ST15R3 Reviews: Edric Haleen

Hello again, Participants!

You've all written and submitted another song -- congrats!  (Everyone still having fun?)           :-)

THE LOW-HANGING FRUIT:

I knew I'd be writing my reviews somewhat differently this round.  With the challenge being what it was, I knew I couldn't start by "sounding off" again about imperfect lyrics -- for I knew that many of the artists or bands being pastiched would have used inexact rhymes in their songs . . . so the SpinTunes competitors this round would essentially be honor-bound to follow their example!  So I'm completely dispensing with "n - 1" of the comments I might normally have made.

The "nth" comment, however, is not going to go gentle into that good night.  And that's entirely because one of our contestants decided to pick a fight with the judges this round, throwing down a gauntlet in the form of a rap-inspired diss track that didn't just impugn the judges as a collective entity, but went on to single out yours-truly in specific.  (I won't name-check him as he did me, but his initials are "PigFarmer Jr.")  So to you, "Junior," I say that I'm going to go ahead and earn your shade by calling you out on perhaps the single most egregious rhyme in the entire competition so far:

        You can't get away with mispronouncing the name of a judge just to force a rhyme with the word "saline"!

"Haleen," properly pronounced, sounds much like the first name of the famous singer, Ms. Dion, with the first "e" in her name (or the first "a" in mine) being pronounced somewhat lazily as a short-u sound rather than a short-e sound and with the accent on the second syllable . . . not the first.  Another example of a rhyming word might be "trampoline," if again you pronounced the "o" lazily as a short-u sound and accented the last syllable like the Americans do (rather than the first as do the British).

(It's a fortunate thing for any and all "farmers" concerned that I already promised at the outset of SpinTunes 15 that flagrant mis-rhyming wouldn't affect my rankings at all...)

All that being said . . . before I go on to the next section of my reviews, I want to stress to everyone involved that I know and understand full-well that PigFarmer Jr. was just having some fun with his lyric.  I wasn't offended in the least . . . but was happy to "respond in kind" to this new Kimmel-Damon-type feud that's been newly-started.  (And T.C.?  If you wanna see how it's really done . . . may I refer you to Jutze's entry from ST10R2?  You'll notice that he knows how to pronounce my name . . .)           ;-)

Okay -- moving on . . .

DEPARTURES:

Usually, on my first pass through the songs, I take notes on rhymes and rhyme schemes (and prosody problems if they crop up), plus general thoughts about the songs.  This time, however, I devoted my first pass to the question, "How great of a departure do I think this song really is from what I've heard from this artist before?"  This challenge did, after all, specify that the artist or band you chose to emulate should represent a style "appreciably different from your own" -- and we also told you that "the judges will be paying particular attention to how great a departure competitors made from the kinds of songs we've already heard from them."  So I listened to all the songs . . . then went back and listened to some songs again while simultaneously doing some "research" on this round's competitors . . . and then ranked the 14 songs from top to bottom.  Here's what the list looked like when I was finished:

Upper Echelon:

Brian Gray (1)

Jocko Homomorphism (2)

PigFarmer Jr. (3.5)

Zoe Gray (3.5)

Governing Dynamics (5)

Brian?  You won this component of the challenge in my book.  Whereas there are some competitors with a very consistent style (I think of Governing Dynamic first-and-foremost here), you (like me) dabble in many different styles.  So to get away from anything similar to something from your past body of work, you really gotta reach for something wildly different.  (Had I been in this round, I would have actually attempted to emulate Temnere, with the hard-rocking guitars that I don't do and the fast, intricate drums that I also don't do.)  "Going Glass" was an amazing choice.  Consider me very impressed.

Jocko Homomorphism?  I know your song was "just a shadow" (i.e. it won't really "officially" count), but I was amazed by the leap you took.  Not just from your other two ST15 songs, but also (especially?) from "A Notational Distinction."  Good on you to get help with the instrumentation that was outside your wheelhouse.  (And good on you, PigFarmer Jr., to lend your talents to JH's track.  If I wasn't playing this new feud of ours to the hilt, I might even publicly speculate that you might be, like, a really nice guy or something!)  One of the things I love about SpinTunes is its potential to push artists beyond their comfort zones and encourage them to stretch and grow.  You exemplified this in spades.

PigFarmer Jr.?  To ditch your guitar and your melodies for a synth-backed rap track (say that five times quickly!) was another great departure.  I simply couldn't decide between you and Zoe which was the greater stretch, so rather than ranking one of you third and the other fourth, I ended up splitting the difference and ranking you both as "3.5th."  Well done.  (But I was serious about that tongue-twister bit.  Say it quickly five times . . . as penance for your imperious attitude towards the judges if for no other reason!)       ;-)

Zoe Gray?  You choosing Hank Williams definitely felt to me like an appreciable stretch . . . particularly as evidenced by the fact that you turned to a synthesizer to do the guitar parts that would otherwise still presently be a bit outside your wheelhouse.  I'll tell you now -- I saw your Patreon post about "How To Sing" the day after this third challenge went live.  I remember thinking, "Well, there ya go!  Zoe gets to write that Queen song now, doesn't she?"  (It reminded me of when I was thinking, "Gosh, I really want to try writing a big orchestral thing instead of all these piano/vocal songs I've been writing" . . . and then ST1R1 told us to "write a song from the point of view of a superhero/supervillain.")  So maybe someday we'll get to hear that song from you, but in the meantime . . . this'll totally do.      :-)

Governing Dynamics?  You totally ditched your "traditional" sound for this song, and your vocals also sounded a lot . . . "sunnier"?  more optimistic?  lighter? . . .  than they usually do.  That earned you the final spot in my upper echelon.  Fun to hear that from you, if even just for this single moment in your timeline.

Middle Echelon:

Third Cat (6)

Faster Jackalope I (7)

Menage a Tune (8)

Mandibles (9.5)
Good Guy Sôjàbé (9.5)

Faster Jackalope II (11)

Third Cat rose to the top of my middle echelon because it was the only one of these six songs where I didn't write, "Style, maybe . . . but instrumentation?"  What I meant by writing that was, "Yes, maybe they chose a style that would receive a different name/label than their typical style . . . but they style they chose still nevertheless used basically the same instruments that they're already comfortable and familiar with using.  So I deemed all of these songs to be strong, solid entries . . . but not enough of a "stretch" (this round was named "Rubber Band," after all!) to propel them up into the upper echelon.  So nothing to hang your heads about here folks . . . I just felt that there were five other entries that reached even further than you did this round.

