Here are your Round 3 rankings from Paul R. Potts:
Read on for Paul's reviews!
The Restless Mind 9: SpinTunes 26, Round 3
06-11 October 2026
SpinTunes 26, Round 3
Hello, dear readers!
Aaand it’s time to judge the 3rd round of song submissions. Aaand it’s October. We are once again trying to avoid turning on the heat until November. The temperature has been bouncing around a lot — from the nineties to the forties. This always makes me feel a bit out of whack. I go to bed sweating and wake up shivering.
There isn’t much new medical news. My CT scans and MRI didn’t show much of concern — no evidence of metastatic cancer. There are some small lumps of unclear origin in one of my lungs. They don’t seem alarming yet but I might be having some follow up exams with a pulmonologist.
The MRI was an interesting experience. I was concerned that it might trigger claustrophobia or a panic attack. I think if I had needed to keep my head in the middle of the machine, it might have. But my head was almost out the end of the machine, and it didn’t give me a panic attack. In fact I kept dozing off.
They put earplugs in my ears and earmuffs over them and did not offer to play music through them, but I was treated to some extremely loud minimalist techno — the sounds of the machine itself, filtered oddly through the hearing protection. It was like being inside the subwoofer at a rave. It would start generating a rhythm, and it became hypnotic. My auditory center would begin to play tricks and I’d start to hear the machine speaking vowel sounds over and over again, like “WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW” or “YO, YO, YO, YO.”
I have a little synthesizer module made by Rare Waves called a Grendel RA-99 Grenadier with unusual filters that make the oscillators sound like voices. The MRI machine reminded me of that. But as soon as I was lulled to sleep by one song, it would change to another song, and wake me up. I’m wondering if there is an MRI soundtrack album with a continuous mix available. Maybe it would help me sleep.
The state cut off our health insurance at the end of September, on the grounds that I currently have income. The fact that this is contract work and not a permanent job doesn’t seem to factor into their decision-making. The fact that my wife is disabled with a spinal cord injury and needs regular follow-up care also doesn’t seem to factor into it.
We are re-applying, and trying to figure out what kind of insurance we may be able to transition to, if any. If we can purchase insurance, it will probably cost more than our mortgage, taxes, and insurance put together. While we figure that out, I might have to pay out of pocket for the MRI, and for my wife’s ongoing medical expenses. The discount I’d get for paying for the MRI myself is sixty percent. Make that make sense!
Anyway, everything sure is great! Let’s get into it the songs!
General Thoughts on Round 3
The challenge this time was somewhat technical: “Write and record a song with at least 3 different verses/stanzas that strictly adhere to common meter - 4 iambic lines alternating 8 and 6 syllables, with an ABAB rhyme scheme. You may have other lyrics that don’t fit the meter (e.g. a chorus or bridge) as long as you have at least 3 different stanzas that do.”
I guess it’s not really that technical, since so many songs do it, but more sociological — many traditional songs like “Amazing Grace” follow this pattern, but many contemporary musicians might consider this style to be antiquated and corny. So part of the challenge is getting over your hesitation to write and record something that might sound “olde timey.”
Overall the contestants knocked it out of the park. The songs this round were again extremely competitive. This made it very difficult to rank them, because most of them were good to very good to great. It broke my heart to have to give some of them low rankings. I have done what I could to make up for that cruelty in my reviews.
As I’m feeling kind of worn down this week, and having some trouble definitively ranking the songs, and coming up with things to say about them, I’m recruiting my son Joshua to help listen this time. I’ve noted Joshua’s impressions at the end of each song’s review.
After listening to all the songs, Josh said “why are they all trying to make me cry?”
I told him that it’s because it is round 3, and now the contestants are pulling out the emotional big guns — writing songs about unhappy childhoods, death of family members (or themselves), murder, separation, addiction, recovery, and despair!”
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English language, 5th edition: catharsis: 1. Purgation, especially for the digestive system. 2. A purifying or figurative cleansing of the emotions, especially pity and fear, described by Aristotle as an effect of tragic drama on its audience. 3.A release of emotional tension, as after an overwhelming experience, that restores or refreshes the spirit.
To catharsis!
