Here are your rankings from Mike of the Dutch Widows:
Read on for Mike's reviews!
I think Joy is on all of our minds at the moment, and several of the songs speak to her loss; some explicitly so, and some more obliquely. At times like this, a song competition seems of little consequence, though perhaps this is exactly the kind of endeavour to immerse oneself in - let music work its therapeutic magic. I hope you’re all doing OK.
Round 3 is generally my favourite SpinTunes round; people have had a couple of rounds to get their eye in and flex their muscles, and there isn’t quite the same pressure, often self-induced, of Round 4. This Round 3 totally delivers - this is a stunning set of songs and I could genuinely see reasons why any of them could finish top.
One thing I’ve struggled with in ranking these songs is whether the challenge mandates reference to one song (or piece of music) or whether multiple references are permissible. On the basis that all of the instructions are in the challenge, I read the challenge to mean “a” song singular, or “piece” of music, also singular, must be the subject of the song or must be prominently mentioned.
The challenge doesn’t say “multiple songs cannot be mentioned”, so I also take it that referencing multiple songs is not a problem in itself, providing the submission references one song (or piece of music) more prominently than the others, such that it could be reasonably claimed that the submission meets the challenge.
I think there’s a secondary consideration in terms of how the referenced song is framed in the submission, and whether there must be some aspect of its “song-ness” that is incorporated ,as opposed to just mentioning a song title in a context that doesn’t invoke the song itself. This is crops up in at least one song, and I’ll discuss it there rather than extend this introduction any more than I have to.
I’m not trying to be a pedant in setting all of this out, but having regard to the challenge seems to me to be important in the context of a competition, and I wanted to be clear as to how I see the challenge. I’ve looked at the examples given with the challenge, and all of them work with what I understand the challenge to be, so hopefully I’ve landed on a reasonable interpretation. Also, I work with lawyers a lot, and dissecting and interpreting words in this stupidly forensic manner is somewhat ingrained in me.
With that context set out, here we go…
This Big Old Endless Sky - Am I the Ball and Chain?
There are a couple of songs this round that have set aside the prominent mention of a song (singular) in the challenge and gone all in with multiple song references. This one goes big on XTC songs, 16 in total, which is impressive given that the bio indicates that the artist is not particularly a fan of the band. Same for me – I like what I know, but I’ve never really gone out of my way to listen to them.
As set out in my introductory remarks, I think references to multiple songs is fine, providing one song is mentioned more prominently than the others, such that the submission could reasonably be said to meet the challenge. The songs should also be referenced in the context of them being songs, rather than just as a source of lyrics for repurposing. I’m not convinced any of the 16 XTC songs nor the one song by The Streets are referenced as songs in their own right, instead they are used as lyrical sources to be recast in a new narrative.
“Ball and Chain” is given the most prominence as the chorus hook, but the link is more to the words “ball and chain”, and less to the song “Ball and Chain” by XTC; at least, that’s how I read it. The bio doesn’t suggest that “Ball and Chain” is the song that is prominently mentioned, instead listing it as one of 17 songs with no mention of prominence.
Irrespective of whether the challenge is met, I’m not sure sequencing through a series of song references lands as well for me as a more creative meeting of the brief, even if a fair amount of time and skill has gone into forming a new narrative from those borrowed strands. Reconstructing other lyrics into a new song makes it difficult to pick out lyrical highlights knowing they’re borrowed and bent rather than purpose-built and newly conceived.
When I first listened and read the lyrics, before reading the bio, I took the opening verse to be an informed piece of UK political commentary, and I was impressed with TBOES’s cultural take from the other side of the world. But once I’d got the XTC references – and to be fair, generals and majors provided a large clue - there was a bit of recalibration.
None of this changes what I think of the song, though - I love the sound of it. The driving rhythm guitar, the great bass and drum parts, that lovely high guitar part in the chorus, the vocal throughout – there’s a lot to enjoy. It’s got a good energy, which sits well among the field. A bit of up-tempo punkishness is very welcome! There’s a nice ‘wake up’ nod to TBOES’ Round 1 entry and I love the sudden ending, as everything seemingly gets sucked down a drain. The repeated “dear god” in the chorus put me in mind of No Rest by New Model Army, for no reason other than they use the same two words in that song, and whenever something makes me think of New Model Army, I’m a happy bunny.
