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General => Archive => General Music Archives => Topic started by: 425 on May 07, 2015, 01:24:11 PM
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Welcome to my roulette!
I'm not sure how common this is, but I'm actually a roulette organizer who has never been a roulette participant. That's because, as you'll see when you look at my banned artists list, I simply don't have a big music library. I have followed a lot of roulettes on this forum, though, partly for fun and partly out of keeping track of things in waiting for my turn to come up. So I think I know how to run one, but if any of you veterans take a look at my rules or at something I'm doing as we proceed and see that I'm doing something that you think won't work, please don't hesitate to let me know.
I’m rather excited to see what kind of new music y’all will have to send me. I'm sure that all you people with huge music libraries have a lot of great stuff that I've never heard! That said, I feel I should say I’m interested in expanding my musical taste to genres outside of the prog rock/metal sphere, so I've included a couple of rules that are specifically designed to give a tangible benefit to people who send me songs that aren’t prog or metal. And also if you introduce me to a new genre or something I'll really like you, so there's that. I’ll certainly be happy to take any good prog or metal submissions you may, but you'll gain a slight advantage if you send material outside those genres from time to time.
I suppose I should try my best to describe my musical tastes. I’m a fan of melody above anything else. "Experimental" music is likely to be a miss if it is amelodic in nature. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence is my least favorite Dream Theater album, if that tells you anything. I also tend to prefer bands that have a distinct sound (for example, I never really got into any of those really-DT sounding prog-power bands like Circus Maximus), though that’s certainly not a hard and fast rule—you’re welcome to try me and see, and it might work out for you. Beyond those generalizations, I like a wide diversity of music, as you’ll see in my banned artists list.
I know everyone likes to ask the growls question… I guess I’d say I’m not opposed to them if they work with the music, but there's also a chance I'll find them ill fitting and find them to detract from the music. I like Opeth, so there’s that, I guess, but… it’s also certainly possible that growls could turn me off of a song, so be wary before you send anything with growls.
That’s pretty much all I can give you (besides my banned artists list) on my musical taste. I don’t know how much it helps, but I imagine I will write long and rather detailed write-ups when I grade the songs for each round, so hopefully that will give people a chance to get a better understanding of what specific things I like or don’t like.
Round Themes:
ROUND 1: Open
ROUND 2: Open
ROUND 3: Open
ROUND 4: Sad
ROUND 5: Happy/Uplifting
ROUND 6: Epic
ROUND 7: Tiny Epic (less than 6 minutes)
ROUND 8: Open
ROUND 9: Make me an EP (30 minute max, 15 minute max per band)
Participants:
- Scorpion
- Parama
- Evermind
- Shadow Ninja 2.0
- lonestar
- TAC
- kingshmegland
- OpenYourEyes311
- Big Hath
- Sacul
I don't have a set number of participants that I'm looking for. I guess that 8 is probably a good number, but if a 9th person wants to join, I wouldn't lock them out. I will probably want to cap it at around 10, so let's say 8-10 participants is what I'm looking for.
Rules:
- Each round is scored of ten.
- No elimination.
- The lowest score of each participant will be dropped at the end. This is to encourage risk-taking; so if you take a big risk and get a 2/10, it won't kill your chances.
- I’ll trust people to not send me things that are too long without imposing a length limit, because I don’t want to draw an arbitrary line in the sand and say that a song of 9:58 is okay but 10:03 is not. That said, however, I will only spend so much time with the songs you give me, and will grade them based on how well I like them after that time, and anything too long usually takes a little while with me. So unless you are confident that I’ll love your 27-minute epic right off the bat, going shorter would typically be in your best interest. If things do get crazy, with multiple people sending me 20+ minute songs in a round or something (except the epic round, obviously), I might change this and impose a hard limit.
- Bonus half point for something I judge to be outside prog and hard rock/metal (I’m not going to split hairs between what’s rock and what’s metal; if it’s heavy guitar-centric music, you won't get this half point). If it’s a song that falls out of these styles on an album that is one of these styles, though, I won’t award the half point (for instance, you would not get the half point if you sent me Wait for Sleep).
- The final round will incorporate a wager. I'll finalize the details once we get there, but the essence will be that, in addition to your regular score, you'll be able to wager up to a certain amount on what your score for your EP will be. If you're within one point, you get the points you wagered, if not, you lose those points. If you win the wager and your EP scores a 9 or more, you'll get the points you wagered plus half again what you wagered. If you get a 9 or more and don't win the wager, you won't lose any points.
I hope people enjoy participating in this! Please send me good things!
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On my banned artists list, some of these artists are ones that I’m not very into at this time, and therefore you won’t be likely to score highly giving me something similar to them. Like if you send me something that sounds like Megadeth, that’s probably not going to score very well. To help y’all out, I’ve bolded the artists on this list who most accurately represent my current tastes. The italicized ones are artists that I've recently just started getting into and plan to get into more in the near future. I've only heard one or two albums from these, so just keep that in mind, but their whole discographies are banned.
Banned Artists:
Anathema
Black Sabbath
Blaze Bayley
Bon Iver
Bruce Dickinson
Bruce Hornsby (and the Range)
Coldplay
Death Cab for Cutie
Dio
Don Henley
Dream Theater
Flying Colors
Haken
IQ
Iron Maiden
Judas Priest
Led Zeppelin
Liquid Tension Experiment
Megadeth
Metallica
Neal Morse
Nightwish
Opeth
Pink Floyd
Porcupine Tree
Queensrÿche's Operation: Mindcrime only; all other albums are allowed
Rush
Sigur Rós
Spock’s Beard
Steve Harris
Steven Wilson
Taylor Swift
Transatlantic
Tuomas Holopainen
The Who
Yes
Banned During the Roulette:
311
After Forever
Alcest
Amethystium
Beach House
Ben Folds Five
Brand New
Burial
Butterfly Jones
Casualties of Cool
Christina Perri
Constantine*
Dada*
David Gilmour
David Maxim Micic
Deep Purple
Destrage
Devil Doll*
Devin Townsend
Dimension Act*
DJ Shadow
Enchant
Extreme
Fastball
Fates Warning
Frameshift
fun.
Gary Moore
Glass Mind*
God Is An Astronaut
Grateful Dead
Grayceon
Green Carnation*
Heavenly
Iris Divine
Janelle Monáe
Jon Lord
Justin Cross
Kevin Gilbert
Kingcrow
Kishi Bashi
Lo-Fi Resistance
Lorde
Maestrick*
Marillion
Mark Knopfler
McAuley Schenker Group
Michael Jackson
Mike Oldfield*
No-Man*
Oceansize*
OSI*
Pain of Salvation
Phideaux
Portishead
Redemption
Red House Painters
Riverside
Ronald Jenkees
Santigold
Seventh Wonder*
Snarky Puppy*
Steam Powered Giraffe*
Steve Rothery*
Styx*
Sufjan Stevens
Susanne Sundfør*
Symphony X*
Thank You Scientist
The Deadstation*
The Feeling
The Gentle Storm
The Lone Bellow
The Mayan Factor
The Pineapple Thief*
This Day & Age
Tower of Power
Umphrey's McGee
* = sent in the 7th or 8th round and therefore legal under certain parameters in Round 9.
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hey man i think i have some stuff i can send you
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Excellent! Adding you to the OP now.
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Eh, fuck it. I'll join...
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Eh, fuck it. I'll join...
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I'm in if you'll have me.
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uh also should i go ahead and send
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Your list kinda looks similar to my own, so I probably have some songs you might find to be cool. I'll join...
I should probably ask how to send you the music, since I've never taken part in a Roulette.
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I'd like to participate
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Wow, a lot of interest. You're all in. That's a total of nine, so let's say there's room for one more if anyone else wants to join.
I should probably ask how to send you the music, since I've never taken part in a Roulette.
I would most prefer being PM'd a YouTube link. I don't know if I'll be able to listen to a song on a Spotify link if I don't have a premium Spotify membership, does anyone know? If a Spotify link works, I'll take that as well. If your song isn't on either YouTube or Spotify, let me know in a PM and we can work something else out.
uh also should i go ahead and send
Sure, yeah, forgot to do this, I guess:
Round One: Open
Send me anything you want! I stacked most of the open rounds at the beginning so that you all have a good chance to get a feel for my music tastes before doing a few themed rounds.
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Cool! Sent.
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Great! I don't play in many roulettes, and for some reason, most of the roulettes I've participated lately were elimination-based, so it'll be refreshing to play this one. Got a lot of awesome stuff to send you.
Since you've mentioned Wait for Sleep, what's your opinion of DT ballads like WFS, Vacant and This is the Life?
I'll send something tomorrow.
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Cool, I can do youtube. I'll take a look at my shtuff when I get home and send you something tonight or early tomorrow.
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I'm not a huge fan of wagers, but in the end it's your call.
Also will send soon. This will be about as far away from rock/metal as you can get - at least within my music library. :P
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Since you've mentioned Wait for Sleep, what's your opinion of DT ballads like WFS, Vacant and This is the Life?
Love Wait for Sleep, it's in my top 15. Far From Heaven is top 10. I also like Vacant and This is the Life a lot; they would both make my top 50.
I'm not a huge fan of wagers, but in the end it's your call.
If a lot of y'all don't like the idea of a wager, I'll just remove it. My original reasoning for adding it was to a) add a greater deal of importance to the EP round, since that's more than just one song and b) make it possible for there to be a comeback on that round, since one of the things I've noticed with roulettes is often someone will take enough of a lead by the final round that it's hard for them not to win. I could potentially take out the wager and make the EP round a double score round, too, if people think that would be better? I'm open to suggestion on that.
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Great, I'll probably send some ballads to you then. :tup
I like the double round idea more than the wager one, but I'll be fine either way, I guess.
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it's a shame the mini-epic is round 7, I'm sure the artist I have in mind will have been entered by then, blah :lol
i might send you a different song for round 1 because it's an open round and I don't want some of the bigger-name artists to get stolen from me
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Are you ninjas or what, waiting for the thread's appearance? :lol I want to play if there's still place.
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Are you ninjas or what, waiting for the thread's appearance? :lol I want to play if there's still place.
*raises eyebrow*
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I suppose I should try my best to describe my musical tastes. I’m a fan of melody above anything else. "Experimental" music is likely to be a miss if it is amelodic in nature. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence is my least favorite Dream Theater album, if that tells you anything. I also tend to prefer bands that have a distinct sound (for example, I never really got into any of those really-DT sounding prog-power bands like Circus Maximus), though that’s certainly not a hard and fast rule—you’re welcome to try me and see, and it might work out for you.
We're so similar and different at the same time... :lol
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Alright, you're in! Sacul takes the last spot! Let's see if you can take advantage of those similarities and avoid the pitfalls of our differences, which I guess would mean you should avoid sending me an SDOIT song. :P
That was a really, really fast registration process. As I've already said, round 1 is open. I'm eager to see what you all send me—almost half several of you have sent already! This will probably be the slowest of the rounds on my end because I have a couple of final exams and an essay to do between now and Tuesday, but once those are done it should hopefully be smooth sailing.
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Nice. Before sending, two questions:
1) Does the song structure concern you much? Like, if something feels random (even if the individual parts are fantastic), would it earn less points than a more "structured" song?
2) Do you like some electronic music? ;D
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Sent!
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Nice. Before sending, two questions:
1) Does the song structure concern you much? Like, if something feels random (even if the individual parts are fantastic), would it earn less points than a more "structured" song?
2) Do you like some electronic music? ;D
1) I would say yes, song structure does concern me. I like a song to make sense as a whole composition. There are some cases where I imagine I could use my imagination and make sense out of some things that don't necessarily seem cohesive at first, but there's a limit to that, and it takes time. Which means that my first impression might be more negative than my later impression. Which is obviously not quite what you want in a roulette. So the short answer is yes, song structure concerns me.
2) Yes please. I don't really know the first thing about the genre at all and my only exposure to it has been in the music of pop and prog artists that I like who include components of it (like the song Distant Satellites by Anathema), but it's one of the genres about which I am most curious. The one thing I would say about that is that I really don't appreciate when songs include amelodic or grating parts, which seems like something that some but by no means all electronic artists might do? In any case I definitely am interested in seeing what that genre has to offer.
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Sent!
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The one thing I would say about that is that I really don't appreciate when songs include amelodic or grating parts, which seems like something that some but by no means all electronic artists might do?
Not really, some more in the techno style can be like that (like Autechre at times), or not (as BoC). Industrial can be really weird though. But anyways, it can be a bit tough to get into it in general, since it's realm is as big as rock and metal, with infinite subgenres.
Let's see what I can send you :P .
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My round one submission is making it's way to you now through a series of tubes.
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I make an entries list in advance and as a result I'm super happy with the EP I made, even though I'm gonna have to replace probably 2+ songs off it by the time we get to round 9 :lol
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I make an entries list in advance and as a result I'm super happy with the EP I made, even though I'm gonna have to replace probably 2+ songs off it by the time we get to round 9 :lol
That's always a good idea. When I know I'm going to be in a roulette I create a playlist in iTunes and as I'm listening I keep that person in the back of my mind and if I think they'll like it just add the song to the playlist. Only trouble is when the waiting list takes 6 months to get through...............I have 100+ songs in my TAC roulette playlist :lol Some trimming required :angel:
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i vaguely try to tailor my entries to the person's interest but mostly I pick stuff from my library that I think is worth sharing
but like nothing they'd outright hate hopefully :lol
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Sent.
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Sent.
Just so I know, should we be describing the song/why we like it as we send, or just send it and see what you think?
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I'm far from an expert on that (as someone who is also involved in one of these for the first time), but from my limited experience in getting most of one round of entries, it seems like a matter of personal preference. Some people have just sent me a link while others have gone into descriptions of the artist, what they like about the artist and the song, etc. So I would say if you want to write something, you can, and I'll definitely read it and everything, but if you would rather just send me the song, you can also do that.
I have songs from everyone but lonestar for the first round. No rush, though.
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I have songs from everyone but lonestar for the first round. No rush, though.
that's because they were on your banned list. I would have been very surprised if someone sent something from them. :biggrin:
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It was a test to see if any of you was willing to flout the rules. You all passed. Or failed. Depending on how you look at it.
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It was a test to see if any of you was willing to flout the rules. You all passed. Or failed. Depending on how you look at it.
*In a Tommy Chong voice* -You're messing with my perception man.
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It was a test to see if any of you was willing to flout the rules. You all passed. Or failed. Depending on how you look at it.
*In a Tommy Chong voice* -You're messing with my perception man.
You know what's funny is that I actually heard him say that once but he used his Kingshmegland voice. :D
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Nobody is quite like me.
They spell better.
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OK, sent.
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Got it! I have everybody's now, so I'll start listening tonight, probably.
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So I lied yesterday when I said I'd listen last night.
I just listened through everything for the first time tonight. Obviously I'm going to listen several more times before I actually say anything definitive, but overall I'm really impressed with this first round. You would not believe the diversity of music I'm getting. Or maybe you would, particularly those of you who sent some of the more far-reaching choices. In any case, after just one listen, I'm already down here noting some of these artists as artists who I absolutely have to hear more from.
I guess right now the biggest thing I'm trying to work on is how to score these things. It's becoming pretty clear that I'm going to need to take care to avoid too much crowding near the top. I imagine the result here will be that there will be practically no 10s, certainly none this round, but a decently generous number of 9s. I just want to give myself room at the top in case some song that becomes an instant classic in my view comes along. The other issue is low scores. The way I'm thinking about this now, practically nothing is going to score low unless you send me a song that has parts that really annoy me or where the song just does nothing for me. Most of the music I've been getting is stuff that I at least like okay, so if this round is a basis for how things proceed, I just can't really justify handing out 1s and 2s and 3s all willy-nilly. The lowest I would even consider giving to any song in this round based on my initial impression is a 4, and I don't think I would do that, I think it would be more like a 5. Does anyone have any suggestions or thoughts, particularly if you've done this before, about how to handle the low end?
Other than that, there's not really anything substantive I have at this time :P . This is really just to say that I've listened to everything, I'm really happy with what I've received this round, and I'm excited to listen to this stuff some more and at some point soon get around to doing scores and writeups. I don't have a specific date at this point, but the way I'm feeling about this right now, I don't think I'll have a problem shooting for around a 1 round per week pace.
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Vote as you may. If you feel a tune is perfect, 10/10, and you love it in every sense, well, give it the max score - but it's up to you.
As for low scores, in my roulette just very few earned less than or 5, and just because they were either underwhelming or downright awful. If no songs deserve a bad score on this round, then what's the problem? This is your roulette man :P .
PS: If you don't give my tune an 8 or more, I'll send you Swans, grindcore, and power metal tracks for the rest of the game.