The Contenders
1: Carrie Spillane — Dystopian Pentameter
Reminds me of: ATB, “Too Much Rain”
This looks like another case where the challenge lured an artist out of their comfort zone to do something quite different, and I’m here for it! The mix of acoustic instruments, ominous electronics, spoken-word clips, chanted vocals that feel like a summoning ritual, and sung counter-melodies all combine to make an impressionistic musical landscape that is nearly a trance song. Wow!
Joshua’s impressions: reminds him of “Fitter Happier” by Radiohead. The deep pads and chords make the song feel very emotional to him.
2. Sober — Make You a Headstone
Reminds me of: The Charlie Daniels Band, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”
One of my favorite moments from the perfect film Groundhog Day is when Bill Murray, playing weatherman Phil Connors, addresses his weather team’s camera and says:
When Chekhov saw the long winter, he saw a winter bleak and dark and bereft of hope. Yet we know that winter is just another step in the cycle of life. But standing here among the people of Punxsutawney and basking in the warmth of their hearths and hearts, I couldn’t imagine a better fate than a long and lustrous winter. From Punxsutawney, it’s Phil Connors. So long.
So here we have a song about winter. I like winter, and I like this song quite a bit. The accordion is very nicely done. I especially like the vocal performance on the choruses. The changeup for the 3rd verse, introducing new harmonies, and with the melody switching to half-time, is also very well-done! It’s a short song but I can’t really think of much that could be added. Maybe a brief accordion solo? But the big thing is it has that indefinable catchiness that makes me want to listen to it over and over again! Is the verse melody echoing “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen?” Perhaps unconsciously?
Joshua’s impressions: he thinks it’s “kind of a perfect song” and “those harmonies are so good!”
3. Nathan Joe Long — Pocket Watch
The artist writes in the song notes “Fitting lyrics into common meter was a massive challenge for me and I stated resenting the form…” — but then goes on to describe how adopting the form guided the creation of an interesting song. That’s exactly the kind of thing we hope for when choosing the challenges! We hope that meeting the challenge will take an artist out of their comfort zone and get them to explore a new side of their music.
I think the song absolutely earns it’s long-ish runtime with those tasty instrumental breaks, and poignant vocal performance.
The mix is a trifle hot. It seems that with such a spare, poignant lyric it might have been better to pare down the arrangement, especially for the first verse. The style of vocal performance really comes into its own in the second verse, and then shifts to a looser, less constricted style for the conclusion of the song. So if the artist is interested in improving the song, I’d suggest re-recording the vocals of the first verse, and simplifying the mix in that section. The later parts of the song’s arrangement I wouldn’t change at all, especially the lovely ending.
Joshua’s impressions: the vocals have a breathiness that remind him of Thom York (Radiohead) and the song as a whole reminds him of “Iris” by the Goo Goo Dolls. He likes the way the whole song is built on top of the ticking of the watch. He really appreciates the lyricism and the intimate feel of the guitar parts (including string noise), which give the impression or listening to an up-close live performance.
4. Jennifer Lynne and the Dandelion Rebelion — The Optimist
Reminds me of: old 78 RPM records
This song is probably the best example this round of meeting the challenge while studiously avoiding the temptation to fall into writing anything that sounds nostalgic or traditional. Which is… hard to explain when the genre is gypsy jazz/cabaret! I can barely make sense of it, but it sounds fantastic.
The vocal performance is off the chain. The scat-singing part is wonderful. This is one of the best-sounding tracks I’ve heard in SpinTunes 26. It’s short and sweet, every second is entertaining, and it gets the job done, then leaves the audience wanting more.
There’s a hiss in the background which puzzles me. At first I thought it was an addition designed to make the song sound like it was playing on an old record (see Annie Lennox, “Keep Young and Beautiful.”) But it comes and goes, which I find confusing. There’s a really intriguing big reflection/reverb that kicks in on the last chorus. I’d like to know more about how this whole song was constructed.
Joshua’s impressions: it’s really good. The vocal stands out the most. It sounds like it belongs in an old-school musical, where everyone gets up and dances.
Update: after reading the comments from a couple of the other judges, and having an online chat with one, I find that I am very angry. I’ve been played. This song appears to be made up of the contestant singing over an AI-generated backing track. Currently, there doesn’t seem to be a policy that explicitly forbids it, but had I realized what was going on, I would have ranked this song last.
