Here are your rankings from ChasRock:
Read on for Chas's reviews!
Hi everybody! It’s round two and as a result, I was a little bit tougher this time around, but there is so much to love here and I enjoyed listening! I know a lot of you only read your own reviews, but I recommend you also read the third paragraph in the review I left glenny (real). It’s a positive review and I enjoyed the song, but I ended up expressing something that applies to a lot of Spintuners and will likely affect how I judge round 3. I’ve been working out of town this week and am writing these from a hotel room, so with that in mind, I didn’t review the shadows. Sorry, shadows. I love you and hate letting you down.
The Panacotta Army - Oxford Blue
This is a really pleasant, sleepy little island tune with clean production. It’s tough to get a bounce like that and I kept finding myself swaying back and forth while listening. All of the elements, from the standup bass to the slide, blend in a really lovely way. I can see the beach, I can hear the waves, and while the music is a bit redundant, especially on replays, it has a melancholic breeziness that matches the storytelling.
One last criticism, and I know it’s not fair because it’s literally what the challenge was: you deliver a lovely performance of the scat words (scatish?), but I think I still would have preferred a sad, live trumpet over nonsense words. Something about the annunciation feels a tad bit sillier than the rest of the performance, and I feel like it undercuts the emotional core of the song.
▷ - Jibber Jabber
I was charmed by this track! Melodically, I think there’s a great pocket here with some nice choices being made even if the accuracy in the verses roams a bit and loses me at times. The drop was a fun surprise that kept winning me over and I enjoyed the constant evolution of the small-talk scatting. I think overall, the production does a nice job capturing the narrator’s anxiety inside the big-family-holiday environment.
Lyrically, I think I really like the idea of the “twas the night before Christmas”-style opening more than the actual prose used. I’m trying to make sense of it and I find it a little bit tough to digest. The word “spirit” is used twice in two bars and while I’m sure those two lines mean something to the narrator, they feel like a word salad without many cohesive ideas. Do you sing spirits? Maybe that’s something people say, but I’ve never heard of it. A nonsensical lyric doesn’t bother me if it creates a vivid image that the listener can pour their interpretations into, but I don’t think that was accomplished here. I do really like the “with usual gifts of wealth to the young” line, I just wish the two lines before set it up to be a slam dunk finish to the intro.
My Broken Demo Tape - Die Happy
I mean, the amount of energy in this song is so rad. It might not be the smoothest, fullest, most “on-the-grid” performance we’ll see this round, but yeehaw, it rips. I loved the progressions and it’s so jammed full of dynamic performances, both instrumentally and vocally, that it got me moving with every listen.
I found the rounds toward the end to be especially strong; “I promised myself that I would die happy” is one of those lyrics that could send anyone into an existential crisis. I also really enjoyed the interpretation of the challenge: using the scat-words to edit yourself. I could get nitpicky about a couple of lyrics being slightly vague or lacking creative imagery (i.e. “all of these things” being one, especially when you’re about to use the word “juggling”! Imagine the imagery you could create with the item you’re juggling! Even if it’s a visual metaphor, tell me what the “these things” are every time) but overall, the song feels intimate and hopeful. I think it’s very emotionally affecting!
Profestriga - Commercial Thanatology
I can tell this song took some time and effort, so I really wanted to like it and gave it a fair couple of listens. I’m sorry to say that it’s not working on any level for me. The production is chaotic and the elements don’t seem to communicate with each other. There are several melodic elements in the beat that are in the same key, but they’re constantly fighting for attention. When it starts, I enjoy the filtered, atmospheric drone vocal, but the 808 bass feels like it’s randomizing notes and is connected to a kick that I’m sure is following a pattern, but in combination with the other instruments, appears to be attacking at arbitrary intervals. The same is happening with the sporadic moody ride, the circus crash hits, the noir bugle, and the baritone sax loops. I don’t need everything to be a pop song with kicks landing on the 1 & 3 and snares on the 2 & 4, but this production has way too much going on without any sort of discernible melody, rhythm, or structure. I love jazz, but I feel like a primary tenant of the genre is how the instrumentalists listen and make space for each other.
