David Taro - Hug Your Children
I think it’s hard to write a simple, heartfelt lyric about your children that stays the right side of the syrupy line and I think this one does, with most of the heavy lifting being done by the verses, which are replete with nicely observed details and dry humour. “You cried all night like you were hoping to forget us” is a particularly good line.
The changing temporal references in each verse is a neat way of capturing the way perception of time shifts at different stages of the parenting journey. The repetition in each section, altering the way the units relate to each other to suggest time speeding up or slowing down is pretty clever, tying the narrative to both the speed of passing time and our place in the parent’s journey. Relative and absolute markers of time in one word grouping – neat!
The vocals in the slower sections are excellent, both lead and harmonies, and the guitar work is pretty much faultless. The slide guitar solo is superb – hitting the same note three times at the start is my idea of a perfect solo! All feel, no flash. Lovely. The vocals in the faster sections sound a little more forced to my ear, but they fit the rockier feel, so work well.
There are a lot of quite Beatle-esque details in the song - the descending guitar lines, the ‘aahs’, the slide guitar part, the whole “sending you to school” section – which feel a bit pastiche-y at times, but the super clear production carries the day.
The stylistic left turns left me a little disconnected; the changes are well executed, if a touch abrupt in places, and I really like each part individually, particularly the Rocky Horror-influenced third (“fast forward”) section, but songs that jump around this much are not really my cup of tea. I mean, I don’t think one has to pick a style and rigidly stick with it, but it starts to feel more like a medley to me than a song when it jumps around like this. It’s just a personal preference thing, I guess.
It’s another beautifully produced song in the Taro tradition, with lots of musical detail to keep us (me) engaged; if one is less put off by the stylistic jumps than me (which will probably be everyone with ears and/or taste), then this is a hands-down banger.
This Big Old Endless Sky - Falling Down
This has a lot of energy, which is welcome in a final round of songs that lean a touch on the gentler side of things. It’s got a great driving groove and awesome sounding guitars. The whole intro section is brilliant, and the drop after the “hey” is super effective.
The first verse (“I am simple man”) with just vocals, drums and bass sounds so good, and the way it builds back up to the chorus when the chaos lets rip is a well-used approach, but it’s well-used for a reason - it sounds cool as anything, and that applies here too - it sounds flipping great. It’s not over-used either - the subsequent verses don’t drop to as sparse a level as the first verse, and I liked that variation. Good production choices.
I love the way the vocal sits with the music in the verses, the balance is really good, though it’s maybe a touch prominent in the choruses. There’s a harshness to the vocal when it’s pushed that I found a little uncomfortable on the ear, particularly on the shouted “1, 2, 3, 4” after the “hey”. But that harshness is a choice and contextually appropriate so my ears will just have to suck it up (cos that’s how ears work, I believe).
I’m not sure whether the lyric leans more to the autobiographical side of things, or more towards the refenced book, but I really like the characterisation of insecurity it paints. The narrator’s point of view isn’t spoon-fed to us, we have to bring something to the table to get full value from the lyric. It’s an approach I really like. It doesn’t feel like the limited choice of words has impinged on the concept, which says to me that (a) the lyrics are well-written, and (b) the viewpoint was cleverly chosen.
The held note on the last part of “you’re not in love” is super impressive and the falling backing vocals that precede that last line reinforced in my mind the image of someone falling apart/down.
This has been a sonically excellent competition for TBOES, and this one clears the high bar set in the earlier rounds.
The Alleviators – Shadow Teeth
This is such a lovely sounding song – the main rhythm guitar part is ace and has great tone, the floor tom in the left channel is so thud-y, just beautifully deadened, and the vocals are superb throughout. It’s well-produced and mixed, and it all sparkles.
The lyric is great – poetic and full of powerful images (“Now I think you only smile to show your teeth” is a brilliant line among many brilliant lines), though I’m not sure I would have grasped the exact meaning without the bio. I would probably get there, but I would have had to work at it, which is no bad thing.
The bass part that comes in at 1 min is so good – a big fat round kick up the sonics with what sounded a bit like a snare buzz (but probably isn’t) - I really enjoyed the energy that simple change gave the song. That bass-laden section leads into the “Tell me how your dreams” part where the backing vocals in particular absolutely stand out - there’s something about the way they almost strangle to a close that I loved.
For all the aural beauty here, it’s quite a slow, steady song, without a huge amount of dynamic variation, and there’s no chorus to speak of, or at least not that leapt out to me. Songs out in the wider world don’t need to do the opposite of these things, but in a competition context, I wonder whether this will be enough to place it high in the final standings..? It’s an act of trust – trusting that the audience will take this brooding beauty to heart when ranking the song, and I’m glad it’s not up to me (tie-breaks aside)!
It’s a song that demands time, space and immersion, and if you give it those things, it shines brightly.
