Here are your rankings from Cybronica:
Read on for their reviews!
I listened to all of these about a dozen times before I sat down to read the lyrics and song bios and write the reviews. When determining the rankings, I essentially did an insertion sort as I wrote the reviews, basing each placement on whether i liked a song better than the others already ranked on the list. Therefore, what’s written below will explain a little bit about why the songs are ranked the way they are, but it will not call out your specific rank. The below are my musings, and I tried to categorize feedback by elements. I know this is not production fight, it’s spintunes, so even though I do comment on the production and performance of your songs, they were subconscious qualifiers, not active ranking criteria. Exception would be if there were two songs I thought were equal in songcraft, I would look to production as a tiebreaker between the two.
Please know any and all suggestions I make are just that- suggestions! I am one person and these are my opinions, based on my life and musical experience. Please feel free to take the feedback you like, and ignore what you dont (even if that’s all of it). Also I don’t proof read my reviews so sorry in advanced for the typos haha.
Apologies to the shadows, there were just so many songs… I’ll try and get something written up and posted in the song fight boards for y’all!
Also, side note, I use the word declamation throughout for lack of a better word- I’m referring to how you stress your syllables in the lyrics as you sing and how you set specifically the words to the music.
Anyway, really enjoyed this batch of songs, folx! Great music all around.
GFS - Vertical Vision
- First impressions and orchestration: Bonus points for being the first song i wanted to sing along to; those close vocal harmonies are absolutely delicious. This song is a total bop, and transports me to an indistinct time in early 2000s the way youve arranged it.
- Production: I LOVE your arrangement and orchestration, the way you’ve layered all the instruments and unified the timbres of the various parts is really exquisitely done.
- Concept: I love what this song is about. Its a really upbeat self pump up song, but theres something in them that causes me to infer that YOU have been through some shit, and I just want to say, good for you for getting through it. Your efforts are not unnoticed.
- Lyrics: Maybe its that the songs reminds me of an era when I was a child, but its the kind of song that I think would be geared towards middle schoolers, which makes the line, “I’d say recognize when you’re wasting time on what you can’t do shit about,” feel all the more exciting/sneaky/like you and I have a secret we’re both getting away with. Overall, though, I’m not wowed by the poetry of the song. The meter is fine, but its lacking imagery and metaphor.
- Performance: Well sung, and processing on the vocals is unobtrusive. I love especially when those low vox come in at the end - tasty!
- Challenge: Met
Berkeley Social Scene - Atop the Sutro Tower
- First impressions and orchestration: The riff at the opening reminds me of a P!nk song, but I can’t put my finger on which one. Loooove the harmony backing vox.
- Production: Vox is very heavily processed, which on one hand might go with the robots future motif, but on the other hand it kinda feels like its overly sanded down, which in the context of the live band sound backing up the singer is a bit disjarring. There’s a bit of feed back in the bass and guitars that nags at my ear, muddying the aural atmosphere and making things sound slightly out of tune.
- Concept: This song concept is really far out there, and I’m not particularly moved by it. The song bio makes it sound like a happy go lucky snapshot of a possible future, but the lyrics themselves have a more sinister essence, like its the opening number in a musical about a human vs. robots civil war. I’d watch that show.
- Lyrics: Not a lot of poetry in the words, which read a bit like free verse (derogatory). The rhymes don’t really commit to themselves, either, either as true or slant. I *know* song lyrics dont have to rhyme OR be in meter but 1. I like it when they are, and 2. It doesn’t feel like you purposely chose to have the lyrics be apoetical, just that you half assed it.
- Performance: All that said, I never really heard the lyrics. I read them after about 10 listens when I sat down to write this review. The vocal delivery is a bit choppy and syllabic, which I think is a by product of the (lack of) meter in the lyrics more than your singing skills. Its hard to make those words flow. Otherwise, well played. Really enjoyed the phlangy guitar solo- the timbres and motion of the line really evokes the feeling of watching a summer city sunset.
- Challenge: Met
Mandrake - Volume
- First impressions and orchestration: OMG i feel this song in my SOUL. Yall, the club does not have to bump that hard!! I really love the chip tune instruments you have in this orchestration, especially on the bleepy interlude. Its bloopy old timey video game sounds are a perfect balm for my ears assaulted by a world with much too loud music lol. The way you use the white noise and backwards reverb etc is really well layered and makes the arrangement that much more interesting, too.
- Production: The vocals are so deadened compared to the rest of the instrumentation that it takes me out of the song a bit. Its really alarming, like…. Well, like I’ve been at a loud party all night and now my ears are all muffled. Because of that, and because ive heard other stuff from you that doesn’t have the same kind of hi cut filter, I assume this is on purpose? And therefore I think its very clever, nicely done. I think you could take it a step further by having a section (maybe the choruses, maybe a bridge, maybe that bit at the end when youre talking) that doesn’t have such a heavy hi cut filter on it; that would emphasize the frustration, help help tie the vox to the other instruments that have more upper partials in them.
- Concept: SO SO GOOD. When doing my listens, I assumed this was about bars and clubs and such, but I see now its about music in everyday life. As someone who lives next to a busy intersection, I still agree with the song whole heartedly.
