Read on for Ian's full reviews.
This task has been so humbling, ya’ll are sure better at this than me, so I’ve tried to cook up a system to make it possible to rank the disparate songs against each other. I went with a scale of 1 to 10 for 5 criteria:
Music, like did I dig what you came up with overall tunewise for its genre, bonus points for otherworldly or bizarre treatments,
Lyrics: poetry or bawdry, original or hackneyed, memorable or trite,
Performance, did you nail it?,
Production: graded on a curve from a cappella iPhone to a dead room at Electric Lady; tried to see if you maximized your engineering level,
Theme: this one’s tricky, but did you commit to your idea and gestalt that sucker - the most subjective one, I know!
As I went thru these, I wanted to point out that in each criteria, we were somehow trying to bend our minds to think: hey, compared to the absolute best and worst of this batch, where did this song fall, was it a standout for that criteria. At any rate, I found rating them against one another challenging, but what a great listen; these songs will have a life of their own now, hopefully you’ll get to perform them for the people that matter - your fans!
Berni Armstrong - Sleep
I love the assured delivery over the martial drums, it’s magnificent! For us in the back, it was a little relentless, so I did want to mention that, it was awesomely itself. You have a broad voice that fits the material perfectly.
Prod 7, Lyric 4, Perf 6, Music 5, Theme 6, Total 28
I’m not crazy about the descriptiveness in the verses, but love the minor tonality and overall the song works.
The Pannacotta Army - Moar
Oh hell yeah, Hall and Oates beats! Thank you for bringing the melodica to Spintunes, so succulent with that organ!
Prod 8, Lyric 7, Perf 6, Music 5, Theme 7, Total 33
I could just dance this one right out of the club, not sure if you guys use live beats or drums, but the feel is nice and funky, I can’t believe how different this is than “Never Look Back,” it’s a great contrast, give us moar!
Yeslessness - White Feather
This has an amazing 60’s vibe, like opening your mother’s old guitar case; I love the interplay of the voices at the end dancing around with the guitar, it opens up the space of the chorus and it’s just right to the end.
Prod 8, Lyric 6, Perf 8, Music 5, Theme 5, Total 32
You have so much range, this track is very different from My Secret, I can hear a voice or two in common, but it’s a demonstration of your capabilities to pull out like a Buffalo Springfield outtake in under a week, bravo!
Bubba & The Ghost of the Kraken - Hideaway
Oh man, those beachy voices, I wanna remix it with surf guitar!!!
Prod 7, Lyric 9, Perf 7, Music 6, Theme 6, Total 35
You guys have such a neat interplay between your voices and do that character swapping, scene setting great, kinda like in Knock, “so answer the door!”
chewmeupspitmeout - Love Song
A boogie from the outset, it’s like a lost track from the dark leather bars in Chicago; I can see the sweaty crowd pogoeing out the Love Love Love Love Love, then dropping down for the confessional with the infinitish delay on the vocals, it’s nice and dirty pretty - just right!
Prod 6, Lyric 5, Perf 5, Music 5, Theme 7, Total 28
I’m not sure where you locate yourselves genre-wise, I hear echoes of New Order-ey stuff, but that may just be affection for baritones; you have a warm familiarity to your singing that draws the listener.
Stacking Theory - Breathe In and Hold It
Finally, Yeah gets its song! How about that reverse piano to trippy bridge; fucking fantastic! “Am I here forever?” Yeah.
Prod 8, Lyric 8, Perf 6, Music 6, Theme 6, Total 34
“Redact my feelings, keep it tight, when will they come back?” Wow, that’s just great stuff, this whole track is radio ready.
Jeff Walker - Unforgivable
Aw man, your production on your first track blew me away, I couldn’t actually believe it, at least with this one, you can see a few seams, but heck yeah, brother, you’re sure good at this! I really liked the message of this song a lot, we’re mad as hell and people need to hear it!