:neverusethis:
PS2: When should we expect results? :)
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Alright, that's good to know. I'm just kind of looking for a sense of whether or not it's weird to not have many low scores, so it's good to know that someone else has had very few things scoring under a 5 in their own roulette.
PS: If you don't give my tune an 8 or more, I'll send you Swans, grindcore, and power metal tracks for the rest of the game.
If I don't give you a good score you'll harm your own chances at winning? And make me listen to grindcore? Now that I think about it, I guess that would be an effective revenge strategy :P
PS2: When should we expect results? :)
I don't really have a specific date pinned down, but I would imagine somewhere around Thursday. This is the busiest week I'll have during this roulette, since I have to finish up final exams and then move out of the residence hall, which I'll be doing on Tuesday. So because of that (and because I'm still trying to develop things like exactly how many times I'm going to listen to each song, how I'm going to score the songs, etc.) I'm not precisely sure when I'll get done with this, but I would give Thursday as a rough estimate. After this week it should be smoother sailing for me.
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i like a 0-10 scale where 5 represents "average", 0 is "complete waste of my time" and 10 is "i will marry this song"
but that's just me.
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And the 11 song is the "I'm cheating on the song I married because it's just so dirty..."
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And the 11 song is the "I'm cheating on the song I married because it's just so dirty..."
Nigel Tufnel is in the house.
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Do the bumpty bump!
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you sent Digital Underground!?
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Hey, you got it! Lol
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Do the bumpty bump!
I give permission for you to use my patented Winger bump if things get serious king ;D
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Oh, it would be great to zing 2 people. :lol
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:soon:
No, but seriously, I had an exam to take and a paper to write on Monday and I had to move out of my room and drive 12 hours yesterday. I think I'll have results Thursday; I want to take at least one more go at these songs before doing writeups. And this will hopefully be the slowest round on my end, because of that whole end of the semester thing I just described.
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Cool. Take your time. Pun intended.
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Just went through another listen. My scoring on this round is taking shape. This is a really strong round, and I'll be beyond pleased if you all keep up this level of quality throughout the roulette. I'm still finalizing the scoring, and that's what I'm going to do tomorrow (Thursday) on my last listen, which will also be when I do the write-ups. Once I'm confident that I have scores and write-ups, I'll post them. I'm just trying to work out exactly where I want to score the highest and lowest songs and how to make sure that the scores in between make sense with regard to the tiers I see in the quality level of these songs and that the score of each song in between the highest and lowest makes sense given the quality of that song. You all made it very hard on me by sending me so many good songs.
Because I know you all are eagerly waiting and will probably be mad to see yet another post by me in this thread that ISN'T results (soon, I promise), I'll share some of the more interesting remarks from my initial impressions of the songs as a teaser. Obviously without labels as to what the song is or who sent it.
"The chorus is infectious."
"Again, this is totally something I would never have found by myself."
"Wtf is this genre though?"
"Chorus kinda sticking in my head first few minutes after the listen, which is a good sign. Okay, it’s really sticking."
"Interesting atmosphere for sure."
I'll have something real to post within the next 24 hours.
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I'm excited to hear the results! I feel like most of those "impressions" could fit for my song, but you could also wind up hating it, too, haha. Can't wait! ;D
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Well, if one of those is mine, it's probably the one about chorus. Then again, all choruses on that album are catchy and infectious, if you ask me.
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Also, only an hour until it's Friday here where I live. :corn
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i hope mine is the "wtf genre" or "interesting atmosphere" one 'cause it doesn't really have much of a chorus
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Also, only an hour until it's Friday here where I live. :corn
I have 7 and a half hours by my Eastern Daylight watch :P .
And actually, by some weird coincidence, each of the three people who responded since I posted those quotes submitted a song about which one of those quotes was written...
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TEASER!! :lol
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:dangerwillrobinson:
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(https://www.reactiongifs.us/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/cookie_monster_waiting.gif)
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:soon:
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patiently waits for 9.5/10 score
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patiently waits for 9.5/10 score
(https://carmelicioso.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/cutestfood_com_5138265038_6f4936962f_z_large1.jpg)
Come on man, I made it for you, just a bite :(
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i'm sorry but this song is 2 good to get anything less
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i'm sorry but this song is 2/10
Fixed that for you.
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i'm sorry but this song is 2/10
Fixed that for you.
:loser:
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Sorry, guys, if you're hoping for Parama to have a bad day...
Again, as I said, this is a really impressive round. The scores range from 6.5-9 without bonuses, 7-9.5 with. Hopefully y'all keep it up, though the fact that everything is so good makes it harder to figure out how to score these things!
Round One Results
Sacul: Burial – Raver
Sorry, Sacul, you fell a bit short of the 8 mark. Please don’t sent me grindcore.
Honestly, I really did like this track. It has a really cool atmosphere and some good musical themes. The vocals are really weird, but I wound up liking them and finding them well-fitting. You said that he puts a lot of feel into his music by the standards of the genre, and I have to agree. I can definitely feel the emotional power behind the music. I’m not sure how well I relate to the emotions of the track, personally, but I definitely enjoy experiencing his passion anyway.
One of the downsides to me is the repetitiveness of the song. Perhaps there’s a good reason for it, but in the end there are relatively few themes repeated a lot of times over a five minute runtime.
You said I should listen to this song at night, and you weren’t kidding. This is a definite mood piece that is appropriate for nighttime listening. Ultimately, this may have hurt you a bit, because it feels like something I have to be in a particular mood for, which caused some of my listens to be less enjoyable than others. That and the repetition factor is why ultimately, I feel that this is deserving of a slightly lower score than the next song listed.
I feel bad because I told you to go for electronic music and then I gave you the lowest score in the round, but I really do feel open to the genre. And I like this song, but at the end of the day I just don’t feel strongly enough about it to give it a higher score.
Score: 6.5 + 0.5 bonus = 7
Big Hath: Tower of Power – Squib Cakes
This entry is a very fun soul/funk instrumental. I’ve long been a fan of brass instruments but never really checked out any artists that place them front-and-center. Tower of Power does so in a big way, though the traditional rock instruments (drums, guitar, organ) impress here as well. Squib Cakes is absolutely packed with some great rhythms and brilliant solos on practically every instrument. Somehow, every solo manages to fit well into the piece and make the song feel like a coherent whole.
The main detraction from this song is that there are a couple times where the organ player holds a high note for like 20 seconds; something about those notes are kind of grating to me. On the whole, though, I really enjoyed listening to this song. It doesn’t reach the levels of some of the other songs this round because of those high notes and because I lean a little more towards emotional or atmospheric gravitas than towards pure composition, but that isn’t meant to take anything away from this song. This won’t be the last I hear from Tower of Power.
Score: 7.0 + 0.5 bonus = 7.5
kingshmegland: Lo-Fi Resistance – Fading Pictures
This prog rock song really impressed me off the bat with its strong emotional core. The sad piano melody is simple, but really quite powerful in its simplicity. On my first couple of listens, I wasn’t too sure about the transition into the louder chorus, but I’m finding it more and more fitting the more I listen to this song. It’s not as good as the verses, though. I really like the singer’s voice; he conveys a lot of emotion and really fits the song perfectly without sounding jarring at all, which can occasionally happen with prog. The guitarwork is also really quite impressive as well, I especially like the slow solo at about the halfway mark, though the subtle, quiet playing on the first verse also deserves credit.
The main flaw here is that I’m not head-over-heels about the more chaotic, loud section near the end. I think it’s Gavin Harrison drumming on this track? I’m not sure if it’s him and I know I’m not allowed to criticize him on this forum, but the drumming on that part is just more busy than I’d like it to be. But to the band’s credit, the transition out of that part into the outro is fantastic, and the song ends on a solid note.
I do feel like the first half of the song is stronger than the second half, because it creates this impressive buildup while the second half has to figure out what to do with that buildup, but on the whole, I greatly enjoyed this song.
Score: 7.5
Evermind: The Gentle Storm – New Horizons (Gentle Version)
I really didn’t expect to get anything like this on the opening round of the roulette, but it really was a pleasant surprise. The Celtic vibe really appealed to me right off the bat on the very first listen. It’s an interesting texture that’s totally different from that of most music that I listen to, and I really value that.
I know that it’s practically a crime on this forum that this is the first time I’ve listened to anything involving either Arjen Anthony Lucassen or Anneke van Giersbergen. Well, I won’t remain an outlaw in that regard any longer. The song was ear-grabbing enough to get me interested in Mr. Lucassen’s work, but the main focus for me is Anneke. I assume I’m preaching to the choir here, but I really greatly enjoyed her soft, sweet singing. She really lent a hand into giving this song a really pretty, hopeful feeling. I particularly loved her soft vocals.
In the end, what keeps this song back from scoring higher for me is that the composition is not extraordinary once you get used to the arrangement. Don’t get me wrong, the composition is good, particularly the vocal melodies which are very strong, especially the chorus, but it’s not extraordinary. There’s a novelty factor to the fact that the song uses a really unconventional set of instruments, but the composition itself is really good, but not great, in my opinion. I guess it’s a case of “there’s something missing” for me. Maybe it would be better if I heard it in the context of the concept album. Ultimately, the atmosphere and Anneke’s singing help it out a lot and make it really enjoyable listen, but only up to a certain point.
Score: 7.5 + 0.5 bonus = 8.0
lonestar: Enchant – Juggling Knives
This song might be the clearest case of a grower in this round. It went from being one of my least favorite entries to ranking in the top half of all the songs in this round.
The musicianship of these guys is spot on. The instrumentalists play just as much as they need to on the vocal parts. The verses have a nice groove and the choruses are carried well by the band’s playing. Great job complimenting a vocal section. On the instrumental section, the band really gets a chance to shine. I really like keyboard solos most of the time, and this is no exception—this key solo is one of my favorite parts of the song.
The vocal melodies, though, are what really makes this piece for me. The chorus is brilliantly catchy. It’s been running in my head all afternoon today, along with the chorus of one other song this round (coming soon…). The singer isn’t really distinctive stylistically—his style definitely shouts “I like Jon Anderson,” which isn’t my favorite style vocally (though not something I dislike either)—but he hits the melodies well. That’s good enough for me when the melodies are as good as this.
Score: 8.0
Shadow Ninja 2.0: Beach House – Myth
Stylistically speaking, you nailed it on the first go. This sounds like the type of music that I’m looking for more of. Atmospheric, dreamy, vocal pop music. I really love the soft guitar (?) work that makes up the primary instrumental melody. Quite gorgeous, and it really helps with the spacey vibe created by the keyboards and vocals.
The vocals are probably the main focus here, and fortunately, they’re quite good. The singer’s tone is perfect for this type of music, and he hits the right notes emotionally as well. And the melodies are just spectacular. The verses and choruses are memorable and lovely, but the bridge is just amazing.
I just have to mention the dreamy vibe. I absolutely love the atmosphere here. It feels like being on the beach at night, which is one of my very favorite things to do. I like to think they felt similarly given the name of the band. Spectacular, beautiful vibe. If this band’s other songs have a similar level of attention paid to atmosphere, and especially if they have a similar atmosphere, sign me up.
Score: 8.0 + 0.5 bonus = 8.5
TAC: Iris Divine – Prisms
This is a really impressive heavy prog rock song from what seems to be a new band, Iris Divine. Everyone, if you haven’t heard this band and you like prog rock or heavy metal, you should give this song a go. It’s really quite good.
It might be a weird comparison, but this band reminds me a little bit of a more metallic Haken. That’s a positive comparison. The heavy riffs that these guys throw out left and right are really good. There’s a lot of memorable guitar work in here, in those riffs and also in the solo during one of the instrumental breaks, which are both pretty cool proggy parts.
The singer is perhaps not the most extraordinary vocalist you’ll ever hear, but he’s actually quite good. He has a strong voice and just the right amount of grit for the more aggressive bits. The vocal melodies may actually be the strongest part of this song. After my first listen, my opinion of this song was mixed, because I liked the riffs, but wasn’t sure how much more this had than just good riffs, but I found that the chorus was seriously sticking in my head. Next time through, I paid closer attention to the melodies and found them to be really very good.
Overall, this song is a strong entry from, again, what appears to the be the debut effort of a new band. These guys may not be breaking any new ground, but they don’t have to be if they can produce prog metal of this caliber.
Score: 8.0
OpenYourEyes311: The Lone Bellow – Green Eyes and a Heart of Gold
Wow. This is totally something I would never have found myself, and I love it so much. I wondered whether someone would actually pay attention to that bolded “Taylor Swift” on my banned artists list, maybe this answers that question?
Perhaps more than anything else in this round, this song and this band worked its way into my heart. You should be glad that you sent me the music video, by the way. Because I sure am. You can hear it in the song, but it’s even clearer in the video: these people care so much about this music. This band put so much passion into this song. I could watch the male lead singer perform all day, because he so clearly puts all his heart into everything he does.
As for the music, this is the simplest of the top three songs of this round, but I love it for its infectious catchiness and heart-on-its sleeve passion. The chorus is absolutely infectious, and so are the verses, really. The instrumentation isn’t complex, but it fits the song perfectly. Same with the singers, who aren’t technically stunning, but they are perfectly suited to the song and have such emotional power.
This song has been steadily climbing up the rankings since the beginning. It was in the top half right off the bat, but I think I had some hangups about putting something this simple this high. Well, this song has been playing in my head for four days straight, and my fourth listen was enough to convince me that it absolutely belongs among the top songs of this round.
Score: 9.0 + 0.5 bonus = 9.5
Parama: Casualties of Cool – Moon
Another artist that I’ve broken DTF law by not having heard up until this point: Devin Townsend.
This song really impressed me. The main attributes of this piece—subtle instrumentation, strong sense of atmosphere, memorable vocal melodies—match up quite well to a lot of what I’m really liking in music lately. And yet this song did so in a way that I totally didn’t expect. As I put in a more brusque fashion in the element of my initial notes that I quoted a few posts up, “wtf even is this genre?” Honestly, this combines so many elements of different genres into one completely cohesive piece that I have no idea what to call it, except “good.”
I assume Devin Townsend himself is the one doing the male vocals. He’s not doing a whole lot, but it absolutely works for the song and is one of my favorite elements of the song. The song does a good job of building from the sparse beginning to something of a crescendo, bringing in the female vocals and saxophone while never totally abandoning the original melody, though it does get a little busy for a minute or so there, but it somehow works with the union of the male vocals, saxophone and female vocals building working in tandem.This is a standout piece and definitely deserves a place among the top three of the round.
Score: 9.0 + 0.5 = 9.5
Scorpion: Portishead – Glory Box
Right from the beginning, this song was the class of the round. And it still is right at the top (though two other songs have managed to ascend to a similar height). Because this is just spectacular.
The smokey beat here is spectacular and is a big part of what makes this song so enjoyable, but it’s just the beginning. The instrumentation appears where it needs to and really contributes to the excellent vibe of the piece. I love how the guitar supports the vocals on the chorus and on other bits of the song. It’s used really well.
And then there’s the real reason to listen to this song. The singer’s amazing voice. Her singing is really beautiful, emotional, and, frankly, smokey as fuck. I love the way she sings the word “tenderness” in the second verse. And really everything else. She’s quite a spectacular singer, and really makes the song that much better for her presence. The lyrics also really add to the total package, because they’re really quite touching and relevant.
Score: 9.0 + 0.5 bonus = 9.5
Standings:
OpenYourEyes311 - 9.5
Parama - 9.5
Scorpion - 9.5
Shadow Ninja 2.0 - 8.5
lonestar - 8.0
TAC - 8.0
Evermind - 8.0
Big Hath - 7.5
kingshmegland - 7.5
Sacul - 7.0
Round Two: Open
Another open round. Impress me again.
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see, 9.5, i told you
anyways i was gonna send in Ayreon this round but I don't wanna double dip when The Gentle Storm was sent just a round ago even if Ayreon is distinct enough sooo let me send something else
speaking of The Gentle Storm, the last four tracks on the album are always where I lose interest completely, you should've sent something like Shores of India or... Shores of India actually yeah
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I was hoping for 9, but I guess 8 will do for the first round.
Casualties of Cool is one of three Devin albums I enjoy. Moon is nice, but no more than 7.5 for me.
I know what I'm sending this round. You'll get my song when I get back from work.
Edit: nah, Shores of India is one of my least favourite tracks. I was choosing between Cape of Storms, The Moment and New Horizons.
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Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention this:
Every artist sent last round should now be considered banned. I would consider not banning an artist if I was sent a song from them that I didn't like and rated poorly, but I think everything this past round was good enough to ban.
But, other projects by the same artist are not banned. So Ayreon, Devin Townsend Project, these are not banned. The reason is that just because I say "hmm, I liked The Gentle Storm" does not mean I'm automatically going to decide to get an Ayreon album. So other projects of these artists are legal.