Lower Echelon:

Vom Vorton (12)

Matchy Matchy (13)

Temnere (14)

Vom Vorton?  For you, I simply wrote, "Departure?"  You did an extremely nice job emulating Fu Manchu . . . but short of turning up the fuzz on your guitars and adding a pronounced cowbell to the mix (Christopher Walken would be proud), I didn't really see how this was much of a departure for you.  (Sorry.)

Matchy Matchy?  Same kinds of thoughts.  You did a great job of emulating Flock of Seagulls.  But compare your entries from Rounds 1 and 3.  Short of removing fuzz from your recording, adding some reverb to your differently-inflected vocals, and replacing the vocal harmonies in the background with synth pads, how does this new song really represent a sizeable stretch?  I didn't think it was enough of a stretch, so I landed you down here -- sorry.

Temnere?  This was the most disappointing song of the round to my brain -- in part because you're so good at writing and recording and producing . . . in part because I was really hoping to see you in the finals . . . in part because I was so impressed with how you nailed the challenge last round . . . and maybe in part because I had decided that I would have tried to make the leap to emulate you if I were writing for this round, so I was looking forward to hearing how far away you'd leap.  But you went from songs with driving guitars and awesome, frenetically energetic drum tracks to . . . a song with driving guitars and an awesome, frenetically energetic drum track?  I know you dropped the keyboard and the harmonies . . . and I know you did a great job emulating Bad Religion . . . but this seemed like less of a departure than any of the other tracks on the albums did.  So I ranked you dead last.  So sorry.  You're great, but I felt you really whiffed on the challenge this time . . .

ARRIVALS:

My next passes through the song were dedicated to the question, "How well do I think this song "matches" the sound of the artist or group that inspired it?"  For that, after all, was the second half of our instructions to all of you (". . . as well as how faithfully they emulate the chosen artist's style").  And may I just say?  HOLY CRAP!!!  You all did not disappoint in this regard!  I had no one in my lower echelon . . . and no one in the "bottom" of my middle echelon, either!  One band (Jocko Homomorphism) was solidly in the middle echelon, and everyone else was pushing ever-upward through the ranks.  So here's what my results looked like at the end of this pass.

Upper Echelon:

Boy And His Kumquat Tree (1)

Old Lovers' Bridge (1)

Silver Streak (1)

Ghia's Got Room For Two (1)

The Grifter (1)

They Know (1)

Eagles (1)

There were so many diverse styles in this round . . . and I couldn't fault any of these songs (fully half of the entries!) for their replication of the style of their inspiration.  So they all tied for the top spot -- I honestly couldn't think of how to put any of them above any of the others.

A couple of individual notes:

Brian?  At 2:07, your musical motif was highly reminiscent of <something-I-couldn't-quite-recall>, and sounded very "Portal-2-esque."  And 3:09 sounded very much like it was pulled from "The Princess Bride."  But these were coincidental . . . and didn't detract from your ranking.  There was a lot of really nice, really subtle stuff going on in your track, and it made me smile at its uncanny resemblance to "all-things-Glass," even though I'm not particularly fond of Glass when it comes right down to it.  I can recognize craft and attention to detail, and you did praiseworthily well at both.

Zoe?  Speaking of attention to detail, I really liked all the pitch-bending you did with your synthesized guitars.  As I've done throughout this iteration of SpinTunes, I imagined the authentic guitars you so clearly intended rather than the approximations you were "forced to employ" as you stretched yourself to create this song.  So kudos!

Temnere?  Matchy Matchy?  Vom Vorton?  Just want to say again -- you all turned in fantastic songs/fantastic efforts.  The quality of your recordings is unquestionable, and I loved listening to your tracks.  I just felt like you three didn't adequately stretch yourselves in a round where stretching yourself was kind of "the alpha and the omega."

"Lower" Upper Echelon:

Leave It At That (2)

Surfin' The Web (2)

These were the other two songs that were unquestionably in the upper echelon for me.  Each had one thing that took them down just smidge beneath the other eight.  For Governing Dynamics, it was how 1:24-1:46 was so much more "one-very-specific-bit-from-Billy-Joel" than Bob Dylan.  And for Menage a Tune, it was the fact that, in this whole round, this seemed to be the only song that I couldn't imagine actually being performed by the artist/band that inspired it.  This struck me as kind of an "anti-Beach-Boys" Beach Boys song.  I don't remember the Beach Boys ever mocking the surfing community or the beach-bum community in their lyrics the way you did with your "too fat to go out swimming" and your "my Speedo's too tight" lines.  These really strong moments of self-deprecation made it clearly a Menage a Tune song . . . not a "Beach Boys song."  But they were still both well done and, like I said, were absolutely and unquestionably in my upper echelon for this pass.

"Lower" Upper Echelon/"Upper" Middle Echelon (honestly couldn't make up my mind):

Right Again (3)

Hideaway (3)

These were both quality recordings as well.  You'll notice that I'm really splitting hairs with the differences between strata this time around . . . I don't know if I could really do a great job of articulating exactly why these two songs were, in my wildly subjective opinion, just a shade below the above songs and just a shade above the songs still to be named.  But after days of deliberation, that's exactly where they landed.  Nice efforts, both.

"Upper" Middle Echelon:

Who Are You? (4)

Ahab (4)

These two songs struck me as being in the vein of Vanilla Ice and Moby, respectively, but not quite "spot on" matches.  I know that, on one hand, I'm ranking these two songs "second and third from the bottom of the pack."  But please remember, in my estimation, both of these songs are still of higher quality than something I'd term "a good, solid entry."  Everyone really slayed this component of the challenge, so congratulations to both of these songs, as well!

Middle Echelon:

We Were So Grand (5)

A good, solid entry.  It definitely was "shades of Jimmy Buffet," and I give you guys mad props for writing something that you had to "outsource" in order to record it.  I'd have pushed this song even higher up through the ranks of my now-quite-graduated echelons had you reached even further to add in some of the other voices (percussion, backing vocals, etc.) that Jimmy Buffet songs usually include.  But as a "bare-bones" version of a Jimmy Buffet-style song, this absolutely fills the bill.  Congrats!