- Lyrics: Best thing about the lyrics is the bait and switch into the hook, where you think around is going to slant rhyme with loud, but then whoopsie daisy the word is high, actually it rhymes with down. Keeps me on my toes.
- Performance: I like how you send in a little head voice mix on the hook. Another little fake out when we were expecting a big belt there. It makes the song that much more delicious to listen to.
- Challenge: Met
Jim Tyrrell - A Hole In The Rain
- First impressions and orchestration: That panning at the very start is intoxicating. With the flute and the bass line, hooooo boy I loooove this groove. Then you come in with that slight whisper-in-your-ear tone with tastefully automated echo and reverb… This music is *fucking sexy.* that pulsating drone is delightful ear candy, This whole song is the feeling on sitting in a big window with a cup of tea on a rainy day. Well captured.
- Production: The processing on the vox is, as I said above, an aural delight, and the pitch correction processing matches the timbre to the jazz club aesthetic, so I’m not mad about it. There is noticeably more reverb on the flute than the rest of the inst’s, which makes it even more tasty. I loooooooooove your flute.
- Concept: I love how you take the subject of endless road work and work it into an existential dialogue. Making the mundane metaphysical is one of the amazing things we can do with aret, and you get this done here with flying colors.
- Lyrics and Music:I love the use of internal rhyme to get that AAABCCCB effect. And I like your little word play in the second verse, applying the Y-axis to your move to town via, “When I came *down* to this little town.” The way you sing them, the lyrics really flow in a lovely way that you wouldn’t expect just when you read them. On paper they seem like it might be a bit disjointed, but listening to your singing you make them fit right in, passing easily between slower and faster declamation. This has one of the most interesting melody lines this comp, and I love how you give that descending line to the flute, giving a little musical painting of the challenge.
- Challenge: met
chewmeupspitmeout - i was just the gravity
- First impressions and production: Is this song written from the perspective of my ex-husband? (ba-dump tss). Sweet song, a little quiet, and I think that’s not just the overall volume (which is a little quiet), but the individual instruments are also a little muted themselves. They all sound bit set back in the mix, like youve pushed everything aside for the vox. Don’t get me wrong- the vox is gorgeous, and I would never want to step on the toes on your reverby sound, but… something is missing? Maybe if you spotlighted some of the instruments when they are having their individual moments. For example, at the instrumental break before the final section, have each inst be a little louder when they come in and then bring them down when the next comes, to give each its little sparkle. (oh oh ohhhhhh coming back to say its probably too much compression on each individual instrument. They’ve each been squashed down in their own line. If you instead do very light compression only as needed on the individual tracks and then put most of the compression on the master track, you’ll still get that sound you want, but also the individual instruments will shine in context of each other)
- Concept: What a heartbreaking song. It’s sad and sweet, and something I think a lot of people can find a connection to. It helps that it a little bit reminds me of one of my favorite dolly parton songs, Jesus and Gravity, which similarly takes the mundane subject of gravity and makes it something special.
- Lyrics: Love the dactyllic verse, and the way you play with sound in your word choice. The internal rhymes, assonance, and alliteration adds a lot to the overall sound of the piece (Ballast/Burdon/Bound and Revanent/Revery was particularly delicious). I also like how you keep themes going in your word choice (again, ballast/Burdon/Bound, and also Guilt/Shame/Regret/Blame), like a motific multiplier launching us through the depths of the poetry.
- Performance and Music: That wall of sound at the start is a bit Bowie like to my ear. Your singing is lovely, especially when you go into your headvoice. Its so intimate without (for the most part) losing the support needed to get all the notes right in tune. Much as I like the poetry, I dont think your choices in declamation were the right choices. “The gravity alWAYS pullING you down” alWAYS pulled me out of the music. “Bound TOOOO the ground” and “TOOOO torment me” both feel off because you emphasized a very unimportant word in the line.
- Challenge: Met with floating colors
The Pannacotta Army - Still Coming Up Short
- First impressions: Beautiful tone on that guitar, and the blue notes takes me right to parisian cafe in springtime.
- Orchestration and production: This is a perfect smooth jazz ensemble, with really excellent use of clarinet. All the instruments are balanced really well against each other, and the timbres blend well since its an already established ensemble. Is.. is that a little slide guitar? Ooh lala! That shooting star type of midi fits in well with the rest of the instrumentation. In fact, I hear several midi lines now that I’m listening for them, and I’m very impressed with how well they fit into the aural landscape, given the air this song has of being a 5 piece band busking on the streets of *twists mustache* Pair-ee. You’ve matched the timbres very well. Concept: This song isn’t quite a nothing sandwich, but it might be a not much Croque Monsieur. It’s just… done? And the words have this undertone of bitterness that is offputting to me, like you’ve decided your own feelings of inadequacies are your object of desire’s problems. Its a valid feeling that deserves to be made into song, but it wasn’t my favorite concept in the bunch.
- Lyrics: “I hesitate - wreckless I’m not” is such an awkward turn of phrase, and it sticks out from the rest of the song because its the only one like that.