So Parama, you can legally send Ayreon if you want, but I understand why if you don't want to either.
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The reason is that just because I say "hmm, I liked The Gentle Storm" does not mean I'm automatically going to decide to get an Ayreon album.
You really should though.
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Alright, off to a good start!
Now, to send something by Devin before he's banned.
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i'll probably send in Ayreon in round 3 or 4 if nobody else does
also note by that loophole there are about... 5-6 other Arjen Lucassen projects you could still get entries from, though The Gentle Storm is probably the most distinct of them all
i'm not gonna submit Devin again either but someone else totally should
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I just did.
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i'll probably send in Ayreon in round 3 or 4 if nobody else does
also note by that loophole there are about... 5-6 other Arjen Lucassen projects you could still get entries from, though The Gentle Storm is probably the most distinct of them all
If I start getting material from several very similar projects by Arjen Lucassen, I'll ban him. But right now I want to leave it open.
The reason is that just because I say "hmm, I liked The Gentle Storm" does not mean I'm automatically going to decide to get an Ayreon album.
You really should though.
Perhaps, but that's not always how it works in my head. Which is an interesting place.
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Btw, 425 - should have asked this before sending - do you like it when we write something in our PMs about our choices or do you find that that makes you go into listening with preconceived notions that you'd rather not have?
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I'm fine either way. If you have something you want to say, I'd be happy to read whatever thoughts you have. If not, that's fine too. It shouldn't affect the way I go into listening all that much—last time around I made a habit of glancing over the artists' Wikipedia entries, anyway, so it's not like I'm going in cold if you don't say anything in the PM.
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Sent! Also if you liked that song I'd recommend checking out the whole Bloom album.
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9.5. Nailed it.
haha, I'm glad you enjoyed my entry. I was unsure how it would go over, but it's one of my favorite songs (and albums) of the past few years. I actually found them kind of by accident as they were the opening band at a show I was attending. They just blew me away.
I'll send my next song probably tonight.
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Cool. I'll work on a song to send tomorrow.
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Cool, I can live with an 8. Can you do us a favor and list the newly banned artist in the first or second post please? That way we don't have to dig through the thread to find stuff, and I know a few of us like to send some of the same bands. Thanks man!!
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Sent.
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Ok no go grindcore for you. :lol . What fascinates me more about Burial is how it seems to lack a songwriting, so I can lose myself into his songs. But I guess I never noticed the repetition of themes so much as you - give it a chance anyways, you may dig it.
There are some interesting omissions on your list, so I made a playlist with possible songs to send, but it ended up with 30 or so tunes lel. Will send later.
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Can you do us a favor and list the newly banned artist in the first or second post please? That way we don't have to dig through the thread to find stuff, and I know a few of us like to send some of the same bands. Thanks man!!
Yeah, absolutely. I was going to do it last night, actually, but then I wound up not doing it. It'll be a second list in the Banned Artists post.
To everyone: The fact that I'm banning everyone's artists signifies that I found this to be a really good round and plan to investigate all of these artists further at some point.
Sacul, I'll definitely give Burial more of a chance. There was a lot to like there, and in a particular mood I really liked that song. It just kind of fell a bit lower overall than the rest.
Shadow Ninja, I will definitely put Bloom on my list. Thanks!
OpenYourEyes, that's actually quite interesting. Sometimes it's those accidental discoveries that turn out to be the best. I really appreciate you taking the risk and sending me that song; I would probably never have found it otherwise, and I enjoyed it a whole lot.
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Round 2 sent
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Sacul, I'll definitely give Burial more of a chance. There was a lot to like there, and in a particular mood I really liked that song. It just kind of fell a bit lower overall than the rest.
Fair enough I guess. Sent.
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425, I forgot to tell you that the lead singer is also the guitarist. I just saw them at RoSfest this year. He is working on an album with Nick D'virgillio (Spock's Beard) on drums and Jonas Reighnhold (Karmakanic & Flower Kings) on bass.
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Sent.
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Sent!
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Has everybody sent? :)
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Yes. I'm in the listening process; I imagine it'll be Thursday again. I don't think a week per round is too terribly slow, right?
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Seems like a good pace to me. Especially considering that all the songs will rarely be sent much before then.
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Yes. I'm in the listening process; I imagine it'll be Thursday again.
Well, last time it was Friday... :biggrin:
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Yes. I'm in the listening process; I imagine it'll be Thursday again.
Well, last time it was Friday... :biggrin:
(https://media3.giphy.com/media/4WnyHXu7GUC1G/200.gif)
:p
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(https://31.media.tumblr.com/d1fc3db24bc0e1ad1ca846c82c8d4b0b/tumblr_inline_n8gnk5Vynr1sbw4j9.gif)
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Technically, I guess, but... It was basically... Whatever, do you want these first impression teases or not?
"Honestly this seems like exactly the type of band I’ve been on the lookout for."
"[this] is where I wish DT would have taken the tiny bit of this that they used on [song]"
"Like the overall sound of this piece as well, super electronic and vibe-y."
"I think this is actually the singer from [another band I've received in this roulette]? I think I like [him/her] better here."
This round is not as strong on the whole as Round 1—I don't see anything here that I feel like is supremely likely to earn a 9 this time, whereas there was already one pretty definite 9 by this point last week. On the other hand, this round is still pretty strong on the whole, and I'm predicting that I'll have trouble again differentiating between many songs that attain "good, not great" scores.
send worse songs people. god.
Actually, don't. This is a good problem to have.
Edit: Maybe y'all could similarly say to me "be less open-minded. god."
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yep that third comment is my entry
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Maybe...
Actually, that comment could probably apply to two or three songs I got this round.
And, just saying, but I'd really have a hard time writing a comment about your song—that didn't give away that it was your song and what I thought of it—while being at all substantive.
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I guess the first one is about my tune :coolio
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Loving the confidence here about the vaguest of comments. I honestly considered not even posting these this time because everything I had written was either so specific that it would reveal exactly which song I was talking about or hopeless vague. But I guess y'all seem to be appreciating the teasers.
So, I thought that this round was weaker than last round. As it turns out, I suppose y'all decided to send me a bunch of growers? Because a whole lot of these songs have gotten a lot better with each listen. This is going to be another round with a bunch of high scores bunched together. I guess that's almost to be expected for this entire roulette, since I'm pretty open to different styles of music and since you all are presumably sending me songs that you consider to be among the best of their particular style. This is pretty good for me because it means I'll get a lot of new artists most of whom I will probably like and good for you if you like close competition, because it means that things are likely going to be tight throughout the roulette.
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That's what this is all about, getting to know new music. I love finding bands I've never heard of or maybe I should have been open to a style of music.
Oh, And I'm not even sure if any of the teasers are mine. :lol
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Oh, And I'm not even sure if any of the teasers are mine. :lol
Same here. I guess the second one could be mine, referencing the Easter Egg bit in the end of Illumination Theory, but I kind of doubt it.
Technically, I guess, but... It was basically...
Don't worry man, just kidding. The pace is alright.
Anyway, all songs I'm sending are 9-10 points for me, so I have nothing to regret. If I get lower score, it's just 425's tastes suck.
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It's already Thursday here in the land of cows and soccer... :P
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It's already Thursday here in the land of cows and soccer... :P
Two hours and it's Friday here in Moscow. ;)
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you people need something better to do :lol
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:soon:
And also what Parama said. :lol
I'm going to dinner, I'm going to watch the ballgame, then I'm going to listen and do writeups. Should be done before midnight eastern.
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Technically it's Friday again, but I really don't care.
Round Two Results
Just a note: I had originally planned on maybe engaging with y'all a little bit more via PM to talk about the songs you sent in past rounds. I don't know if that's a thing roulette organizers do, but I thought about doing it at first. I quickly realized that I will have neither the time nor the inbox space to keep up that many PM conversations, so I'm going to do my best to engage you all on a more individual level in the writeups in hopes of trying to be more personal than just an inbox you send songs to and get sterile reviews out of a week later.
lonestar: Kingcrow - The Hatch
This is a very solid prog rock/metal piece. The first few minutes of the song are quite awesome and easily the best part of the song. The acoustic guitar is complimented well by the singer’s powerful voice and those flairs of electronic influence. The electronic influence is one of the most notable aspects of this piece for me. It’s combined well with the metal aspects. I really wish that Dream Theater would go a little farther with the electronic bits they teased on Outcry and Build Me Up, Break Me Down to do something like what Kingcrow does in this song. It really is a nice touch.
The heavy section is very good, though not as good as the intro for me. The chorus is pretty memorable, and the solo section is also quite good. All in all, there’s not much to dislike about this song. The main weakness is that the lyrical subject matter is a little bit strange in my opinion, but that really doesn’t take much away from it. It only falls down towards the bottom for me this round because there is such a consistent height of quality here.
lonestar, you’ve shown me two really good prog songs from two bands that I have every intention of looking into further. The songs were pretty similar in quality, as well. This one will end up with a slightly lower score, but the reality is that Juggling Knives was a low 8 and this is a high 7.5. The reason why you haven’t scored quite as high as some others is a) probably that prog rock/metal is more in my comfort zone and therefore less surprising to me, and b) that both your songs, though good, didn’t really “wow” me as much as some others. I look forward to your future submissions and am confident that you’ll send something that will score higher than an 8 for me.
Score: 7.5
TAC: Fates Warning - The Eleventh Hour
This song was actually remarkable similar structurally to the song lonestar submitted, which is kind of amusing to me. Both are similarly strong prog metal entries that I really enjoyed quite a bit.
The calm opening is my favorite part—I really am a sucker for calm openings in prog and metal songs. The singer’s soft singing on this part is excellent and pretty expressive.
The heavy part is also good, just not as much so for me as the opening. For me, the main reason is that I’m not a supremely big fan of the Rob Halford/Geoff Tate high-pitched wailing vocal style. It doesn’t necessarily bother me most of the time, but it doesn’t really do much for me. I find that type of singing to be technically impressive but not very emotive. A trend you’ll notice in this roulette is that I prefer a technically simplistic or imperfect singer who is very emotive and passionate to a technically impressive singer who I find to be not very emotionally expressive.
Still, this is a very good song. The guitar riffs on the heavy part along with the non-wailing sections there make up for the weakness I perceive in the wailing. This was one of those prog meta bands that I kind of never got around to checking out; I hope to remedy that soon.
TAC, you’ve done quite similarly to lonestar in this roulette, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that you’ve both sent me prog rock/metal songs that I like fairly well but am not overwhelmingly impressed by in both rounds. I do feel that I would firmly rank Prisms ahead of this entry, though both were good. I do think it’ll be possible for you to score better in the future, I think it’s just a matter of finding where your preferences overlap with mine.
Score: 7.5
kingshmegland: This Day & Age - More of a Climb, Less of a Walk
An entry of a song from an artist that I’ve never heard of, but nevertheless sounds like exactly the kind of band I’ve been looking for lately. This is a really good pop rock song.
The dual guitar approach is somewhat unusual in this style of music, but I think it’s used to great effect in this song, particularly during the instrumental break near the end. The guitar tones that both these guys use is really pleasing and perfectly suited to the music. The one used by the guy in the left channel reminds me of Jonny Buckland’s tone on Coldplay’s X&Y, which has one of my favorite guitar tones of any album.
The singer might be the best part for me. As is necessary on a poppy song of this nature, the vocal melodies are excellent, and the singer executes them very well, with a fairly emotional delivery. Ultimately, the whole package here is a really nice song from what sounds like a pretty talented band. Shame that they broke up.
kingshmegland, you’ve earned two natural 7.5s with two good entries that have unfortunately been outperformed thus far. This song is the one I liked better of the two; this is a high 7.5 while Fading Pictures was more of a low 7.5. I wouldn’t say there’s anything you’re doing wrong, per se. Hopefully you’ll send me an entry that breaks through the 7.5 barrier pretty soon.
Score: 7.5 + 0.5 bonus = 8.0
Parama: Ronald Jenkees - Disorganized Fun
One thing I’ve noticed in following multiple roulettes, Parama, is that you love to take risks. You’ll send something you like and just hope the host likes it too. So I can’t say I was surprised when you took a risk here, but I was a bit worried. The name of the artist and the song suggested the possibility that this would be something just way too weird that I wouldn’t get.
Well, this time, the risk paid off rather well. Yeah, it’s a bit weird, but this is a really fun song, and listening to it again reminds me of part of the reason why I did this roulette. I never would have found this artist on my own, he simply would not have even been on my radar, but I really enjoy this song a lot. Really like these synths and the beat. That main melody is super catchy and really enjoyable, and all the variations he puts on it keep it fresh throughout the song’s duration.
Ultimately, this song holds at this ranking because it’s on the less serious side. I have a slight bias against less serious music, for some reason, so a rather non-serious, outright fun song has an upper limit for me. However, I definitely enjoyed this quite a bit and found a new artist I never would have expected to find.
Parama, I like that you took this risk and threw an artist that I might hate instead of playing it safe after getting off to a great start. You’ll lose a little ground compared to your fellow leaders from the first round, but it’s only round 2. And I can’t say for certain that you even play these to win :lol . Still, I have to say, well done so far!
Score: 7.5 + 0.5 bonus = 8.0
Big Hath: Redemption - Love Kills Us All/Life in One Day
In the interest of full disclosure, let me just note that I actually own this album and have heard this song once before. However, it was probably about a year ago, and the album didn’t impress me at the time (which is why I only heard it once). So I left it un-banned and decided that anyone who wanted to (unknowingly) take the risk by asking me to give one of the songs a second chance could take it. There’s at least one other album in a similar position, I don’t know if there are more as well.
Luckily for Big Hath, this is a song that I should have given a second chance a year ago but didn’t. This is just way better than I remembered it being. Though it’s a two part song, the parts segue seamlessly into one another. Love Kills Us All is a pretty good, pretty emotional ballad section that give way to the heavy and progressive Life in One Day.
There’s a lot of instrumental goodness here that I didn’t give this band credit for the first time through. The keyboard player does not play a dominant role in the mix, but he adds a lot to the general vibe of the song.
Also, I believe this is the same singer from Fates Warning. I like him a little better here because, even on the intense parts, he maintains a warmer, more emotive style instead of going to the wails, which I don’t particularly enjoy. The vocal melodies here aren’t exceptional for the most part, but there are some pretty solid ones, like the first verse of Life in One Day.
In the end, this is a really well-written and well-performed song. It’s also an 11-minute epic that gets its money’s worth. It doesn’t have as big of an impact on me (emotional or otherwise) as a number other songs do, which is what holds its score back (along with the fact that it ends pretty suddenly for an epic of its length), but it is a really good entry.
Big Hath, you’ve sent me two very different entries, which I appreciated. You’ve shared a band with me that I’m interested to hear more from and that I would not have found otherwise, and you’ve convinced me to give another chance to a band that I’d (probably unjustly) neglected. You’re not quite among the leaders, but you’ve been a really valuable presence in this roulette.
Score: 8.0
Scorpion: Devin Townsend - Deep Peace
I have to say, at first I was a little worried, because I simply did not get this song at all. The weird noises in the background at the beginning and the highly unconventional song structure greatly put me off of this at first. But it really did come roaring back over the next few listens—this is absolutely the comeback song of the round.
The first part of the song is actually a really lovely buildup that highlighted to me which I’m already really liking Devin Townsend as a singer. He has a really pleasant tone and his voice built well with the intensity of the song.
Then there’s the really sharp left turn in the middle with a guitar solo that I have to say is quite strange. But once the full band comes in to back the guitar, things actually get pretty awesome. The combination of the choral stuff with the guitar solo is a really cool segment of the song that builds quite a bit of intensity going into the final vocal parts. Which, by the way, are really quite fantastic. I love Devin’s soft, soothing vocals that become more and more intense and then… wtf growls? I really do think the growls here are an unexpected but excellent touch. This is, in my mind, the best case scenario for use of growls. It’s not a full-throat metal piece and the growls are not used to the point of numbness. The growls just add some intensity to a short part of the song and do really well at doing just that.
I like this song, for all it’s oddities. The oddities bring it down a smidge for me, but this is still a strong entry. Scorpion, you’ve done quite well just trusting your gut, so perhaps you should keep going with that strategy! Well done thus far.
Score: 8.0
Sacul: Janelle Monáe - Cold War
This song is really unlike anything I’ve ever heard, while still being fairly poppy. I have to say, I really like the energy of the song, as well as, of course, the music and her voice.
You pointed out that there’s a lot going on musically behind her voice, and of course you’re right. There’s a lot of excellent percussion going on here, in addition of course to the really good synth work and that well-placed guitar solo.
