Joy submitted these rankings and reviews early in the week before her death. While she intended to revisit and expand them, they already display her discerning taste, her respect for musical diversity, her fondness for this community, and her high standards for technical execution.
Read on for Joy's reviews!
Governing Dynamics - Demolisher 1
This song fucks. Such good energy, hook after hook in the lyrics, great performance all around. Took me a second to hear the secondary dominant- V/vi feels more like V-i in a harmonic minor- but that’s up to interpretation and at the end of the day this song is sick and it does meet the challenge. Great work.
Bob Voyg - The Navigator 2
Ethereal. How’d you get that upright bass to sound so cool? I’m not convinced it’s real but in this case that doesn’t matter. The chorus is so god damned poetic. This one really grows on me with repeat listens- mostly because I keep expecting to find something amiss and I just don’t. I have no notes for you. Great work, Bob.
The Alleviators - A Start 3
My poor little queer heart can only take so many beautiful songs from you two. Stop it. The orchestration is flawless. The vocals make me want to melt into the floor, especially when you both whisper “I’m not good at this part.” Great work.
Flintsteel - Last of Your Name 4
This goes hard. I especially love the bit where you have the syncopated chugs and the really high riff on your secondary dominant. If I have one complaint about the song it’s that you didn’t repeat or explore that texture more- it’s such a hell yeah moment for me. Great work!
glennny - Mottainai (What a Waste!) 5
Wish I knew a little more about what was going on in the lyrics but this is great work. The falsetto is gorgeous! Choruses are catchy, the slide guitar intro is immaculate, and the solo is *chef’s kiss*. There are some notes in the leads here and there that feel a little out of place at first, but on subsequent listens they sit well with me.
This Big Old Endless Sky - Sunshine / Abyss 6
What an existential banger. Vocals are spot on, production suits the song incredibly, this is the whole package. My only gripe is that the harmonic rhythm is slow enough that the secondary dominant feels like a key change rather than a borrowed chord.
Huge Shark - Wanting a Letter 7
Ballads are clearly your forte. This is excellently done, and you and Gary work very well together. Your midi strings sound lovely this time around. The spoken word provides a really nice punctuation. The harp is great too, and sounds really convincing- you manage to write idiomatically for instruments even when you don’t have access to live performers. If I have one note for you it’s that some of your lyrics feel subservient to the music, perhaps due to being too cryptic for me to grasp. What is the science of slip?
Hot Pink Halo - Borrowed Time 8
The orchestration, the vocals, the pacing, it’s all there. Some beautiful imagery in the lyrics. If I were writing or producing this the only change I would consider is changing the drum sounds to something lighter- maybe brushes. I find the moments where the drums come in feel like stronger arrivals than the rest of the instrumentation is calling for- the rest of the song feels floaty and I don’t want to be grounded by the drums in this way. The shaker is nice- kind of hints at the sounds I would like to hear from the drums.
Boo Lee Crosser - As often as I’d like 9
I would like to hear more saxophone in this. Garrett is a great player, and when he has the melody he’s the quietest thing in the mix, which is unfortunate. The music is otherwise simple and effective, and suits your song well. Unfortunately I’m not going to be able to give an unbiased review of the lyrical aspects of this song, because I have personally watched you living these experiences you’re writing about. You and I have shared some really beautiful moments playing live together, and some really shitty ones too. And I’ve sat in plenty of audiences that really didn’t give your songs the attention and respect they deserve. It’s been an honor to watch you grow so much as a performer and a songwriter in spite of how rough the road has been on you. I do hope that someday playing out will appeal to you again, but in the meantime I hope you enjoy some peace, and keep that passion for writing. And keep your throat healthy.
The Pannacotta Army - Jean-Paul 10
Immaculate instrumentation, lovely whistling. I enjoy the idea of someone essentially telling Sartre to chill out. Some of your text setting feels odd with how your melodic, rhythmic, and lyrical accents line up, or don’t. For example, the lyric “if hell is other people”- putting “If” on a downbeat at the beginning of a phrase seems strange to me. I would expect that to be a pickup, and then for “hell” to land on the downbeat. The pitch contour and rhythms on “nothingness” feel odd to me as well. NOthingness is how I would say it but it’s set in a way that reads noTHINGness. I think a little more flexibility with your melody to work around these awkward phrases would go a long way.
