Thank you all for your incredible effort over the last couple months!
In (irrelevant) ranking order:
Daniel Sitler – What If?
Daniel, you’ve quietly been excellent through the whole competition, never topping a prior round but hanging around the top spots with a nice variety of songwriting styles. Your song’s vibe for the final round could hardly be different from last round’s sincere storybook setting. You crushed it. You wrote a great song, with a lyrically engaging verse, a driving pre-chorus, and an undeniable chorus. No one would ever think to notice the number of chords in the song, because the various other compositional tools you’re using are so varied in each of the sections. It’s a rich complex song despite the constraints of the challenge. Nice guitar work, nice production overall, nice vocal performance, nice indie rock lyrics, nice matching of “feel” to message. This is my favorite of the round and I’d have ranked you first if the judges were still judging.
Chas Rock – Hotel by the Hospital
Chas, you’re only narrowly in second place in my final round irrelevant reviews. I *love* the production feel and quality of this song. It’s got that dark, pseudo industrial, but nonetheless *pop* thing going to perfection, sorta like the hits from Robyn’s Body Talk records or that Sia Chandelier song? Check out the album Ten Love Songs by Susanne Sundfor too. This is the world your song moves in, for me, and I mean that as a super high compliment. You’ve had such rich and awesome pop productions throughout the competition and I’m so grateful for it. The verses in this song are so great, damn. The sneaky internal rhymes, that steady repeated eighth note rhythm, the jumping to a higher take on the melody for the second half of the verse, it’s all great. For me the chorus isn’t at the same lofty standard, and that’s why I had to put you below Daniel’s killer chorus. The lyrics feel real, the way a person would actually speak, and I like that. But I’m not wowed by the chorus, and you might have gone a little too far in dropping out the instrumentation here too? On the final chorus I might have had the climactic return of all the percussion and driving synths on “neither” and keep it at that high pitch through the chorus rather than waiting for “home”. Anyway it’s a narrow margin (and my vote doesn’t matter anyway) and I’m still in awe of your pop production skill.
Brian Gray – Gestalt
I wasn’t sure how you’d do it, Brian, taking the two chord challenge and fitting it into the Gleebleverse musical, but dang you did it. Whether you intended this or not, I felt that the simple two chord strumming style evoked the same kind of story-appropriateness that your instrumentation choices did. Apocalypse survivors in hiding aren’t necessarily writing harmonically complex avant garde music right? A couple chords back and forth seems right for that vibe. Your turns of phrase are excellent as ever, “The parts the sum is greater than” got a wry smile from me, and “of course it’s no one’s fault, except of course it is” is also great. Looking back on the whole competition, honestly it’s been so fun to see more and more of the Gleebleverse come into existence while also adhering to the challenges of each round. I hope you’re really happy with these four songs because I think they’re all great. It’s probably unfair but I’ve got Chas ahead of you for sorta contradictory reasons to what I’m complimenting you on: his complex production. And Daniel just crushed a one off pop song with a windows down singalong chorus. But my vote doesn’t matter anyway! Congrats on a great four songs.
Sober – It Never Comes
This is so freaking funny. You get the “just have fun” award for the final round, Sober, and thanks to you now I’ll never think of “the one and five” the same way, lol. Everything about the production and performance is impeccable as always, thanks for always putting in such great effort for us. The guitar solos and licks here are particularly strong, and I love that walking bass back there too. This one really belongs in a packed, steamy dive bar, with the whole place singing along rowdily, just before last call. Just really great job nailing this sound and giving us these great lyrics that somehow match theoretical precision with raunch. So great. Hate to have to (meaninglessly) rank you fourth here. I think there may be a viral hit sensation version of this song with a slightly different or catchier first line of the chorus. The “She plays that seventh…” melody sounds a bit samey to the verse, and maybe there’s a more transparent alternate lyric to put there? I don’t know, these are fine margins.
Jim of Seattle – Variations on an End
I’m sorry to put you last, Jim. I’m just not completely sure about your interpretation and direction with the challenge. In the past I think Spintunes has had a round where only a certain number of words were allowed in the lyrics, and it seems like you were imposing that kind of restriction on yourself in addition to the two chords. And it didn’t totally work for me. It’s also not my place to critique because judges’ votes don’t count this round, but I do think you played a bit fast and loose with the two chords. Even if you were technically within the “can a guest play along” rule Micah shared, I’m not sure those piano interludes match the spirit of the challenge? But I might be out of my music theory depth. All that said, it’s a very lovely piece, more in the realm of film score or musical theater again, and I’d usually want to rank any song with a smooth sax line higher! And then the harp and clip-clop and whistling and strings and everything, it’s obviously a very rich lovely composition. The lyrics didn’t really let me in and I guess I didn’t jive with your interpretation to try to make two chords sound like a million different chords. Congrats though on bringing it every single round; your songs have always been highlights.
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