Her voice remains the centerpiece, and it’s really excellent. Very passionate, and with strong melodies. I like the use of backing vocals in this song, as well. The “bye bye bye bye, don’t you cry when I say goodbye” part towards the end is pretty haunting. As is the video, which is a bit strange but somehow quite fitting and, well, haunting.
Sacul, you got off to a bit of a rocky start with a song that I liked, but not as much as the other first round entries. This is definitely a big step up. I like that you stuck to your electronic guns, because I definitely felt that you had plenty to show me in that genre that I would like more than the first song. This is a really good entry and a nice improvement from round one.
Score: 8.0 + 0.5 = 8.5
OpenYourEyes311: Christina Perri - Jar of Hearts
The second song this round that I’ve technically heard before—this was fairly popular a few years ago, I think. I definitely recognize the line “you’re gonna catch a cold from the ice inside your soul.” But I’ve never listened to the song that seriously.
This is a pretty straightforward piano ballad, but it’s made its way into my heart. The fact that she’s playing the piano and singing at the same time live in this performance probably enhanced the sense that her voice and piano playing are working in tandem—the piano melodies move and shift to compliment her voice and even change significantly on the last chorus to compliment her change in intensity.
And her voice is absolutely fantastic. She’s very vocally talented, very passionate, and with this amazing grit that just amplifies the passion here.
And speaking of passion… honestly, OpenYourEyes, you really have found the way to my heart these first two rounds, which is why you’re in the lead right now. Like last time, the thing I really love about this song, this video, this performance is the extremely high level of passion that the performer displays both visibly in the video and audibly in the song. I absolutely love that in any musical performance and it will definitely push a song up in my esteem if I can hear that passion. If you can keep putting in extremely passionate, well-written pop/pop-rock songs and getting out 9s and 9.5s, you might just win this thing.
Score: 8.5 + 0.5 bonus = 9.0
Shadow Ninja 2.0: Santigold - The Riot's Gone
You say you sent this basically on a whim? Wow. This is a really spectacular song. I’d never heard of this artist before or anything, but this is just amazing.
This piece is supremely electronic and vibe-y. The electronic drums are absolutely awesome, especially the way they kick into a higher gear on the chorus. The synths are located to the back most of the time, but they play a key role, especially on that terrific instrumental bit. I also really like the way that an electric guitar is used pretty subtly in the background to add to the overall vibe.
Her voice, of course, is quite excellent. Very soulful and thick. Fits perfectly with the mood of the song and she absolutely nails those beautiful vocal melodies.
On the whole, this is one of my favorite entries this round and among my favorites of this roulette. Shadow Ninja, you’ve done very well so far at sending me songs with a general vibe that I really enjoyed. Last round’s song was good, but this was on a new level. I hope to keep getting some really good songs with really great atmosphere from you as this progresses.
Score: 8.5 + 0.5 bonus = 9.0
Evermind: Jon Lord - Pictured Within
This is really excellent. Sometimes, all it takes is a piano and a voice, maybe with the help of a few string instruments.
The emotional power of a song like this is not to be underestimated. Here we have what I would call a really bittersweet song about all the joys of life. The piano and the strings create an absolutely lovely atmosphere of emotion, and the singer is perfectly chosen for the song. Just a perfect example of a singer not doing anything exceptional technically, but hitting the right notes and portraying a whole ton of emotion. Fantastic.
I don’t have a lot more to say here. This is a short writeup, but this song shows, sometimes, less is more.
Less is more has seemed to be your philosophy, so far, Evermind. I wasn’t absolutely dazzled by your first round entry, but I enjoyed it. This entry is a significant step up. I really loved this piece and I’m glad you shared it with me. I’m looking forward to more ballads or whatever other good material you want to send in future rounds.
Score: 8.5 + 0.5 bonus = 9.0
All the artists from this round have been added to banned artists. I'm not super familiar with how the whole Devin Townsend situation works, but I'm guessing that I probably shouldn't distinguish between "Devin Townsend" and "The Devin Townsend Project" and consider them both to be banned?
Standings
OpenYourEyes311 - 18.5
Parama - 17.5
Scorpion - 17.5
Shadow Ninja 2.0 - 17.5
Evermind - 17.0
Big Hath - 15.5
kingshmegland - 15.5
lonestar - 15.5
Sacul - 15.5
TAC - 15.5
Please let me know if I've messed up the standings somehow. I'll go through them a little more thoroughly soon, but right now it's just my mental math at 12:45 at night.
Round Three: Open
The last open round for a bit before we try some (hopefully fun-ish and largely non-restrictive) themes. Might be a good opportunity to pull a Parama and take a crazy risk. Or not. Your mileage may vary.
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Devin Townsend, The Devin Townsend Band, and The Devin Townsend Project are all close enough that you should probably ban them all, yeah :lol
I mean to be fair most of Devin's albums are all pretty wildly different (Ghost and Deconstruction released at the same time and are about as far opposite as you can get :lol ) but, yeah
anyways I'm gonna go decide between a poppy song that nobody else will enter and a weird choice from an artist someone else could maybe enter brb
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Glad you liked it! Also, respect to OpenYourEyes, Jar Of Hearts is an amazing song.
Will send soon!
edit: sent
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so i sent too yes
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Yeah, now that's more like it! Glad you liked this tune, 425. Have you checked out the live version with the intro, by the way?
Also, you forgot to add my nickname next to the artist and song title. ;)
And yeah, I intend to go with ballads except maybe the epic rounds and EP round. EP should be diverse enough.
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I have not, yet. I actually haven't checked out any of the supplementary material anyone has sent me, yet, because I've been focused on just the songs in the roulette. But I have it all saved and am intending to get to it at some point!
And sorry about that error, I just fixed it in the post. I knew there was no way I'd get through a post that long without some kind of weird mistake.
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425, I think you'd love that album by This Day & Age. Check it out!
Well, seeing Steven Wilson tonight so I'll send a song tomorrow night!
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425 I'm glad you liked the song! Yes, it was a hit a few years back, but as far as hits go, I felt like it could have been a sleeper. I decided to send you the "Live in Studio" version of the song because that's how I was introduced to Christina Perri. When I first saw her, it was on Conan's show and she played that song with just piano and her voice and just absolutely killed it. Ended up getting her first album because of it and found out she's a really talented singer and songwriter. The studio version of Jar of Hearts adds some strings and background vocals, but it's still just as good. The rest of the album is pretty awesome too. And although it's not on her first album, my wife walked down the aisle to her song "A Thousand Years" (along with every one else last year it seemed), so her music is really something that I enjoy and means a lot to me. I'm happy you enjoyed it.
Will be sending either tonight or mañana.
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Wow I suck! :D
I look at what's been submitted and I wouldn't listen to any of it. I think I joined the wrong roulette. :lol
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Oh yes - Janelle has a totally gorgeous voice. I love that album and her music 'cause it's a modern take on old-school R&B with some pop, and who would have guessed it would sound so fresh and awesome?
I'll send you a song with lots of passion, :soon:
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Wow I suck! :D
I look at what's been submitted and I wouldn't listen to any of it. I think I joined the wrong roulette. :lol
Nah. You just suck. :lol
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Wow I suck! :D
I look at what's been submitted and I wouldn't listen to any of it. I think I joined the wrong roulette. :lol
Nah. You just suck. :lol
That.
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:rollin
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Trying a different strategy in Round 3.
Sent in my next 7.5 song! :D
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Technically it's Friday again, but I really don't care.
a) probably that prog rock/metal is more in my comfort zone and therefore less surprising to me, and b) that both your songs, though good, didn’t really “wow” me as much as some others. I look forward to your future submissions and am confident that you’ll send something that will score higher than an 8 for me.
Time to shatter that comfort zone wide open. Sent.
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Sent.
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round 3 sent. Gots to pick up my game here.
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Sent another ballad.
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Yay for you digging Deep Peace! I love that song so much.
Sent another song. I'd say that is falls outside of rock and metal, but your mileage may vary.
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Sent!
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Sorry, hadn't said yet, but I've gotten everything and expect to probably be done Thursday night yet again.
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Cool, we'll see if you loved my tune next Friday ;D .
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See new thread title. :biggrin:
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First time since the second post that I've actually double-posted in this thread, but oh well, there's actual content here. Time to do that thing I've done both previous rounds without crediting Evermind for the idea, which I will remedy now: Credit goes to Evermind for the idea. Yes, it's first impression excerpts time.
"This song builds to an awesome climax."
"[This person's] voice reminds me of two singers, one of whom I don’t like and the other I do like."
"Hmm. Well, this is not my usual style of music."
"Honestly this is a fantastic melancholic song."
"This is pretty weird."
"Really like the acoustic guitar playing on this song."
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"Hmm. Well, this is not my usual style of music."
"Honestly this is a fantastic melancholic song."
"This is pretty weird."
Each of these could apply to mine, specially the middle one. Hopefully not the last one :lol .
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The one about two persons and fantastic melancholic song could be mine. Hopefully it's the latter.
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The one about two persons and fantastic melancholic song could be mine. Hopefully it's the latter.
this, exactly
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What, everyone sent melacholic songs? :lol
Also, the next round is a sad one. Whoever sends Kevin Gilbert - Song for a Dead Friend, I hope you'll receive 1/10. :angel:
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Whoops, I guess I should have looked ahead and not sent the song I sent this round haha.
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4 of the sneak peeks could be mine. :lol
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All of the first impression refer to my song, and only my song.
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What, everyone sent melacholic songs? :lol
Yep, pretty much everyone did. :lol
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We are going to sad you to death. :lol
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We are going to sad you to death. :lol
And I haven't even sent the really sad song I prepared for Round 4. :lol
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I have several sad songs I could enter depending on which artists aren't banned after this next round :lol
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I think the rule is that if you sad the roulette host to death, no one wins. :P
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I wish everyone would sad me (almost) to death in my previous roulette. People kept sending power metal and progressive metal and some weird stuff instead. :lol
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Did I say sad? I meant sex you.
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:lol I'm going to go ahead and say that's also against the rules!
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"This song builds to an awesome climax."
Mine?? mmmmperhaps!
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I wish everyone would sad me (almost) to death in my previous roulette. People kept sending power metal and progressive metal and some weird stuff instead. :lol
Should have said so! I can send you some depressing stuff now tho :P
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:corn
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:chill
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:chill
No U. :lol
Really though, I love the anticipation.
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Well, here's the results for round 3. Scoring has been getting tougher for me on each round, maybe because I'm comparing each song not only to the other songs sent in its round, but somewhat to the songs sent in previous rounds. Also, this is almost certainly the most new music I've listened to in so short a time frame, so this is an experiment in how well I can evaluate 80 songs in two months and then right after assess 300 minutes worth of EPs. The one thing I know for sure is that I've had fun doing this so far and have found a lot of fantastic stuff.
This round looked like it might be the first to have songs I actually didn't care for, but as they do, both the songs I didn't really like at first grew on me, so this is another high-scoring round where ten songs are bunched up in the 7.0-8.5 range in natural scores. This has been a lot of fun, though, really, despite the difficulties I've had with scoring. So here are the results.
Round 3 Results
Sacul: DJ Shadow - Midnight in a Perfect World
On first listen, I really didn’t know what to think of this song at all. It was just very weird confusing to me on the whole. As I’ve listened to it more, though, I’ve definitely grown to like it better. I really quite enjoy the atmosphere that it creates. The drummer is pretty impressive, and I quite like the subtle keyboard melodies and (I assume sampled?) female vocal parts.
The part that’s hit-or-miss with me are the male/spoken-word samples. In some cases they are used really well to accentuate a particular part of the song, but there are also uses that are a bit grating. Near the end, the beginning of the sentence “Now approaching midnight” is repeated a lot of times in rapid succession, in a way that has always bothered me in music because it sounds unnatural. In that case it detracts a bit from the conclusion to the song, which includes a pretty good guitar part.
Nonetheless, I like this song as a full piece. Though that one part does grate a bit for me, there’s a lot of good in this piece as well. I should also mention that I really like the title of this song and think it’s really fitting, so that helps, too. As a whole, this piece is good and has encouraged me to investigate more by this artist, but has some grating parts and oddities that drag it down a bit.
Score: 7.0 + 0.5 bonus = 7.5
kingshmegland: Umphrey’s McGee - Rocker
Another song that seemed rather strange to me, at first, though my first impression of it was modestly positive.
I don’t know how I would describe the style of music in this song, but it’s actually quite cool stylistically. I suppose it would be considered some form of prog rock, because it does go through a lot of time changes and shifts in musical style. But there’s a significant folky element, too. This band really blends the two quite well, and I would be interested in hearing some of their other works.
At the same time, this song has a bit of emotional power behind it as well. The singer isn’t outstanding, but he does well at hitting the right emotional notes for the lyrics, and he hits the right musical notes as well.
As a composition, this song does still come off as a bit disjointed. All the different parts range from good to great, so I can’t complain, but it’s hard to follow a musical narrative or thread throughout the entire song. It’s not enough to bother me, really, or dissuade me from checking into this band’s catalogue, but it is the reason that this is one of the lower scoring songs this round.
Score: 7.5
lonestar: Destrage - Destroy Create Transform Sublimate
When I first heard this song, I really couldn’t imagine liking it. Metal has not been my thing for a long time, and this song was pretty in-your-face. But there were some parts that I really did like, so I gave the song a bit more of a chance.
The chorus is actually really, really good. It’s been in my head for much of the week. The verses on the first half of the song, on the other hand, though they aren’t bad, just don’t do much for me. They fringe on fast heaviness for its own sake, in my opinion, especially with the oscillation between growls and high-pitched vocals. I’ve grown to like the growls alright on the prechoruses, but I do think this guy out to stay away from the shriekiness. But I think that about everyone.
The first bridge starts decently but unremarkably, but gets better as it gets heavier. The second, symphonic bridge, on the other hand, is fantastic. Really the best part of the song. There’s something pretty awesome about the symphonic buildup and distorted vocals that he does.
And then wtf. It ends with a trippy electronic part. Pretty weird, but pretty cool.
This was easily the hardest song of the round for me to grade, lonestar. You definitely achieved your goal of surprising me and going way outside my comfort zone. The song you delivered is definitely not what I would consider my favorite style of music. For me, with metal, I kind of differentiate in my mind between metal that is deliberately “in your face” (and could be more unkindly said to be “obnoxiously in your face”) and metal that uses heaviness for a more artistic purpose. This song kind of sits on the line between those two categories for me, with some parts that lean towards both sides. The fact that this song also brings in symphonic and electronic elements only complicates the scoring. Ultimately, I have to give it a fairly modest score for the round, because the song had parts that I liked a lot, but parts that didn’t do much for me at all. The overall gutsiness of this choice almost enticed me to go higher, but that really wouldn’t be a fair way to grade things. On the merits of the entry itself, this is the score it deserves (which is a good two and a half points higher than I would have given it after the first two listens, so I don’t want you to think it didn’t grow on me).
Score: 7.5
OpenYourEyes311: Frameshift - La Mer
I must admit, when I first listened to this song, I was rather perturbed because I really thought that this was James LaBrie, but I’d never heard of this project before, so I wasn’t sure. But once I found out that it was James, which would have been obvious to me if I’d just trusted my ears, I was able to settle in and listen to this song.
I have to say, this song would be best described as “pleasant.” It’s really pleasant to listen to throughout. The piano playing is really nice, and I greatly enjoy the slight electronic element that comes into play later (and wish there had been a bit more of it). The full-band climax at the end is slightly underwhelming, but it’s still very pleasant.
James’s singing is good as always, but there are moments in this song when I think he maybe does a bit too much, like the line “you came out of the sea,” where he throws in a bit of grit that was perhaps not necessary, strictly speaking, but overall he does nicely, especially since this was early 2000s, I think? And the vocal melodies are really quite excellent. The chorus is bordering on amazing.
Overall, this is a good ballad with a somewhat underwhelming power ending. This song never really blew me away, but it grew on me with every listen and is definitely a song I’ll come back to in the future. Very pleasant.
Score: 8.0
Evermind: David Gilmour - Where We Start
I have, regrettably, never really listened to any of David Gilmour’s solo material until now. This song is pretty much exactly what I expected his solo material to sound like. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, because dreamy music with soft singing and slow, melodic electric guitar playing are what Gilmour does best.
Gilmour’s guitar playing rightly gets a great deal of positive attention, but I feel he deserves positive recognition for his singing, as well. The man really is a very good singer, and brings an astounding, almost ethereal softness to this song (and, of course, to much of his work in Pink Floyd).