Jealous Brother - Under the Waves 11
The lead guitar work in this is really cool. I’m loving all the backing vocals too- those bahs are a stellar addition. I wish I had a better understanding of these lyrics- as far as I can tell it’s about musical trends in a scene changing, and the folks within riding the wave or going against the current, so to speak?
☀️bucket - Shoot Me 12
I love what you’ve done by bringing secondary dominants out of 12ET and into the world of Xen. The chorus is super catchy. I have some issues with the mix- The synth sounds in the verses are a little forward for my liking and I could really use some more forward vocals. Lyrically, suffice it to say that the act of political violence in question has a lot of scary implications for everyone, and it definitely makes for an uncomfortable listen here. But this is the kind of uncomfortable that is necessary sometimes.
SEE/MAN/SKI - Melton Mowbray 13
The piano part in the chorus is such an ear worm. I think you’ve done a respectable job of portraying your hometown. Unfortunately, it feels like it drags on after a while. I could really use some more momentum at the end of the phrases, especially in the drums and/or bass, to keep things moving where you have those pauses in the chorus. Those pauses sound like missed opportunities for subtle variation. I could hear a piano gliss, any number of simple drum fills, a bass lick- all of those things, bringing us back out of that silence and into that little pop we get in the piano. I also really wish, after that huge slow down, we got to hear everything end up even faster than it was originally presented to kind of propel us to the end of the song a little more.
gammammannn - Collided 14
Oops, all secondary dominants. Great interpretation of the challenge and a real feat of production- mix feels great. The song bio helps a lot with understanding the lyrical content. It’s impressive but I think the fact that there’s no functional chorus to sort of ground me is what’s giving me the most trouble.
Sober - I Didn’t Leave Texas 15
I completely understand what you’re saying lyrically and the musicianship and production are stellar. The melodic and harmonic resemblance to “She Left me for Jesus” by Hayes Carll is a little uncanny. It’s really hard to strike a balance between sticking within the bounds of a genre and also coming up with something unique within it. I will never live down the time I accidentally rewrote Iris by the Goo-Goo Dolls. I know Hayes Carll isn’t on that scale, but at the end of the day I can’t rank this one highly because I have effectively heard this song before.
Wendy Wiseman Fisher - Falls Red With You 16
I love the callbacks to round one. The disco beat is fun but it does kind of make it hard for me to get into the world you’re creating. The harmonies are pretty sweet. I hate to repeat a round one note but the vocals are still sounding sort of pinched to my ear. I’m also hearing a lot of harshness in the cymbals- I would love to hear more kick and snare and less hi hat in particular. A lot of cool stuff going on with this but it feels fairly disjointed.
David Taro - Something About Her 17
Musically this is so well incredibly well done, but lyrically it feels so cliché to me. The opening lines beat around the bush too much for my liking. There are some really lovely metaphors but several of the surrounding lines read as filler to my eyes and ears. In particular I find it hard to take the phrase “seems good” seriously when used in this context. I’m begging for that lyric to be changed to “something about her just feels right to me.”
Good Guy Sôjàbé - Whatever, I’m Not Precious 18
This is really subtle in a subdued sort of way. It’s a hard thing to pull off, but the fact that it’s subtle also makes it hard to stand out in a really strong field. It has a lovely ambiance to it, but it doesn’t pull me in like a lot of these other songs do. I do love that the dial tone makes itself known and then mostly gets out of the way, and in general it’s quite well orchestrated. I hear nothing wrong with this from a performance standpoint. There are lots of lovely details but they don’t come together to give me a memorable complete package.
Möbius Strip Club - It Feels So Good 19
This is indeed cheesy. And catchy. Cute even. I am so happy for the two of you to have this relationship and to share your music together. I feel like this is well executed, and the song is exactly what it means to be. But on repeat listens it just wears on me so much. I may be too much of a cynic to fully appreciate this one.
OutLyer - Dive In 20
There are a lot of nice things about this song. The beat is great when it comes in and changes things up, and there are some really nice moments in the verse lyrics. But when that chorus comes in, the line “Life is too happy to miss” grinds my gears for some reason. I’m on board with the premise of the song in general but I think the use of the word happy feels so disingenuous here. Feels like a copout when there are better words.
chewmeupspitmeout - the house i build wouldn't hold 21
Some nice moments in the lyrics and the music is chill. I hate to beat a dead horse from last round but I really wish the drums felt less like a drum machine and a little more like a drummer- the samples used here really take me out of the genre. I’m hearing some squirrely note choices in the bass solo, and they’re played less confidently than the rest of the bass line.
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