Hot Pink Halo – Move Through The World In Waves
The build at the start is so lovely – a beautiful, sparse piano, developing into a throb of low piano part, with fragmented guitar lines – that it was almost a disappointment when the drums join. Don’t get me wrong, I like the drums well enough – some lovely brush work – but that throbbing piano was such a cool part that I was hoping for it to continue through a moody first section in a much more prominent way.
I like how the verses (as I read them anyway) are from Marie-Laurie’s point of view, with the sensory references leaning more towards sound and any references to light seem more elemental; shapes, beats of light, perhaps as might be perceived by someone with a visual impairment that isn’t total (which may or may not be true for Marie-Laurie). The choruses are full of radio references – waves carrying voices through air, through walls (it’s how radios work kids, look it up).
Mentions of ‘fight’, keeping things locked away, never finding fire (which I take to mean something that might dazzle with light, like a jewel might) – all tie back to the book – it’s a nice reflection of the source story (at least, as far as I understood it from Wikipedia!)
I should have guarded against spoilers in the Wikipedia summary of the book, and now I know how it ends, I’m not sure I’ll read it. It reminded me of the heart-breaking (though no doubt clever) ending of Ian McEwan’s novel Atonement (spoiler warning etc). Such a sad ending.
The chorus is particularly ethereal, as one might associate with something as insubstantial as radio waves, and the backing vocals are particularly good. The guitar throughout is great, as is the bass, though there sounds like there might be a couple of flubs in the “light shifts” section? Could be my ear though. For all jazz-y subtlety to the drums, there’s not a huge amount of dynamism in them, which might have helped lift or drop sections.
It's another fully rounded and realised HPH song, with all the lyrical and musical finesse I’ve come to expect.
Huge Shark – Wish One For Me
Another slow burn of a song, though this one is underpinned with a dance beat, which does elevate the song’s energy above its modest pace.
There are three particular aspects of this song that I really loved – the chorus is low key superb. I say ‘low key’, because it’s not a blow the doors off, in your face chorus, but it’s melodic, super infectious, and sounds great. It lifts the song just as a good chorus should. There’s an almost angelic tone to the vocal, and the way the final line falls, both in melody and drive so that it’s almost whispered; I love that reserved delivery, like something’s being held back. I also loved that we hit the first chorus inside a minute.
The second aspect that stands out for me harks back to Huge Shark’s R3 song, and the way the vocalist plays with the pronunciation of some of the words. It’s on show here – “tight”, “bright” – there’s just something about the way those words are sung that just sends shivers down my spine. Delightful.
The bridge section (“You know that you get to dream”) is the third superb thing. In a song where the chorus already provides a big lift, dropping in that bridge near the end is brilliant. The harmonies are great, the synths are glacial, the little echo on the last word. It hints at some 80s influence, but I’m here for it.
The lyric is artful and well-conceived, though the bio definitely helped me get the exact intention here. I also don’t think one should have to explain songs in normal circumstances – the artist puts in what they want and the listener gets what they want or need, and the two don’t have to be the same for a song to be effective. But in the context of a competition like this, bios definitely help me cut to the chase, so I appreciate the detail/explanation (and I reserve the right to ignore this grateful feeling in the future when I choose to explain nothing!).
Maybe the production could have used a little more low end thump, but it’s only thing I felt was lacking in a really lovely song, and that’s more a preference thing, not a flaw.
Wendy Wiseman Fisher – Round Fall Food [SHADOW]
A neat way of getting round the lack of ‘pumpkin’ in the most common thousand words. The “round fall food, so sweet” chorus is such a good hook, a real earworm. The repeated short lyric, particularly with the almost robotic “hard before you make it hot” part gives this a lovely meditative feel, almost like a mantra. I could totally see this being an autumnal dancefloor filler.
If I was to raise a production point, it would be that the frequent cymbal hits, and to a lesser extent some of the drum fills, don’t fit the vibe for me; the main drum pattern works really well, especially with the accented hi-hat part, and I didn’t feel the song needed the additional punctuation. A simpler rhythm would tie-in better (for me) with the mantra-like elements of the lyric. File under personal preference, I guess. Overall, a cracking song.
Gammammannn – IDK [SHADOW]
As an experiment, I listened to this backwards as well as forwards, and it’s a bop both ways round. The backwards parts work as an effective rhythmic/harmonic device and I liked that when I reversed the whole thing, there’s a different rhythmic bed, but it’s just as good.
The synth solo just around the 3min mark is really cool, and the second ‘normal’ is sublime. Really great part writing.
I listened to this before I read the bio, and I got the intended meaning straight from the lyric; the struggle to communicate is evident in both the word choice and vocal delivery. It’s a concept and intent that I appreciated.