- Challenge: Just barely tall enough, but met all the same!
iveg - Flames Descend
- First impressions and arrangement: One of the best written songs in this round, hands down. Your achilles heel here is the execution, which I think might be masking a really incredible piece of music. I would love to hear you team up with Temnere for a cover of this song- the melody is right, the subject is right, the harmony, countermelodies, dramatic pacing, and lyrics are all perfect for a truly charts worthy metal song. HOWEVER the mix is a little dead, the instruments are too quiet, the guitar is WAY too far back in the mix, your vox needs a high pass filter, not a high cut, and your vocal tuning goes a little out of wack when you get to the high notes. Plus, I really need a shredding guitar solo and some post chorus riff to stretch this to two and a half minutes at a minimum.
- Concept: I say all this because *i love this song.* Seriously. It is one of, if not the most meaningful I’ve heard not just this round, but this year. I am so sorry about what has happened in your home (if there’s a relief that you recommend I would love to donate)
- Lyrics: Really well put together. You filled them not just with meaning, but with a phonemic semblance that entreats the ear to keep it hooked. While on the page the poetry doesn’t appear to have an even meter, that’s because you’ve written the words to fit the music’s phrases.
- Music: I want to also commend on your text painting with the descending lines you’ve scattered in the vox and instruments throughout the song.
- Challenge: Met
Stacking Theory - One More Love Song
- First impressions: great ominous opening. Those low sung *homs* are so good throughout; and I love are they start out unison and then a line starts moving up from them ever so briefly. And the parallel modal movement is delightful.
- Production and arrangement: Damn I am such a sucker for quick back and forth panning. Love that sound. The contrary motion between the Ahs and the bass at the start is great. Love the overall ascending lines that are punctuated by lines that descend again. The breakdown where its just the vox and then a bunch of reverb is amazing. Why is the play out a completely different song? I’m suddenly realizing 10 listens in that its all one song, and not the next song on the playlist coming on. Feels out of place, and brings down the vibes.
- Concept: I like the concepts, but I think the swan song AND sisyphus together make this a metaphorically crowded song.
- Challenge: Met, moreso in the music that the concept I think.
West Of Vine - Come Up On The Front Porch
- First impressions and lyrics: This is objectively a good song, but I am sorry to say it is not especially memorable. “You said that I stole your heart but it’s not the kind of crime that pays” is one of my favorite lines in the round. You have a lot of phenomenal imagery in this lyric, but I didn’t notice any of it (except the above line) until I sat down and read the lyrics.
- Performance: I think the words get lost because the vocal performance is not super tight - the lead vox and the backing vox are not together, and your tuning is all over the place. I think your singing would really benefit from some breath work. It would take it from shakily out of tune to the confidence and strength endemic of country music. Also the slow down at the end is at a different pace for each instrument and it is similarly disjangling.
- Orchestration: Why does the best guitar tone only come in for the play out?? I want more of that sound - solo, postchorus riff, somewhere! Its there briefly in the intro, and disappears for the rest of song, blending in with the rhythm guitar tone.
- Concept: I’m still not solid on the concept beyond… a long distance love song? Isn’t that X-axis?
- Challenge: Is the challenge met here??? Is it the “up” from the title? That’s suuuuuper weak. You can pass on a technicality but I am docking you for it. I would have liked to see more up/down synonyms in the lyrics and/or music that focused on upward or downward melodic movement.
The Popped Hearts - You're Getting High, I'm Getting Down
- First impressions: What a bop! VERY Beach boys meet Dracula. I wanna punch dance to this song. That james bond bass tone! Delicious.
- Production: Your voice isn’t super nestled in the mix, but I can’t quite place what would make it work better cause in general this is mixed well. Good panning, enough headroom (am I using that term correctly?), well matched timbres, not too much compression… but something about it is still off.
- Concept: Love the just say no attitude, very DARE of you. I totally get the feeling of wanting to have fun, but your friends got messed up and ruined the fun… I think you make great use of word play, and I appreciate that.
- Lyrics: The fact that you rhymed affluenza and grandma’s credenza is *chef’s kiss* *slow clap* peak performance. What a great way to grab attention right at the start. “You said Never Meant / You meant Never Said” is soooo good too, love the inversion.
- Performance: I loooove the emotion and attitude you put into your singing. Could you use some more breath support in your singing? Sure, it might make for a nicer tone in general, but your performance is so enigmatic that I dont want to mess with it. The at times shaky tuning is acceptable casualties in service of that spirit.
- Challenge: Met
nightingale's fiddle - Ballad of Susie Ann
- First impressions and music: I instantly fell in love with this song. The text painting in the melodies are well executed in a stylistically fitting way. I love the line “Down down down;” the deviation from the fast passed declamation of the verses and rest of the chorus gives the ear a much needed rest from the patter.
- Orchestration: I used to have a composition teacher who told me to always go through my music and remove anything that wasn’t strictly necessary. You’ve done that to great effect!
- Production: Is this one mic, one take? Again, very impressive. I would trying out different places to set your mic, cause at the moment the vox is a little deadened and sometimes buzzing from the lower strings comes through. You can also look into adding a low cut filter or boosting the upper partials to make it sound more polished and less like a song from a 40 year old VHS.
- Concept: Phenomenal.
- Lyrics: Great, but I must let you know that “quay” is pronounced “key.” Did you have a cowriter who wrote that line? Because it seems in the lyrics its supposed to rhyme with “she,” so I’m surprise you didn’t pronounce it right.