Without regard to the challenge, and how I interpret it, this song would rank pretty highly for me. But I think it may suffer in my rankings due to the seeming lack of intentional prominence of one song amongst the 17 referenced, and that none of the 17 songs seem to be referenced in their capacity as songs, but are instead used as source of words to repurpose.
Hot Pink Halo - Rallied by an Evening Prayer
One of the things that I love about HPH songs in general, and this one is a particularly good example, is the specificity and intention of the lyrics; words are rarely wasted, and even if I don’t always get a reference or an underlying meaning, craft and effort has been brought to bear and the fault is almost always on my side. There are layers to this song that I really enjoyed picking apart and thinking about.
The song prominently mentioned is Evening Prayer aka Justice by Ezra Furman, but the submission is about HPH’s previous 99 songs. This is a neat way to meet the challenge, and acknowledge the role the Ezra Furman song played in inspiring HPH to write songs in the first place. The prominence given to the Ezra Furman song far outweighs any of the previous 99 HPH songs, none of which are mentioned in any prominent way at all, so there’s no question as to whether this song meets the challenge.
I think the “every one” in the chorus refers to previous HPH songs, not a person. A person would be “everyone” and indeed, “everyone” is used right at the end to flip the perspective and recognise change in people. That’s the kind of intentionality that I love to dig into, because it’s clearly been carefully considered. If that’s right, the first half of each chorus is sung at the songs, asking them to not forget the singer and in return, the singer promises not to forget the songs. I like that the songs are granted access to memory, that they become sentient.
I like the duality of the “time makes them more” once we know (or at least, I think we know) that it’s the songs that are deemed to have changed over time. But since songs don’t change, we (the listener) recognise that what’s changed is the singer, and it’s the singer’s growth over time that alters their relationship with the songs, such that the songs are perceived to have developed or changed. I mean, I’m probably just explaining your song back to you at this point, but this is more me walking myself through my understanding and directing these points back at me. Also, if I’ve got this completely wrong, then these notes will explain why!
There were lyrical aspects that I didn’t grasp to start with – being four, “those kids” in school, the “they” that have been at “it” for forty years – they were all a little lost on me. But when I listened to the first HPH song (thank you for the link), I think those are call-backs to that song, and these bits cohered in a thoroughly satisfying way.
There are other lyrical aspects I’ve still not grasped – primarily Rob and his list of all-time top fives – but I understand and like the role Rob’s lists play as a contrast to the narrator’s ever-changing relationship with the songs. As I wrote at the start of this review, even when I don’t get something, I know it’s intentional and that there will be a meaning, even if I can’t quite grasp it.
Some of the musical moments that stood out to me were the damped guitar part between the second and third choruses, the backing vocals in the fourth chorus and the chord change on the word ‘rallied’ right at the end. I don’t know what that change was, but it was great.
The Pannacotta Army - Don’t Be A Square (Funk 13)
The song being referenced is the song itself, and it’s not so much referenced, more being commentated on. It’s a different interpretation of the brief from others, but a totally fair one; the challenge doesn’t say that a song must be referenced by title, so this definitely counts as a creative way to reference a song. It brings with it comparisons to Tubular Bells, albeit without the 24 minute running time.
Despite being a creative take on the brief, describing what I’m hearing doesn’t make for a very interesting lyrical journey on repeated listens, as there’s no narrative depth to explore or pick apart (which, as might be seen elsewhere this round, I quite like).
But what the song lacks in narrative depth, in makes up in spades with sheer funkiness. I don’t think I’ve listened to this song without some part of my body jiggling along to it. It has such infectious groove, even with its odd time signatures. It’s a great listen. The change in time signatures between verse and chorus is so, so good – it flows seamlessly. The drums are great, propulsive, pushing us along beautifully, and so detailed. The switches from hi-hat to ride and back are so well done – it sounds natural, like a real (funky) drummer. The rhythm guitar, the organ, the flute, the bass, they’re all so good. The production is spot on - pretty much flawless.
I’ll be interested to see where I end up ranking this song (the rankings are not complete as I write this), because the lack of depth to the lyric is balanced by being one of my favourite pieces of music of this round.
David Taro - One Hit Wonder
No need to cross fingers or toes in terms of meeting the brief – this is exactly the kind of approach that I hoped for when the challenge cropped up; a song that incorporates a different song as part of its narrative arc, and singing that other song becomes the main hook to this song. My favourite example of the challenge was in the Pete Paphides article – Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da by The Beatles, where the protagonists do exactly this - sing a different song as part of the narrative, and that other song becomes the hook for the song. Wheels within wheels. So, yes, this totally meets the brief!