After listening to the song numerous times, I had come to the conclusion that the guitar clearly was not a real recording of a guitar, played by a human, for this song. I began to think that perhaps the artists had sampled an old song, perhaps even one that was in the public domain, and then cleverly assembled bits of that old song into a backing track. But even closer listening left me realizing that were also some horns in the mix, and some faint backing vocals that seemed to be echoing the lyrics of the song.
I was honestly baffled as to what was going on, but I made the decision not to make any accusations. I revised my review, removing some material I had written asking where the backing tracks came from and talking about the importance of crediting other artists, instead just leaving the line “I’d like to know more about how this whole song was constructed.” Now, it’s obvious: J’accuse!
Because, and this is on me, as I am overly trusting and even naïve in some ways, it actually did not occur to me that someone in this community would do such a thing. In addition, as a technologist, but one who has mostly avoided using any generative AI tools that I can’t run on a local machine, I didn’t even really know it was possible to make something that sounded this good with the current technology. Oops.
I’m no Luddite when it comes to using technology in music; in my own creations I’ve sometimes used the libraries of samples that come with Logic to assemble percussion parts, containing drum sounds that I didn’t play, but merely carefully assembled in an editor. I’ve used a keyboard to play and record MIDI notes and then had virtual instruments play them. I’ve used guitar synthesizers. I’ve used pitch correction plugins, in both subtle and over-the-top ways, as well as doublers and phasers and reverbs and all kinds of other effects. And of course I’ve edited and cleaned up my own bass and guitar and vocal tracks, doing on the computer what used to be done with tape.
But in all these cases, there was an underlying performance of some kind, whether it originated in pressing keys on a keyboard, plucking notes on a guitar, or piecing together short samples on a screen. And they always involved work, soloing each track and carefully adjusting levels and plug-in settings to piece them together into stems and then into a full mix. I don’t ask, and don’t approve of asking, a generative AI tool to produce sound for me. Especially not when the tools are designed by some of the most evil people on the face of the earth to steal and devalue everything that humans have ever created.
I’ll close with a bit of writing from the Edinburgh Futures Institute:
“In 2016, acclaimed animator and film director Hayao Miyazaki was presented with an early demonstration of AI-generated animation: a grotesque zombie-like creature shuffling about it’s virtual environment. The demo was meant to showcase the early potential for artificially generated animation, with the presenters arguing that the technology might have further applications in horror videogames to imagine motion beyond what human creatives could imagine themselves. Miyazaki was not enthused. He said he was ‘utterly disgusted,’ and that what he saw was in his eyes ‘an insult to life itself.’ When pressed as to what their ultimate technological goal was, the presenters sheepishly replied that they ‘would like to build a machine that can draw pictures like humans do.’ The clip ends with a bleak response by Miyazaki: ‘I feel like we are nearing the end of times. We humans are losing faith in ourselves.’”
5. Stefan Szabo — Mother
Reminds me of: Cameron Whitcomb, “Kingdom of Fear”
Raised by a single mother, I identify with this song a lot!
We have some different-sounding instrumentation from Stefan this time. A beautiful and touching vocal performance, with tasty reverb, and immaculate production. The lyric is wonderfully simple but effective. There’s a language to structuring songs and Stefan here demonstrates that he has mastered it. There’s something slightly off about the way the finger-picking fits in the third and fourth verses — it just doesn’t quite mesh. This is “cured” by switching to strums, and then the finger-picking against the last chorus stays better in sync. So it’s not as quite as tight and well-arranged as it could be, but that’s a nitpick. It’s still a very strong song.
Joshua’s impressions: it reminds him of “Fall Into Me” by Forest Blakk. He likes the feeling of depth, in both the lyric and the music.
6. Hot Pink Halo — I Am
In round 3 we are hearing artists stretch themselves more and more and I’m loving it. The instrumentation to this tune is an unusual mix of sine-wave bass, strings, electric guitar, and… sleighbells? It all fits together to make a bop. The vocal performance highlights your unusual singing voice. Here we’ve got an “uncommon meter” as a metaphor for autism, among other metaphors.
Pleased to meet you, Hot Pink Halo! I’m a member of the family too. For most of my life, I attributed my difficulties to being a “gifted child,” who taught myself to program computers at age ten, while also having to go to physical therapy to learn how to walk without tripping over my own feet. I didn’t really figure out the autism part until I had seven kids and saw how just adorkably weird they all are.
