking style theme song? Well, you obviously. I can’t help but smile listening to this. I want to start with the production and instrumentation here because I’m so wowed. Every verse introduces a new instrument, all of which fit perfectly in the tavern scene you’ve set, and all of them played very proficiently. Then we have the ad libs, responses, and growing group of singers throughout. Leaving the lyrics completely aside even, you’ve already built a whole room for us to hang out in, and a crew to hang out with. “World-building” is a cliché in TV and fiction these days I guess but I’m super impressed you did it just with sounds. Kudos also for the wonderful oboe (?) solos. And then the snorkefishorkelyrics. Would we say that there’s, proudly, some “dad joke” energy to the whole thing? Whether you have positive or negative associations with that, I don’t care, I’m so here for it and it works for me. I’m amazed that people take these challenges which are already pretty hard, and then add another whole challenge level for themselves. Some people told the whole story of a novel or short story as an additional challenge this round, and you… made yourself end every line with the same word through the whole song, lol. Great job of still finding inventive rhymes even within that structure (my fave was killin / grillin / still in). Anyway, thanks for the effort Jim, this was very fun.
Sara Parsons – Rewind, Retry
This is a powerful song packed with details to put the listener right into the moment where you find out someone in your life is terribly sick. “She’s gonna get admitted / So I gotta move my car” is a strong point, the collision of this totally mundane thing with a life altering thing. I love how you went for it in the production this time around too, and the overall vibe and energy of each section does achieve what you hoped for – the felt experience of this sudden change in perspective. Overall I’d say the second, slower portion of the song is the stronger, more fully realized section. It seems to be in a more comfortable place in your voice and the ethereal sounds, xylophone plunks and all, create a nice atmosphere. By contrast the instrumentation in the first section was a little too transparently computer-y, MIDI guitar chugs and solo line. I do love me some MIDI but it would have felt more alive, in line with the topic of the song, if it was a thrashing live band. The high point of the song for me was the return of the “I took a phone call in the parking lot” line and melody; it’s a perfect idea to put yourself and the listener right into the same action but with wildly different emotional context. All told though I might not be able to put this one toward the top for a couple reasons. It felt like two songs, for one, more than a real natural tempo change within a single song (that’s compositionally speaking; the concept of the tempo change when life slows down for a big life event is great). And the very end, Sara, the “rewind and retry” conclusion didn’t land for me, I guess? Would you retry life with more gratefulness and perspective? I guess you can’t retry to avoid cancer, right? Anyway nitpicky I realize as I try to dive deep and parse everyone’s lyrics. Thanks for a super thoughtful entry.
Menage a Tune – No Time to Die
Ah, too bad you couldn’t assemble the whole package by the deadline, Menage! I guess you couldn’t have known that you’d be reinstated so maybe the urgency wasn’t there. But as a sorta incomplete entry it’ll be hard to rank this one very high at all. That said, a fully a cappella song is very welcome of course, and Also In Blue submitted an amazing one last round as a shadow. I think you’ll probably agree though that subject matter as flashy as James Bond deserves a flashy audio production. I also wonder what microphone and vocal processing setup you’re using? This came up last round too, the need for more compression and EQ adjustments on the vocal, but it also sounds like mic or mic placement are working against you. This one sounds almost like a telephone recording, it’s that muddy. Could be a modest investment – condenser mic – that boosts your recorded vocals. It’s clear you have a wonderful and expressive voice which deserves a slightly better mic (if you agree).
Governing Dynamics – Across the Wasteland
There’s wonderful guitar work here, the initial lick in particular is well played and alluring, and the more distorted environment for the second verse does well to evoke … a wasteland? It’s all well constructed and performed, a great array of guitar sounds. Your vocal performance is also strong and passionate. You sing certain phrases in ways that *feel* like the phrase, if that makes sense; “my HEART is racing” being the prime example. It’s drenched in feeling and that’s a powerful experience for the listener, nice job. I connected on that felt level from the first time I heard the song, but the kinda *brain* level never connected as much because I don’t know what the lyrics are about per se. It’s perfectly fine for songs to connect mostly at that felt level, I don’t want to overprescribe lyrical specificity here, but letting you know I couldn’t make out a storyline or scene if you were trying to present one. Kudos on some creative internal rhymes though, i.e. wasteland -> taste when. A couple times the phrasing was a bit distracting though, particularly times when you’re taking an audible breath and pause right in the middle of a phrase. “Place your [breath] bets” caught my ear and the matching line “When you share [pause] the spoils with some others” was also a little awkward where you don’t have enough syllable space for “others” so it becomes “s’mothers”. Nitpicky but especially for the chorus I thought maybe another pass over the lyrics to clean up the way the words match the melody coulda helped? Up to you.