- Performance: PLAY GURL dang you got that harp SINGING at your touch! I’m so pumped at the harp work in this song. Its GORRRGEOUS. Your singing is also
- Challenge: met lyrically, conceptually, and melodically. You get extra points in my book for getting so much challenge fitted into such a sparse arrangement.
Ominous Ride - Vertigo
- First impressions: Really smooth sound, delightful bass sound all around. Your close vocal harmonies are so iconic of your style, and I love them. I dont think that tempo transition is too awkward. It feels right, a good break up of the the slow groove, and then we come back.
- Production: Some of the backing vox are out of tune. Whether you prefer to fix this with pitch correction or another take, I think you would benefit from that. You have mixed this so that all of the instruments have a similar timbre, which makes the the overall impression of the song very tight. None of the midi jumps out to me as, “HEY! I”M A MIDI INSTRUMENT!” They just fold nicely into the fabric of the song.
- Concept: I like this approach a lot. It’s one of those lateral interpretations of the challenge that provides opportunity for some really cool imagery, and you took that opportunity and flew with it!
- Lyrics and Performance: I love how much you packed into these words. You have a lot of images one after the other, but they are all of a piece, and the metaphors blend together well. These lyrics are really well crafted. They dont have a set meter, but when one reads them aloud, they flow easily. Its not the tide waves of iambs or dactyls, but the babbling of a brook as it ebbs and flows, so that the reader automatically pauses, speeds up, and slows down naturally without punctuation. Then you sing these well crafted words, and you have a beautiful spread of rhythmic timing that never lets the ear get tired. I love how you switch between long stresses and quicker patter in your declamation. This ebb and flow in the vocal line is reflected in the other instruments, particularly the bass, which makes for a pleasing and interesting to the ear texture.
- Challenge: Met! Even if someone didn’t like the “high as in drugs” interpretation of the challenge, you have a lot of altitudinous imagery in the lyrics which I love.
Braylee Pierce - Dig Deep
- First impressions and production: One mic one take, right? That’s very impressive, and it is really well sung and played. I have similar issue here as I do with the harp song - I think you need to find a better placement for your mic, because your voice is really lost behind the guitar. Maybe bring the mic closer to your face. If youre worried about the balance when you sing loud vs. when you sing quiet, sing right towards the mic when youre quiet, and turn your head at an angle when you get that more powerful sound. Then there’s the matter of the room- I can it hear it. If you’re doing a straightforward G&G, I would find a room with a liiiiitle more action, because it sounds really dead in your voice (not that your voice is dead, it’s just dry. Not dry like singing dry, but reverb dry) as it is. Alternatively, you could add a little reverb on the audio in post. I would also add a little compression and boost the gain slightly, because the song often passes back and forth between really quiet and loud, so I end up riding my volume knob while I listen.
- Performance: I love the changes in levels of intensity and dynamic in both your singing and playing (compression, when used right, will not take this away, it will just make the quiets a bit more audible). Your emotion really comes through in your voice, which is not easy for everyone. I will say there are a couple times around your vocal break where your tuning gets a little off, notably “my name it cried” is flat on each of those notes. I now its not that its out of your range because you hit a higher note right after them perfectly in tune on “revealed.” I think two things will help with this. First, a little bit steadier breath control will take the onus off your vocal folds to make those notes happen. You never want to make the intensity or volume come from your throat- it comes from the breath, deep in your belly. Second, bring a little more headvoice into that mixed vocal tone. Revealed is so clear because the vowel on reVEALed lends itself to that heady mix, and you naturally locked right into it.
- Orchestration: G&G, old faithful.
- Concept: Good concept, but I think you could have gone farther with the imagery. As is, you heavily rely on cliche.
- Lyrics: You also rely on poetic cliches in the writing of the lyrics themselves - “my name it cried revealed” could have been, “It cried my name, revealed” just as easily. Unless the syntax of the two lines is, ‘And still I hear the whisper call my name; it cried, “Revealed” ’ in which case you need to add that punctuation when you write out your lyrics. Similarly, I would argue “That cold dark mine she looms” sounds and flows better without “she” thrown in there. In general, it feels like you are looking for a shortcut to profundity, and that ironically cuts away at your depth. I will say, “Black invasive veins of coal” is an amazing line. It conjures extreme imagery, has lovely alliteration and assonance, and a metrical pulse that moves you straight through to the end.
- Challenge: Met!
Brain Weasels - Root To Rise (Overdrive)
- First impressions and Concept: This is so catchy. I want to sing along, but its like jumping into a step dancing hora at 150 BPM - at any given moment I feel like I’ve already missed the entrance. That said, I constantly found myself singing this to myself over the course of these couple of weeks. The moment those shakers come on, I get a smile on my face because this song is so brazenly exuberant. I wanna be part of the party! I wanna do this sun salutation! I do a lot of yoga, and this song kinda captures exactly how I feel about meditation - I’m trying so hard to get into that lofty brain space, but my brain space is SO FULL OF THOUGHTS. The intense speed is so apt for that exact feeling.