CONNECTIONS:

So -- with so many people doing such a top-notch job on the "emulation" portion of the challenge, the defining factor in my final rankings turned out to be my estimation of how "stretchy" the competitors proved themselves to be this round.  When I added up the points I assigned, the results were as follows:

"Philip Glass" -- 2 points

"Hank Williams" -- 4.5 points

"Bob Dylan" -- 7 points  (I broke this tie with the quality of GD's production.)

"Jimmy Buffet" -- 7 points

"Vanilla Ice" -- 7.5 points

"The Ronnettes" -- 8 points

"Yaz(oo)" -- 9 points

"MaT-as-The Beach Boys" -- 10 points

"Blink 182" -- 12 points

"ABBA" -- 12.5 points

"Fu Manchu" -- 13 points

"Moby" -- 13.5 points

"Flock of Seagulls" -- 14 points

"Bad Religion" -- 15 points

(Bold print represents shadows)

So congratulations to everyone for turning in really high-quality songs this round!  I can't believe that one judge-trashing bastard managed to somehow sneak into my top four in spite of my raging antipathy towards him and his completely unwarranted diss track . . . but math is math, right?  Good luck to everyone who ends up successfully advancing to the final round -- whoever you end up being, you'll certainly have earned your spot.  And remember -- in the next round, while I'll probably be right back to haranguing people about inexact rhymes and such, my reviews won't really matter a single whit!  It'll be all of you who will be tasked with choosing your champion!  So here's looking forward to one more round of songs from SpinTunes 15 . . . and thanks to everyone who's made this iteration of SpinTunes possible!  (Even if some of them demonstrably have zero respect for judges whatsoever . . .)

;-)

(P.S.  T.C?  Let me know whether you hereafter wanna be the Damon character or the Kimmel character in our little drama . . .)

ST15R3 Reviews: Micah Sommersmith

The following is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the position of SpinTunes 15 Judge:

PREAMBLE

This was a very difficult round to evaluate. It seems to me the judges were tasked with ranking each song along three independent axes: 1. Similarity to the target artist; 2. Difference from your usual output; and 3. Quality of the song in its own right.

Some of you produced great songs that sounded different from what you usually do, but couldn’t quite pass for the target artist’s work. Some of you produced great songs that hit the target, but the target was a little too close to what we’ve already heard from you. And some of you chose a brand new sound and hit the target, but ended up with a song that I didn’t enjoy in its own right. So you see how reconciling these three criteria could be difficult.

I ended up producing no fewer than six rankings:

• First, I ranked the songs based on my gut feeling about a combination of all three criteria. There was no way to ensure that the balance of criteria was the same for each song; I just went for my overall impression.
• Then I ranked each song according to the first axis: fidelity to the target artist's style.
• Then according to the second axis: difference from your usual fare.
• Then the third axis: simply how much I enjoyed the song on its own.
• Then I added together your ranking 1-10 from the previous 3 to produce an aggregate ranking.
• Finally, I compared the aggregate to my first, gut ranking. They ended up being very similar, with half the songs in identical positions and the rest only a few spots apart. I didn’t just average the two, but I did make some compromises, resulting in a single final ranking.

For all I know, my fellow judges threw darts at a board to determine their rankings. It would probably be just as fair. Without further ado, here are my reviews of your songs, presented again in ascending order of excellence:

OFFICIAL ENTRIES

10. PigFarmer, Jr. as Vanilla Ice - Who Are You?

Hip-hop was not a bad choice for getting far away from your usual style while remaining in at least somewhat comfortable territory. Your lyrics are very end-rhyme heavy, which is ok because Vanilla Ice’s are too for the most part. You get in some good lines (the diss on Edric and “Sorry… not!” standing out as highlights), but more specific references and similes would always be welcome. 

The biggest problem is the lack of energy throughout, due in part to the monotonous instrumental and the lackluster chorus, but mostly to the tempo - I clocked a live performance of “Ice, Ice, Baby” at 116 bpm (which is not particularly fast by some rappers’ standards) and your track at a sluggish 88 bpm. Getting your flow up to speed takes work, but it pays off.

9. Brian Gray as Philip Glass - Boy and His Kumquat Tree

Kudos for going further afield than anyone else in this round. I was very very torn about how to feel about this song. 

On the one hand, you’ve clearly taken a hard look at Glass’s compositional style and applied it here: The multiple rhythmic layers of repeating phrases, adding up to a slowly shifting soundscape, are on the money. There’s some cool phasing effects between the various parts, especially in the section beginning at 2:07, though I think you could have let it play out further and become more obvious. Glass generally writes for orchestral instruments, and your synth sounds suffer a bit in comparison, but I do think it was smart to go full synth rather than fake orchestra, avoiding a repeat of last round’s trumpet problem. 

On the other hand, this is a SONG writing competition, and the “song” portion of your competition is the same phrase repeated on one note, with the same rhythm every time. While Glass is primarily an instrumental composer, he does offer some models for vocal writing, e.g. “Songs from Liquid Days”, and your vocal feels like a cop-out, both as a Glass imitation and in its own right. 

On yet another hand, your song bio does a lot of heavy lifting here toward making your intentions for the song explicit. I don’t think one needs to read the bio to enjoy the song as a piece of Glass-inspired (mostly) instrumental music, but it seems like a different kind of cop-out to give us soooo much context outside the song. I think the judges should be expected to evaluate this song on its own merits, not as a portion of an epic song cycle/musical/concept album that’s only 3/?ths completed. With that in mind, it’s interesting but I don’t think it stands well on its own.

8. Vom Vorton as Fu Manchu - Silver Streak

Here’s a band I had never heard of, but from what I listened to, you managed to emulate the style quite closely. Your song doesn’t feel quite as high energy as their music - I think part of it is your voice and part of it is a dearth of crashhhhh ccccymbals. The tone on your guitar in the very beginning is grating and pretty unpleasant to my ears, but when the whole band kicks in the guitar tone is fuller and a lot more fun to listen to.  

It’s a smart move to write lyrics within their subject matter, though your own lyrical style still comes through, with multi-syllable rhymes like “steering” / “engineering” and especially “cost to me” / “velocity.” The melody, or lack thereof, seems in keeping with theirs, but that doesn’t make it interesting to listen to. I think, again, that your voice is a little too restrained for what the style demands. In general, you’ve crafted a song that is both fairly true to the target style and fairly different from your usual work, but it doesn’t excite or interest me the way some other songs this round do.