The story’s good, with a strong arc. It’s almost filmic, like a Richard Curtis film. I loved the lines about getting dropped (“Untouchable, or so the label said then when the album tanked your fortunes sank”) and the delivery on those lines is great. A really nice bounce to the words.
The opening panning radio static was cool, and it wouldn’t have surprised me to hear someone intoning “number 9, number 9”. The effected vocal parts really serve to highlight the song within the song, almost othering it to emphasise the point that it’s not this song. It all kept me really engaged. The vocals throughout are really strong – they’re less pushed than in previous rounds, and have less of a straining, yearning tone. I prefer the tone of this David Taro to the more earnest tone in the earlier rounds.
Musically it’s beautifully done – the guitar parts are superb, that picked guitar part in the intro, in the second half of, and post, chorus. Lovely, musical parts that serve the song. The organ swells through the bridge, which descends into the effected vocal before embarking on the pay-off verse. Even the guitar solo worked for me – I have a long-standing aversion to overt soloing for the sake of it – but this was short punchy, and bridged into the final effected vocal line.
Speaking of bridges – I love the bridge of this. It’s possibly my favourite part of the song. The way it just opens up, the little yelp drawing us in, lifted by the infectious organ, contrasting with the self-reflective, introspection of the lyric. It’s great.
The stops before each chorus provided a nice sense of anticipation for the release of the main hook (and what a great hook it is). For the last chorus I felt something needed to bridge that gap, maybe a drum fill, maybe a sustained guitar chord, just something to carry us into the final chorus with even more momentum. But that’s a tiny point in what was a thoroughly enjoyable song! My rankings are still shifting around as I write these words, but this one has stayed pretty much at or very near the top throughout the week.
SEE/MAN/SKI - The Song I Can’t Write
The two parts of the lyric are, in and of themselves, nicely conceived, heartfelt and sincere without being overly earnest; the singer’s doubts about their actions (or lack of them) are relatable and human. I’m not sure the two parts quite work as a cohesive whole and using the singer’s guilt to link the two parts only ties them together in the loosest of loose knots.
I’m not wholly clear on what song is being referenced to meet the challenge. The line “I don't think there’s any song I can write” suggests that there’s no song that could capture the singer’s feelings. Framing it in this way, it seems to me that the lyric cannot be referring to any song, least of all the one we’re listening to. There’s no push back to that repeated statement, no words that even hint that the reference is to the song we’re listening to, not even an “except this one” somewhere to undercut that recurring line to make the song self-referential.
I wondered whether I should place emphasise on the “I”, in case the intended meaning was that while there’s no song that the singer could write, maybe a song by someone else is being prominently mentioned. But I can’t see anything that would work in that context either.
At its heart, I think there was a nice premise here – “there’s no song I can write to adequately capture my feelings, so this will have to do” – but I’m not sure the lyric quite squares that circle. I want to be fair, but I just can’t see the reference, and there’s nothing in the bio to assist me. If there is a reference in here that I’m not getting, then firstly I’m sorry, but also it might suggest that the reference isn’t particularly prominent.
The production throughout is really good – everything sounds good and well balanced. The falsetto bridge is my favourite part – the singing, the harmony, the piano - it sounds great. There’s emotional weight to the singer’s acceptance that they can change when they take some time to reimagine their perceptions. On the second go around in the bridge (when the “when I close my eyes” repeats), I wanted a drum beat to kick in and for the song to step up a notch in energy, to back up the singer’s revelations with an emotional crescendo of some kind, a sense that the change will stick, that there’s hope. Instead the energy is pulled down further, and we drop into the final section where there’s a lyrical release, but not a musical one.
Maybe the end is where the song needs to acknowledge that we’re listening to the song they’ve said they can’t write instead of the repetition of the fact that there isn’t a song that could be written to capture these feelings, despite the fact that I think we’re listening to it. We’re robbed of a sense of release or exhilaration that the song that couldn’t be written, has in fact been written, married to more hopeful or energetic music. Maybe the gentle nod to pride in others over a subdued backing is the point, and an elevation would be inappropriate..? I’m not sure; I just know I was left wanting more by the end.