- Lyrics: In general a good flow (pun intended), but you try to squash extra syllables in there at times. While you do manage to patter sing them all in to place, the ear still trips over them a bit.
- Performance, Orchestration, and Music: I love how you have those breaks from the patter song for that sweeping soaring line of Shoulders back etc. It is a wonderful break of tension for the ear, and makes the pay off that much better for it. Your singing there is great; excellent breath support, well in tune, and the extra space you give it creates a different, darker, rounder vocal timbre that helps with the tension break as is contrasts with the more pointed squillo of the rest of the song. That plinky little instrument (mando?) is a great lead into said squillo vocalism, and then that delicious bass tone is lovely pair for the darker vocal tone. Also that bass solo? HOLY CRAP! Please tell me it was a midi patch so I can feel better about my own bass play chops! JK - whether its live bass or programed, its a phenomenal line, and I look forward to it on every listen.
- Orchestration:
- Challenge: Met
Phlub - Straight to Hell
- First impressions and Lyrics: These lyrics are so fun, so delightfully evil. I’m actively being snookered by this conman because I feel like I’m in on the joke and I’ve got a little smirk on while he robs me blind.
- Performance, Production, and orchestration: Damn, that playing on the guitars on the solo is sooo good! It matches the whole song’s sinisterly laissez-faire attitude, and your singing does the same. I love how the voice and guitar mirror with the pitch bends, like, “Oh, you thought this was a wrong note? Really? Nah bruh, I know just where I’m going (to hell), and I’m going to the right note, just taking my time to get there.” The echo and reverb effect you have going to add to that feeling too, and its almost like the narrator is just off in his own little murder world, nothing is real but the pleasure he feels at the pain he inflicts on others. And… is that a mandoline, folded into the texture? I love it. It brings through a bit of shimmer that was needed to balance out the mix. I do think you need to tone down that low pass filter you have - it sounds a bit like your vox in particular are coming through on a transistor radio. It’s weirdly muffled. A little bump around 2k-3k would help it shine it up.
- Concept: Great, perhaps a little obvious, but you did it in a way that feels fresh and fun.
- Challenge:Met
Jeff Walker - Solid Ground
- First impressions, Concept and Lyrics: Congrats, I think you’re the first person to ever put “Heidegger and Kierkegaard” in a hook lyric! Its a little bit of a mouthful, but you manage to sing it convincingly enough. I have a real problem with the impression I get from this song. I get your bio says its about the nature of boredom in a modern society, but your lyrics really come off as, “This girls is such an *air quotes* ‘intellectual’ that anything she does is inherently dumb and a waste of time. Why bother with community action? She’s just doing it for the cache! All her noble intentions are, in actuality, vanity!” It rubs me the wrong way. Is this a song about a white savior complex? Is it about an ex girlfriend that was too busy to spend time with you? I see what you were trying to get at, but I think you fell flat, erring on the side of bitterness rather than observation.
- Orchestration and performance: Love the organ playing in my right ear, and the guitar tone is delightful particularly as it plays the counter melody in the bridge. Then that solo comes in and ooh, the whole things takes off. This is a nice country song, sonically speaking, I just wish the lyrics were different and I’d be all about it, because your voice is very well suited to it. Your singing has the right about amount of wisened worldliness in the baritone to fit the genre perfectly.
- Production: It takes 6 seconds for your song to start - the count in is too quiet to be anything worth keeping. I’d cut out the dead air in the beginning.
- Challenge: Met
The Dutch Widows - Above It All
- First impressions: I really like the sound of your songs. Its a nice blend of acoustic and electronic instruments, and you do a really good job of bringing all the different sounds together into a unified piece. I will say, the song is a liiittle forgettable. Each time I heard it I would go, “Oh yeah, this one!” but never thought about it inbetween listens.
- Performance: I don’t really ever hear your lyrics until I’ve read them; not sure if that’s your accent or the timbre of your voice… I’m not mad about it, but I literally didn’t hear any of your lyrics except “High above it all” right at the start, and even once I did read the lyrics, it was hard to understand… Don’t take this as too much of a criticism though; it’s more of an observation. I love your band’s sound, and wouldn’t want you to lose your relaxed je ne sais quoi because I mentioned I couldn’t understand the words. Some songs are just meant to be that way! The voice becomes an instrument in the texture as opposed to the soloist.
- Lyrics: These lines flow well, particularly the way you set them to the musc, and I love the use of rapid fire internal rhymes.
- Concept: Great concept, another heart twister. It’s interesting how hierarchy does have that vertical movement, but I’d say heaven and hell are a by product of that, not the other way around, like those who have the high ground literally have the upper hand… god, its so baked into our language! Haha! But yeah, there’s an advantage to being literally above your opponent, via visibility and gravity helping you out (punching down vs. punching up, right?). Anyway, as you can see, I find your concept really engaging, I just wish I realized it was there earlier on.
- Challenge: Met
Cavedwellers - Z-Axis
- First impressions and Concept: Hahahahahaha I LOVE a good math joke, love a good subversion of the challenge, and love how you did both here.
- Lyrics: The lines “side to side is very Exy” and “Going forth, coming back your “why?” is also very wily” give me life! This word play goes beyond what anyone else did this round, and is the most aligned with the spirit of the challenge, in my opinion. “You’re going to have to increase your Z” Is this a dick joke? It feels like a dick joke. You use so much assonance and internal rhyme throughout that it makes the words sound fluid, like a perfectly in tune flute section.
