ST19.4 Reviews - Micah Sommersmith

See-Man-Ski - Super Natural Way

This is a lovely song. The paired structure of the verse lyrics is really effective. It’s basically call-and-response even though it’s one speaker; the contrast between the imagined superpowers and the reality is great because it’s structurally simple and consistently applied. It makes for a memorable and instantly understandable song.

The B section (“it's because of you who you are…”) is a bit weak to me because you abandon the rich imagery of the A section in favor of platitudes. And that last word “for” is a limp anti-climax after the big moment on the word “staaaaaaand”.

I also wonder about your vocal delivery of the title. Listening, it just sounds like “supernatural”; the pun doesn’t come through. The tiniest pause between “super” and “natural” might communicate the play on words better.

Governing Dynamcs - Two Different Worlds

I like this song more every time I listen to it. You’re playing to your strengths in terms of arrangement and performance, and it pays off for this subject matter in a big way. You’ve wrapped the central idea in layers of metaphor but the idea of hesitancy to embrace oneself fully comes through clearly. It’s good. It’s really good.

I might cut or at least soften the chugga-chugga distorted guitar at for instance 0:15; it doesn’t fit sonically with the rest of the arrangement, although I can recognize the value in having that little bit of roughness in the sound.

Also In Blue - Doppelganger

You make good songs. You know it, I know it, we all know it.

Your stick countoff at the beginning sets an expectation for high energy, and the mellow electric piano and handclaps are then a let-down. Cut the countoff.

Fadeouts. I’m not opposed to them in principle, but I think they’re most effective in specific circumstances. Basically, a song should end when there’s some kind of stasis reached because the song doesn’t have anything left to say. That stasis can come in one of two forms: 1) no movement - silence - we’ve reached a conclusion and the music stops; or 2) endless movement in the same direction forever - we know there’s nothing new coming up but it’s still satisfying to keep going. Since a song can’t actually continue forever, the illusion is achieved by fading out.

I don’t know that you’ve earned your fadeout in this song. Lyrically, it ends on a cliffhanger, and musically, we’ve just gotten to a point where we’re expecting a bridge or other contrasting section. An instrumental interlude does nicely, only suddenly we realize it’s getting quiet. Wait, is this the end??? You could leave us wanting more lyrical content or more musical development, but to do both is cruel.

Sober - From Either Side of the Grave

Great energy, great sparse lyrics, great banjo pickin’. I want more, more, more of the layered vocals. You could have stretched that ending section another two minutes and I would have absolutely been here for it.