Jealous Brother - A Guy Like Me
I wonder whether this is a true story – it certainly feels it – or whether this a fiction built around a TMBG YouTube clip..? Either way, it’s a nicely constructed story, picking out little details to ground us in the scene, and keeping the narrator’s point of view relatable to draw us in. I watched the video, and I’d forgotten what a good song it was. Having watched the video, I like how thinking that Doc Severinsen was old gives us an insight into the youth of the narrator without spelling it out. I think I would have got the underlying meaning even without watching the video, but it definitely helped visually. I thought Doc Severinsen looked cool in that pinstripe suit, and it looks like he’s still going strong at 98! Good on him.
Listening to this song, I realised that like the narrator, I had no idea what Birdhouse In Your Soul was about - what does a blue canary have to do with a glowing friend? The repeated question as to what linked these two things made it seem really important that I find out, so a bit of googling later, and now I know!
The narrator clearly attributes great importance to the unknown link between the blue canary and a glowing friend as it’s the most repeated line in the song, and it provides the foundation for the narrator’s certainty that they want to be friends with their new TV pal; they may not know how the canary and glowing friend are linked, but in direct contrast, they do know that they want to be friends with their new TV pal.
The narrative importance of the blue canary / glowing friend link doesn’t sit well with its delivery each time. It’s melodically and rhythmically one of the weaker parts of the vocal, sounding breathy, with a rising melody that lacks the strength or punch displayed elsewhere in the song. Given its importance musically and narratively, that line needed to be the strongest part of the song.
The opening guitar chords are a really strong start, and I was curious as to why they don’t recur again. There’s soft of a nod towards them in the outro, but not with the same cut-through. The song is a nice jaunty guitar-driven pop song, but those opening few bars could have pushed this into a more attention-grabbing place for me with greater use.
The music is really solidly played – pretty sure this is a live drummer, and they sound great, pushing us along with some cool fills. The hi-hat is touch high in the mix, but not overly so. As I may have mentioned elsewhere this round, and in previous rounds, I’m not a fan of guitar solos for their own sake, they have to be intentional and contextually right for me to tolerate them. But the solo here is great, really melodic, well played, tying two sections together; and just as I was thinking it should stop, it did.
I love the line “If you could love They Might Be Giants then you could love a guy like me” – that seems to be the heart of the song, explaining why TMBG is important to this embryonic relationship. It brilliantly captures in just a few words so much backstory, so much emotional baggage, and perhaps speaks a little as to how TMBG are perceived as a band.
Is the line “They're gonna tour with a full horn section when you and I are getting old” a reference to their current tour, suggesting that the embryonic relationship is still going 35 years later? I hope so; it’s a cool origin story. I’m not going to get into how 1990 simply cannot be 35 years ago. Something’s clearly gone wrong with the continuity of time, and we’ve lost a decade or two along the way.
Bob Voyg - So Far, So Hard
A self-referential song, reflecting (I think) on the trials of making the song. There’s a nice reference to communicating via song as postcard, and a lot of sound-related references documenting the failure of the singer to make the song. At least, that’s my top line reading, but I can’t help but think that I’m missing a deeper layer, an allegory that speaks to a deeper insight into the human condition. I’m fairly sure it’s there, but I can’t quite grasp it…
The bridge speaks to the finite nature of life and how few artefacts survive as civilisations fall. It’s interesting that melody is one of only two things that the singer thinks survive the decline and fall of societies, so is this the layer I’m missing? That songs are longer-lived than entire peoples and the singer is struggling with the weight of creating something that is destined to survive the ages..? That seems a stretch, maybe a bit of a projection by me, but I like the extra depth it gives the song, so I’m going to hang onto it.
The slightly discordant organ in the second verse is brilliant, unsettling the listener by being both harmonically satisfying, and (intentionally) a little wobbly tuning-wise. It makes the second verse much edgier than the first, and we get a sense of progression, or maybe regression as the singer struggles. The sweet tone of the bridge provides great contrast, as we get to grips with the eternal nature of song, before we slip into the weariest of final verses, where the slight crack and croak on the end of the long held vocal notes perhaps signals a loosening grip.
I like the ‘Hey!’ throwback to being kept safe in ST23 (in both original and covered forms), and the fade out is nice, with some great layered vocals adding interest as the song fades away; the high part in my left ear is particularly good.
Huge Shark - Wings
I thought at first that there were fairly direct allusions to Joy in this song, but the bio sets out a story of loss that isn’t connected to her, and provides a very personal insight; it’s a sad back story, and I’m very sorry for your loss. Like the Governing Dynamics song, it takes steel to write about something so painful and personal, and it hurts to think about how hard this must have been to write.