This song is one of the most tranquil pieces I’ve ever heard. It’s really a beautiful love song that expresses a deep sense of contentment. And Gilmour executes it fairly well, with soft, restrained guitar playing for most of the song and then a lovely slow solo of the type that he turns in so very often. The reason this song doesn’t score as high as some others, then, is that it doesn’t move me quite as much as I’d want it to. It’s not really supposed to, but I’d like a tranquil song like this to transport me or move me with its emotional power. It does its job exceedingly well, and I’ll absolutely be looking into this album, but that’s why it doesn’t quite get into the upper echelon (sometimes, when I feel like I’ve praised a song to the heavens, I feel the need to explain why it doesn’t quite get an 8.5 or a 9 or whatever).
Evermind, I feel like I keep doing the same thing to you—finding intangible, minor deficits in your simple ballads. I’m not trying to, it’s the way it’s fallen. I really loved Pictured Within, and have enjoyed all of your submissions, really. The Gentle Storm’s album and On An Island are definitely on my list.
Score: 8.0
TAC: McAuley Schenker Group - Never Ending Nightmare
This is a really interesting song. Like a couple of other songs I’ve gotten this round, it really jumped out as being something I’ve never heard stylistically. I guess it’s a largely acoustic rock power ballad.
But labels aside, this is a pretty strong piece. The acoustic guitar playing sets a powerful atmospheric base, and makes the song pretty unrelentingly creepy. What’s more, they do shift throughout the song, making the constant presence of picked clean guitar less monotonous. The singer’s voice is not of a type that I generally am in love with, but he’s absolutely perfect for this song—I couldn’t imagine anyone else doing it, really, besides maybe Dio.
I really like the false ending, as well. It’s an unexpected twist of the sort that I really like, and is followed by a pretty good outro guitar solo.
I like this song a lot. For what it is, it’s pretty fantastic. The one issue for me is that it doesn’t have the emotional element which, as you may have seen so far, has been capable of pushing some songs into the top score ranges. Still, a really good entry and definitely worthy of this grade.
In response to the joke you made earlier about how you thought you might have joined the wrong roulette; I don’t want to leave you with the impression that I haven’t enjoyed your submissions. I really have enjoyed all three songs that you’ve submitted, with this latest one probably being my favorite. I do value your participation in my roulette and I absolutely think that you’ve provided me with music from bands who are going to be part of my collection in the future. It is true that I’m giving high scores to a lot of artists from non-rock genres, but I don’t want to leave you with the impression that I haven’t enjoyed what you’ve sent, because I really have. Hence two 8s and a 7.5
Score: 8.0
Shadow Ninja 2.0: Justin Cross - Drink the Water
One of the more interesting songs I’ve received in this roulette. This song is best described, I suppose, as a political, melancholic country song. By a relatively unknown artist, it seems. Hopefully he doesn’t stay unknown for long, because he’s really amazing.
This piece is powered by Cross’s memorable and powerful guitar playing and some pretty nice strings in the background. His voice, of course, takes center stage, and he really gets a lot of praise from me for putting a great deal of emotion into his singing. I hope everyone has pretty much figured out by now that I love emotional singers. He’s no exception.
This song also has a surprisingly powerful climax for a largely acoustic piece. It might be my favorite musical climax of the round. He just executes the quick rise in tension very well using both his guitar and his voice. On the whole, this is a really nice atmospheric piece from a relatively new artist. I liked it a lot!
Score: 8.0 + 0.5 bonus = 8.5
Big Hath: The Mayan Factor - Warflower
Another really cool song I’ve received this round that I really don’t know how to classify. Immediately, the song gives off a really cool vibe, which only gets stronger once the vocals enter.
The vocals in this song are what really astound me. The instrumental elements are integral to the atmosphere, yes, but the singer. Wow. The melodies are astounding, of course, and quite melancholic. The lyrics are as well, and slightly creepy, too. And he just nails the melodies and the mood for the song. He actually reminds me of two singers, one of whom I don’t especially like and the other I do like: Kurt Cobain and James Hetfield, respectively. But in any case, he puts tons of emotional power behind the vocals of the song. There are a lot of memorable parts in this song, and it’s really thanks to his skill that they are so memorable.
Big Hath, this is definitely my favorite entry from you (not that I didn’t enjoy your previous two entries, of course!), and one of my favorite entries overall. I look forward to getting more music that I hopefully like this well from you.
Score: 8.5
Parama: Lorde - Buzzcut Season
This song is a really lovely atmospheric, electronic pop song. Which is something I really like. Of course, I’d already heard Lorde’s most popular song, Royals. I liked that song fairly well, but it didn’t entice me to seek out more of her music. This song might. I really hadn’t given her enough credit from Royals for being a really good singer. I find her voice really pretty on this song, and she’s pretty diverse as well.
And, of course, the melodies that she sings are all really fantastic. She jumps from one beautiful melody to another, absolutely nailing them all. And the harmonies are a fantastic touch as well.
The background music is not jaw-dropping—Lorde herself is definitely the main attraction here (and, oh my, what an attraction she is!), but the instrumentals do get the job done and set a pretty nice atmosphere in which she can sing these beautiful melodies.
Score: 8.5 + 0.5 bonus = 9.0
Scorpion: Grayceon - War’s End
I really quite enjoyed this expansive, somber piece from the very first listen. It’s an interesting and quite unusual piece, but it’s truly a beautiful one.
I actually really enjoy the fact that this song uses a lot of different textures to sustain a lengthy, somber piece. It starts with acoustic and electric guitars, and after a brief and pretty verse, opens up into this beautifully sad section driven by the cello but with the acoustic guitars still playing a role. One of the noticeable and appreciable aspects of this song is the fact that nobody in the band tries to do too much. The drummer is restrained, as are the guitarist and the singers. The restrained instrumentation and singing lend perfectly to the somber atmosphere.
Speaking of the singing, while the female singer’s voice is absolutely lovely, the song takes on its greatest level of emotional impact when the male singer joins her and they sing a few very sad lines together. Their singing combined with the surrounding music is fantastically beautiful. And then it leads into this gorgeous, expansive slow fade. The instrumentation here is just fantastic.
Scorpion, your gut has not once led you astray. You really seem to get to the heart of a lot of what I love in music. Your very first entry may still stand as the best song I’ve gotten in this roulette, and this one gets very close to that status. For reference, I’d rank this song a bit below the three natural 9.0s of the first round, but I feel it deserves more than an 8.5, so it will also receive a 9.0. Keep doing what you’re doing, Scorp.
Score: 9.0
All of this round's artists have been added to the banned list.
Standings:
OpenYourEyes311 - 26.5
Parama - 26.5
Scorpion - 26.5
Shadow Ninja 2.0 - 26.0
Evermind - 25.0
Big Hath - 24.0
lonestar - 23.5
TAC - 23.5
kingshmegland - 23.0
Sacul - 23.0
Again, let me know if I messed up the scores somehow.
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Round Four: Sad Round
The first themed round here. I decided to keep the themes pretty straightforward but still marginally interesting, so that's the goal here with the sad theme. I'm not going to be too strict about this, but if you send me a song that is just cannot be interpreted as being sad in any way, I'll dock half a point. Shouldn't be something that happens at all, because I only intend to enforce it in a case where it just totally doesn't fit.
Announcement:
These first three rounds have kind of been an exploratory phase in the roulette, I think. I meant for them all to be open as a means for all of you to experiment and try and figure out what I would like the most and the least. But what I didn't expect was to be doing a lot of experimenting with myself, as far as the scores go. The past two rounds, I've felt like I've painted myself into a corner with regards to the scoring. By giving the top three songs in the first round natural (meaning before the 0.5 bonus) scores of 9, I set myself an obstacle. In essence, I said "nothing can be a 9 unless it's as good as these, and nothing can be higher than a 9 unless it's better than these." Of course in round 1, I had no way of knowing whether I was going to get a lot of songs I liked that much, or several songs I liked a lot better, or few songs that approached that level. 9 seemed like a safe bet at the time for where to put those songs.
The way it's fallen, though, is that those three songs still stand as my three favorite songs of the roulette. But everything else in the roulette has merited at least a 6.5, and most of it at least a 7. So, speaking practically, I have had a range of 7 to 8.5 to work with the past two rounds. That's only four possible scores for 10 songs (9 this round, since I gave Scorpion's entry a 9—it wasn't quite at the level of the first three 9s, but I felt comfortable doing it because it was far enough above the 8.5s in this round to merit it). The result has been a lot of 8s, a lot of 7.5s and 8.5s, and a few 7s. Another result has been that I feel there isn't much parity among, say, the 8s. This round I had a distinct sense that there were high 8s and low 8s, but the high 8s were definitely a cut below the 8.5s, and the low 8s a cut above the 7.5s.
The solution that I'm going to take for this problem is to reboot the scoring starting this round. The scores that all the songs have earned so far will stay—it was a fair system and everyone's songs were held to the same standard, it was just an imperfect system. And I'm not going to go back and re-grade 30 songs. But the scores that I give this round should be considered to be on a new scale. That is, a song that gets a score of 8.5 in round 4 is not equivalent in quality to a song that received an 8.5 in round 2. The new scale is basically going to be a move up of one for some of the top songs. On the new scale, the three songs from round one that got natural 9s would get natural 9.5s. Some of the 8.5s from previous rounds would get 9s in the new system, some would still get 8.5s. Same with the 8s—some would get 8.5s, some would get 8s still. And so on. Hopefully this will make it easier for me to differentiate between tiers of songs and assign more accurate scores.
If my explanation has been complicated, don't worry about it. I'm just trying to explain how I'm going to be arriving at scores in the future, and all I'm really saying is to not assume that a song that gets a 9 this next round is one that I like as well as a song that got a 9 in round 1. But you can rest assured that if two songs each get a 9 this next round, they will be songs that I like equally as well as each other. That is all.
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Sad, huh? Can I just send you a picture of my ex-wife? That would make any man cry....
Seemed you got all I could expect out of that song. No matter your taste for heavier tunes, anyone can recognize the talent behind that group, and they do have one or two mellower songs surely worth checking out, behind it all, they are seriously fucking good at what they do.
I'll send in a day or two, kind of in the weeds at work now...
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Alright then, I'm sending another tranquil song when I get back from work. If this one won't quite move you either, you're a heartless bastard. :lol
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sent
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i really have to decide between a pretty large number of fitting entries for this round, ugh :lol
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My life is a 7.5! :lol
I'll work on a sad song and send tomorrow!
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sent
Big Hath: The Mayan Factor - Warflower
He actually reminds me of two singers, one of whom I don’t especially like and the other I do like: Kurt Cobain and James Hetfield, respectively.
I thought this comment could have been about my song, but the two singers I was thinking of were Cobain and Maynard James Keenan. :lol
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Scorp, Evermind, lonestar, those are great tunes - well played :hat.
BTW, that DJ Shadow song is totally made out of samples. I'll let that sink in for a moment.
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Sent. Hopefully I beat Kingshmegland to the song!
In response to the joke you made earlier about how you thought you might have joined the wrong roulette; I don’t want to leave you with the impression that I haven’t enjoyed your submissions. I really have enjoyed all three songs that you’ve submitted, with this latest one probably being my favorite. I do value your participation in my roulette and I absolutely think that you’ve provided me with music from bands who are going to be part of my collection in the future. It is true that I’m giving high scores to a lot of artists from non-rock genres, but I don’t want to leave you with the impression that I haven’t enjoyed what you’ve sent, because I really have. Hence two 8s and a 7.5
All good! :)
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Not my head is spinning. :lol
What song could it be?
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You know what it is. I almost sent it three days ago to make sure I got it in! :D
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OpenYourEyes311: Frameshift - La Mer
I must admit, when I first listened to this song, I was rather perturbed because I really thought that this was James LaBrie, but I’d never heard of this project before, so I wasn’t sure. But once I found out that it was James, which would have been obvious to me if I’d just trusted my ears, I was able to settle in and listen to this song.
I have to say, this song would be best described as “pleasant.” It’s really pleasant to listen to throughout. The piano playing is really nice, and I greatly enjoy the slight electronic element that comes into play later (and wish there had been a bit more of it). The full-band climax at the end is slightly underwhelming, but it’s still very pleasant.
James’s singing is good as always, but there are moments in this song when I think he maybe does a bit too much, like the line “you came out of the sea,” where he throws in a bit of grit that was perhaps not necessary, strictly speaking, but overall he does nicely, especially since this was early 2000s, I think? And the vocal melodies are really quite excellent. The chorus is bordering on amazing.
Overall, this is a good ballad with a somewhat underwhelming power ending. This song never really blew me away, but it grew on me with every listen and is definitely a song I’ll come back to in the future. Very pleasant.
Score: 8.0
Fiddlesticks! I thought fo sho that one was gonna hit it outta the park! I am glad, however, that you have not heard of this project. Because the rest of the disc (Unweaving the Rainbow) is pretty strong. James sings on the whole thing (I put it with his solo albums and Winter Rose on my Ipod). And if you liked the more electronic part of the song, there's definitely more where that came from on the album. I sent this song only because it's my personal favorite, but there's probably a few more songs that could be even stronger than this one (maybe I should have changed my pick!). Some are more poppy, some more progressive, some lighter, some heavier, some electronikier :P. Definitely an album DT fans should check out.
I'll send sometime this weekend. I have a few songs I'm trying to pick from.
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Sent. I think you'll really like this one. Could be wrong though. ;)
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Sent!
Oh wait, sad.
sent.
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So, what degree of sadness you prefer? Choose one :P
Sad
Depressive
Hopeless
Edit: Sent!
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Wow, so I am really quite sad after listening to all those entries. There's a lot of good stuff here, though.
Despite the fears of some, I did not receive any duplicate songs.
I did, however, receive two songs from the same artist. I will now allow you all to experience the paranoia of wondering whether yours was one of them. :biggrin:
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i legitimately hope it was the artist i sent because you deserve two depressing songs from them
i even mentioned in my pm how many other songs i could've sent that i didn't and was sad that i couldn't :lol
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I really doubt the duplicate artist is mine. I followed a lot of roulettes and only saw one person (either Onno or Scorp) sending this artist once.
Also, I went with "sad" song. No depressing stuff from me.
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I really doubt someone sent the same artist as me, but who knows?
So... results this Friday? :P
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Not sure yet on the date for results. Probably will be slightly later than usual since I'm traveling and since this round is more emotional to listen to than the previous ones. However, traveling means that I might be able to listen on the plane, depending on whether it has Wi-Fi. So who knows. I'll do my best to get results in before the weekend, though. I'll let you know when I have a better idea of when it will be. I've done four listens each round up until now and I absolutely feel like that's the right number, so I'm going to stick to that number instead of rushing things to stick to the "every Thursday night" thing.
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the "every Friday morning" thing.
fixed
(amusingly in my timezone they've all actually been on thursday though :lol)
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(amusingly in my timezone they've all actually been on thursday though :lol )
Do you live in Hawaii by any chance? :P
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i live in cst
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It might be a little bit longer, folks. As I said, I've been traveling and I've had a busy past few days. On top of that, I'm feeling a bit fatigued, probably from a combination of the sadness of this round and having listened to so much new music thus far in the roulette, so I'd like to give myself a little longer to let these songs sink in to make sure I give them a fair go. I'd say best case scenario, Saturday night, hopefully Sunday night latest. I'm not planning to make a habit of being late like this, though. Hopefully I get back into more of a regular pace next week.
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I WAS EXCITED AND YOU LET ME DOWN
but take your time srsly
insert take the time joke here
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:corn
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AND IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
WIIIIIIIIIILLL AAAAAAAALWWAAAAAAAAYYYYYS LOOOOOOOVE
YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
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man where the FUCK
are my results
j/k, just give my song an awesome score
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I'm so sorry. I tried to listen on the plane today, but the Wi-Fi was so bad that YouTube didn't work. I'm listening right now, but I'll need one more listen to do the write-ups, and it will need to not be right after the current listen. Tomorrow is definitely the day. And I really will try not to make a habit of this. This was just a weird week for me in terms of scheduling and in terms of the contents of the round (for a variety of reasons, I probably would not do a round with a "sad" theme if I were to host another roulette).
Here are some early impressions of mine, way late, to tide you over.
"Towards the end the singing becomes really powerful."
"That buildup is really good."
"However, this doesn’t quite have that emotional gut punch for me right now."
"I slightly know [this artist/person], primarily from [song]; this is almost equally as sad."
"Good, but still not great, [other song from this artist] definitely ranks higher
"These lyrics are soul wrenching."
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1, 2, 6 are all ones I want to be about my entry. Please.
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1, 2, 6 are all ones I want to be about my entry. Please.
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One more, straight from what I'm typing now as I'm finishing the penultimate round of listening:
"This song is almost bringing me to tears right now."
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^my song
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Maybe.
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It's clearly mine :hat .
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Hopefully the third one isn't mine.