I think it created a lot of issues with the flow, which is already pretty “lyrical miracle”. The best hip-hop artists with dense lyrics (Doom, Andre, Lauryn, Del, Simz, Rakim, Mos Def, Black Thought, etc.) are able to present poetic wordplay with a conversational tone. Maybe you don’t know what the lyrics mean right away, but it sounds great and when you dig into the lyrics, they reward you with how clever, authentic, and satisfying they are. This song however is full of contrived sentences like “This really is so long, and long will be our lack” which doesn’t make sense and isn’t an especially impressive or pleasing bar. The narrator is so focused on rhyming internally that they’re forcing unnatural vocabulary. I had to look up the word “assay” and it turns out that it isn’t being used correctly, which means it just rhymed with “day” and “lay”.
For six minutes, this song hits you with a lot of on-the-nose information, which makes the points about capitalism and the funeral industry feel more like a book report than a song. That said, despite not enjoying this song much, I genuinely am grateful and glad that we have people like Profestriga’s wife working to make things in this industry better!
Spintown and Company - Herobrine (Sound of Evil)
Here we find ourselves in the second videogame-based St&Co song and I’m a little bit less excited this time around. The production is very smooth, clean, and polished, but I’m not having as much fun. There are moments that I love: the opening riff has my horns raised and ready to rock, but it leads into kind of a safe melody that changes speeds and doesn’t do much
to grip me over the course of the track. The singer is very talented, but I think it’s probably a little difficult to give an emotionally present performance about Minecraft NPC lore. The lyrics have funny moments (cow), but once again, I need to have played a very specific video game (which I have not) to understand them and I’m not sure a block monster really strikes the fear of metal in me. I almost wish the writer had taken inspiration from the Herobrine story and written a more original, terrifying, emotionally-affecting song about a farmer trying to protect their livelihood from some kind of monster.
The Moon Bureau - Runcible Spoon
Hm. After really enjoying “Girl with the Eyeliner”, this one is more of a miss for me. First, let me start with the lyrics, because I think they’re pretty good! They’re similar to GWTE in that they make a lot of time-locked pop culture references, but I find the intimate performance and simple story-telling to be charming and effective. The problem is that the production is kind of distracting this time around.
The instrumental elements are very similar to MB’s first round entry, which is totally fine; I don’t mind when an artist has a sound. There’s New Order lead guitar FX and arpeggiating, melancholic riffs which in theory should all work together, but where these elements in rd1 felt fun and loose, I find this entry to be kind of rigid and stiff. Maybe it’s the extremely “on-the-grid” guiro or it’s just that the mix isn’t as balanced this time around, but the percussion is kind of confusing to my ear and doesn’t create a satisfying pocket for the vocals. The melody is nice, but it’s not very different from round 1. There were moments where I realized I could sing sections of GWTE over this production without changing the melody at all.
West of Vine - (Made Me Say) Woh
We got a more fleshed out production from WOV this time! The drums are a little stiff and Logic-y, but they give it a fun, surfy rhythm and I really love the guitar performances! It’s simple, but it works.
Melodically, I’m not hearing a ton of confidence in the performance. It’s kind of monotonous and repetitive without much emotion connecting it to the subject matter. I think it’s a song about somebody who wants to date a stoner, but has trouble connecting with them? I’m not sure, because lyrically, it’s not saying much, despite the fact that the primary lyrics are “you said”. Riptide, the Big Lebowski, and Six Flags are all pop culture references that don’t do much to elevate the emotional stakes here and I don’t understand at all how dreams have been crushed. In my opinion, the antagonist hasn’t really said anything mean, but we’re just supposed to assume they’re mean because the narrator says so. Plus there are some really clunky passages like “There was no way to prevent it crashing down around us worse than all the rest” which is pretty generic and non-descript..
cardamom seed - an exemplar study on how not to be a pop star
The production, as I’ve come to expect from this artist, is really nice. I love the way the “yoo”s cry throughout the song and the piano riff reminds me of Bill Withers. It all leads into this
somber reflection on art and success and I think it’s really effective. I especially love the use of the challenge here. It’s nonsense, but it’s not out of place and I could feel the emotional connection to the sounds. My only complaint production-wise is that I would love if cardy hit their De-essers a little bit harder, especially with how saturated their vocals are. The sibilance, especially in headphones, passes the pain threshold a few times and prevents me from turning the track up.