7. Zoe Gray as Hank Williams - Old Lovers' Bridge

Not many artists in this round deliberately set out to imitate the vocal inflections of their targets to the extent you did, which merits recognition. At first listen it felt like a parody, but when I actually listened to some Hank Williams and came back to yours, it felt more natural. You clearly took seriously the task of adopting his vocal style.

Lyrically, adopting the story of Odysseus into the language of country music was a clever idea which I think paid off. Of course the ground was set for you by “O Brother Where Art Thou” but you make the concept your own. One could argue about whether Hank Williams would have written these lyrics, but that’s a pretty subjective argument to get into. For me, the lyrics work and feel natural.

The music, on the other hand, displays some elements that I simply can’t find in Hank’s catalog after listening to and reading chords for kind of a lot of his songs, among them:

• Minor chords in a major-key song (vi in the bridge)

• For that matter, a bridge, i.e. a contrasting section that only appears once - all of Hank’s songs I listened to were either ABABAB or AAAA…

• The back-and-forth IV-V-IV-V harmonic motion of “and i walk through the valleys  / and i walk over the ridge” - in fact, I couldn’t find motion from V to IV in a single Hank Williams song.

All this is to say that Hank had a very consistent musical vocabulary that you deviate from in some notable ways. That’s not to say it’s a bad song - I think it’s a pretty good song. But if an unattributed lead sheet showed up in some archive, I don’t think any musicologist would mistake it for a long-lost Hank Williams song. 

As for the instrumentation, it’s clear you studied and attempted to emulate what you heard on his recordings, but the MIDI sounds don’t do justice to what I’m sure you’re hearing in your head. I don’t want to penalize you for that, but at this stage in the tournament I kinda feel like I have to.

6. Faster Jackelope as the Ronettes - Ghia's Got Room For Two

The talent, ingenuity, and technical know-how contained in this band is on display as clearly as ever here. Lots to love here. Similar to Zoe’s Hank Williams pastiche, the Ronettes’ influence is clear here, but it sounds more like a modern song consciously borrowing some elements of their style, and less like a song completely within their style. 

Frisbee’s vocal melody is great but sounds very, well, Frisbee-like (compare “Is it your French perfume?” to Round 1’s “their purpose seems so ambiguous”). Bella’s (excellent!) vocal feels more in the style, although the final line “But there’s not enough time to do everything” feels like the phrase is going to continue, but instead everything drops out before returning to the A section. It’s a neat effect, but it doesn’t feel like something the Ronettes would have done. 

The percussion is consistently excellent and does feel right for the style, but the other instruments don’t always add up to produce the true wall-of-sound effect, and the guitar solo, while subdued and tasteful, feels especially out of place - I’d expect a string melody instead or something similar. 

It’s a very very cool moment, probably the highlight of an already very good song, when the male and female lead vocals come together in countermelody, especially when they lock together on lines like “me and you.” But it doesn’t sound like the Ronettes, which, from all that I’ve listened to, very much featured Ronnie as the lead, with the other singers secondary. 

Speaking of the vocal layering, when Bella has multiple lines overlapping at the end, they start to crowd each other out and things feel a little confused. It might be solvable with some different mixing or EQ choices, or you might want to simplify things and cut out one of the parts. 

Finally, the song is longer than it reeeeally needs to be, especially given where you’re taking your cues from. “Be My Baby” is 2:41; “Baby, I Love You” is 2:50, etc. Cut out one or two of the choruses at the end, and the 60s radio DJs will like it a lot more.

5. Governing Dynamics as Bob Dylan - Leave It At That

Lyrically and musically you hit the target here. Using the title as a brief refrain is a classic Dylan touch, a la “Tangled Up in Blue”, “A Simple Twist of Fate”, etc, etc, as are the elliptical, wistful lyrics. I like this stanza especially: “I'm the trickster of this village / I'm the truth's bell ringer / The harder you try to hold on / The slicker I slip through your fingers.” Oh, and the AABCCB rhyme scheme of the B section, ending with the refrain, is executed very well.

The guitar is played well and the harmonica does its job. I don’t love the mix: the harmonica and especially the organ are too loud, the vocal is often too soft, and the drums are waaaay too soft, though from what I can hear of them, they don’t really add anything of interest to the arrangement, so I would suggest cutting the drums out entirely.

I’ll give you credit for deviating from your regular style, at least as displayed so far this tournament. You play the acoustic guitar in a style distinct from your electric guitar playing, and your voice, while not going full Dylan (probably a good thing), is more suited to the folk style than what I’ve heard from you before (and - no offense - just nicer to listen to).

4. Temnere as Bad Religion - The Grifter

I was not familiar with Bad Religion at all, so I appreciated the AVClub link. Your song is both true to your target style and a good one in its own right - it packs quite a punch in its brief runtime, has a satisfyingly anthemic chorus, and its lyrics are notable for their political cynicism and their verbosity - “thesaurus punk,” indeed.

I do feel that you had a chance here to go a lot further from your home style than you did. No guitar harmony or keyboards, sure, but we’ve got pounding drums, killer riffs, and soaring vocals, as expected from Temnere. You admit you’ve wanted to do a song in their style for a while, which tells me you know it’s not too far out of your wheelhouse.

3. Good Guy Sojabe as Moby - Ahab

Prior to this round, I wasn’t aware that Moby actually sang on any of his tracks - I only knew the loop-heavy Lomax-sampling tunes from “Play” that have infiltrated everyone’s brains. Once I listened to his album “18” I started to recognize what you’re going for, and I hear the subdued, low-register vocals and short, repetitive phrases of songs like “We Are All Made of Stars” and “Sleep Alone” echoed in your song. The refrain “And I don’t want to feel sober / And I don’t want to feel love” is clearly a nod to those Lomax samples and a very nice touch. I think your vocal melody is actually stronger than any I’ve heard of his, and the “under my skin” section is especially memorable - I just wish it were further forward in the mix. The vocal gets buried just when it should be brought out.

Lyrically, this gloomy, oblique track is either a break-up song or a loose retelling of “Moby-Dick” or both, and I don’t mind the ambiguity of the lyrics because they combine perfectly with the music to create a distinctive atmosphere. Stylistically, I think it actually lands somewhere between Moby and Good Guy Sojabe, as you are generous with your guitar parts and use a more varied harmonic progression and fewer loops than Mr. Melville Hall tends to.