Joshua’s impression: reminds him of The Bird and the Bee, “Polite Dance Song,” especially the vocal style. He likes the song quite a bit, including the nuances of the arrangement and the way it’s put together.
7. Ironbark — Where It Hurts
My father was long-gone, having abandoned the family when I was two years old; it was my grandfather who cleaned the tar and gravel out of my injured knees, when I was seven or eight years old, and learning to ride my bike on Haskell Road in North East, Pennsylvania. He took me into the garage and got down a metal can of turpentine, grabbed a clean rag and… damn it, this song made me tear up at the memories, for more reasons than one. My grandfather died of cancer a year or two later. I was just cleaning dirt and dead skin out of my six-year-old’s ears. Life doesn’t repeat itself, exactly — “the world’s less hopeful / and unkinder every year” — but it rhymes. “I wish I could ask my father if he ever knew this fear” is a line that really resonates with me. No, he doesn’t, but then, he never took responsibility for a family.
So, I guess that means I found the lyrics to be extremely effective.
I don’t have a great deal to say about the technical aspects of this song that I haven’t slready said: Ironbark’s vocals have a little too much reflection in them. A recording environment with less-reflective surfaces, or something like a microphone reflection filter would likely help. The instrumental parts are immaculate. Some of the backing instruments feel like a bit of an afterthought, as they are only in the song for a few seconds at a time; in other words, I’m not sure they really earn their keep in the track. Maybe bring the parts in more decisively at a point in the song and then allow them to take on a larger role.
Joshua’s impressions: the vocal reminds him of Peter Gabriel’s “Solsbury Hill” and The Beatles’ “Let It Be.” The guitar tone brings Simon and Garfunkel to his mind. He rates the lyrics very highly.
8. Stacking Theory — Losing Steam
Stacking Theory has impressed me again, particulary with layered vocals and arrangement that includes a muted organ sound and a real spaciousness to the mix. It’s hard to record doubled vocals that fit together that tightly, to say nothing of the harmony lines! I think the lyric is excellent and an awful lot of us can identify with the sentiment. That bass line… and the little ear-candy guitar strums in the bridge!
On a technical level, this track is a real workout for my subwoofer. I appreciate the mix, where we’ve got energy all up and down the frequency range including in the high “air” bands. I think this really is a model track in that regard. It sounds like a professional worked on the mastering. It’s loud without overloading my ears in the frequencies that tend to produce pain.
Joshua’s impression: reminds him in parts of Bon Iver. He describes the vocals as sounding like “Midwestern Emo.” He can hear the work that went into it, and the attention to detail, but at the same time feels that it doesn’t really do much for him.
9. traumadolls — Cycle of Sirens
That overdriven bass tone though… and the toms… and the guitar… that vocal… the lyrics… all wow!
Now for a few negatives: the vocal doesn’t nail pitches quite as hard as I’d like on the verses. The mix buries the chorus vocals a bit under layers of guitars with similar frequencies. The first verse sounds great, but when we head into the chorus, it all gets a bit too shrill, with too much in the 5kHz to 8kHz range, especially with the aggressive snare hits right on top of that. I actually feel a headache coming on at about the 2-minute mark. The harmony vocals sound nice, what I can hear of them, but they get buried a bit. Some careful equalization would help here. I understand that these sounds represent the Sirens’ songs, but the Sirens were supposed to attract the sailors, not drive them away. There’s some clipping. So the lyric and melody makes this song very competitive, but the recording makes it a bit less so.
Joshua’s impressions: regarding the squealing guitars at the two-minute mark: “that’s the part I like the most! I think that is what addiction feels like — stinging your head! A post-high clarity, almost like a hangover. I think the song really hits the mark there! It’s so perfect, it really takes it over the top.” But about the choruses: “I feel like the vocal is a bit flat or sharp, and the singing style should be more aggressive in the choruses. I like the harmony vocals.”
10. The Moon Bureau — Passion is a Knife
Reminds me of: Rush, “Red Barchetta”
I like the way this artist put some energy into the low frequencies of the song, especially the way the percussion and bass are equalized and mixed, come together to give the song a punchy low-end with constant movement to propel the song along. Is that a clave or is that just the “click” of a pick on the bass strings? The guitars are very nicely done as well, from performance to microphone through signal processing to the final mix. I am a sucker for clean harmonics.