- Performance: This is the level I’ve come to expect from Cavedwellers - very tight, well sung, well played, well performed, and unified in tone. I have no notes except I like it how it sounds! Your songs are always so bright to my synesthetic mind.
- Challenge: Met, and gone beyond… or is this song more about the Z axis than the why? Even if the Z is prominent here, I think your choice of vocabulary certainly meets the challenge, plus you mention the Y-axis literally several times.
Hanky Code - The Bends
- First impressions and concept: Heehee this take on the challenge is utterly delightful, and really well executed. Everytime this song came on I thought, “Oh goody!” I wouldn’t have been surprised if you told me this was a TMBG song what with the clever words and boppy aesthetic.
- Orchestration and performance: Great build in the band on that intro, and the way you you bring in instruments between sections is done with a great amount of finesse - those backing vox are delightful! And that Call and Response guitar in the bridge? Brilliant! It’s not the same tune as the BVs, so it’s like a whole ‘nother part of the conversation, and its unobtrusive yet enough to give us a heads up to expect that timbre when it returns for the solo. The whole orchestration is really well built. In the vocal line when you are building into the chorus and you speed up the vocal lines one at a time, until its a whole bunch of 16th notes? Brilliant! That makes the song so exciting! So nuanced! It really conveys the extreme excitement one feels when around their special someone! It really is excellent composition right there. My only note for the performance is I wish there was a liiittle more energy in the main vox. It might be that its overly compressed, or maybe the notes are all TOO clean? You hit every note exactly right every time, so while my old opera coach would give a standing ovation, here is feels a little sterile. Pun intended, but bend the pitch just a little, and let in some vibrato too and it will really warm up that sound.
- Lyrics: “Where the sharks is / sharks *are*” - I CACKLED at this line! It’s very “Dreary who you were, well are…. Populer… LAR” from Wicked. Your use of rhyme and repetition makes this a fun lyric to listen to, and you sing it very clearly that we can hear all these fun turns of phrase. The way you use the symptoms of the bends to describe infatuation is delightful!
- Challenge: Met!!
Tunes By LJ - Beneath You / Over It
- First impressions and arrangement: Beautiful sound, love how you use doubled vox to get that sound… or is it doable vox? Is it a chorus pedal? Its neat is what it is. Love the band, too. Epiano, regular piano, big fat bass; the whole thing sounds really nice, though it is quite short. Probably could have gotten away with singing one of the verses again, same words and all, to fill it out, since you have that jazz feel here.
- Concept and Lyrics: It’s there, it checks the boxes, but its so vague, it veers towards generic. I do really like how you constructed the “Blame it on” section, but still, it feels like something is missing in the context.
- General thoughts: This is another song this round that is really well polished and played, but I’m not, like, wowed by it. Sure it sounds nice, but there were other songs that sounded nice and went deeper with their songcraft, and songs that didn’t sound as nice but really went above and beyond with what they wrote. Sorry for the luke warm reaction. Hopefully I’ll hear more range from you next round!
- Challenge: Met
Hot Pink Halo - Aim High
- First impressions: What a great song - this was one of the few that would get stuck in my head over and over again. I’d wake up singing, “Aim hiiiiiiigh!” It’s so personal, vulnerable, hopeful, wide eyed and full of plans for the future. I love the whole meaning of this song. It gives me warm (hot pink) fuzzies when I listen to it.
- Orchestration and production: It’s really cool how you used a recording of climbing the eiffel tower to make that industrial backbeat. You have a lot of disparate timbres in this song, and I’m not sure they are super unified. It’s like each sound (fuzzy industrial backbeat, sparkly star arpeggiator, big round bass, whispery vox) is pulling me in a different direction and the effect is I’m kept at the status quo, but there’s a bit of an auditory strain as I try to reconcile them all. Not sure what the fix here would be, perhaps a strings pad that has that grainy sound but also a boost in the upper partials? Something to play with.
- Concept: Tres bon! I love take, love the hopeful message, love the message of a drive to a better future.
- Lyrics: Beautiful. The way you layer your words from one line to the next in the verses (I think they are verses?), making a chain of images and sounds is really artfully done. “Like this / Like that / Like for like / For a change / Find that change in the streets” is my favorite example of this.
- Performance: As said above, this is a really endearing vulnerable sound you have here, but at times the melody goes a little too low for your voice. Could you pitch it up? I know at “what doesn’t bend breaks” you use that lower scraping of your range to get a more dramatic effect, but I think it would be better if that was from you bolstering your sound, not from you reaching your limits.
- Challenge: Met! Also love how the sound is literally going UP as you climb the tower…
Jealous Brother - Climbing the Fascist Ladder
- First impressions: I think I might have a concussion from how hard you hit me over the head with your point. I’m there, I’m with you, and I’m sure its going to whiff right over the heads of those who need to hear it, but still… Probably would have been better if the chorus wasn’t first, so we are lead into the point, instead of smacking right into it off the bat.