The sound of the piano and (what sounds like) a woodwind instrument (an oboe? clarinet? not quite sure) is lovely. The choruses are really good, particularly those with the backing vocals. Keeping the first two lines shorter, and letting the third run on picking out and questioning elements of the subject song using literal musical references and more abstract terms that speak to facets of song. The strings on the choruses are great, providing a lovely supportive swell for the weight of the lyric.
I have to shout out how you sing the word “melody” in the second chorus – you seem to almost pronounce it “malady” and there’s something about the way that you wrangle that word out that I just adore. I love when singers intentionally play with the sound of words, sometimes pushing them beyond understanding, and this is a sublime example.
The drums don’t quite fit for me, they’re a little too busy in the wrong places without really providing energy and drive. I think the song might have been better served with a more muted percussion-based accompaniment to the core piano/woodwind/vocal elements.
There’s so much poetry here; my favourite lines are “I turned up my face to kiss you, The petals fell down like snow, I bent down to try to hear the afterglow but it was too late, I know”, there’s such sadness, so much loss both literal for the person and abstract for the lost opportunity, it’s heart-breaking.
Good Guy Sôjàbé - A Song About A Song
The affected, overly enunciated vocal is very on message for the Tenacious D song being referenced, and is well-chosen as a nod to a nod to a song. The acoustic guitar part is really good and propulsive, and carries us through the song.
The issue I have with this song is that it strikes me as being similar to going to a comedy show, seeking out the comedian after, and offering up an unsolicited topper to their best joke. But the topper is just the same joke that they already made. The premise of this song is the same as the premise of the song it references, and as a result, doesn’t really grab me as an imaginative interpretation of the brief. Is that harsh? Almost certainly, but this is Round 3 and the bar is high, and indeed, GGS set their own bar super high with their Round 2 song, which is still one of my favourite things I’ve heard this year.
There’s lots of detail to enjoy here – as well as the acoustic guitar part - the vocalist’s tone is excellent, the backing vocals are great, and that rising staccato guitar part is excellent, both tonally and in terms of its effect. Even the sheep at the end are quite funny. But I can’t escape that my enjoyment and engagement is ultimately limited by the premise being the same premise as in Tenacious D song.
The Alleviators - Song of the Ravaged
There’re no bio to assist me to understand the song reference that meets the challenge, but I assumed it’s the titular “Song of the Ravaged”. Totally valid – challenge met.
There’s a lot of nicely painted imagery in the lyric, and though I think I know what the song’s about, I’m not certain. I came to the view that this is about state oppression with people standing up for themselves using parading as a form of rebellion; the “wait a minute” sections seem more aimed at disingenuous political leaders dissembling for gain. Is that it? Maybe it’s best for me not to know. If I am right, the song communicates a political stance without polemic; it’s artfully done. “Song of The Ravaged”, the song this submission is about, is cast as a song of protest, of uprising.
The chorus is hugely uplifting – those lines that end with the high notes are a mighty hook to hang a song on. I love the delivery of the first and middle lines (“you hear that sound” and “drown you out”) – those are the lines that captivate me and this song has been stuck in my head more than any other song this week.
The guitar parts throughout are excellent, but particular shout-outs to the left/right pair in the chorus, and the staccato parts in the “wait a minute” section. The right channel part in the chorus is so restrained – it would have been easy to give in to doubling it to provide a ‘big’ sound – but holding it back seems a more sophisticated choice and it works beautifully. The guitars are all tonally spot on too.
Is the joy reference a Joy reference? I hope so, though I’m seeing salutes everywhere, so maybe I’m projecting.
There were a couple of sections that felt a little long to me and could have benefited from a light trim - the bridge felt twice as long as it needed to be, and the final, slower “gonna drown you out” section sounded like a different song had been dropped in. I would have cut to the (awesome) “la la la” outro earlier. But these are really minor points in what’s a really enjoyable song.
Governing Dynamics - Keep Driving (I-70)
There’s bundles of emotion in this, an aching sense of loss, of reaching out to help. I get the sense that the road trip that never happened was a real intention, and that it may have been intended with Joy..? I don’t know if that’s right, but that’s the impression I got from the image near the end of singing a My Broken Demo song, and the I-70 being a road of geographic significance to both protagonists (from what I remember of where they’re based).
It’s admittedly thin evidence, but I think it rings true, and it lends the lyric a much greater weight. It’s a song that oozes empathy, proffering assistance, to reach back to try to help and maybe change real-world outcomes. For all it’s ‘borrowed’ lyrics, the final constructed lyric is powerful.