I definitely feel the emotion in the lyrics, but there are a few moments where the artist gets into confusing mixed metaphors. “The goal hanging open, it was waiting, but the princess had died” is definitely a head scratcher for me because it sounds like some kind of sport is happening and a princess is the primary goal scorer? “Scoring on an open goal” and “saving the princess” feel like two separate thematic ideas. Overall though, I still really enjoyed this one.
Stacking Theory - Deep
This is easily one of my favorites from this round. I love the choice to use your voice as the primary instrument throughout the track. The chops and hums are really pleasant, and they create a lovely, engulfing atmosphere that only grows when the horns and hammers start appearing. It’s mixed really tastefully and outside of a couple obvious punch-ins that make the vocal performance lose some fluidity, this was an easy song to get lost in.
The lyrics were an effective tool for creating this depressive narrator. The repeating “deep” reminded me of Sufjan’s “They Are Night Zombies”, but was so effective at making me feel like I was sinking further into the track. My biggest complaint is that the ending sort of peters out a bit. Maybe I just wanted a bigger build and dropout because I was enjoying the track so much? Either way, great work on this.
Siebass - I Taught My Dog To Speak
This reminds me of a Shel Silverstein poem set to music. I can totally imagine it as the kind of campfire song that children end up loving. I think by that same token, it has slightly less replay value for me, but it sounds great and is performed joyfully.
I do think some of the subversions work better than others. For example, I don’t always love an explanation of “what comedy is” in a comedy song and the final twist (it’s not a dog?) created more confusion than it did genuine subversion of expectation. I would have preferred a different escalation that didn’t betray the established world created by the song.
With Joe - Know Better Next Time
WJ officially has a villain origin story! This feels like the third or fourth song in a musical that introduces us to a megalomaniac character and I think that’s the intention. I mean “Know Better Next Time” is an infuriating thing to say to somebody.
It’s a nice production! I love all of the subtle layers and I feel like the lyrics work well for the character, even if they are a bit vanilla at points. I think some specificity would have helped me visualize the character better. Statements like “they don’t know the stuff I got going on” make me think “”You’re right! We don’t!” If you told me the struggles (whether delusional or not) of this
character, I would get a better read on them and understand whether I should be rooting for them or hating them. Essentially, if this is musical theater, I think this character could stand to have more depth. Vocal performance is great, but I’ve come to expect that from WJ!
Celestial Drift - Anbesol
The production in this song made me feel like I bit my tongue and then loved the way it tasted. I mean, what a RIPPER. This is the kind of organic, raw, nasty production that I love. Like a (heavier?) Viagra Boys, the vocal performance is unhinged and I LOVED the nasty chorus, but there were moments where the vocal fx made it sound a little bit more painful than necessary in headphones. Don’t get me wrong, I love a messed up, saturated vocal and this one is pretty great, I just would have preferred if the effect didn’t screech in the painful eq ranges as much.
The lyrics are funny and the premise totally won me over. It’s so dumb to sing like your mouth is numb from Anbesol, but it totally worked, and made me smile through the headbanging.
Cavedwellers - Oaktown Races
The production on this sounds great! I especially like the oodi oodi oodis. They reminded me of the pre-chorus vocal lines from LCD Soundsystem’s “Call the Police”, but they lead into a totally different kind of bop. I really love the melodies and think this song sounds great. Obviously a ripping guitar solo. Is that glenny? This competition constantly has me asking who the hell glenny is.
For a guitar pop doo-wop track, the lyrics seem charged, although I’m not 100% what about. Protesting, maybe? Either way, it seems like the words and their intentions are a bit too veiled to feel vulnerable or brave and I think that works to the song’s detriment. There’s a “they” and “they” seem to be the bad guys. I mean “they” sell poison pills so…
Sober - Plastic Paddy
I laughed the first time I heard the Irish yodeling and then I looked forward to it every subsequent listen. It’s really good. That rhythmic pocket is so impressive, plastic or not. I also love how every Sober song sounds like all of the instrumental and vocal performances were recorded in one take. There might be punch-ins and corrections like most songs, but I truly never notice them. It just sounds like a little fake Irish band playing a delightful tune in a pub.
As always, great story-telling and thoes mandolin/accordion doubled riffs to close out? Blimey.