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If the third one is mine, then you have no soul.
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but in reality i have no clue how this will do though hopefully well since you've liked my last three entries pretty well :lol
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If the third one is mine, then you have no soul.
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The third one finally got to me last night, actually. I'll be sure to indicate which it was in the writeup, for the curious. But it's not going to be among the lowest scorers.
Writeups are happening right now. Just so you know, you all might want to take a quick look at what the other entries were before reading the writeup for yours, just to see if you were one of the people who submitted the same artist. I casually make reference to the other song in each of their writeups, so you'll probably want to at least know if you were one of those people and what the other song was.
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Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand :corn
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the great hype machine
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:dangerwillrobinson:
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:millahhhh
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I mentioned yesterday that I somewhat wished I hadn't done a sad round. That's partially true. Doing a sad round is emotionally trying and requires more effort to get into the right mood to listen to the music. That was a big part of the delay. It's also a more sensitive round to grade. Most people are sending songs that have some level of emotional pull for them, so it's worrying to me that I'm going to end up totally disliking a song that means a lot to someone and having to give them a bad score. It's especially frustrating when I know that a song has a great deal of meaning for the artist and probably for the person sending it, but just due to my experiences, it doesn't resonate with me as much as it did for the sender.
But there were upsides to the sad round. For one thing, this probably ended up being the best round of the roulette so far. Maybe because a lot of these songs got to me emotionally, but I really do love a good emotional sad song. There are plenty of really good songs in here, and it's been as tough as ever for me to differentiate despite buying myself that extra increment with my recent change to the scoring. I don't want to put anything at the very top, but at the same time, nothing this round merited anything else but a high score. So we have yet another round with a lot of high scores crowded together. I'm trying to convince myself to stop worrying too much about this, though I have to make sure that there's enough of a spread for it to make sense that songs x, y and z have the same score. Hopefully, it will all work out in the end and we'll have a clear winner. But I think the fact that this thing is still really quite close almost halfway into it demonstrates how pleased I have been with everyone's entries so far. And I hope that, even if it seems like you and I don't quite mesh as well in terms of music tastes as I do with some others, this roulette has been enjoyable to you so far and will continue to be a good time, even if you don't win.
And remember that I had thrown out the old score scaling and decided to start over with that this round, before you freak out upon seeing a two-digit number. It would have been a 9.5 last round.
Now, without any further delay:
Round 4 Results
TAC: Gary Moore - Empty Rooms
This is a pretty nice power ballad. It definitely wears its 80s style on its sleeve, but I find that pretty likable in this case. The synths are a bit cheesy, especially on the quiet section, but they really do work for this song. Of course, the guitar is one of the main focuses here, and Gary Moore’s playing is very good. The verses and choruses are well-written and quite memorable. His voice is pleasing and fits quite well into the song.
This song is a really solid entry. There’s a lot to like about this song and really nothing to hate. It’s a really good piece. It doesn’t quite resonate with me quite as powerfully as some of the other songs this round do, but it definitely is a really good song.
Score: 7.5
Sacul: Brand New - Handcuffs
This has been a stealthy grower for me this round. At first, it really didn’t do that much for me. It was a nice little song, but it didn’t really make an impression on me beyond that. As I’ve gone on, though, it’s sneakily gotten itself stuck in my head and pressured me a bit as to whether it does properly go below its album-mate.
This really is a nice little song from a band that is obviously talented, as has been made clear to me this round. The singer is probably the centerpiece here and brings a really nice sense of melancholy to the song. I also really like the background work from the electric guitar and the synths. Lyrics are a bit… intense for me at times, and I get the sense that that’s something I’d have to get used to with this band. But I can’t ignore the fact that this is a really nice little song. “I’d arrest you if I had handcuffs” has worked its way right into my head.
Score: 8.0 + 0.5 bonus = 8.5
OpenYourEyes311: Michael Jackson - She’s Out of My Life
This is obviously an artist that I was familiar with before hearing this song. I’d always liked Michael Jackson’s hits well enough, but had never really dug deeper into his catalog or thought about him in the context of deeply emotional songs. So you definitely did correct an automatic evaluation I had made of this particular artist.
Jackson’s voice is obviously the centerpiece of this song, and he does really well. I’d always known he had a really good voice, but this is, again, more than I had known him to be capable of. He does so well at carrying this slow, vocally-driven, emotional piece. On the most emotional parts, he really does bring a powerful sense of pain and sadness to the song. Very well done. I’m also pleased by the role of the instrumental parts in this song. The synths do really well at sitting in the background but also boosting his voice whenever they’re needed to do so. Nicely done.
Score: 8.0 + 0.5 bonus = 8.5
lonestar: Marillion - Sugar Mice
I had, of course, previously heard of Marillion and had heard this mentioned as one of the best songs from the band and even of its genre. Shamefully, I had not given it a pass until now. Fortunately, lonestar has corrected that.
This song pairs its absolutely devastating lyrics with a very good musical approach to create a really emotionally powerful piece the likes of which you really are not likely to hear in this style (at least, in my opinion). On the surface, this song doesn’t seem that notable, but it really is. The vocal melodies are really excellent. The playing is fantastic, just a cut above. I’d known Pete Trewavas from Transatlantic, so I knew to listen for excellent bass playing, and I wasn’t disappointed.
But ultimately, this song is about the lyrical message. Which is just devastating. This is a very sad song indeed, and the music (particularly the singing) captures the sense of regret portrayed in the lyrics extremely well. “Your daddy took a rain check.” Wow.
Score: 8.5
Parama: Pain of Salvation - Undertow
Another band that I probably should have checked out by now, but hadn’t yet. And another band that I’m learning I should have checked out.
This song builds a really great vibe in its first couple of minutes. The guitar playing and the synths/keys set the scene in a really compelling fashion. Daniel Gildenlöw’s singing is really nice. His voice is soft with just the right amount of roughness to fit with the emotion of the piece.
The crescendo is probably the best part of the song. Gildenlöw’s voice becomes really outstanding on the climax of the song. He builds a great deal of emotional power and makes the song feel as desperate as it does. “Let me drain! Let me die!” And then the ending brings it full-circle quite nicely. This is quite a good piece and one that has definitely encouraged me to give Pain of Salvation a look.
Score: 8.5
Evermind: Mark Knopfler - Dream of the Drowned Submariner
I know Mark Knopfler primarily from the Dire Straits song Brothers In Arms, which scores a key portion of the best episode of television ever, The West Wing's “Two Cathedrals.” This song may not quite reach that song’s level of greatness, but it is almost equally as sad. I don’t know why I brought that up, really, besides from a desire to give a little background of my limited familiarity with this artist.
Just from my limited experience with him, Knopfler is really quite notable in my mind for his emotive singing and guitar playing. This song is a perfect example of that. Most of the guitar work is pretty simplistic acoustic plucking, but it just works. The little outbursts of electric guitar work add the perfect touch to the piece. And the synth work is a lovely backdrop.
Knopfler’s vocal performance is fantastic and is why this song is so sad. He isn’t the most technically impressive singer, but he’s one of those guys who hits just the right notes, musically and emotionally, and has a really pleasing tone on top of that. The end result is a really pleasant but very sad piece of music.
Score: 8.5 + 0.5 bonus = 9.0
Big Hath: Kevin Gilbert - Song for a Dead Friend
Apparently this is a song that you’re not supposed to send in sad rounds? I knew going in that this was a stereotypical sad round song, which is why it was so perplexing to me that it really didn’t have the emotional gut punch for me that it had for so many others. First listen, I thought the music was good, but I didn’t feel much. Second listen, mostly the same thing. Finally, on the third listen, it clicked for me emotionally, at least to the extent that it could for me, since I haven’t had the experience that the song speaks to.
This is one of those songs that’s really genius in its simplicity. The instrumental aspect really works off of just one simple melody, but that melody is good enough that it just works. The singing also rests in the repetition of a few melodies, but Gilbert’s voice brings a great deal of emotional weight to it. The lyrics are devastating, and when combined with the sadness of the music, they result in one of the saddest songs I’ve heard.
Score: 9.0
Scorpion: Brand New - Limousine
The other song from Brand New that I received this round. I’m surprised that I had not heard of this artist up until now, because they are really, really good. I do recognize this album art from somewhere, and I’ll definitely have to get this disc, because I’ve liked two of its songs already.
This song is just a really excellent, multi-part, 7-minute conceptual piece. It oscillates extremely well between quiet and loud, soft and intense. It starts with an almost morbidly sad part that is quite touching, which soon gives way to an aggressive intense part. That then slips into the catchiest part, which is also really saddening but sounds really good. The repetition of “never again” leads right into a rather awe-inspiring building section that involves the near repetition of another line. I’ve always really quite loved songs that repeat something very similar with slight changes to build intensity. This reminds me of Intervals, actually, due to the counting aspect, and while it’s not quite Octavarium, this is really excellent in its own, really sad way. The intensity continues into a really nice riff that is only played one time, but is another really good part of the song.
The one thing that brings this song a bit for me is the very end. I don’t really like it when songs degenerate into (to me) pointless guitar noise. In fact, I really don’t like it. See my numerous comments all over this forum on Misunderstood. This is such an awesome song that it still scores really high despite that, and it’s helped by the fact that I can just turn it off before most of the noise comes on, but I just thought I’d note that particular annoyance of mine.
Score: 9.0 + 0.5 bonus = 9.5
Shadow Ninja 2.0: Red House Painters - Katy Song
This was my favorite song of the round right off the bat, and it’s remained one of my favorites throughout. And it’s another great song from an artist I’ve never heard of.
The singer’s voice and the lyrics are really what make this song so special. It’s not extraordinary musically, though the guitar playing is actually rather nice and does the perfect job of setting a sad backdrop. But it’s his voice that makes it. He really brings the perfect sense of sadness tinged with regret and just a tiny bit of hope.
The only downside of this song is its long runtime. The last few minutes fit in well with the song, yes. The wordless singing is quite sad and rather fitting with the mood of the whole thing. I can’t help but feel that the ending goes on a bit too long, though. Due to the overall excellence of the song, though, I can’t say that detracted from the score much.
The lyrics hit home a bit for me. They don’t exactly speak to a personal experience of mine, but they are relatable to me because I really have felt a lot like the protagonist does a lot of times before. And this is the song that nearly brought me to tears last night during my penultimate listening.
Score: 9.0 + 0.5 = 9.5
kingshmegland: Ben Folds Five - Brick
A great song from an artist that I’ve never even heard of before, yet again. This is the one that’s really stuck with me from this round. This is a devastatingly sad piece that is also just tremendous musically.
Something about high scoring songs makes me want to say less rather than more. The music really just speaks for itself to me. This is just a tremendous song, and I do think it speaks for itself, so I’m not going to say too much about it. But here goes.
The singer and pianist is just tremendous. His voice is really sad and relatable. He really just puts me in the situation. And for whatever reason, just from hearing the song and watching the video, I really feel strongly that I like him as a person.
The vocal melodies are fantastic here as well. The verses are so sad. And chorus is catchier and really depressing and just a bit messed up. It’s a special kind of despair that this song finds its way into, lyrically. The people in the song are going through a tremendously traumatic situation, one that, according to the singer’s explanation of the lyrics that I looked up, would be way more traumatic for her than for him. But his thoughts are not about her well-being—she’s a brick. And he’s drowning slowly. It’s this really immensely sad and desperate song, in which he is not exactly a good guy but is at the same time incredibly relatable. And it’s all in a 4:30 song. Just an amazing entry.
Score: 9.5 + 0.5 bonus = 10.0
All (nine this time) artists from this round are now banned.
Standings:
Scorpion - 36.0
Shadow Ninja 2.0 - 35.5
OpenYourEyes311 - 35.0
Parama - 35.0
Evermind - 34.0
Big Hath - 33.0
kingshmegland - 33.0
lonestar - 32.0
Sacul - 31.5
TAC - 31.0
Again, let me know if I've erred in calculating scores somehow.
Round 5: Happy Round
By happy, I really just mean some sort of positive emotion. This can be joyful, uplifting, etc. Again, I'm not going to be super strict thematically, but your submission should just be a "feel good song" on the whole. It should make me feel happier from listening to it.
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i will literally happy your face off with this band, even the band name is supr happy
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Damn you Scorpion! I was going to send that same song in another round :lol . But it's Brand New, so you're forgiven :heart .
I find Handcuffs fits better in the album context because it closes it, and it's a somewhat calm song in a highly emotional record - like the calm after the storm.
Will send later.
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Middle of the pack again, damn you guys, stop sending those great songs. I'll never catch up with all the 9.5 and 10 you're getting. :lol
Anyway, glad you liked it, 425. I need to think about the next round, I don't have a lot of happy music.
And I thought Scorp will send that Kevin Gilbert song too, I was wrong.
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sent
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Go big or go home. Sent....
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WOOOOT!!
Too bad I can't use Ben Folds Five again. They have some great happy tunes as well!!
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Sent some moderately happy and really uplifting electronic-ambient tune.
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Sent some happy folk :D
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Sent!
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So, everybody's in? ;D
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Yep, everybody's in as of yesterday. I'm going to try to make this as quick a turnaround as possible.
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i hope these results make me happy :biggrin:
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You won't know for a couple of days yet, because I'm still somewhat early in the process.
I have to say, some of you weren't kidding when you said that you don't quite know what to send for happy rounds! I'm not saying this is necessarily a bad thing, though I might end up taking a quick look at exactly how far I'm going to allow the theme to stretch. I think if I gave all the songs this round to some random non-DTF user and said "this is a playlist of happy songs," I'm not sure they'd completely agree.
Not to say this is a bad group of songs, because it isn't. It's just kind of interesting to me to see the directions in which some of y'all took this round.
And to answer the question that some people asked in PM: Yes, you do in fact get the worst score dropped. This is starting to seem a bit unnecessary to me just looking at how high scores have been across the board so far, but since I said the worst score would be dropped at the beginning of the roulette, I'm absolutely not going to mislead anyone by changing that now. So, yes, your worst score will be dropped.
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So, yes, your worst score will be dropped.
Can I get all of my worst scores dropped? :D
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So, yes, your worst score will be dropped.
Can I get all of my worst scores dropped? :D
I hope he has a calculator.
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So, yes, your worst score will be dropped.
Can I get all of my worst scores dropped? :D
I hope he has a calculator.
:lol
Yeah, one with a 7.5 button!
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:lol
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:lol Point taken! Though you actually only got two 7.5s. It surprised me too; I know it feels like more! (I think it probably goes without saying that what I'll really do if your worst score ends up being 7.5 is take out just one 7.5).
Odds are results won't get in until Tuesday. I was going to include quotes from first impressions, but honestly there's just not much to go on from what I've written this time. In general, I'll just say that I'm liking these submissions so far for the most part. Many of them are very quirky or weird songs, some of them in a way that I find very enjoyable and others in a way that's coming close to being a bit too weird for me. There are also some borderline cases with theme compliance. As much as I don't want to dock anyone points for any reason, I may end up taking away a half point if, by the time I do the writeups, I don't get how a particular song is happy/uplifiting/etc. Haven't decided yet exactly how strict I will be there.
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My song is definitely happy so I'll just wait for my high score :hat
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mine's happy and fun and upbeat and will not get that many points but that's fine
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Well, chances are this will be my worst result so it's not like those 0.5 points will matter anyway. I would say my song is quite uplifting though.
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If my song falls into the "too weird" category, just wait until you hear my submission for the epic round! :lol
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Speaking of epic round, are we supposed to be kind of unleashed with the songs' length for that one, or should we still try to keep it not too long?
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If my song falls into the "too weird" category, just wait until you hear my submission for the epic round! :lol
:lol
I need to look at some long songs myself.
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Speaking of epic round, are we supposed to be kind of unleashed with the songs' length for that one, or should we still try to keep it not too long?
I have a 30-min Japanese epic prepared :P
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If my song falls into the "too weird" category, just wait until you hear my submission for the epic round! :lol
Devil Doll ftw :metal :metal
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Speaking of epic round, are we supposed to be kind of unleashed with the songs' length for that one, or should we still try to keep it not too long?
I have a 30-min Japanese epic prepared :P
70 minute Canadian prog epic here, in nine movements.
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If my song falls into the "too weird" category, just wait until you hear my submission for the epic round! :lol
Devil Doll ftw :metal :metal
you know it
Fortunately, I don't have to worry about anyone else sending them. :lol
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i dunno if I really have any epics I'm sending in a kind-of-long and kind-of-epic song tho
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On the subject of the epic round: Does anyone object to switching the epic round and the mini-epic round? The epic round is going to take somewhat more of a time commitment for me, because obviously the songs will be significantly longer than usual. I'm going to be traveling again next week, and it would be probably more convenient for the mini-epics to be the ones I'm listening to during the first half of that week and doing the write ups on while out of town. If no one has a problem with this for some reason, I think that this switch will be better for me and the best way to keep the roulette moving fairly quickly.