It hurts to think of the effort it must have taken to write this, to mean these words in the little time that’s elapsed since Joy’s passing; it’s gut wrenching and brings tears to my eyes to think about it. Though I’ll look stupid if I’ve misunderstood the lyric, and it’s about something entirely different.
The best lyric for me is not one of those borrowed from elsewhere; the “…you’ve never been so lost that midwest emo couldn’t find you” is such a good line, perfectly capturing both the difficult position that the subject finds themselves in and the sense of redemption or escape that music can provide.
The guitars and vocal are great throughout, as are the drums, which never overwhelm but drive us along. The fuzz guitar that drops in around 3m40s is so good. There’s not much to fault musically, maybe the vocal gets a little lost in the second fuzzy guitar part around the 5min mark, but pulling the vocal back into the mix so it becomes another instrument sounds intentional and pretty good.
The song is long – at almost 6 ½ minutes, it’s almost two minutes longer than any other entry. I don’t mind the length in and of itself, but in a competition, the song has to really warrant and deserve that length. If this is a song for, or in honour of, Joy, maybe the competition element matters less and the song has to tell the story the artist needs it to tell, to provide some sense of release or relief.
So does it deserve that length? Just about, I think. The song soundscape doesn’t develop or change a huge amount until the end, and maybe some pruning could have tightened it up a little, but as I’ve already said, perhaps the song needs to be this long so the singer says what they need to say.
Similar to at least one other entry this round, this song references multiple songs rather than being about or prominently mentioning a song (singular) as per the challenge. The interpretation of the challenge that I landed on was that multiple songs can be referenced, providing one is referenced more prominently, such that the challenge can reasonably be said to be met. I’m not sure that any of the 25 listed references could definitively be said to be more prominent than any other.
If I had to pick one, it would be “use somebody” as it’s used as the chorus hook, appearing four times in the song. But it doesn’t seem to me to be referenced as the song “Use Somebody”, so much as the words “use somebody” as part of a question in this narrative. I’m not convinced this is a prominent mention of “a song”.
I think the Broken Demo Tape song has a greater claim to be a frequent mention of a song, as a song, but it’s buried towards the end and lacks prominence, even if it does have emotional weight.
I think if the bio had maybe emphasised which song was the prominent one, rather than listing all 25 without distinguishing between them, I could perhaps have been persuaded. But in the absence of any such claims, I’m struggling to see this as anything other than referencing a lot of other songs, some of which are referenced as being songs and some are repurposed. Nothing stands out to me as fulfilling the challenge.
I’ve agonised over this review, because the song carries considerable emotional weight and I suspect it is of some importance to GD, but I’m just not 100% convinced this could reasonably be said to meet the challenge. Giving more weight to the emotional content and resonance of the song would seem unfair to others that have more straight-forwardly met the brief.
Ultimately, if my perceived lack of a prominent song affects my rankings, I apologise. I really liked the song and it must have been a very hard song to make, only for some pedant on the internet to wave ‘the rules’ in your face.
Flintsteel - Master of the Art
The bio indicates that the reference is to an HP Lovecraft short story, so seemingly references a written piece of literature, not a song or piece of music as per the challenge. It seemed an odd decision, until I read the story and all became clear! There’s no stipulation in the challenge that the referenced song or piece of music must have a name, so writing about the otherworldly viol music played by Erich Zann, which is described in compelling terms in HP Lovecraft’s story but never named, is a cool way of delivering on the brief.
It’s ballsy though; you run the risk of the judges not being aware of the story and the central role music plays in it, thereby questioning whether you’ve met the brief. Fair play to you though for taking that risk!
My personal animus - twin harmonised guitars - are right there from the off, but they’re genre appropriate and, to my surprise, I don’t mind them here as much as I normally do. They’re played well and sit well with the chosen reference point.
Another surprise to me was the guitar solo. I’m not a fan of guitar solos, at least not for their own sake, but again in the context of a song about an otherworldly music that’s seemingly created by or to see off forces beyond the human realm, the minute long dextrous and widdly guitar solo is spot on. It captures the frenetic, desperate viol playing of Erich Zann as he struggles to keep away whatever devils lie beyond his window, ultimately unsuccessfully (sorry, I should have said ‘spoiler alert’ for anyone else reading).