Stacking Theory – Escape the Grid
Get your jangle-pop on! Those parallel jangly guitar lines in each ear are perfect for the sound, man, good job. And you’ve mastered the skill I’ve asked for in other reviews of matching your lyrical cadence to the flows and phrases in your melodies. It never sounds like you’re trying to cram in too many words or stretch words out to make a mismatch of lyric and melody work. The ends of the verses where the vocal delivery becomes more rapid are high points for this: “All my useless measures have become my weights / And they’re dragging me down …” and “I need to find a way to break the patterns in me / Just give me some length and a fulcrum and maybe call Archimedes”. Then the arrival of the chorus is effective with these waves (waves, get it) of big guitar strums to fill out the sound, along with your “ahhhs”. I also like a chorus that’s straight to the point, not too many words. Especially as a nice contrast to those packed lines just before the chorus. All of these elements are working well for me.
Sober – Waiting for the Crash
I find this song tremendously powerful. You’re a great songwriter, Sober. And this one being so packed with vivid scenes and references and autobiographical weight, it’s something I hope you’re proud to have written and listen to across your life. It’s one thing to narrate to somebody a story or memory from your time in Afghanistan, but another thing entirely to put some small portion of it into a perfect folk song. Sure you could have made slightly larger gestures toward the prompt, I suppose, but we didn’t ask y’all to go real wild with a hundred tempo changes or anything and some people went wrong trying to overdo the challenge, possibly. I think this is my champion for the round, great job.
See-Man-Ski – Sleep
Honestly, good decision to keep this “middle 8” as the whole song! It’s moody and the acceleration throughout the song definitely evokes this rising blood pressure / stress / annoyance at this late night / early morning visitor. But never too too much, you know, it still feels like you’re in bed and near-asleep the whole time, which is a nice trick to have pulled off. Near asleep but with accelerating tension. That’s a needle to thread and you threaded it. I think the subject matter is cute and kinda tongue-in-cheek not unlike the way Pulp was. I wonder if that’s your overall oeuvre, not knowing more of your songwriting, deviously playful takes on moody or serious music? Hearing this one I thought it worked so well sonically that I kinda hoped in the back of my mind you’d adjust the lyrics sometime in the future to be about something a little more legitimately ominous. I can’t single out any particular production element for praise other than the fact that the many many instruments and atmospheric elements you bring in all ultimately fit together well to achieve that building yet near-asleep tension and never feel too overwhelming. And the vocal is excellent, well performed and very present. Nice job.
Jealous Brother – Uncle Jerry
George and Jerry… was anybody else initially trying to parse whether this was a Seinfeld homage? No, just me? Haha
This is a charming story song with a lot of twists and turns and a satisfying final conclusion and ending. It sounds like you guys play and record this thing as a whole live band too which is honestly way more daunting than the solo bedroom recordings that most people submit. So kudos for getting your band this tight in one week. I love the parts where the song speeds up to mimic and match the car speeding up; it’s a perfectly natural tempo adjustment idea to meet the challenge. My critique of this song is that it probably has too many parts. The “Out under stars” section at the top is awkward in both its transitions and I don’t think we need it; it could jump right to “20, 30, 45” and still make sense. Then the transition back to the calming piano line after the catchy “Oh no oh” was a little clumsy I think you’ll agree. And we only stick in that mode for those two lines before yet another tempo change. So I think we could have skipped a lot of the stopping and starting. Start with the initial melody, gone into a single sped up section for the evasion of the police, and then brought it back down at the uncle’s shop. One speed up, one slow down. What do you think?
“BucketHat” Bobby Matheson – The Flame-Proof Polka
Dang, who knew that Halloweeny klezmer polka was such a natural fit! This is super fun and yes I agree with you that your lyrical collaborators and you have done well to spin this tale with clever lines. So fun! Play it REAL LOUD out your front door all night on Halloween, haha. Klezmer was such a great idea for the tempo challenge; over in that musical world the steady acceleration is totally the norm and as such this song feels perfectly natural (that too in a round with some examples of pretty forced feeling tempo changes). A great vocal performance as well, listen to you on those vocalizations at the very end! Honestly for what you set out to do and for the challenge, you’ve nailed it. I might have to put some songs ahead of you in a tough round but you should be super happy with this one, Bobby!
Brian Gray – End of the World
First, it’s funny that the first words at the beginning of a musical would be “The end is nigh.” Nice. And don’t worry man I was asking for a little bit of more context in my prior review but still ranked you super high, didn’t I? It’s all good, I appreciate what you’re going for in using Spintunes to build this longer term project. You’re clearly incredibly skilled at it and it’s cool that Spintunes is helping it come into existence. The next prompt is a little more of a freebie in that regard but more on that later. Anyway there’s so much happening here that it’s hard to dive in; I feel like I’d need to analyze the characters and their possible arcs along with the songcraft (or songscraft plural sorta). In short, Amanda and Daniel are a great pair and make sense, and yes it’s spot on that they’d sing in counterpoint at the end, which is cluttered but natural for the genre and works pretty well. I think the Globron section was the one where my attention flagged a little. I think you’ll admit that the peon’s log section serves the overall project more than a song for a song competition. That said, the “eleventy eleven and something” melody is sticky and it’s cool that the alien would be part of the same medley with the earthlings. Keep going keep going keep going. Let me ask: are you more invested in your Gleebleglorp musical than in winning Spintunes? Is that fair to say? I’m wondering if I’ll ever be able to put a musical chorus medley type song in the top spot as a standalone. Amanda’s stunning belter or Daniel’s recommitment to life in a solo number, maybe.