If I may pick a nit for a moment - the multi-tracked vocals sound great, but you need to coordinate the ends of syllables, not just the beginnings. In the line “Ignore the news” I hear no less than 3 distinct “s”’s in the word “news.” Maybe it doesn’t bother other folks, but it drives this church choir director crazy.

2. Third Cat as Yaz - Hideaway

I wasn’t familiar with Yaz (or Yazoo, or whatever) but I really enjoyed listening to “Upstairs at Eric’s”. Your song seems to come closest to “Only You” - which I think I have actually heard before? Or maybe it’s just so good that it seems instantly familiar. In any case, you take a number of cues directly from that song, including the opening synth arpeggio. Ideally an entry this round should identify the underlying musical assumptions behind the target artist’s body of work, and use them to create a new song, rather than lift surface elements from one specific song. I found the rest of the Yaz album, with a couple exceptions, to be more consistently upbeat and dance-y than both “Only You” and “Hideaway”, and I suppose I should be upset that you’ve given us a pastiche of one specific song, rather than the artist’s whole body of work… but… this song is really good? It’s sweet and sincere and also catchy and just very pleasant.

Small things to criticize: the synth countermelody under e.g. the opening lines is overly busy and feels like it clutters things up. It’s a good idea to have the more sustained synth to contrast with the staccato arpeggios but I don’t think this particular idea is the right one. (The corresponding synth line in “Only You” is simpler and cleaner.)

And one lyrical complaint: “in love let’s stay” and “love we play”. Object-subject-verb word order almost never sounds good in modern pop music. I understand that it allows for the rhyme across sections with “hideaway”, and that’s great and all, but… no. Leave it to the sonneteers. 

1. Mandibles as ABBA - Right Again

It’s a tall order to imitate the style of one of the greatest songwriting teams in pop history, but you pull it off. Production-wise we could quibble, but compositionally, this slips perfectly into ABBA’s musical language. The chorus lodged itself into my head on first listen and has stayed there for most of the week. It’s based on a simple hook, both lyrical (“right again”) and melodic (three descending notes), which gets varied in both respects (lyrically: “right again” / “alright again” / “right, my friend”; melodically: mi-re-do / fa-re-do).

There are many other brilliant musical moments: The swing from minor to major in the verse; the imitative melodic repetition of “If you saw the good in me, / How wrong could I ever be?”; the borrowed minor chord on “right, my friend”. And lyrical ones: the stealth rhyme in the chorus of “get” and “let”; lines like “And I demurred, the words all blurred into a mess / And I confess” - I mean COME ON! And it all adds up to a great complex picture of a relationship, with the narrator both contrite and defiant, as summed up perfectly in the title and elaborated through the whole song. Damn, this is a good track.

I suppose I should criticize something. The song has two brief instrumental sections: an intro before the first verse, and an interlude between the first chorus and second verse. In my opinion, the interlude is much stronger and fits better with the sound of the song as a whole than the intro does, and I’d recommend replacing the intro with an expanded version of it. If you do keep the intro as it is, the synth part has some weird dynamic issues where some notes are dramatically louder than the preceding and following notes.

Additionally, you have some great synth countermelodies throughout, but they’re curiously absent in the chorus, e.g. after “What does it get you when you’re right again?” You could fill out the sound more with some instrumental responses in places like this.

Did I mention that, um, this song is amazing?

SHADOWS (UNRANKED)

Jocko Homomorphism as Jimmy Buffett - We Were So Grand

Sounds like quite the party! Your voice is in particularly fine form this round, and I can tell the lyric draws on fond memories. The fun-loving party theme is there, but does it really SOUND like Jimmy Buffett? No, but maybe it could with some more involved instrumentation. And lines like “Solidarity, / We march to the sea, / And our hymn never sounded so grand” are a little, well, grand for the Parrotheads. Since it’s a shadow entry, I’m content to forget about Mr. Cheeseburger in Paradise entirely and enjoy the song for what it is.

Menage A Tune as the Beach Boys - Surfin' The Web

It’s fun, it’s funny. The Beach Boys’ influence is obvious, although the lyrics make it more of a parody than an earnest homage. The layered vocals are very well done, although the lead vocal is dramatically louder than the other tracks - this is most conspicuous during the “summer never ends” sections, where the various vocal lines are basically equal in compositional importance but not in volume. 

The organ is a little loud, the drums a little quiet, and I’d like some guitar or something else to spruce up the instrumentation.

Faster Jackelope as ??? - They Know -

Sorry, Song Fight is down the hall.

Jerkatorium as Matchy Matchy as [presumably] A Flock of Seagulls - Eagles 

Solid lyrics, nice production, Chumpy’s voice in fine form, etc, etc. When are you guys going to surprise me?

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A: GUT RANKING
PigFarmer, Jr. - Who Are You? 10
Brian Gray - Boy and His Kumquat Tree 9
Zoe Gray - Old Lovers' Bridge 8
Vom Vorton - Silver Streak 7
Governing Dynamics - Leave It At That 6
Faster Jackelope - Ghia's Got Room For Two 5
Temnere - The Grifter 4
Good Guy Sojabe - Ahab 3
Third Cat - Hideaway 2
Mandibles - Right Again 1

APPENDIX B: FIDELITY RANKING
PigFarmer, Jr. - Who Are You? 10
Faster Jackelope - Ghia's Got Room For Two 9
Zoe Gray - Old Lovers' Bridge 8
Good Guy Sojabe - Ahab 7
Brian Gray - Boy and His Kumquat Tree 6
Vom Vorton - Silver Streak 5
Governing Dynamics - Leave It At That 4
Temnere - The Grifter 3
Third Cat - Hideaway 2
Mandibles - Right Again 1

APPENDIX C: DIFFERENCE RANKING
Temnere - The Grifter 10
Faster Jackelope - Ghia's Got Room For Two 9
Good Guy Sojabe - Ahab 8
Vom Vorton - Silver Streak 7
Third Cat - Hideaway 6
Brian Gray - Boy and His Kumquat Tree 5
Zoe Gray - Old Lovers' Bridge 4
Mandibles - Right Again 3
Governing Dynamics - Leave It At That 2
PigFarmer, Jr. - Who Are You? 1