The overall song is quite short, even with an instrumental break. I do like the way the instrumental break fits in to give the song a chance to stretch its legs a bit.
The lyric is dark, and thought-provoking — a song about a relationship told from the perspective of the person who ended it. The nature of that ending is a bit unclear but it involved, at least metaphorically, an act of violence. I’m still thinking about that. All breakups involve a “cutting” of some kind, but some cuts are kinder than others! This song makes you sit with the idea of a narrator who dealt an unkind cut after being treated not cruelly, exactly but (according to the lyrics) indifferently, perhaps as a “trophy” partner. Who was “wronger?” It’s hard to say. Intriguing stuff!
Joshua’s impressions: drum sounds, guitars, and bass sounds remind him of Talking Heads and Blondie. (I wonder: is that because they all used SVT bass amps?) He doesn’t love the vocal, which he says has a bit of a “flat affect.” Very technically impressive, but not that catchy, and a bit short.
11. David Taro — Love Won’t Care
Reminds me of: Procol Harum: “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” Spandau Ballet, “True,” Wham!: “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go”
The backing organ tone is sweet. I keep asking myself “wait, is this ironic?” Because I’ve been so conditioned by love songs that are secretly, or not-so-secretly, ironic. It seems to me like this is not. In 2026 writing a straight-up song about love seems a bit subversive!
The bridge is especially well-done.
Joshua’s impressions: he says this reminds him of “Silence and I” by The Alan Parsons Project.
12. miscellaneous owl — Writ in Water
Reminds me of: Frente!
I’m a sucker for finger-picked guitar parts that use “motors” — patterns that the player has trained their hands to play on autopilot, or nearly so. It sounds like the owl has gotten a clean playthrough of first verse and chorus onto disc, which is quite smooth and flowing, and then repeated that whole section, then got looser for the last verse and chorus. That repeated section is a bit odd because it has in it what sounds like the ending of the song, so it sounds like the song ends, twice, before we get to the third verse. Those false endings feel a bit wrong in a song that otherwise has a continuous, flowing feel, but this is a minor criticism. I know that it is hard to get a really good play-through of a finger-picked song recorded, having tried many times!
The vocal is clear and has a lovely, breathy feel. The lyric is lovely and manages to take elements from the natural world and make them crackle and feel new, with metaphors that pop: “the lawn is full of blinking lights” and “where bluegill gleam like dimes” seems like especially lovely lines, as is “Cicadas sing / to mark the hours.” This is all very pretty and nostalgic in a very un-forced way, and I’m impressed by it. The use of ambient sounds is a nice touch that enhances the song.
In terms of song structure, some kind of bridge would be welcome here, and the song would move a little faster with those “false endings” edited out. But overall I think it’s a very enjoyable song.
Joshua’s impressions: atmospheric, slow-moving, reminds him of the late Dolores O’Riordan a bit; flows really well but lacks variety.
13. Brother Baker — There Is Hope
I thought this round was all ironic and silly, but here you have to go and tell a serious story! Which is great, actually. The shifting between common meter in the verses and the other meters in the chorus and prechorus is particularly effective here. The impassioned vocal performance really sells it.
On a technical level, the wall of guitar tracks continuing nearly unbroken throughout the song reduces the sense of depth, when it does fade for a bit, there’s an aggressively arpeggiated synth tone that takes its place and prevents the song from feeling calmer. I’d like to hear the arrangement change up more than it does. I also think the compression and EQ on the vocals needs to be different to allow them to be more clearly heard in the mix. While I love the drums and the way they kick into double-time on the choruses, I think they also need a different treatment in the recording and mixing process. I can really hear the cymbals and kick on the outro, but in the middle of the song everything but the snare is buried.
Joshua’s impressions: “not enough dynamic range.” The changes in the vocal need to be combined with changes in the instrumentation. “I couldn’t tell what was a verse and what was a chorus, which is frustrating to me, because I really do like the vocal and guitar — both went great together and sounded really good, but it’s hard to appreciate when it’s in my face the whole time.”
14. Ominous Ride — I Am Iamb
Reminds me of: Strawberry Alarm Clock, Popeye the Sailor Man (he yam what he yam!)