The Brewhouse Sessions – A Little Bit of Heaven
This is a very sincere and warm tribute to your children and I hope you play it for them!! What did they think when they heard it? I hesitate to offer any criticism because it’s sorta beside the point when you have parents – fathers especially – showing such tenderness and care for their children. It’s lovely to see. I like how each verse sorta sees you in a slightly new moment in your daughter’s life, from a baby to the swing, to walking side by side through life to her happy life on her own. The song doesn’t have a lot of variety to it I guess, we have these two sections repeatedly, but they’re both perfectly effective. Maybe the hard rock and loud mix overall is a sort of mismatch for the subject matter? This one maybe wanted to be the slow jam where everyone raises their lighters in the crowd. But keep it and give it to your daughter(s) as their next birthday gift!
Cavedwellers – Ricochet
Dang, this is another super skillful entry. Something tells me you have a very specific narrative you’re trying to represent here, but maybe that’s a factor of so many other songs this round adapting works of film or fiction. But I didn’t exactly catch the reference if there is one and the final result of the lyrics being specific enough that I feel like I’m missing something but not universal enough where some kind of felt impact lands. So that was part of why this one didn’t grab me particularly strongly. The passage moving into the slower middle part was a bit trudging and I wonder if the middle section is slower than it needed to be? I also preferred the sparer verse 1 accompaniment with the light plunking noises in the right ear, as compared to the second verse with those thick guitar chugs. It got a little too thick, maybe. But dang I’m coming down hard on you when ultimately there’s a lot to like here. You’re a very engaging singer and obviously super skilled at production. The switch between rapidfire lyrics and more spaced out phrases is well achieved and your vocal performance is faultless. I think part of it for me is that the melody doesn’t move very far at any point, it’s always right around the same comfortable range so it’s hard to build energy out of the vocal itself, even with the best singing. I’m sorry I know this is mostly critical. I think I’m likely holding you to a higher standard because of the great skill on display and your amazing round 1 song.
New Fangled Trolleys – Dat Studio Money
Evidently a perfect, faultless song from a singular visionary artist, whose genius is tragically lost on this critic, who by the way is volunteering his time for a free songwriting competition the purpose of which is to receive constructive feedback.
Phlubububub – Threads!
Dude I was trying hard to find this movie on any streaming service in the US a few weeks ago and couldn’t find it. I thought it’d be a particularly dark entry in my Halloween season viewing, but I still haven’t been able to. So I can’t connect the song directly to my experience watching the film but still, *wavelength*.
I might have been inclined to critique this as three-four songs instead of one and repeat the frequent suggestion that contestants go easy on us and keep the song lengths shorter. But honestly every part of this is well achieved, with the dynamic, beautiful, brutal vocal performance as a particular stand-out. High flying falsetto in movement one all the way to growling menace in movement four. Whew, what a week you must have had. Of all the songs this round that used the prompt to retell works of fiction or art, this is the most immersive and powerful (though all were quite good). I also only have compliments for the production here, where you’ve built a post-apocalyptic orchestra. Parts of this could be an alternate film score for Threads. I don’t know, man, sorry not to offer much by way of constructive critique but I’m impressed.
SHADOWS Entertainment Brothers – Slowly Hehe, the dilemma of the long distance relationship! My favorite portion of this one is the pre-chorus part just before the numbers start counting. So the “It’s that long wait, delayed, gratification / Driving me mad” – that melody and instrumentation energy change every time it comes around totally works. I definitely wanted the tempo to pick up apace with your counting up from 55 to 100. If it does pick up a little bit it’s not enough. And okay, the turn to murderous violence at the end wasn’t exactly my taste but you do you, brothers. Red Watcher – No Measure Ooh, this was a nice surprise. It has a feel of a real 90s pop ballad, can kinda imagine Annie Lennox singing it nah? Which isn’t to say your vocal performance isn’t awesome because it absolutely is. It’s basically the whole song, floating into your voice and emotion, and your delivery is expressive enough to make that totally work. I give you credit for such a spare production quality too, it’s a particular feel that’s rare in Spintunes. I know that I wasn’t the only judge who wished we could actually rank this one! Where were you last round? The Pleasantry – So Fucking Loud Damn this is great. You gotta start a YouTube channel and turn tongue in cheek songs like this into comedy music videos. You can already picture this one mentally, nah? The acceleration of tempo with “God it’s so fucking loud” is so great, and that flirting with “the drop” in EDM music right. Such a great match for the prompt. And the pause before repeating “Turn this shit down” is the biggest laugh line in the song. Kudos, Pleasantry, two weeks in a row you gave us very clear evidence that you used Spintunes to have a blast in the studio!! Keep it up!
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