APPENDIX D: QUALITY RANKING
PigFarmer, Jr. - Who Are You? 10
Brian Gray - Boy and His Kumquat Tree 9
Vom Vorton - Silver Streak 8
Zoe Gray - Old Lovers' Bridge 7
Governing Dynamics - Leave It At That 6
Temnere - The Grifter 5
Good Guy Sojabe - Ahab 4
Third Cat - Hideaway 3
Faster Jackelope - Ghia's Got Room For Two 2
Mandibles - Right Again 1

APPENDIX E: AGGREGATE RANKING
(Numbers = Sum of previous 3 / New rank out of 10)
PigFarmer, Jr. - Who Are You? 21 / 10
Brian Gray - Boy and His Kumquat Tree 20 / 9
Vom Vorton - Silver Streak 20 / 8
Faster Jackelope - Ghia's Got Room For Two 20 / 7
Zoe Gray - Old Lovers' Bridge 19 / 6
Good Guy Sojabe - Ahab 19 / 5
Temnere - The Grifter 18 / 4
Governing Dynamics - Leave It At That 12 / 3
Third Cat - Hideaway 11 / 2
Mandibles - Right Again 5 / 1

APPENDIX F: FINAL RANKING
(Subjective combination of A and E)
PigFarmer, Jr. - Who Are You? 10
Brian Gray - Boy and His Kumquat Tree 9
Vom Vorton - Silver Streak 8
Zoe Gray - Old Lovers' Bridge 7
Faster Jackelope - Ghia's Got Room For Two 6
Governing Dynamics - Leave It At That 5
Temnere - The Grifter 4
Good Guy Sojabe - Ahab 3
Third Cat - Hideaway 2
Mandibles - Right Again 1

ST15R3 Reviews: Travis Langworthy

Even though I don’t run this thing anymore, I do keep an eye/ear on it.  Since I didn’t judge the past rounds here’s what I thought of them.

Round 1:  Hated the challenge, and the songs were meh overall.  In my opinion Red Watcher’s shadow won the round.

Round 2:  Challenge was meh, but the songs were MUCH better.  Faster Jackalope won the round for me, and I became I fan.  The shadow from Dr. Lindyke was probably my 2nd favorite entry.  Solid album overall.

How I Plan To Judge:
It’ll be pretty much like I have in the past, but for the new competitors I’ll go over it again.  Most importantly was your song enjoyable to me.  I don’t care how you met the challenge or what amazing thing you did in the song…if I got bored you will not get ranked highly.  I will take into consideration the challenge if 2 or 3 songs are really close in my rankings, but if you didn’t get DQ’ed...how you met the challenge probably won’t make or break you in my rankings.  Normally I’m a fan of more upbeat funny songs, and I focus on the lyrics a lot because I’m not a musician myself.  As this is my busiest time of the year (I’m in retail) so I won’t be reviewing any shadows this time.

------

Brian Gray - Boy And His Kumquat Tree

I’ve not really bought into your alien trilogy thus far, but at least with the previous entries I could have picked out something positive.  Like your vocal performance, music….something.  This one left me bored & disappointed from start to finish.  The nicest thing I can say is the other competitors will surely be grateful to you for setting the bar so low with the first song.

Zoe Gray - Old Lovers’ Bridge

I enjoyed this.  I don’t listen to a ton of Hank Williams, but I get my share when I visit my grandpa.  The lyrics & music held my attention, and while I could never say you have a bad voice, I will say I didn’t think it fit this style all that well.  But you got the job done without it being too much of a distraction.  I read your short bio, and I’m afraid your references were lost on me, but luckily I didn’t need to get them to enjoy the song.  Well done.

Vom Vorton - Silver Streak

Not sure a 2004 Toyota Corolla was the best choice in cars for this song.  Other than picking a car that’s a little more badass I felt this was well done.  Not a huge fan of 1 line chorus, but it makes since in this case.  I’m actually surprised at how much I liked this since I’m not a big fan of Fu Manchu.  I’ve enjoyed your work thus far in SpinTunes...keep it up.

Faster Jackelope - Ghia’s Got Room For Two

I questioned your choice when I saw that you picked The Ronettes, but after listening I was impressed.  I’m not a car guy, so I didn’t know what a Karmann Ghia was at first, I was relieved to find out it’s a car.  I felt the vocals were maybe a little hot in the chorus, and there was a transition I didn’t really like at 2:11. Other than that, I can’t complain much.  It was fun to sing, and I look forward to hearing anything else you write in the future.  Well done to everyone who contributed.

PigFarmer, Jr. - Who Are You?

I could listen to this at every SpinTunes LP...not even kidding.  In the past I’ve pushed for rap to be more a part of SpinTunes.  I voted to get a rap challenge multiple times, and eventually schemed enough to get it done.  Seeing you take on rap when others have publicly wimped out in the past means you get lots of props from me.  You really embrace the spirit of SpinTunes when you compete, and this is a good example.  As much as I liked this I have to admit your flow didn’t feel all that natural.

Temnere - The Grifter

I wasn’t familiar with Bed Religion so I had to go listen to some of their music.  I think you hit the nail on the head with the style, and I was into the song.  Then it just ended way too soon.  At first I worried you would be DQ’ed because there used to be a rule about songs being at least 2 minutes long.  After checking with Dave to find out that rule got thrown out I was relieved.  I’m not going to knock you for the song being under some preconceived time limit that I wish you would have hit.  I will knock you a little for the song feeling like it had more in it than what you gave.

Sometimes I need a dictionary to follow along with your lyrics, but you had some that really stuck with me as well.

“the grifter, a righteous pantomime 

one day you're the star 

but then you find its gone too far 

a whisper, of conscience on your mind 

the itch of an old scar”

That might be my favorite bit of writing from SpinTunes 15 so far.  This will be in my top 4 for sure.  Well done.

Good Guy Sojabe - Ahab

Vocals were a little too muddled with the lines “Out of my mind, Out of my head”, but other than that I enjoyed the performance.  Lyrically it wasn’t really for me & overall the song was too much of a downer for me.  Just not my bag.  Not that it’s a bad song at all, just my personal preference in style worked against you here.

Mandibles - Right Again

For me...the catchiest song of the round.  I’ll be singing...

“Right again,  

What does it get you when you’re right again?”

...for a few days.  The lyrics were clever, well sang, and no issues with the production.  I wish I had a negative or 2 to throw in…  I am a little annoyed that you’ve made it harder for me to pick my top 4...so yeah...that’s all I got.