- Music and Orchestration: I like how the key changes pull us up and up and up - great text painting! And then the fall, at the end, as you promised it would happen… given the message of the song, I feel like since there are fewer down changes that up changes over the course of the song, I feel like you’re saying even though he fell, he’s better of from where he started… which honestly might be the case. :/ Love the I-V bass line, very jolly, and in general the whole band is tight.
- Production: 4 seconds of dead air at the start- trim please!
- Concept: Indelicate, but there
- Lyrics: The poetry is a bit simple, but its poetical, so it counts. As said before, the lyrics are obvious and lack nuance.
- Challenge: Met
Governing Dynamics - Downfall
- First impressions: That woovery clav is delightful, and the music is good, but this song is a bit forgettable. In a field of >30 entries, you really need to stand out more. It feels like the whole song is faded, like its been sitting in the sun all day and not as vibrant and lively as I expected it to be.
- Production and orchestration: Good, but a little quiet. I think there’s too much individual compression on each instrument, and it robs them of how they sound in relation to each other. The drums are suuuuper crashy, yet are overly compressed and very low in the mix. Combined, those elements means the drums wash out the whole arrangement.
- Concept and Lyrics: It’s there, I think! Self sabotage, right? Its really hard to tell with all the many metaphors you’ve stuffed in here. They dont seem super unified, mainly because this song is all example with no thesis - WHY are you plotting your own downfall? HOW are you plotting it? As it is, its a word salad of cool images with no tangible point. I do like how in the chorus you reverse the expected direction of things (neck up to the boots, etc), but in the context of the rest of the million metaphors, it gets lost.
- Performance: I’m not wild about your vocal tone. It sounds really strained, and makes me worried nodes are in your future. Thats the former voice teacher in me talking. I know you’ve been singing this way for years, so its likely an unfounded fear. I do love that guitar solo/obligato over “gonna plot my downfall.” I’d have liked to have more of that.
- Challenge: Met
Pigfarmer Jr - Nowhere To Go But Down
- First impressions and concept: Oof, this one took me a few listens to hear it, but what a gut punch of a song. Congrats on your 20 months - that’s really commendable. The first couple go rounds, I thought the song was left unfinished, for us to interpret how we may, but then I realized you do tell us how this story ends, not with the lyrics, but with the heart monitor tone you had added into the texture of the song. It’s heartbreaking; gives me chills. With some polish, i could see hearing it play on the radio.
- Orchestration: That low piano in the mix? Woah. Adds a whole layer of depth to the soundscape.
- Music: The melody and harmonic direction on “And I didn't want to be the reason why / You can't fly” is gorgeous. After all the repetitive antecedent and consequent phrases, having that sweeping upward line is a breath of life.
- Production: Guitar solo is too low when compared to your singing, which is sitting on top of the mix a little too much. Bring the guitar up a smidge to pull it out of the texture, and bring your voice down a tad to nestle it in more.
- Lyrics: Good, but could be better. There are some phrases that are just worded a bit inelegantly. “When you're sitting on top of the world,” could be, “When you sit on top of the world,” for example. You also mix tenses, switching back and forth between past and present in the same sentence, like “We both knew you shouldn't be driving / But I stand and watch you leave.”
- Challenge: Met
Temnere - Into the Darkness
- First impressions and production: You got me, I am a sucker for fantasy metal. As I often think with your songs, I think this is mixed really quiet. I appreciate you not wanting to blast out our ears, but its noticeably quieter than the other songs. Can you boost the master track volume? Maybe if you have a compressor on the whole track, you could increase the output gain on the plugin.
- Orchestration: Are those backing vox going aahhhhh in the background? I like it! Its a little quiet in the texture; they could be brought up more. Love that crunchy guitar tone, and the bass line is a wonderfully driving force throughout.
- Concept: Man, the concept for this song is THERE, but we dont get to the Yaxis of it for a while. As far as the story goes, you tell a whole epic tale and I would def play the DnD campaign.
- Lyrics: I like the meter, where the quatrains have a longer last line. Though the rhyme scheme is inconsistent, it all has the common denominator of lines 2 and 4 rhyming, so that checks out. You pack a lot of meaning into very short lines, so well done there.
- Performance: As always, I love your singing and playing. Are you putting on an accent, or is the subject matter making me think you sound like a dwarven barbarian? “Deep in the ruins” sounds like the backing vox and lead are a little out of tune. Truly epic solo break - its like the guitar gets a chance to tell the story itself.
- Music: I find it interesting that while the subject is about going down, but the music lines feel like they are going up over and over. I think another reason why I feel like the challenge is not as strong as in other songs.
- Challenge: Met, though it took a while to get there.
Eric Novak - Low Road
- First impressions and Concept: I like the nod to Loch Lomond, and as a whole, its a solid take on the challenge. Seem like we’ve all been there, comparing ourselves against seemingly more successful friends. Also you sound like the grateful dead on Friend of the Devil!
- Lyrics: I like the metaphor you’ve chosen to use, and how all your lines stay in line with that metaphor of taking a difficult trek through hard terrain.
- Performance: My main issue with this song is the pitchiness in the vocals. You seem like you know what the notes are supposed to be, but not like you are solid on how to find those notes in your own voice. I recommend adding some vocal exercises into your day to day, could just be five minutes at a time, and practice pitch matching and slow runs. It also sound like the guitar is not quite in tune with the rest of the ensemble, as well. Overall, I think this is a good song with a tuning problem.