Berkeley Social Scene - Not Doomed
This is neither here nor there but “abide” is a popular word this round. Okay, so there’s a nice balance of sounds in this song, but I don’t think it did much to stick out amongst the other competitors this round. It’s not just that the “bum-bums” “ooohs” and whistling aren’t a super
creative use of the challenge, but melodically and lyrically, there just aren't a lot of chances being taken. Every decision feels kind of safe and as a result, there aren’t many surprises. It’s talking about modern times in a big vague way. It almost reminds me of the way you talk to somebody you don’t really know. “Yeah, times are dark, huh? Well. I guess we’re all looking for a light to… uh… abide” isn’t really specific or truly vulnerable, it’s just kind of a broad statement that the listener has to agree with.
See-Man-Ski - Cross These Silver Linings
Huh. Okay, I know what I just said to BSS and this is going to feel like a complete 180: There is a big swing being taken with the vocal on this track, but I’m not sure the choice works for me at all. The “der duh der der” stuff is pretty nasally and interrupted by big gulps of breath. I really enjoy SMS’s voice, but the choice here made this track a tough listen for me.
The closer I listen, the more I enjoy the track behind the vocal choice. There are some really nice textures in there. There’s also some imagery being created by the lyrics, but I’ve been lyrically picky this round, and “Strike out the fallback” seems like a lyric that kind of means something, but mostly doesn’t. Throughout this track, the imagery is inconsistent and feels like every couplet creates a new metaphor that isn’t connected to any of the other imagery in the song.
The Alleviators - Break Through
When this track starts, I really get into the opening groove and then that high, ringing pitch from a poor guitar connection pulls me out pretty quick. The fact that it does that for the entire verse without any editing makes the first verse a tough listen in headphones. That said, the melody starts out a little inconsistent, but the singer really finds a smooth groove and a confident melody during the “all I want’s to siiing it with em” pre-chorus. Distracting guitar-ringing aside, I really enjoyed that section!
The chorus melody reminds me of The War On Drugs/Lucius track “I Don’t Live Here Anymore” with a “driving-on-the-Jersey-turnpike” vibe. I’m just not sure it ever hits the big nirvana moment, and the vocal pocket definitely slips at times, but I do like how it pulls out of the chorus with the rising “you-ooo-ooo-ooos”.
Lyrically, there are some cliches here, but overall, I think they fit nicely into the song and the music has me rooting for the protagonists. I also think the scatting at the end is pleasant. When the singer drops the lyrics and improvises melodies that connect with the song organically, I think they find some really nice moments.
glenny - Who Am I?
I’ll never be able to answer this question, glenny(?). Even knowing what the joke is, I love how beautiful the opening is. All of the swirling atmosphere and the intimate performance pulled me in right away and it’s so fun to get snapped out of the trance with a talk box, a breakbeat, and synths. The return to “I am possibly, maybe, probably Glenny”? is beautifully performed. I love when comedy has a touch of well-executed ennui.
My biggest criticism is that there are a few sections where the rhythm lost some cohesion, especially toward the back half, but overall, it didn’t affect my listening experience too much and I enjoyed this song quite a bit.
I will say, and this is a general note for everybody in RD3, I’m almost to the point where a SpinTuner making a direct reference to an artist they admire or past/present pop culture moments/figures is getting a little bit tiresome. I think it’s pretty overdone in this competition and it’s starting to feel like a crutch. I’d much prefer to hear STers use inspiration from their influences and make something original rather than reference their influences in order to cash in on our collective knowledge of them. In this song, it makes total sense for the existential crisis that we’re being presented with, so no points docked, but heading into round three, I wanted to say that out loud (write it on screen). Great track, glenny.
Also In Blue - Tenebrae
This is a tender, heartbreaking song. I think the intention with the single mandolin is to make the listener feel isolated, but I do find myself wanting subtle, additional layers to fill out the track far before the halfway point. It doesn’t need to overwhelm the intention, I just felt like I was watching a really nice live performance instead of listening to the final production of a song. That said, when the incredible vocal harmonies come in, it’s magical and tragic. It’s tragical.
Lyrically, it’s as strong as I’ve come to expect from AIB. Maybe I wish they found a new way of saying “the night is dark” because that is a lyric that’s been around for a very long time, but it does the job and I really, really love how they’re able to create vivid imagery without necessarily hitting the “literal story-telling” nail on the head. I’m able to fill in the details myself because the setting and emotional stakes are both so clear. I read the bio (which is for cheaters) so I know what AIB wrote this song about, but the mention of a cradle makes me think we’re waiting for a partner to come home well past due and I feel the anxiety and grief of that wait. This song is actually about the aftermath of a medical emergency, but the door is open for the listener to make it about infidelity, or really anybody who left and said they’d be back soon but haven’t returned. I mean, there are so many ways to interpret the lyrics, and yet, they don’t become any less effective when the meaning changes. Really great songwriting.