Prod 7, Lyric 5, Perf 7, Music 5, Theme 5, Total 29
Still killing it on the production, I didn’t instantly fall in love with this one, maybe the mood or something, but it sure sings out - I’m intentionally avoiding looking up any of the participants to try to stay within the criteria of judging and not be intimidated by how “big” folks are - I think there’s a couple of ringers in here that sound like they’ve been around some.
Daniel Sitler - Awkward
This one makes me want to know you better; I felt all that great heart last week, this more stripped down tune still has a groove and the Awkward doesn’t feel the least bit manufactured.
Prod 5, Lyric 7, Perf 6, Music 6, Theme 6, Total 30
Reminds me somewhat of like The Shins, guitar is great and dry and out front, the other instruments providing support are rich and fill out a straightforward song.
The Evil Genius formerly known as Timmy - Maria
This is anthemic and danceable; what a hook! The lyric draws you in nicely, I want to know about these people!
Prod 5, Lyric 7, Perf 6, Music 6, Theme 5, Total 29
I love the “promise to remember” bridge part - it’s a tearjerker within a tearjerker!
James Young - War
I love the feel throughout, great intro and rockin’ chorus, I would never have thought you needed more than one word, with that catchy melody.
Prod 7, Lyric 5, Perf 7, Music 6, Theme 6, Total 31
This song has huge anthem vibes and is part of this week’s pretty political pool - glad the Spintunes world is raising consciousness. I love those big modulated chords and all that single coil magic in there, it just glues everything together great on the track, probably the livest production this week, it’s nice and sparkly up in the highs.
Single Pint of Failure - Alone
Whatever you did to make the voice and everything so up front and prominent is great, I was listening to a bunch of these on a nice system and this track is way more present than most - it’s bursting and sparkly, you can hear every whisper.
Prod 8, Lyric 8, Perf 7, Music 8, Theme 8, Total 39
I think it’s able to feel tossed off, while keeping a groove, it’s easy going down, but that fuzz-out in the middle, whooeey! You make great use of the fat second syllable of Alone so it’s all you need for the song at the end and it’s a list song with no lists; genius!
Tunes By LJ - Capital
Wow, I hope you don’t hate that I hear a little Donald Fagen in there - that break and going into the different feel lead by the bass is such a bop. You’re a great singer, you could always make it as a jazz vocalist/trio!
Prod 7, Lyric 7, Perf 6, Music 8, Theme 8, Total 36
Balance Lost - Lost
You guys are mixing some fantastic elements in there, the jangley guitar and piano parts against the whispery vocals are their own whole vibe! You’re one of the only songs that bounces the one word title off of two voices like that, it’s cool!
Prod 7, Lyric 6, Perf 5, Music 7, Theme 7, Total 32
Maybe not one of your influences, but I hear a little Beta Band in your delivery, I think it’s the smoothness and timbre.
Hot Pink Halo - Phosphorescence
I love the blending vocals on the verses, reminds me of Melanie Martinez, but with a lofi vibe; you have a great, expressive voice and I’ve still got Op Shop in my head!
Prod 6, Lyric 7, Perf 6, Music 6, Theme 5, Total 30
I love the way the music matches the lyric, they’re both luminous and ringing out - the production does a good job highlighting tension building to the chorus.
Also In Blue - Please
Heck yeah, this is another solid track, confident and full of great lines and uncommon, thoughtful phrasing.
Prod 6, Lyric 7, Perf 7, Music 7, Theme 8, Total 35
I keep thinking there’s some ringers in here, this has the confidence of the masters, so it’s great to look for influences and all, but just the sounds you guys are getting are pretty top notch.
Jealous Brother - Oumuamua
Like a tribute song or the theme song to your favorite wacky series, this is instant retropop sensation. Your drummer plays a particular way I like, hard to describe, but like they’re pretty well dressed for a drummer like Charlie Watts. I love the surf/Hawaiian feel and just thank you folks for makin’ a song about our special visitor.