(Also, I am assured that ‘widdly’ is the correct term to describe the solo, as I was in a band for a short while with ‘Widdly Phil’, who claimed to be the fastest guitarist in South Wales at the time. That boy could play a thousand notes a minute and he always referred to it as ‘widdling’, hence his nickname.)
The drumming is great – I think Siebass mentioned on the Two Jerks podcast that the Flintsteel drums are real, and if that’s right, this is super impressive. The vocal are strong throughout, and that held note at the end is great.
Sober - On Shenandoah
The four referenced songs (Oh Shenandoah, Ashokan Farewell, Auld Land Syne and Carrickfergus) put this song in the ‘references multiple songs’ bracket with a couple of others, rather than writing about or prominently mentioning a song (singular) as indicated in the challenge. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I think multiple songs is fine in the context of the challenge, providing one of them is given more prominence than the others.
In instance, the four songs are referenced conversationally, almost as inspirational lodestones; it feels a more natural way of mentioning the songs rather than pulling in their lyrics to form a new narrative.
I think the note in the bio that this song “…clearly references the chordal and melodic structure of “Shenandoah,” with enough variation to make it its own piece” together with the use of the word “Shenandoah” in the title just about makes the reference to that song more prominent than the other three. So the challenge is met for me, but only by the slimmest of margins.
As an elegiac, plaintive reaction to grief, it’s a song to wallow in, to get lost in. The vocal is rich and the chorus harmonies enveloping; it has a campfire feel of warmth and comfort. There’s something almost cinematic about those brilliant chorus harmonies, putting me in mind of 1950s or 1960s musicals set in the Wild West, like Oklahoma! or Paint Your Wagon.
The music is subtle and beautifully arranged, with lots of detail yet lots of space too, with everything sitting really nicely in the mix. It’s a really top drawer production. The sparse setting of the whistle when it first comes in evokes a simpler, Celtic past, and provides a musical embodiment of grief and sorrow. It's an achingly lovely song.
Wendy Wiseman Fisher - The Song That Opened The Sky [SHADOW]
Reading that the inspiration for this was a song from a Disney film is not a surprise, as it would happily fit in to that setting. There’s something in the melodic choices, the uplifting words and the lush string-heavy setting that speaks to me of Disney musicals. I wasn’t super clear on which song kept singing “begin again with me” as it doesn’t appear to be A Whole New World.
It’s a really well put together song, with a strong sense of its own purpose, of opening new doors, and venturing forth toward a new life. In that context, I thought the choice of making a feature of the word “no” was a really interesting one. Even in the lyrical context of where it appears, I couldn’t quite understand why use the word “no”.
I’m put in mind of the story of how John Lennon met Yoko Ono in 1966, visiting her art exhibition at a gallery in London at Paul McCartney’s invitation. Lennon came across one of Yoko’s pieces, set in darkness, a lit glass panel on the ceiling above a wooden ladder, with a magnifying glass hanging down from the ceiling. One had to climb the ladder, and use the magnifying glass to seek out a tiny hand-written message under the clear glass. The message was a single word: “yes”. Lennon described the relief of finding a positive message, that the effort of engaging with the artwork wasn’t rewarded with a negative, with a ‘no’, or something much ruder. It was a simple affirmation of hope.
The Lennon/Ono meeting story isn’t wholly relevant, but it perhaps shows the power of word choices (in that instance, anyway). The “no” in this song is beautifully sung, but it seems incongruous with the rest of the song, which is laden with a sense of new beginnings and liberation, and I was left a little confused.
▷ - just felt like That [SHADOW]
A lovely meta, self-referential song, that slam dunks the brief. I loved the simplicity of these lines: “you ever get that feeling to write something arbitrarily? no rhyme or reason just a daw and adhd”. The naturalistic delivery of these lines, the conversational style of the words – it’s a hard skill to pull off. It’s so easy to get lost in making lyrics “song-like” and yet there’s so much power in writing freely, in a way that just flows. It’s impressive.
gammammannn - Under My Shadow [SHADOW]
I like the dual nature of the pair of gammammannn songs; that we drop in mid-conversation. I assume that the songs are ordered intentionally on the album, but it almost doesn’t matter which comes first, as both start by responding to something the other has said; so whichever comes first, we come in after the discussion has started.
Under My Shadow (‘UMS’) starts by responding to something that You Are (‘YA’) has already said. UMS totally respects views already communicated to it by YA, and basically tells YA to get a new career. YA responds in the sibling song also starting with a response to something that UMS has said. Since neither song contains the beginning of the conversation, maybe we need prequels to see how it started. And maybe sequels to see where it ends. Or maybe we should just be happy that we have this snapshot.
