Read on for your Final Round reviews from Ian Blaylock!
Wow! Final round! So many fewer reviews! And also somehow lower stakes here as a judge: it's nice knowing I'm merely one of 5 tiebreakers! Y'all are all good, but there must be a winner. There must be! And in this case, I think there's three songs that are terrific in their own way, and then one that positively, unambigiously knocked it out of the park: 🛸🛸🛸Owl.🛸🛸🛸 Now THAT's a narrative!
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traumadolls - immediately i notice how much i like the sound of the guitars. i already asked electric guitar mo what pedal it was. melody is pretty good and it's well sung and the background harmonies are a great touch. the syncopation on the bass part is pretty cool, you've found a pocket with the rhythm that keeps surprisingly me. it's nice to hear inspired bass guitar parts! good guitar solo. the lyrics don't quite resonate with me that much, largely cause i'm not really getting a strong narrative or vibe or much from them. i was kind of getting 'time lost, people moving on, times changing' etc from the lyrics in the second stanzas, but I wouldn't have got dementia or memory loss from it. i'm not sure what to suggest. also i find the key in this pretty clear and unambiguous...aren't we in D major? anyway this hits a lot of notes that are great without really wowing me much. vocal performance is strong though, you've got a good voice for this vibe.
miscellaneous owl - more characteristic owl lyrics with so much descriptive imagery. these lyrics grab me. and each section sounds so very distinctive. and then the hard left turn into the alien invasion that isn't really an alien invasion but just generally an overarching metaphor -- that breaks the fourth wall at the end and just offering hopeful words of encouragement to a child growing up in a strange and stressful world? Wonderful. And the callback to the blackberries at the end. And the theremin! The dadgum theramin! And you're right: everything seems 'normal' until you have the benefit of hindsight and an older viewpoint to realize it isn't. 'you loved the trucks that rolled through the pick up the bodies' is a wicked line, cause yeah, 'wow a firetruck!!!' is definitely the kid version as opposed to 'wow i hope nobody died' as the adult version. adult protection of youthful innocence wrapped up in a bizarre alien invation metaphor? I am SOLD! Super duper sold. Great coda. Great jeorb. 🛸🛸🛸🛸🛸🛸🛸🛸🛸🛸🛸
sober - 'if life on autopilot means passing on the violence' is a great self-indictment, and it's a great chorus. as an anthem for living childfree by choice, it works! it's definitely not for everyone. ultimately this song makes me not necessarily reflect on my own choices, but my 'childfree by choice' stepfather whose own father (and grandfather) had some serious issues. interesting though, he both a) broke the genetic 'issues' cycle by shaping himself into a totally legit dude and not having kids but also b) somehow finding himself as a wonderful father figure to me and his late-best-friend's kid regardless, at least later in life. he went to vietnam instead of afghanistan, but same shit different decade. as for the arrangement, i think it's well done. would like to hear a bit less separation of the elements in the mix here and i feel like the drums or something are produced oddly? like the transients on virtually everything are just a bit too choppy for me. it's hard to pin down exactly. it almost sounds like there's a limiter that's overaggressively emphasizing the transients and putting everything else down. but yeah it's a fine song! not a song that i'd think of while looking at an old photo of a kid with birthday cake, but if it so inspired you then so be it!
stefan szabo - this is the first song in the challenge where it makes sense that you and sober are friends and he invited you to the competition. lol production-wise i have an opposite gripe, namely that everything sounds a bit smushed together in the mix and that there isn't enough dynamic range (opposed to sober's where the transients feel like they're popping too much). this sounds radio-friendly as can be, ready for a film soundtrack or something. i've wondered if your goal is landing on a film or TV soundtrack if only cause it's just so...every song you play sounds like it would be played right after the emotional climax in some Netflix series and then fade into the credits or something. Every part here goes ties together really well. We've got a nice coming of age story, some great pickin', with the photo used as a springboard for some great reflection on life and all of its possibilities. I tend to learn too hard into shades of gray. "just make up your mind already!" 'well let me verbally pontificate over every nuance about everything and have difficulty committing'. Black and white thinking is certainly easier, but then we know what happens if adults keep that mindset. It's awful! But anyway, this is great too. I'd tie you for second place but I can't.
--- shadow time! the shadows really brought it too! ---
best dad of yorkshire - oh hell yeah! mo's wanted me to write her a proper song for years but somehow my brain just won't write a decent love song. we've got a handful of photos of baby mo in the family album, I oughta throw one on the Discord sometime. The photo's actually her cousin Larry but she probably mentioned that in her review. This song is a rockin good time. And it's definitely in line with the challenge. Literally just about the happiness of the little 'Mo' is the photo. And also there's not a note wasted in this song! No momentum lost, just a straight ahead rocker that's eminently lovable. Lol I believe Mo (and I) mentioned fighting the urge to include guitar solos in every song...and while there's a break after the chorus where a quick guitar solo would have fit, that break suffices as it is, and then we drop back to the final chorus and get out. 41 year old Mo kept a big smile on her face the whole time she heard this song. I did too, this is great stuff. Maybe my favorite of yours so far!
hot pink halo - you in atmospheric piano mode is starting to establish itself as my favorite sound of yours. i know you dig your peppy synth pop influenced numbers but when you lean into the ATTTT-MOSSS-SPHEREEEE and utilize your higher register and sentimentality you're in your _elementttttttt_. great use of winds and those distant synth drones and those harmonized vocals and oh! also your voice here!!! damn! sing like this all the time! you sound great! and i'm not talking like 'most improved' great i'm talking like 'great great' it's been cool as hell watching you get here over the past (looks at calendar) 7 (!?!?!) years I've been listening to you submit stuff online. i suppose you planted a seed and watched it grow! yeah i have no criticisms, this is dope.
nathan joe long - hell yeah on holding down the rhythm through the verses on the upright and viola. i know it's 8th notes but it really isn't something you hear much of. I love these little transitions in the arrangement with the drop outs between each part. you brought out the cornucopia of folk instruments. energy and enthusiasm is running wild throughout. 'honeyed times' is a great turn of phrase. your interpretation is a kid who really lives life on all cylinders -- and I think that's how life should be lived too so hell yeah to this one! from what I hear about little Larry, he did have quite the joi d'vivre as he spedrun the cradle-to-urn arc, so this song fits! terrific composition, does what it needs to do, and i'd totally go see you live if i heard you were in town.
micah sommersmith - tappin' my toes while jamming along with this delightful coming of age tale. there's definitely a purity of thought that comes with being a kid. on one hand you don't really know that much and it shows, but kids also tend to just do things because they look like they'd be fun to do and are totally intuition driven. there's something freeing about that, we should all stay a bit childlike. i at least try to in some regards! but at the same time it's really hard when you're having to do adulty things all the time! raising kids helps to some degree. man i used to spend so much time on the monkey bars on the playground. we had this 3 layer jungle gym too that I'd climb up to the top and just jump off of and see how far I could make it over and over again. nowadays my ankle would probably mutiny if i did that too many times. probably cause i twisted it too much on the playground when i was younger. or maybe i twisted it cause i pronate a bit. the only criticism that i have is that the melodic guitar line and the vocal melody and the accordion all kind of clutter each other out in the mix and maybe if the guitar was totally clean and lacked fuzz it would fit better? a minor nitpick. and the big singalong part is infectious and really lifts it.
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