I really liked that the bio stuck to the permitted words too – it was the only bio that did, though The Alleviators came close with just one non-permitted word, and Siebass had two; top marks for sticking to the challenge throughout. I presume that’s why we have ‘Normal’ sections and not ‘Steve’ sections..?
The Moon Bureau – A Song (For You) [SHADOW]
This is a delightful song – another favourite of the round. That effortless jangle is front and centre, but it’s the little details that really I love – the slightly odd rhythm of what sounds like a stick on a drum rim, and the glassy tuned percussion. Both are delightful details, that really pulled me in. That stick/rim rhythm in particular – the more I focus on it, the more I think it shouldn’t work, but it does, and it’s brilliant. The longer backing vocal lines at the end are a great touch too.
The first verse is a really nicely observed depiction of a first nervous romantic connection, setting up the story brilliantly, with the subsequent lyrics following through with delightful naivety. There’s something about being the “twenty hundred guy” that is both satisfying in its delivery, but also conceptually, striving to be something more, to just to try to make someone happy for a day. There’s a shy braggadocio about it that’s really quite charming. I liked this one a whole lot.
The Pannacotta Army – It’s How You Get There [SHADOW]
A lovely sounding song – great production, a really nice, laid back groove, a nice little vignette. Is this same protagonist as Round 1? Someone always moving on, always looking to the next destination..?
The vocals are so smooth, and the harmonies are really well done, providing a nice lift in all the right places, particularly the chorus. The high vocal melody in the “from one moment” is exquisite, as is the acoustic guitar playing.
I’ve got no notes really. It’s lovely sounding song that is one of my favourites this round.
Siebass - Top 5 [SHADOW]
This is probably the most interesting interpretation of the challenge, limiting the lyric to just five words. While one can’t construct a deep narrative with these five words, that doesn’t detract from what a cool sounding song this is.
There’s something African-influenced to this that puts me in mind of someone like Ladysmith Black Mambazo; something in the way that the rhythms are all mouth sounds (or they sound like it, anyway).
Inventive, clever, imaginative, and brilliantly executed; there’s nothing I don’t like about this song
Nathan Joe Long - The Day After Days [SHADOW]
Such a cool groove to this. The guitar and drums/percussion had me bopping in my chair. I like the ambition of capturing a life with a thousand words and three and a half minutes, and you definitely nailed it. The sense of a whole life is cleverly evoked in the two word verse lines – they’re snappy, and rhythmically step us through the life of the song’s subject.
The choruses are melodically lovely, particularly the last one, where the delivery of “family meets you greets you” really suits the melody and cadence. My favourite line in the song.
I loved the “Evening evening out your mind” line – two meanings from the same seven letters; not sure anyone else did that, or not that I noticed anyway, so I appreciated that little nugget.
The Dreams Corporation - Dream Hospital
Dreambience. I’ve only just noticed that ‘dreambience’ contains all of ‘dream’ and all of ‘ambience’; I’d thought it was just a cool portmanteau, but both words are right there in plain sight. Sneaky little things.
This is a nice chill song, with narrative elements that seem a little disorienting, which I suspect is intentional. I like how that disorientation is captured in sound, with changes in mood and soundscape; the sudden sense of claustrophobia at 53s, the muffled, almost underwater effects at 1m36s and 1m53s, opening back up into a more ethereal space at 2m16s. Really nice production.
I don’t really understand how one goes about creating this kind of sonic picture, so maybe I find the skill more impressive due to my lack of insight, but whatever my knowledge gaps, this is a great piece.
Governing Dynamics - Beautiful Breaking [SHADOW]
As I expect from a Governing Dynamics song, the guitar parts are stellar, sonically awesome, and interweaving beautifully. The drums could stand a little more volume and oomph, though that’s ultimately a personal preference.
For all of the poetry in the lyric, I’m not sure I could tell anyone what the song is about. There seems to be a general sense of an impending ‘bad thing’, but I couldn’t say if that was an environmental thing, a political thing, something more personally existential, or something else altogether. Doesn’t really matter in the wider scheme of things, but I like to know what’s going on!
A really nice, slow burner of a song, where my enjoyment increased as I listened to it more and more.
Micah Sommersmith - Song 23 [SHADOW]
I think this might be my favourite song of the round; it’s instantly memorable, with a super-catchy chorus, an infectious, melodic hammered dulcimer (?) part, and a vocal that is truly awesome. Everything about the vocal is great – the power, the tone, the delivery, the harmonies, the counter melodies at the end. It’s brilliant.
The focus on death is understandable given the source inspiration and the available palette of words, but listening in mixed company did elicit a raised eyebrow. The word ‘death’ is quite prominent in its delivery, and the more inspirational words around it don’t quite grab the attention in the same way. One has to take in the whole song to get the uplifting message, or one risks coming away with the impression that the singer is a little depressed. I’m not saying that’s how the conversation went with the casual listener, but let’s just assume that it did. (it did).
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