Prod 7, Lyric 8, Perf 7, Music 8, Theme 8, Total 38
Phlub - Tygart Dam
Concrete and Reeebar, I love a good civil engineering hoedown! Your recording of your mandolin is impressive, it really rings out; nice going on ripping some licks!
Prod 5, Lyric 7, Perf 5, Music 5, Theme 5, Total 27
This is some honkytonking jamming going on, no doubt, this song is the closest to the type of music I personally play.
Temnere - Deutsch
Oh yeah, this is a new thing, for sure! I wish I had more metal knowledge, so that I could understand where this fits in that whole world, it’s just great how all those prussian consonants convey the atmospherics.
Prod 7, Lyric 6, Perf 6, Music 8, Theme 7, Total 34
Everybody’s great on this track, it’s a dark dungeon that belongs on an arena stage! Versicht!
The Popped Hearts - The Second Best Time To Plant A Tree
Um, okay, this is going in my biking playlist; done. All of these shouting choruses of Today across the land could actually change a thing or two.
Prod 6, Lyric 7, Perf 7, Music 5, Theme 8, Total 33
My recording or compressed track has some swirly comb filtering nonsense around the one minute mark, like a stereo drum mic polarity issue maybe? It’s mainly in the crash cymbals. I love your fadeout, cuz it’s independent, not like those 70’s LP fades.
Mandibles - Désirée
This song, with its cool riff driven groove ingrained itself in my head from the first listen; it’s timeless!
Prod 6, Lyric 6, Perf 6, Music 8, Theme 6, Total 32
I like this song even more than Time Machine, it feels more straightforward, tho that one was pretty classic from the first listen as well.
Governing Dynamics - Predestination
I love the openness and space you guys are willing to create in this - it rocks but gets above that because of the more processed guitars and the different dynamics you create by adding/subtracting elements throughout the track, it’s clean but not soulless.
Prod 8, Lyric 7, Perf 6, Music 7, Theme 7, Total 35
Cavedwellers - Owzat! (Dismissed)
I would not diss your track, dudes, it goes so many places, whoa! I love the prog bridge, I hear some what, Yes in there? Mott the Hoople? And those wacky acending changes headed for slide time!!!
Prod 8, Lyric 7, Perf 5, Music 7, Theme 7, Total 34
I love the way the confident vocal is undercut by the lyrics, then gets vulnerable, then goes back to powerful - it really gives an effective arc to the track.
thanks, brain - Strange
This song takes me to some great Rockabilly dive bar, with The Cramps or Reverend Horton Heat! Dig the Harpsichord-ey sound too, adds to a generally spooky feel!
Prod 7, Lyric 7, Perf 6, Music 6, Theme 6, Total 32
JW Hanberry - Maladjusted
Your music is bending my brain backwards! You’re right in your message - we’re tuning in and tuning out of the station - preach! We have someone in the midwest named Charlie Parr that your voice reminds me of - big swaggering lines, but a little unhinged and funky!
Prod 7, Lyric 6, Perf 5, Music 7, Theme 6, Total 31
That trippy phaser and cool synth riffs, “we should be cruising along, but we’re way off the track!”
“BucketHat” Bobby Matheson - Time Enough At Last (Vellichor)
I want to just give it to you because I basically fell down a basement bookstore stairway when I was 17 and am still kind of falling - that vellichor was potent! I don’t love the spoken part, its menace doesn’t hit for me, but hell yes, thanks for making your art!
Prod 8, Lyric 5, Perf 5, Music 7, Theme 4, Total 29
It’s weird but I love the darkening guitars and other elements, Time Enough at Last is maybe a great title for the album you’re writing?!?
Brother Baker feat. Father - Free
“A blanket of grey surrounds everything I know,” You folks got some great lines in there, and Free doesn’t sound forced or even repetitive, really - it all connects. How about that bass!? Love the ending too, nice that we drift off into outer space.
Prod 8, Lyric 7, Perf 7, Music 5, Theme 5, Total 32
The two voices in your group are so well suited, like, well, a father and brother - blood harmony? It’s got a great modern rock feel like maybe 30 Seconds to Mars? I just mean the vocal harmonies are big and interesting and that I can hear this on modern alternative stations.