Congratulations! This song has one of the oddest and funniest lyrics I’ve ever heard! It is low-key hilarious. Why aren’t there more song lyrics made to amuse autistic English majors? It’s an underserved market and a real marketing opportunity. Why, there must be… tens of us!
The chugging guitar, simple bass line, and drums form a basic back end that any garage band would be proud of. But most garage bands would never sing “But no, my plague is poetry / a meter seeking rhyme!” The dry snare is especially nice. The vocals seem to be doubled but not separated in the stereo image until we get to the bridge.
The mix is a bit shy on the treble, and sounds like it was put through an overly aggressive low-pass EQ at some point in the process. There are also a few stray seconds of silence at the start of the file that should be trimmed. But that’s nitpicky. It’s a strong effort that takes the challenge, stretches it out, inflates it, and ties it into a balloon animal!
Joshua’s impressions: “I like the way it plays around with the rhythm. It’s a relief to hear a more light-hearted song. I don’t really like the way the vocals fit into the mix. It feels like the whole vocal is a backing vocal.”
15. Cheslain — Devil by the Horn
Reminds me of: Tom Waits, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, The Police (“Murder by Numbers”)
This is fascinating… we have something that sounds a bit like a smokey lounge blues/jazz tune, with lyrics straight out of a vintage murder ballad. There’s a loose, relaxed “jam session” feel to the acoustic instrumentation. The overdriven electric guitar part, in my opinion, makes the mix just slightly too busy in places, when it noodles over the verses too aimlessly to really support them. Sting does the same thing on some of the songs in his album The Dream of the Blu Turtles. I love the noodling on the intro, between verses, and on the soloes though. The vocal performance is excellent. The percussion… are there a couple of tin cans in there, with the shaker and a big kettle drum or low tom, and maybe a small crash cymbal? Or is that a de-tuned snare? Am I hallucinating? However the artist is doing it, it’s clear that they worked to get some special raw-sounding drum sounds to fit the song.
Speaking of hallucinating, I’m slightly worried about the artist’s mental health. They are just writing from the perspective of a very disturbed narrator character… right?
There’s a lot of harsh distortion on some individual tracks, and in the mix as a whole, especially on the “beware you sinful souls” verse, which makes it a bit of an acoustic train wreck when all the tracks pile on at once, and it gets abrasive on the ears. It’s unfortunate. Still a great song, but hard to listen to repeatedly.
Joshua’s impressions: it reminds him of “Sinners” by Barnes Courtney. He agrees that “everything is too loud,” but says “I’m biased, beause I absolutely love the vocal — it’s so dark and Halloweeny!”
16. Best Dad in Yorkshire — Home
Interesting that BDiY was experimenting with an EBow — I had one for a while, in the nineties, but never could get the hang of it. Maybe it’s time to try again.
In the first half of the song, the soft harmonized vocals are especially beautiful and poignant. I like the scraps of children’s voices blended in. The electric guitars get a little dissonant in several places when they kick in loudly. I can’t quite tell if that is intentional, but it doesn’t seem to quite fit in, or serve the song well. Overall it’s pretty catchy, but I do think those guitars are incongruous and don’t make a great setting for the lyrics.
Joshua’s impressions: “the very distorted guitar parts combined with the gentle piano makes it feel unique to me.” He likes the contrast between parts in the arrangement, but at the same time, says he’s having a hard time deciding if he really likes the song or not.
17. Flintsteel — Belmont’s Curse
Reminds me of: “Where Eagles Dare” by Iron Maiden
It’s not Castlevania, but the original 1982 Apple II game Transylvania was written by my friend and former co-worker Antonio, back when he was just 16 years old. Was Castlevania, the game, inspired by Transylvania, the game? I have no idea. I am unfortunately not familiar with Castlevania. The Castlevania franchise started in 1986 and continues to the present day. I’m too old to have gotten into it originally in high school, as I had gone off to college, and never had a NES. Then, by the time I was out of school, I was too old to be playing Game Boy games. But where was I?