Speaking of epic round, are we supposed to be kind of unleashed with the songs' length for that one, or should we still try to keep it not too long?
For when that time comes: You can send a song of whatever length you want, but I would put a recommended cap at around 25 minutes, for a couple of reasons: 1) If you send me a 48-minute song that I have to listen to several times along with 9 other long songs, I will hate you at least a little bit. 2) No matter how long the thing is, I'm going to listen to it just 3 or 4 times. It'll be hard for me to get a complete sense of even a 20-minute song in that time, but I'll be able to do it well enough to grade it. It'll be nearly impossible for me to get a sense for a 40-minute song in that time.
I'm not going to put a hard cap, because I don't think it makes sense to say that a 24:59 song is 100% okay and a 25:01 song is banned. Just be reasonable about it; use your good judgement. And put yourself in my shoes: imagine that I'm going to listen to this song 3-4 times, sandwiched between 9 other songs of a similar length.
Round 5 results will be posted tomorrow. I will also give a bit of a description of what I'm going for with the mini-epics at that time if no one objects to that being Round 6. For those of you who are starting to think about that now, my briefest description is that you should kind of think Surrounded in terms of overall length, scale and epic feel.
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If anyone would've sent Surrounded-like song for my mini-epic round, I would've docked some points for that. I don't think this song is epic at all. Though I kind of see how people can see it as epic, so alright, no docking points, but anyway.
Fortunately, I know what I'm sending for mini-epic round, but I have no idea what to send for the big epic, I was planning to send that totally awesome 31 minutes long song, but with that 25 minutes cap I don't know. It's an amazing song though, so maybe I'll send it anyway, haha.
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If it's a song that you think will blow me away, but it's longer than 25 minutes, it could very well be worth the risk. I don't mean to dissuade anybody from sending the song they want to send, I just want to make sure things don't get too ridiculous to where I end up with 6 hours of music in one round or something.
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I don't think Surrounded has any "epic" feel. Songs like Hell's Kitchen, Sacrificed Sons, and the demo of Take Away My Pain do really have that vibe IMO.
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Okay, fine! :lol Ignore what I said, send what you want! But Sacrificed Sons is way too long for a "mini epic" round and would lose points.
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But Sacrificed Sons is way too long for a "mini epic" round and would lose points.
Yeah, it's epic, but it's definitely not "mini epic". And Hell's Kitchen is kind of not good. *hides*
Anyway, I've got incredibly epic song for that round. I hope you'll like it.
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Anyway, I've got incredibly epic song for that round. I hope you'll like it.
I've got like 3 or 4 actually, don't know which to send :lol .
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I've got a lot too, but this one is the only non-metal song among those.
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I've got:
19 min world music, new age prog folk
35 min electronic/neoclassical Japanese piece
16 min neoclassical live piece
16 and 22 min post-rock epics respectively
Any advise on what should I send? :P
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I meant the mini-epic round actually, haha.
I think you should send 35 minutes electronic Japanese tune anyway. I mean, what can go wrong?
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Well the cyberpolice may trace my location and arrest me because I murdered him of mind-blown.
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And Hell's Kitchen is kind of the best DT instrumental and a top 10 song. *hides*
FTFM
I can do mini-epic round that's fine since I do have a song picked out for that but not for the epic round :lol
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Not a lot of preface here from me. I think I've already given most of my broad, general thoughts about this round. So I'll just get right into the writeups.
Round Five Results
Scorpion: Extreme - Play With Me
This is one of several songs in this round that I found to be very weird. Unfortunately, unlike some of the others, its weirdness didn't really do it for me.
This song is by no means boring. There's a lot going on, between the use of a classical theme at the beginning and the use of childlike vocals on some of the choruses and on a rather odd insertion of the children's rhyme about sitting in a tree on the bridge. All this makes for a rather fun and entertaining song, but, for me, it's not much more than that.
The verses are really just not the good. The chorus is better, but it's also very cheesy and not in a way that is particularly likable to me. And the fact that there's a lot going on doesn't really matter when I find most of the stuff that's going on to be odd. The overall sound also screams 80s hair metal, which is a genre that I don't mind listening to on occasion, but is not one that I enjoy that greatly. I can see why someone would like this song more than I did, but, especially compared to some of the other songs in this round, this just stands as a fairly mediocre song in my view.
Score: 6.0
Big Hath: Alcest - Summer's Glory
This lengthy metal song is the definite black sheep in a round of fairly unusual entries. I'd somewhat heard of the band Alcest, but I never expected them to be a band that I would receive in the "happy" round. And having heard the song, I'm still not sure I quite get your choice to pair it with this theme. Nevertheless, on my last listen (which is when I made this decision), I've decided that this song does fit into the broader category of "uplifting" music and won't receive a penalty for missing the round theme.
Nevertheless, the song itself is fairly good. Of all the songs I've received in this roulette, this is one of the ones that I feel like I've "digested" least in the maximum four listens I allot to each song. Typically, I get a song pretty well after the third listen and have a general idea what I'm going to say about it in the writeup and what score I'm going to give it. This one is still a bit of a mystery to me on the fourth listen. That makes it kind of hard to score, because I think it's possible that it will have more to offer me in the future than it does now. But I have to score it for how I feel about it now.
I suppose this song would be considered "post metal"? It definitely has some similarities to what little post rock I have heard with a more metallic element, as one would expect. The heavily distorted guitars produce these big, slow melodies that result in a rather nice soundscape. The vocals are pretty low in the mix, but they don't seem to be supremely important to the song, at least compared to the guitars. Speaking of the mix, this is first song in the roulette where I have felt compelled to comment on the production. The production here is not very good. It sounds a bit distant and overall just kind of poorly done. I understand that this is a popular thing to do in black metal, so I recognize that it might be intentional. But intentional or not, I don't particularly like it. The song would benefit from better production, IMO.
Though I allow the possibility for the song to grow in the future, more so than I do for other songs in the roulette, right now it's just good for me, not near the top of the round.
Score: 7.5
TAC: Deep Purple - I'm So Glad
This song definitely belongs in the very large group of songs I've received this round that I find somewhat strange. In this case, the strangeness isn't really stylistic—it has more to do with the song structure. The main part of the song, with the verses and choruses, appears in the second part of a seven-minute track after a long instrumental intro that features a lot of kind of strange synths. There's nothing wrong with this song structure per se, but it's rather unusual and made the song harder for me to approach.
The music itself is pretty good here, particularly in the main part. The verses, both vocally and in terms of backing music, are quite solid and memorable. The long intro also has some sections that are quite good. However, some of the instrumental interludes are not as excellent and not that memorable. Plus, the overall song structure is very strange for me. I think I would prefer this if the instrumental intro were on a different track entirely, and the vocal parts were their own separate song, without some of the intervening parts between verses. The result of this song, the way it is presently structured, is that there's kind of a long song, with parts I like quite a bit and parts I don't like so well, but with the main part I like being basically a rather simple and short song. The full 7:19 piece is still very good, but I have my reservations.
Score: 7.5
OpenYourEyes311: Fastball - Warm Fuzzy Feeling
This little rock song is a really nice, short expression of joy and pride. Lyrically, it's a really nice sentiment of pride in an accomplished friend. There's also an element of social criticism in there, but the dominant subject, for me, is the pride.
There isn't really too much to say here, because this song is so short and simple, but that's part of what makes it good. There are just a couple of good happy verses over a memorable guitar riff, and the song ends without overstaying its welcome. There's nothing stunning about it, but it's a really nice, short happy song.
Score: 8.0
kingshmegland: Butterfly Jones - Sunshine and Ecstasy
One of those songs that is downright fun, right here. The music is superbly energetic, particularly the drums which give the song a racing feel. I could definitely see myself playing this song while driving; it's so great for that. The vocals really bring the same exuberant, carefree feeling. That chorus is absolutely infectious. I cannot get it out of my head, but in a good way. It's an extremely fun song that brings all sorts of excitement. That's exactly what I was hoping to get from some of the songs this round.
Score: 8.0
Evermind: Amethystium - Treasure
Evermind, this song sounded pretty good to me from your description, and your description was pretty spot-on. This is a really pretty electronic song that is low on the beats and noisy stuff that seems to come in a lot of electronic music.
The main instrumental melody is pretty simple without too much variation, which provides a nice spotlight for the singer, who is just fantastic. Her voice just sounds impossibly sweet and beautiful. She really makes the piece for me, making the already-good vocal melodies absolutely shine. Definitely in the top five of the prettiest voices I have ever heard. For her alone I want to check this band out. The instrumentals, while they are not the main focus, are quite good as well and are a nice added bonus.
Score: 8.0 + 0.5 bonus = 8.5
lonestar: Grateful Dead - Uncle John's Band
Ah, the Grateful Dead. They are actually my stepfather's favorite band—he followed them around on tour for a while. So I've definitely heard a lot about them and their greatness, and I've heard some of their songs, but I never really sat down and listened to them seriously on my own. Well, now I am.
As for the song itself: I really like it, quite a bit. It's a pretty simple folky piece musically, but I really love that here. The instrumentation fits perfectly alongside the vocals to maintain the mood of the song. The vocals, in turn, really bring the lyrics to life in a lot of places. This is really just a emotionally lively piece where all the parts work together to create a really lovely whole. It's also got a good deal of variety. I love hearing the changes in tension level in the singing, between the powerful "God damn, well I declare" and some of the softer "come hear Uncle John's band" parts. Overall, a really uplifting folk song that will definitely give me the impetus to dig deeper into this group's discography.
Score: 8.5 + 0.5 bonus = 9.0
Parama: fun. - Walking the Dog
Obviously, this is a band I've heard a little from. Just the hits, though: Some Nights and We Are Young. Never gone deeper, but I liked those.
This song is damn fun. Really. To quote Parama: "fun fun happy fun happy happy fun" :lol . And it's true. There's a lot of stop-start and staccato on the vocal melodies. Which makes them all the more fun and memorable. Absolutely infectious. The music is also super bouncy and enjoyable. This one has had me dancing around and singing along with the chorus, which is an absolute delight. Great little song, from what seems like a pretty good little band.
Score: 8.5 + 0.5 bonus = 9.0
ShadowNinja 2.0: Kishi Bashi - Philosophize In It! Chemicalize With It!
This is another insanely fun little song. It's a little weird, yes (the video is animated but features a live-action clapping family and many of the same violinist?), but in a charming way.
This is another of several songs in this roulette that I've admired for seamlessly integrating a lot of different musical styles. There's acoustic rock and electronic elements, yes, and also a symphonic/violin part, all working together really well in a 3.5 minute song. I really like the singer's work on the high-pitched vocal melodies, particularly on the chorus when he goes way up "fountain of my many . It impresses me every time he does that. On the whole this is just a really nice happy piece.
Score: 8.5 + 0.5 bonus = 9.0
Sacul: Sufjan Stevens - Chicago
A really impressive song here, and my definite favorite of the round. This piece manages to incorporate a pop sensibility and some diversity in instrumentation into a pretty emotionally weighty song with a pretty big scope. I really like the presence of string and brass instruments in this song, particularly the horns, which, combined with the synths, gives an interesting feel to the song of a fairly modern piece that has older elements, as well, stylistically.
Sacul, you wrote that you thought I'd like how personal this song is. That is you really getting me this time around, because I do absolutely love that. The song really seems to matter a lot to him lyrically, but it also has a really beautiful universal message. The alternation between his solo vocals on the verses and the chorus of many voices singing the chorus. The part where the chorus sings with little musical accompaniment is a really pretty moment. The message here seems to be rather religious, which I am not, but which I do find absolutely beautiful at its best. In this case I absolutely love the lyrics on the chorus and the beauty and emotional power with which the chorus delivers them. Just an absolutely beautiful song. "All things go, all things go."
Score: 9.0 + 0.5 bonus = 9.5
I'm going to go ahead and ban all ten artists from this round as well. I'll probably just continue to ban every artist that is sent, simply in the interest of getting more diversity.
Natural Standings
ShadowNinja 2.0 - 44.5
Parama - 44.0
OpenYourEyes311 - 43.0
Evermind - 42.5
Scorpion - 42.0
kingshmegland - 41.0
lonestar - 41.0
Sacul - 41.0
Big Hath - 40.5
TAC - 38.5
And I'm also going to start doing a calculation of how much everyone would have with their worst score dropped. Up until now we really didn't have enough rounds done to where it made sense to me to do that, but now it does make sense.
Adjusted Standings
Parama - 36.0
ShadowNinja 2.0 - 36.0
Scorpion - 36.0
OpenYourEyes311 - 35.0
Evermind - 34.5
Sacul - 34.0
kingshmegland - 33.5
lonestar - 33.5
Big Hath - 33.0
TAC - 31.0
Round Six: Tiny Epic
No one objected to it, so I'm switching the mini epic and epic rounds for my own convenience. Please take note of this. This is the tiny epic round.
A tiny epic should be a relatively short song that displays some kind of grandiosity or epic-ness. In the original post, I said that this song should be six minutes or less. I don't want to be too strict about this, so I won't come after you if your song is 6:10 or something, but you need to be trying to keep it as short as possible. If the song is too long in my judgment, you'll get a penalty for missing the theme. I can guarantee that if you're under 6 minutes, you will not receive any penalty. If you are over six minutes, I'll exercise my own judgement and you might be penalized. Just keep that in mind.
I was going to give a description of what I consider to a be a mini-epic, but everyone seems to already have their own ideas, which is fine by me. I would just say this: if you're uncertain about what to send, know that if the song has several different parts that don't repeat much and it doesn't have a chorus, it will seem more epic to me. This isn't to say that you have to do this or that any song that does this fits the theme, but it's a good general idea that I hope provides a bit of insight into my mindset. Anyway, go forth.
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hah okay so this is mini-epic in the literal sense
the last time it was in the "epic sound" sense and i sent in a song that more fit the sense you're looking for here (another fun. song specifically :lol )
i'll find something that meets your expectations hopefully :lol
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Damn, mediocre score once again. Maybe we shouldn't drop the lowest score? I like the fourth place better than fifth. :lol But anyway, at least there are no more happy rounds.
My mini-epic song totally fits your description, no chorus, no identical verses, epic feel and all that. I'll send when I'm back from work. Hoping for a great score this round.
Also, I think that Kishi Bashi song got 3/10 in my roulette.
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Glad you liked the song. Surprised I didn't get a +.5. They are not a prog band at all!
Mini Epic. I'll work on the tonight!
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...And the freefall from the top continues! Haha, oh well... I gotta get my :censored together! :lol
Surprised I didn't get a +.5. They are not a prog band at all!
Yeah, same here! Although I'm not sure I remember what qualifies us for the +.5 anymore.
Hopefully I can regain some ground in the next few rounds.
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Yeah, I'll look at both of yours again regarding the +0.5. For whatever reason it made sense to me last night to not give it, but now I'm not 100% sure. The criteria for it is not being either prog or hard rock/metal. I'll take a look at both of yours today and figure out which side of the hard rock line they are.
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:sadpanda:
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No big deal though. I in these games for the music anyhoo!
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I should have sent "Tracy's Mom" from Fountains Of Wayne. That song is the happiest ear worm ever. :lol
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Sent the mini-epic.
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Yay! I was a bit worried whether you'd find the song a bit cheesy or not - glad you loved it. Sufjan has an ability to make such comfy and personal music. Be sure to check that album, Illinois.
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sent, I kinda fit the criteria this time. Non-repeating verses at least but there's still a chorus
more went for epic sound than anything lol
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Mini Epic sent!
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Sent.
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Will send later today.
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Sent. Figuring my odds of winning are pretty nil here, so taking some big chances now. Hope this one finds its mark...
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oh and i'm gone from this saturday to next saturday so if you get results done earlyish i'm not gonna have an entry for you until saturday or sunday sorry
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Alright, Parama, I'll keep that in mind.
I currently have a song from everyone but OpenYourEyes311.
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Figuring my odds of winning are pretty nil here,
Tell me about it! :lol
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Alright, Parama, I'll keep that in mind.
I currently have a song from everyone but OpenYourEyes311.
Ahhh! Real busy weekend guys, sorry. Sending now!
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Results this weekend, then? :corn
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(https://media.giphy.com/media/UNH53BJMfWbF6/giphy.gif)
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Results this weekend. There's no point in me rushing, since Parama won't be able to send until the weekend anyway.
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But, but... will you post the first impressions?
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I would except that I actually have not listened to anything yet.
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Hey if that's the case, can I change my submission? I just found a song I like way better for this round.
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Sometimes I wonder if I should have policies about these things.