Good Niche Gracious - Katzenfrühstück
OMG, I want to give it to you for the extremely realistic conversations around our kitty house and those beepity boops in the very beginning are a great theme, it’s cool the way it bounces around your voice.
Prod 5, Lyric 6, Perf 6, Music 5, Theme 5, Total 27
For me, the best thing about this song is its commitment - it goes all the way both conceptually and tonewise.
Sober - Home
You folks have the finest guitar tones in all of Spintunes, so much great twang and vibrato and just general thicc tube happiness, reminiscent of them folks on the Lucinda records: Murf, Champ, Buddy - those guys. I love the whistlin’ too at the end!
Prod 6, Lyric 7, Perf 7, Music 6, Theme 5, Total 31
We gotta freakin’ do something about those left behind in capitalism’s voracious wake.
The Alleviators - Sigh
Wow! This warms up a room, all that big harmony and letting the song speak out simply; just beautiful! I hear some Waxahatchie sounding stuff, but it’s its own world for sure.
Prod 8, Lyric 8, Perf 7, Music 8, Theme 8, Total 39, so you’re actually tied for my #1 this week.
Siebass - Home
Hell yeah, reminds me of Dawes in a good way! It’s okay, you’ve still got yer punk rawk creds from last week. It’s great to see vulnerability, and there’s that relentless rise in the song that achieves its epic goals, way to go big and get there!
Prod 7, Lyric 6, Perf 5, Music 7, Theme 6, Total 31
Ironbark - Désolé
Oh my, you are from your own genre! This week, we are walking down the Rue Massenet, at the end of a long, sad day in Nice, the darkening sea beckoning us onward.
Prod 7, Lyric 6, Perf 6, Music 7, Theme 7, Total 33
This is just a great, catchy track featuring such distinctive accordion and pizzacato, it really creates a great atmosphere - your school French serves you well says my partner, the Francophile.
Jerkatorium - Yeah
This is so great, we are meta clav arpeggiatin’! All the stuff where you’re doing it and singing about it makes me smile, everybody can just settle down now, this is just everyday life.
Prod 5, Lyric 6, Perf 6, Music 5, Theme 7, Total 29
I love the last minute, it doesn’t feel redundant and gets big without bombast; nice angsty pop I can see sneering over a sweaty crowd at Underworld, between Art Brut and Arctic Monkeys.
Simon Purchase James - Existe los Regalos
Singing about the moon and gifts - so beautiful. This side of your music is fantastic, all the guitar work really, but that double time bridge section is just smokin’!
Prod 7, Lyric 6, Perf 8, Music 7, Theme 6, Total 34
I should tell Mother Tree this is what we’re trying to get out of a guitarist, the whole Segovia meets Tuck Andres thing; sounds way different than that Dylan in the airport basement, very cool!
Mandrake - Magpies [SHADOW]
Okay, you had me at Analogue gloriousness and Corvids.
Prod 5, Lyric 6, Perf 8, Music 5, Theme 7, Total 31
Such cool blending of electronic and naturalistic sounds, it’s 8-bit mechanical madness, you even get a little Modal Zork in there for an extra alien dimension.
Daniel Sitler - Not A Cello (Headphone Warning) [SHADOW]
Hey guys, just wanted to apologize if I wasn’t correct in identifying any instruments last week; this song has a lot of energy and seems like it’s bursting out into the sky!
Night Sky - Lonely Alexander [SHADOW]
That song’s reminiscent of both the great Texas swing bands like Dan Hicks and Texas Playboys as well as like alt pop mainstays B-52’s; nice twanging twang on the gut-steel, and super nicely recorded too; the whole thing sounds real loose and live, like the musicians are in the same room.
Prod 7, Lyrics 5 Music 8 Perf 7 Theme 7 Total 34
where’d you get that Sax , they were on it that day!
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