Oh yes. The vocal performance in this song seems to me to be quite a bit more tuneful and consonant than in Flintsteel’s previous efforts. This kind of metal — not sure what to call it, really — orchestral metal? Melodic metal? — is still not a genre that I really love, but it’s OK. In high school I had a phase listening to Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and others. I saw Def Leppard perform along with Krokus, and Loverboy with Zebra. But somehow these older metal tunes carry more inspiration than this highly technical version of metal, as do albums like King Crimson’s Red. At age 59 I’d rather listen to something with fewer layers of pyrotechnics between the musicians and the listener. Also, I’ve previously mentioned the compression. Like Flintsteel’s other songs, this one is still very compressed, and the lack of dynamic range doesn’t do this song any favors. I also don’t feel that it earns its long runtime.
Joshua’s impressions: “I would have to give it some credit for being an excellent example of medieval/gothic metal. It feels like it’s kind of constrained as to the frequencies in the recording, all put through a middle-pass equalizer. There’s no contrast in the song. It would hit harder if it shifted between quiet and gentle to big and strong. Overall it’s really fun, especially the lyrics. It’s a bit of relief to see someone writing a song that is fun, instead of talking about all these very serious topics. But I wouldn’t rank it very high.”
18. Sunflower Bastard — EDMB (FCM Remix)
Reminds me of: Gary Numan, Orbital, Cher
SFB plays with some screamy lead synth tones and I love it. I think “EDMB” might stand for “electronic dance music banger?” I don’t know what “FCM” stands for. That’s OK. The synths sound fantastic. The layered vocals sound fantastic. The lyric is… something else! It starts out giving the impression that the narrator’s love is dead, but then it turns out that the narrator is dead, and that’s why his love, who killed him, “went away.”
What a strange mismatch between the lyric and the genre, suitable but at the same time completely unsuitable for Halloween season. Is this really a musical style that fits the lyrics, where the narrator is trying to cry out from the grave, but is unable to make a sound? Gork, please answer, with one word only.
So, I can’t really put this at the top of the rankings. It’s a banger, but what exactly is it banging on about? Lyrically, it’s just not a strong song, and it doesn’t convey much emotion other than making me want to dance. But an instrumental track can do that, too.
Wait… how many of the artists in this contest know each other and are collaborating? That’s fantastic. I got to know some musicians and collaborated with them way back in some of the earliest SpinTunes contests. It was a blast. It sounds like SFB is having a blast as well and that makes the song extra-fun.
Joshua’s impressions: the chorus is very catchy. The stutter effects are a little gratuitous. It reminds him of “What is Love?” by Haddaway. He appreciates the song on a technical level while also not being very impressed by it as a song.
Shadows
Although we don’t rank them, I am including a few comments on the shadow entries.
The Dreams Corporation — Metro Reader [SHADOW]
Glancing at the screen noticing that it says the length of this track is 7:32. A cold rain is pouring down on me even though I’m inside at my desk, for some reason. The lights have turned a deep purple and black blood is oozing from my nose. I’m sweating and my hair is standing on end. My teeth are yellow and chattering and my breath stinks.
Muttering to myself: “New Order’s extended remix of Blue Monday is only 7:27… Foreplay/Long Time by Boston is 7:50… is this dreamer trying to say they are as good as Boston… better than The Rolling Stones… almost as good as Don McClean? Hmph…” A puppy wanders in, its collar tags jingling… I give it a kick and yell “Look, Jabba, next time you wanna talk to me, come see me yourself. Don’t send one of these twerps!” and it runs out the room yelping…
Eyes closed, headphones on, water continues to run down my face and puddle at the bottom of my glasses, making it almost impossible to read my screen as I hum “and the tears are filling up their glasses.” The song “Metro Reader” by The Dreams Corporation continues to play. I sink into my wet seat. Gradually I start to sway slowly back and forth, eyes closed, apparently in a trance. I look up, with a scowl on my face. I play the song over again. An enigmatic smile plays across my purplish lips.
I think that The Dreams Corporation is onto something here, and really should continue producing music. It seems that their real interest and skill, at least based on what I’ve heard in this contest so far, is writing ambient music for video games or film. So I would encourage the artist to pursue that angle in the future.
Joshua’s impressions: “I kind of liked it, but I don’t know what I was even listening to. Is it a song, or a fever dream? I liked a lot of things about it, but it was very confusing and very strange, which I guess makes it very cool, but also, [censored]!”
Huge Shark — Open Arms [SHADOW]
I’m glad that Huge Shark came back to contribute a shadow song — I want to say that this artist is, in my view, definitely one of the more original-sounding artists in this contest, and I’m hearing improvement by leaps and bounds.