- Challenge: Met
- Bonus pitch matching exercise: Play a note on piano, guitar, whatever you like. First, just listen to the pitch, hear it, take it in. Then, hear the note in your head, not by your ear. Next, imagine singing it - dont actually phonate yet, just imaging what it would feel like to sing it! Finally, sing the pitch playing the note again as a guide. Dont change notes until you are right in the center of the pitch. Repeat as needed
Sober - On Penobscot Bay
- First impressions and Challenge: This is one of the better songs in the round, IMO, but I’m really struggling to find the challenge being met. That really breaks my heart. If I’m docking West of Vine for this, I have to do the same here. You have slightly more nods to language that has vertical motion, using the word “up” slightly more, and if I grasp at straws you mention a lighthouse which people think of as tall. Other than that, however, you talk about driving, walking, which are x-axis activities! I would say sailing is an x axis activity, but you do mention boats rising and falling, so you’ve made your case there. I really wanted to rank this higher, but the challenge aspect weighed you down.
- Orchestration: Beautiful tone on the mando, love the slide guitar, and the drums are laid back and unobtrusive. This song sounds like a walk at sunset.
- Concept: A very sweet story, and ust the sort of thing I’d like to listen to while enjoying a drink and watching the sunset with friends
- Lyrics: This reads like great poetry; I would expect to find it in a book between Dickinson and whitman. The story telling is vivid and gets your story across well.
- Performance: Also some of the better singing I’ve heard for you, and you’re already a great singer! Its tuneful, emotive, evocative, and you stay in the center of the emotion, not braking or tearing at the voice, just let it be its beautiful self.
- Challenge: Met, barely
Frédéric Gagné - Slump
- First impressions and vocals: What a fun song, but Its so hard to hear you at all! You need reverb on the vox to let them match the tone of the piano. It sounds like they were recorded in completely different rooms. Then there’s the singing- it desperately needs more breath support. Your tone, your diction, and your energy all suffer from a lack of breath support. Dont be afraid of the volume! Dont worry if its too much - its not! You play the piano with such vigor; I want your vocals to have that same jazzed excitement! Add breathing exercises to your routine. LMK if you want me to rec any specifically; I’d write it out here, but I’m getting close to the reviewing deadline!
- Orchestration: Guy and Piano - a classic! I love the boomchicks. Made me feel like I was listening to the entertainer in an old western saloon.
- Production: As above, add a small amount of reverb to the voice to match it to the piano, please!
- Concept: So good! I sat up straighter and did some stretches as I read the lyrics… thanks for that haha. I think this is a fun take on the challenge
- Challenge: Met
Siebass - It's Going Down
- First impressions: Funky fun bass line! Its going DOOOOWWWWWNNNN!!! Thank you for not doing another sad song- this was a really fun break up each time it came up in the playlist. It gives me vibes of you spin me right round (the original).
- Orchestration and Production: What a fun song! I wanna dance! I love the instruments you use, I love how you put vox filters to use, both on the backing vox and in the verses. I also like the fade in at the start.
- Concept: Such a fun take on the challenge
- Lyrics: Its an 80s dance song and the lyrics fit perfectly for that. I like the use of simple rhyme and repetition to get your point across. Also the c-c-c-combo breaker video game line was a fun easter egg.
- Performance: The singing was great, in an unpolished way. My main issue was when you would do a -ha- in the middle of words, like synchroni-haiiized. You lose your breath support when you do this, and it takes you a moment to get it back.
- Challenge: met!
Glennny - Crazy Climber
- First impressions and vocals: Dang, that climber be cray! I like the chorus a lot. It’s catchy! And it goes up melodically - great text painting. You have really heavily processed your vocals here, and it pulls away a lot of the character of our voice. I love the low “o crazy climber.” cause it sounds more true to your voice.
- Concept and Production: A video game song! Marvelous! I love how you added in sounds from the original game. I might have liked them more forward in the mix as they get a little lost.
- Lyrics: Ooooooh, “scale up the building,” not “scale if you do me.” That makes more sense lol. Love the use of call and response in the choruses; its a really fun back and forth.
- Performance and a little more production: great playing, as always. They layers of multiple guitars, all with their own tones and pedals is really nicely put together.
- Challenge: Met
Boffo Yux Dudes - EDL (Entry, Descent and Landing)
- First impressions and Concept: This is about… reentry of a spacecraft? Flying to other planets? A probe exploring? Mars landing? I have no idea. The concept is not clear even though you’re telling me a whole epic tale.
- Orchestration: Love the backing vox and how you use them punctuate. That splashy perc is a neat sound to punch up the feel on the chorus.
- Lyrics and production: “Decent Descent” is a great pair of words together. You’ve packed a lot of words and story into your song, but I’m still missing the point here. As for the poetry, the quatrains of rhyming couplets are similar to the production - simple, straightforward, gets the job done, but i do think you could go further, if you wanted to!
- Performance: I like how you use headvoice in your songs, and I think you could make your vox stronger by having a more core centered breath support system.
- Challenge: Met??
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