Governing Dynamics - Stay Dreaming (Plaguesong)
I like some of the moments in this song, but overall, it ends up dragging a little bit. It opens up with an atmospheric set of “La”s that I think could be really nice, but some of the performances are flat and it feels like the only reason the Gov opened with “La’s” instead of “Ah”s is because they wanted to get the whole “challenge” part out of the way so they could write the song they actually wanted to write.
Production-wise, there are some really nice, clean textures throughout, but the progression feels fairly straightforward and there aren’t many surprises or “oh wow” moments that grab my ear and make me listen.
Lyrically, I think there is some depth to it. I believe this song is about the pandemic (post-writing this review, I checked the song bio, which is for cheaters, and hell yeah). I can’t really tell where the Gov falls on the topic, and that’s probably intentional, but it seems like
they’re just saying “everybody has an opinion and we’ve all learned to be quiet about it”, which I think is a fair thing to express.
Boffo Yux Dudes - One Fine Evening at the Jazz Club
Is this a song or a skit? I guess we could get into the weeds debating it, but to me, people having a non-rhythmic conversation over music feels like a skit, and a pop-culture crossover skit at that! I’m not sure if I understand why any of it’s happening. Bob Dylan having a run-in with Scooby and Shaggy at a jazz club sounds more like a madlib than anything else. The listener has to suspend a lot of disbelief, combine a fictional cartoon world and a real life musical figure, and just make connections that the skit isn’t willing to make for it. It’s a lot of mental work for a listener to do and we end up missing the laugh lines because we’re trying to justify why it’s happening in the first place. I do like that it creates a visual, but I’m not sure it ever earns or pays off the premise.
Definitely Not Secretly Glenny - Scatterbrain
“Yo, Mistah White! Listen to these slides!”
-AMC’s Breaking Bad
I love how this song starts. It’s just a rich, full tapestry for this kind of track. I’m still unsure how to feel about the “Girl from Ipanema” swap during the chorus because these genres clash so hard, and I know that’s intentional but the interruption makes it less fluid and therefore, less listenable. It feels more jarring than satisfying to me. That said, I love both productions and performances individually and I think that it definitely accomplishes the whiplash effect if that’s what DNSG was going for.
This is the second time in two weeks that somebody has rhymed “insane” and “brain”. I’m not trying to keep track, I just can’t avoid hearing the word “insane” and immediately saying to myself “I wonder if the next line will be bra— yep, of course it was”. All of that said, I love how visual this song is and even if I don’t know exactly what it’s about, there’s enough here for the listener to imagine the rest.
Flintsteel - The Shape of Things to Come
When this song started with those orchestral synths, it vaguely reminded me of the song that plays before Monday Night Football. Then we got into the track, which once again is led by skillfully-executed raucous metal guitars! I do think the drums still sound tiny, thin, and papery, but there’s no doubt that this track is executed at a high level. Flintsteel plays guitar with so much energy and it’s a tight, tight performance.
I have to say, this song grew on me and I ended up bumping it up a few notches in the end. I mean, I love King Gizz, but outside of that, this genre of fantasy/sci-fi-metal isn’t a specialty of mine, but you’re making me a believer. Is this about an alien abduction? But like God was the alien? Maybe a near-death experience or something? I don’t know, but lyrically, I’m
into it. There are some spots where I lost the vocal in the mix, especially toward the end when it sounded like you’re doing some nice falsettos. Overall, I think I’m pretty sold on this track, I just wish the mix rocked as hard as it does.
Thanks for the review. I wanted Joe to go hard rock/metal because Herobrine is kinda the biggest threat (lore wise) in the game. I get how it doesn't strike fear into someone not into the game. I'm just hoping it's more fitting to the people who do play. Justified critique on your part for sure, but I'm not really writing for the judges in this contest.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments. I can assure you that there are *many* takes for each track, though I don't get very surgical on vocals. -Sober
ReplyDelete