There are some lovely musical details in UMS – some of the piano runs are just delicious; the one at 24s in particular is so good.
I wrote a semi-thesis in response to the bio, but I thought I was (unintentionally) deviating into condescending ‘advice guy’, so I deleted it. I will summarise with this: no-one has the power to silence your artistic voice, not Rick Beato, not judges, passing strangers, nor anyone else. Do what you love, and love what you do.
gammammannn - You Are [SHADOW]
You Are (‘YA’) starts with a response to Under My Shadow (‘UMS’), so as I said before, we don’t get the whole conversation, just a snippet of the back and forth.
YA is an uptempo banger; the drops are among my favourite things gammammannn / Distance has created. The melody, the delivery, the backing vocals – they’re great. They’re up with Brain Brain for earworm potential. The synth lines at the end (starting at around 3m30s) are genius. They would make an awesome jumping off point for a dancefloor filler.
☀️bucket - dreammachine [SHADOW]
It’s a cool concept for a song. I got a little lost down a rabbit hole that started with looking into the potential for the dreammachine to induce epileptic fits, I mean it must be possible, right? Anyway, I found a French company that sells Dream Machines (for £500, or £600 including an instructional video in French), and their website is loaded with warnings about photosensitivity and potential for inducing seizures. So the answer I eventually landed on was “yes, there is potential, but it’s not huge and generally only risk where there’s already a sensitivity”. I thought about buying one but decided against it, just in case.
This is a cool, engaging song. The lyrics hang together really well especially for something created using the cut-up technique, I’m not sure I would have spotted it without the bio. But I guess that’s the point of the technique; exploring and finding meanings beyond conscious input. It’s certainly worked here.
The pre-choruses – “synchronize my alpha waves..” and “witness to the revolution..” – were ‘holy shit, that’s great’ moments for me. There’s something about the melody, the vocal tone and delivery, and the cymbals – it all hits an absolute sweet spot for me. I loved those bits, real highlights of the round.
Siebass - Listening to Fish [SHADOW]
What is it about the snorkelling song that resonates so much with people? It’s not a question I feel I can answer, as my relationship with the song varies according to how tolerant I’m feeling of rhyming a word with itself over and over again, but it certainly has gained cultural SpinTunes traction.
The section immediately after the initial homage, puts me in mind of something so specific to a particular location on the east coast of England that it’s almost not worth sharing; the potential SpinTunes audience for the reference is likely to be limited to maybe four people, at most. But just in case there’s an audience for such a niche reference, there’s a small village on the east coast of Suffolk, a county in England, that has a pier with a wonky amusement arcade on it. The games are described as “unique and eccentric collections of interactive machines…” and “…weirdly wonderful inventions which have sprung from the genius brain of Tim Hunkin”. It’s part arcade game, part art installation. You experience the life of a fly in VR, train for your future on a Zimmer frame simulator, or you can take out your frustrations with the financial industry on the ‘Whack A Banker’ machine. One particular machine, the Bathyscape, allows you to descend beneath the pier to the seabed to witness fictional underwater marvels, before your vessel springs a leak, and you get soaked by a jet of water. The section immediately after the initial homage to snorkelling transported me back to the Bathyscape, and I think you should reach out to the artist and offer to help make soundtracks for his machines. You would totally nail it.
Like I said, it’s a niche reaction to this song. This link is to a video someone took of the arcade (not me), with the Bathyscape about 3m50s in.
The dance section with the intoned “fishy hearts” lines is disturbing in a way that I found quite pleasing. Do we know if fish feel heartache? I like to think they do, but maybe hope they don’t, for their sakes.
The effort that goes into these Siebass songs is truly a thing of beauty. More power to your elbow.
Nathan Joe Long - Foreshadowing My End [SHADOW]
There’s a lot to like here – the chorus for is an absolute killer. It’s such a good melody, the vocal delivery is spot on, and the drums and bass just groove the hell out of it. The rhythm guitar tone is brilliant, particularly when it’s isolated before the last chorus. The jump into that last chorus as the whole band hits is stellar and the bar piano (?) arpeggios in the left channel add a lot of energy. It’s really well put together.
The duality of the chorus line “Shadowing is my end” is so satisfying, tying the song’s subject to the fact that you’re submitting a shadow. And then it flips into the “Foreshadowing is my end”. It’s really well written.
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