Third Cat - Hideaway

Lyrically I was confused, and musically I was bored.  There were a couple Yoda moments with the lyrics, and that always annoys me.  When I look at your round 2 song it’s clear you can provide good vocals with an interesting sound.  But again with that round I didn’t really connect with your lyrics.  I like clear stories that leave little room for interpretation usually...and that’s not what this was.

Governing Dynamics - Leave It At That

I was really looking forward to this song.  Mostly because I wanted to see you get outside your comfort zone more.  And if this is the result, you should do it more often.  I do have a number of your songs on my PC that I listen to (so it’s not like I dislike your regular style), but you have played it safe a lot more than I’d have liked in the past.  This shows me, and hopefully you, that you can do other things, and do them well.  This was my favorite song from you this contest.  Lyrically at times I don’t connect with this, but I’m sure you saw that coming in my review already.

RANKINGS:

1. Mandibles
2. Faster Jackelope
3. PigFarmer, Jr.
4. Temnere
5. Zoe Gray
6. Vom Vorton
7. Governing Dynamics
8. Good Guy Sojabe
9. Third Cat
10. Brian Gray

ST15R3 Reviews - Dave Leigh

This round you'll note we've got a special Guest Judge... Travis Langworthy, who started SpinTunes and kept it running for years. Glad to have him here to opine this round, and you can read his reviews about five minutes after this post goes up.

I'm going to do this a little differently this time (mostly because I don't want to keep re-arranging reviews, but partly because I want to stress that my rankings don't matter except for tie-breakers)... I'm posting these in album order, and you'll see my rankings in the grid when the winner is posted.

OK, in this round I'm looking for you to mimic another band's style as closely as possible. IDEALLY, I should close my eyes and hear that target band, or at least a pretty good cover band. Most people have the voices they have, so Terry Fader mimicry isn't a must; but a nice taste of what we're looking for would be nice. Also, we asked that you get as far as possible from your signature style as possible. On top of that, we specifically asked for something that's not a parody. So approaching humor is tricky... when used, it should be used as the artist would have used it. Finally, I really need to like the song, so there's a lot of subjectivity here.

Some of you got it. Some of you didn't stray very far from your familiar paddock. And some of you just made some weird choices. Here are my reactions:

OFFICIAL ENTRIES

(unranked album order)

Brian Gray - Boy and His Kumquat Tree

in the style of Philip Glass

This is the poster boy of weird choices. I fully expected another Gleeble Glorp song, so no dings there. But I really have to ding you on your explanation of this song. The reason I'm doing that is because you gave us this exposition-heavy song bio, but then there's nothing of that, really, in the song. You've got a lot of Philip Glass in there, yup. But I don't hear any of that story, either lyrically or musically. This makes it doubly difficult, because the "lyrics", such as they are, aren't even connected to the music. It could have been anything at all. I think I'd have almost preferred it in the fictional space language I joked about in the Facebook group.

Because you've done so many different styles, I know that asking you to give us something different makes this a difficult challenge. But I think also that you had a lot of places to go that might have made more sense and gotten a more reliable response. As it is, it feels like "out of the box and right off the reservation."

I strongly suspect that this is going to be a "Love It or Hate It" song among the judges. I'd bet a week's pay Edric's gonna love this (maybe a couple of others), but I'm falling the other way, sorry.

Zoe Gray - Old Lovers' Bridge
in the style of Hank Williams

Zoe, from a songwriting perspective, I think you gave us what we asked for. It's not your usual style and it does pretty much use Hank Williams' style. And honestly, Country was a good choice for you. But your choice of artist makes it an uphill climb. Vocally, you're not going to not sound like Zoe Gray, and you're not going to sound like Hank Williams. So you could have done a couple of things: bring in a singer, or choose another Country artist you could more reasonably replicate (and there's no shortage of those!) But we have to rate these on what we have, and for you that's going to be style and lyrics. For everything else (instrumentation, vocals) we have to imagine someone else playing and singing, and frankly, for me that's disappointing, because doing a pastiche doesn't mean abandoning your strengths... and your vocals are one of your strengths. For this challenge, making me imagine someone else doesn't help. Balancing everything out, I think this one's going to land somewhere in the middle of my rankings.

Vom Vorton - Silver Streak

in the style of Fu Manchu

You've almost got Fu Manchu's style down, I think. You thought about the subject matter, so that's good, too. If anything, your track is cleaner than the stuff of theirs I've heard. To nail it, you'd need to fill the verses with frickin' cymbals so you have to plough through them with frantic vocals.

Faster Jackalope - Ghia's Got Room For Two
in the style of the Ronettes

I love this song. That's the good part of the review. Here's the critical part: If you're going to base this on the Ronettes, lead with the female vocal. At first listen, I thought, "another one where I'm going to have to imagine cross-gender vocals". But NO! Bella's right there! Other than that, you pretty much nail the style. That said, this is a fairly ubiquitous style of the period, and you could point to other bands that it sounds more like. But for a kid born when JFK was alive (me) this is a pleasant stroll down Memory Lane.

PigFarmer Jr. - Who Are You?

in the style of Vanilla Ice

Too. Damned. Slow. If you're going to do Vanilla Ice, pump up the energy. Imagine you're going to use this thing in an aerobics class. Other than that, good rap.

Oh, and fair warning... you should have rhymed "Haleen" with "baleen", "careen", or even "caffeine".  You're so gonna get it! ;)

Temnere - The Grifter

in the style of Bad Religion

Honestly, this sounds like Tenmere. If I'd chosen a genre for you to stretch yourself, it would have been acoustic, and I'm pretty sure you'd have killed it.

Good Guy Sôjàbé - Ahab

in the style of Moby

Trying to nail down Moby's style is like trying to nail down Jello. But I think you've mostly got it, if only by virtue of there being so much variety to choose from. If it were to be more typically Moby, I think maybe more background ambience in the way of synth strings would do it. But I wouldn't do it on this song, because I like what you've done here better than I like Moby. 

Mandibles - Right Again

in the style of ABBA

Nice! Personally, to nail ABBA's production I think you should have employed close harmony earlier in the verses and bolstered it with (almost-subliminally-soft-in-the-mix) male backing vocals in the chorus. And fill out that the chorus with instrumentation... it should sound like somebody just told the band, "screw it... we're all playing!" But the song itself...? Pretty damned good.