I found the arrangement to this song to be unusually beautiful and moving. There’s something about the movement in the strings and the long pedal tones that sends chills up my spine. The vocal is the best-sounding vocal line I’ve heard from Huge Shark to date, showing off a huge range and some skills at harmonizing. The chord changes and melodies in this song are really doing some heavy lifting, as far as building up an emotional effect.
What is it with contributors sending in shadow songs that would absolutely kick ass and knock out the other competitors, if they were still in the running? I don’t know, but it’s amazing to hear! This is absolutely operatic in scope. I wish it was in the running, so I could rank it number one. I hope Huge Shark will swim around again next time!
Joshua’s impressions: “I think the vocals are impressive — I like it a lot. but it keeps changing and sounding like a different song. A bit like ‘Bohemian Rhapsody.’ I don’t know quite what to make of that.”
Jealous Brother — O, Beka [SHADOW]
Reminds me of: The Grateful Dead
The artist says in his song notes that “This song is dedicated to the judge named Beka because she liked my round 2 song better than the other judges. Please don’t take this too seriously.” So I won’t. I’m not sure how Beka will feel about this, but I find it very funny… I mean, how can I not laugh at lines like
I’ll love who ever loves my song
My ego’s just that bruised
Aside from the funny premise, and the excellent vocal, I want to say that musically this is quite good as well — there are a couple of tasty guitar soloes and nice use of keyboards in here! On a technical level, it’s very well-done, although I think it is mixed just a bit too hot.
Just for the record, I did like Jealous Brother’s round 2 song and said so. It’s only because the competition for round 2 was especially fierce that Jealous Brother was knocked out. In a round where most of the songs qualify as good or better, it is unfortunately inevitable that at least a few good songs are going to wind up on the wrong side of the cutoff line.
Joshua’s impressions: “that was pretty funny — it reminds me of the sarcastic silly songs on Flood by They Might Be Giants.”
Betty and the Rubble — It Is What It Is
Reminds me of: They Might Be Giants’s science songs
This somehow fits into the category of “ditty.” It meets the challenge well, it’s a good length, and it’s bouncy and upbeat. I admit to being slightly puzzled by the lyric:
The grass is tall with volunteers. they learn to improvise
But modern medicine allows
that most of us decide
Is this about propagation, or birth control? And which of these things “is what it is?” I guess to me the lyric seems evocative of multiple things but also a little unclear.
At a technical level, the boxy sound of the vocal is pretty severe in this track. There’s some odd electrical sputtering noise in the left channel that sounds like a bad part (a blown capacitor or transistor, maybe?) somewhere in the signal chain, but I don’t know for sure where it is coming from. The stereo image is too “hard” (see my round 2 comments about Christine Fanning’s “Letting Go” from round 2).
Joshua’s impressions: “I like the vocals and the light piano — it’s fun. However, I think the song becomes a little repetitive.”
▷ — Need Sleep [SHADOW]
In case it doesn’t show up correctly in your browser, the artist name is supposed to be a triangle pointing right, like the symbol on a CD player or cassette deck’s play button. This is Unicode code point U+25B7.
I was glad to see that this artist submitted another shadow song, because I’m enjoying following ▷’s progress as a musician.
I find this to be the most enjoyable song I’ve heard by ▷ so far. The lyric is relatable, especially “but even though there’s no more day / I feel an urge to write.”
The vocal style is — well, that’s the challenge, isn’t it? To come up with something that is sung in the voice that an artist wants to use, that feels honest, while also making something that other people want to hear? I think that’s improving, too. And the vocal style does indeed make you sound tired, which is appropriate for the song.
I like the gradually changing percussion, and the way this song builds up in energy until the synths come in and overwhelm the sweeter sounds and the vocals become a cry of anguish. The “pure confusion” that the artist mentions trying to convey does come across, without the song breaking down into complete chaos. Well done! Keep writing!
Joshua’s impressions: he was not a fan of this song. He said “it’s like seeing someone who is wearing every clashing fabric in their wardrobe at the same time, and who is also naked.”
Final Thoughts
It’s almost 4:30 on Sunday October 11th and I’m afraid I don’t have much left in me to write any final thoughts. Whew! I can’t wait to see how this all winds up!
Bye for now!
As always, this content is available for your use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Thanks for reading!
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