Third Cat - Hideaway

in the style of Yaz

I'll be honest... I'm not hearing a whole lot of Yaz in this with the exception of "Only You". Partly that's attributable to vocals; but partly, I think, it's down to focusing on the style of "a song" rather than "a band". 

Governing Dynamics - Leave It At That

in the style of Bob Dylan

Very nice! I'm glad you didn't parody Dylan's voice. His musical style is so distinctive you don't have to, so a hint is enough. But for that you have to nail the musical style, and you did a great job. The acoustic is nothing like your usual stuff, though I kind of think had Dylan performed this song there'd be less picking and more strumming. That says quite a lot about not only your skills, but Dylan's.  

SHADOWS

(unranked)

Jocko Homomorphism - We Were So Grand

in the style of Jimmy Buffet

It's a little stiff and sparse for Jimmy Buffett, and his lyrics are pretty much about simple pleasures. But given a few lyrical edits, the right arrangement and a looser (laid back) delivery, this could probably pass.

Menage A Tune - Surfin' The Web

in the style of The Beach Boys

More parody than pastiche. The Beach Boys would be lyrically un-ironic.

Faster Jackalope - They Know

in the style of [I have no idea]

You picked the right song for your official entry.

Matchy Matchy - Eagles

in the style of A Flock of Seagulls

If this were an official entry I'd moan a bit about the pun in the chorus, but instrumentally and stylistically, I think you've got it.

SpinTunes #15 Round 3 Songs

Here are the Round 3 entries. They'll be voted on and results will be announced 8pm December 8th, after which four talented bands will move on to the final round!

A reminder of the challenge:

Rubber Band: To reach the final round, we're asking our competitors to stretch themselves. Write a pastiche (a song in the style) of a band or artist whose style is appreciably different from your own. (When ranking the songs, the judges will be paying particular attention to how great a departure competitors made from the kinds of songs we've already heard from them, as well as how faithfully they emulate the chosen artist's style.) 

And to be perfectly clear, we are requiring a pastiche that is an original song in the style of the artist, not a parody or derivative work. Think Weird Al writing "Dare To Be Stupid" in the style of Devo . . . not Weird Al writing "Party in the C.I.A." based on the song "Party in the U.S.A." by Miley Cyrus.

ST15R3 Deadline News and Listening Party

The Round 3 deadline has come and gone, and the listening party will be tonight. Check this space for the location.

For now you should know:

• 9 bands made the deadline
• 1 band failed to meet the deadline. (Ominous Ride)
• As of this writing, there are 3 shadows, all of which are eligible for Wildcard Reinstatement
• 1 Shadow will be reinstated, and judged and ranked along with the 9 who made the deadline. In accordance with the rules, this will be at the discretion of the judges.
• Only 4 bands will move on to the final round!

As usual, the listening party will be hosted by Tommy G. on YouTube. [Here's the link]:

SpinTunes #15 Round 3 Challenge

It's been a while since we've had a purely technical challenge. The drought ends here:

Rubber Band: To reach the final round, we're asking our competitors to stretch themselves. Write a pastiche (a song in the style) of a band or artist whose style is appreciably different from your own. (When ranking the songs, the judges will be paying particular attention to how great a departure competitors made from the kinds of songs we've already heard from them, as well as how faithfully they emulate the chosen artist's style.) 

And to be perfectly clear, we are requiring a pastiche that is an original song in the style of the artist, not a parody or derivative work. Think Weird Al writing "Dare To Be Stupid" in the style of Devo . . . not Weird Al writing "Party in the C.I.A." based on the song "Party in the U.S.A." by Miley Cyrus.

When submitting the email with your entry, identify the band or artist that you are emulating. 

Only four competitors will move on to the final round. Good luck!

Submitting Entries:

• Your entry must be received by November 18, 2018 @ 11:59 PM EDT. Otherwise it'll be posted as a shadow. Received means that it has to appear in my e-mail inbox (spintunescontest@gmail.com) by the given deadline. I will be going by the time stamp on the e-mail. One minute late is too late.
• You are allowed and encouraged to submit a draft of your song early just in case something horrible happens and you miss the deadline. Then you can add polish to your song and send in a better version closer to the deadline. The last version received prior to the deadline is your official entry. 
• Lyrics are mandatory. No instrumentals. Having no lyrics will get you disqualified.
• Name your file the song's title, but without spaces & punctuation.
• Title of the e-mail should be the title of the Challenge & your band's name. (e.g. "Rubber Band - Dr Lindyke") (The title of the song is whatever you want it to be)
• Include information on anyone that should be credited for collaboration. Remember, collaborations are OK, even among competitors. You must write your song, but if you want to use another vocalist or musicians, do so. 
• If you have a BandCamp account, you can just send me a link to your song on BandCamp if you include all the info I mentioned above. Make sure you have it set as a free download. THIS IS THE BEST FILE SHARING OPTION!
• Other file sharing options if you need them: Sound Cloud (set to download a format BandCamp is ok with) & Drop Box. Please send an e-mail as I already stated, but with the download link if you need one of these services. 
• If you're using something other than Bandcamp, It's best if you send your file in a format that Bandcamp accepts (.aiff, .wav or .flac, at least 16-bit/44.1kHz) You can find the specific requirements for Bandcamp files HERE.
• If you send me an MP3, I will attempt to convert it for you. But be warned... I will be strapped for time, and I will post whatever Audacity spits out of the conversion. So if you picked the wrong sample rate, your dulcet tones may wind up sounding like termites or chipmunks or random static. And that is what will be judged. So please... save and submit your files in the right format. 

Side Notes:

• You are allowed to send in a little background about your song. We encourage and appreciate "song bios". You don't have to do it, but if you want to write a couple sentences about your song I'll post it on the BandCamp page for people to see. I'll even link to longer blog posts if you want to explain your song on your blog. Some judges will read this extra info, but they aren't required to.
• You can send in an entry to SpinTunes 15 without competing. Just tell me it's a "Shadow Song". It will be played at the listening party, but won't be ranked and you might not receive feedback from the judges. Check the FAQ if you don't know what that means. You can even complete past challenges from previous contests. It's a nice way of playing along if you can't commit to the schedule or you just want to get your feet wet.
• The only other way to get your music played at the LP is to cover "Today's The Day" by Inverse T. Clown.

Feel free to leave any questions in the comments.