But yeah, go ahead. It doesn't affect the game in any way and other people have done this as well, just usually more quickly.
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Alright, I'll post some first impressions now. I'm shooting for Sunday, but it might be Monday. It's been a busy week and this'll be a busy weekend, which is why I wanted to postpone the full-size epic round.
First:
1) Damn, you all really pushed the envelope on the length. So many songs over 6:00. Don't think I'm going to penalize anyone because it was mostly reigned in, but this aspect of this round serves to me as a reminder to you all that on the next round, sending a long song could really be something that works against you, because I'll have so much material.
2) Once again, two people sent a song by the same artist. And once again, I won't tell you which, so that you can wonder if it was you. :P
EDIT: Here are the first impression quotes.
"This type of thing almost always goes well with me; I think it's really beautiful"
"Really eclectic"
"The title here is really fitting with the music."
"Hmm. Songs like this often don't get through to me that well. Time will tell if this one succeeds."
"Like [another song], this one is pretty chaotic."
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i again hope it was the artist i sent in because again they deserve more than one song
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I just edited the first impression quotes into the earlier post.
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The only one with some resemblance to my song might be the first one. I do really hope it's not the one before the last :lol.
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It's been so long that I forgot what I sent! :lol
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1) Damn, you all really pushed the envelope on the length. So many songs over 6:00. Don't think I'm going to penalize anyone because it was mostly reigned in, but this aspect of this round serves to me as a reminder to you all that on the next round, sending a long song could really be something that works against you, because I'll have so much material.
Well, I think you should penalize everyone ( :angel: ), because in fact I ditched two songs that were in 6:00 - 6:30 range due to time limit, and now after this post, I totally won't sent the 31 minutes epic I've planned to send.
Also, almost all first impressions could apply to my song except the third one.
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1) Damn, you all really pushed the envelope on the length. So many songs over 6:00. Don't think I'm going to penalize anyone because it was mostly reigned in, but this aspect of this round serves to me as a reminder to you all that on the next round, sending a long song could really be something that works against you, because I'll have so much material.
Well, I think you should penalize everyone ( :angel: ), because in fact I ditched two songs that were in 6:00 - 6:30 range due to time limit, and now after this post, I totally won't sent the 31 minutes epic I've planned to send.
Also, almost all first impressions could apply to my song except the third one.
ahem, my song was 5:46, thank you very much!
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I believe mine was under as well. If only I could remember the song. :lol
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I meant everyone who sent the song over 6 minutes limit. :angel:
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Mine is under 6 mins :coolio
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3 and 4 could refer to mine, I suppose.
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I'm in last place anyways, punish away dude. I sent in a 6 plus song and I have zero regrets about it.
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I'm in last place anyways, punish away dude. I sent in a 6 plus song and I have zero regrets about it.
Don't take that award away from Tim. Last place is all his.
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5 is the only one that could vaguely be mine
i sent a song a few seconds shy of 6 minutes myself
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"Hmm. Songs like this often don't get through to me that well. Time will tell if this one succeeds."
Sounds like another 7.5 for me!!!!
Don't take that award away from Tim. Last place is all his.
OK..well..
I believe mine was under as well.
You're always under 6 minutes!
;D
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Have you been talking to my wife Tim? :lol
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Well, this has slipped onto the second page and I assume you all are thinking I've forgotten about you entirely...
I haven't forgotten, real life has just been quite busy lately. Unless something unexpected happens, I'll have results done tonight.
A couple more interesting items to build the anticipation:
1. Overall, I think this is one of the best rounds I've received in this roulette. Most of the songs I didn't like so well have grown to fit in well with the higher rated songs from the beginning of the listening. There may not be a song here that is head and shoulders above the round, but the whole set of them is really good. Not to say the other rounds haven't been good, though.
2. The two songs by the same artist in this round are pretty comparable in quality. It's hard for me to tell which one I like better.
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I really doubt someone sent the same artist as me :lol .
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I can't remember what I sent. :lol
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you monster
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Can't wait! :caffeine:
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:corn
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Just so you know, I have no better idea of what is going on in the scaling of the scores than you do. If anyone reading this is running their own first roulette soon, I would really recommend that you strongly consider doing what I've seen others do, which is just awarding fixed point values to a ranking of the songs from each round (first place gets x points, second place gets y points, etc.). Because it has really been tough figuring out how to scale points. Ultimately, I've decided that it is more important to make sure that I am consistent within one round that across rounds. I think I'm still close to a consistent score system across rounds, but I'm working harder to make sure that things make sense within this round, so that everyone is on a level playing field within each round.
It might be a bit easier if I just got songs and did writeups with no scoring at all—this round, everyone's song would get a score of "really good." But that would defeat the whole purpose of having a game where someone wins, so I'm happy to keep working through the scoring to that end.
In any case, here we have results.
Round Six Results
TAC: Heavenly - Evil
So I’ll admit right off the bat that I’m not a big power metal guy. I mean, I like Nightwish’s Oceanborn, but I got there through their later albums and I wouldn’t consider that typical power metal, anyway. Generally, I find the genre, from my limited experience, to be rather same-y. And I could very well still have that opinion if I were to listen to several albums from different power metal artists. But this entry definitely benefits from being submitted as one song that I listened to several times over the course of a week. Though, at first, I really didn’t see much in it, I have come to like it pretty well.
The beginning of the song is probably my least favorite part, because the really fast percussion is just a bit much for me, and I don’t really like the singer’s voice on that part (I don’t especially care for him later in the song, either, but he becomes tolerable later). The middle part of the song has some nice big choral parts with some pretty good vocal melodies, particularly the chorus. I also like the way that there are multiple phases including a calm part. That really contributes to the epic feel, since it feels like the song does a rather lot in its 6:13.
On the whole, this song definitely achieves the goal of being a relatively short epic, is definitely a well-written, energetic piece, and has gotten me to reconsider my general disinterest in power metal. Though I’m still not sure about listening to full albums of that style of music! :P
Score: 8.0
Big Hath: Riverside - Hyperactive
This song is one of two songs I received this round that I found to be really chaotic on first listen. It opens with a really great piano intro, and then jumps into a series of rather unusual musical parts, the first of which sounds kind of like a Dream Theater instrumental section! Ultimately, though, this song started to makes sense to me and definitely makes me interested in seeing what this band has to offer. I’d heard of this band before now, of course, as one of the more well-known “prog metal” bands, but I don’t think I’d ever listened to their music or really considered checking them out. I think I will be now.
This song is kind of a stylistic oddity, to me. I suppose my closest frame of reference is In Absentia-era Porcupine Tree, which is an album I enjoy but find a bit abrasive in comparison to my personal tastes. That’s what holds this song back for me, as well. I find it to be abrasive, both in the guitar tone and in the lyrical themes. Nevertheless, I find myself enjoying it because the music is just so well-written. The star player here for me is the keyboard player, even though he just sits in the background a lot of the time. I find him really intriguing. The other guys aren’t really notable, but they do a good job. This is a well-written song that defied my initial hesitation to get a pretty solid score.
Score: 8.0
kingshmegland: The Feeling - Sewn
Some roulette props are due to you, king. You figured out pretty early that I like good pop rock and you’ve been giving me a steady stream of it since round 2. It hasn’t translated into a position near the top of the standings, unfortunately, but I really do look forward to all of your submissions.
This is yet another fun little pop rock song that I really like. The singer/guitarist has a nice personality that translates well into a very good performance in the video you sent me. His singing is really pretty, and melodies are memorable. The lyrical subject matter also intrigued me a bit; it’s a rather unconventional love story that is really told quite nicely.
Musically, I’m not too crazy about the instrumental section towards the end. I get that this is what makes the song epic and therefore appropriate for this round, so it’s a bit strange that I’d be complaining about this, but I just found that part to not be as good as the rest. Overall, though, this is a very nice song that will get me to look more into this band in the future.
Score: 8.0 + 0.5 bonus = 8.5
OpenYourEyes311: 311 - Sometimes Jacks Rule the Realm
Another very nice pop rock song, the other one of the two that I was sent this round.
I really like the singer. His voice has a really pleasing tone, and he just floats on those pretty vocal melodies right on top of the music. The musicians are no slouches, either. The bassist is quite prominent and memorable, which is a bit unusual for a band of this style, I think. The music played by the guitars progresses throughout the song and gives the song its epic feel. There are a lot of different parts within this 5-ish minute song. Perhaps my favorite is when the chorus returns after the quiet section (and again towards the end, really), but in somewhat more epic fashion than before.
Score: 8.0 + 0.5 bonus = 8.5
Evermind: Phideaux - The Claws of a Crayfish
This is really an unusual song that stands out a bit even in a round of fairly unusual songs. I suppose part of it is that it’s a part of a concept album, but to its credit, it really does stand on its own as a little epic.
What really jumps out about this piece to me is the multi-instrumental nature of it. There’s a lot going on, musically, with string sections and saxophone players accompanying the traditional prog-rock instrumentation. The piano player may be the standout musician, though its hard to point one person out when so many musicians must have been involved in coming together to make such a seamless-sounding piece of music. The singer is a bit unusual-sounding, very high-pitched, but his voice is quite pretty.
This is a song that I could still get more out of with several more listens, and I’m sure I will also enjoy unpacking the whole concept album. I really enjoy quite a bit the way that the song goes through so many different sections and brings in so many different instruments in a very short running time. Definitely an artist to look into.
Score: 8.5
Parama: Thank You Scientist - My Famed Disappearing Act
This is the other song that I found really chaotic and quirky upon first listen. This one has really come into its own for me, though, as it is now among my favorites in a round of really good songs.
It starts off with some guitar parts that are very stereotypically proggy (:lol), before launching into a vocal section. I really love the singing and vocal melodies on this song. The chorus is pretty huge, which is really at the core of why this song is so epic. The music doesn’t let up the technicality, but it does so in a way that is really quite consonant with the vocal parts and makes the whole thing work really well.
This song is really a fun maze of twists and turns all strung through with an epic earworm of a chorus. We’ll miss you everyone...
Score: 8.5
ShadowNinja 2.0: God Is An Astronaut - Suicide By Star
I’m actually somewhat surprised that it took this long for someone to send me some post-rock, particularly since it is so obviously down my alley and I’ve only heard Sigur Rós. But better late than never.
This song repeats a really pretty motif quite a lot throughout its duration, augmenting it with some different instrumentation. I love the way that the various guitars and keyboards interplay with each other to build the music up. After the three-minute mark, things start to get pretty intense with the aggressive electric guitars playing with the desperate-sounding keyboard melody to bring the song towards its climax.
The double-bass drumming is pretty unexpected but makes for a pretty intense moment, which is exactly what the song needs. I’ll admit it scared me off a bit at first, but it’s really good. Quite a lovely little song.
Score: 8.5 + 0.5 = 9.0
lonestar: After Forever - Through Square Eyes
I feel like this writeup could really just consist of me saying “Floor Jansen” and giving a score. But I’ll go into a little more detail.
I’m a big Nightwish fan and have absolutely loved Floor in Nightwish. So I was happy to get something from Floor’s old band After Forever, that I have shamefully never looked into, I was quite pleased. And she does not disappoint. This is more operatic than she usually is in Nightwish, and that is excellent. She also does a lot counterpoint with a growler, in that “beauty and the beast style.” I really don’t care how much of a cliche it becomes, you can almost always count on me to love something like this. I just find the contrast really pretty. The quiet middle section is rather pretty, again because of Floor, and I like the way the song builds back up into the more aggressive parts. The background music might not be the most innovative stuff, but it does its job. Some of the symphonic parts are really quite nice.
In conclusion, Floor Jansen is probably the best singer in metal, and one of the best in all of popular music. This is a pretty good song, and Floor sings it, so that makes it a really good song.
Score: 9.0
Scorpion: God Is An Astronaut - Snowfall
The other song by God Is An Astronaut, and I like this one just a little bit better. In some ways, these songs are pretty similar, and in others, they’re polar opposites. Both of them repeat a motif and build on it, but where Suicide By Star is desperate and (later) violent, Snowfall is serene.
The musical theme that is repeated here is just such a pretty little melody. It really fits in so well with the title. I especially love it in the beginning, when it’s very calm and peaceful. The added intensity in the parts of the song makes for a nice change of pace, though, and it gives the song that epic vibe, as though it’s telling a little story. It gets really huge towards the end, which makes the whole thing feel quite a bit more exciting. I really do love the way these post-rock songs very often play with the way intensity can make one or two musical motifs sound very different from each other.
I’ll definitely return to this artist as a way to continue to foray into this style of music, and I think the fact that two different people sent songs from the same band that have similarities but also sharp differences was actually really interesting to experience.
Score: 9.0 + 0.5 bonus = 9.5
Sacul: David Maxim Micic - Wrinkle Maze
I don’t really know what to call this song, except awesome. This is an absolutely beautiful little epic that uses a vast array of instruments to create one cohesive piece.
The song begins very calmly, and builds very slowly into a powerful and memorable melody, driven by a low-pitched, choral sound. Slows down a bit, and then absolutely opens up. Wow. The guitars, strings and chorus work together to make this absolutely gorgeous melody sound spectacular. I wouldn’t necessarily expect a guitar solo in a song like this, but this one is really fitting and contributes to the mounting epic vibe, particularly with the choir in the background just building the intensity higher and higher.
I don’t know who this guy is, but he is really, really good. Now I see why you promote him so heavily!
You’ve won two rounds in a row now, Sacul. Putting together something here, that’s for sure.
Score: 9.5 + 0.5 bonus = 10.0
Natural Standings:
ShadowNinja 2.0 - 53.5
Parama - 52.5
OpenYourEyes311 - 52.0
Scorpion - 51.5
Evermind - 51.0
Sacul - 51.0
kingshmegland - 50.0
lonestar - 50.0
Big Hath - 48.5
TAC - 46.5
Adjusted Standings:
Scorpion - 45.5
ShadowNinja 2.0 - 45.0
Parama - 44.5
OpenYourEyes311 - 44.0
Sacul - 44.0
Evermind - 43.0
kingshmegland - 42.5
lonestar - 42.5
Big Hath - 41.0
TAC - 39.0
Again, let me know if I screwed up the standings.
EDIT: Oh! OpenYourEyes311 and kingshmegland, I just remembered that I was going to give you 0.5 bonus for your round five submissions that I hadn't given you at the time because I make weird roulette scoring decisions at 2:00 AM.
And every artist from this round is banned.
Round Seven: Epic
Yes, time for the epic round. No length limit. But take a look at the post I made a couple of pages back when I was asked about length. In essence, I said that you should keep in mind that I am going to have to listen to 9 other songs that you should assume are just as long as yours. And that I'm going to listen to your song probably three times, four times at the most (I've listened to every other round four times, but I'm just not sure that it's practical to do that here). So it may not be a good idea to go for that 35:43 song when you have a perfectly nice 19:34 song that you could go for instead.
There's also no low end on length, really, but it should be fairly long. I would say that if you're under 15 minutes, you're almost definitely too short. I'm not at all saying that songs shorter than that can't be epics, but it would be hard to scale a 12-minute song against a bunch of 23-minute behemoths.
You're also going to have to give me a little time on this one. I've been in the week to week-and-a-half range listening to about an hour-and-a-half of songs. This time I'm going to have something close to four hours of songs. So it will probably take me a little longer. Up until now, I've just had four sessions where I sit down and listen to all the songs in one go, and that's obviously not an option here, so there'll have to be eight sessions, probably. Overall this is just going to take longer because the songs are longer. But I absolutely feel that this round needs to be in the roulette, because I'm really excited to see what sorts of long-form stuff you all have to send me!
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The singer is a bit unusual-sounding, very high-pitched, but his voice is quite pretty.
You realise those were mostly female vocals, right?
And meh, another 8.5. It's not like I have any chance of winning now, so I'll go with 31 minutes long epic anyway. Will send it after work.
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Haha, high five Scorp. :lol
Will send soon.
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The singer is a bit unusual-sounding, very high-pitched, but his voice is quite pretty.
You realise those were mostly female vocals, right?
And meh, another 8.5. It's not like I have any chance of winning now, so I'll go with 31 minutes long epic anyway. Will send it after work.
:lol
I really wasn't sure! I wrote "his" and made a mental reminder to look it up and change it if I was wrong, but I forgot to do that! It wouldn't have changed my rating of the song, though, since that wasn't a downside at all. And I would still say that the vocals are unusual, because it is pretty unusual to have female vocals in that style of music.
I really do want to say, even people who are pretty far out of first place have sent me a songs that I really love. I've appreciated everyone's contribution, it's just, you know, the way these things work, only a few people can be near the top of the standings.
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Well, there are male and female vocals on the album, but female vocals surely prevail on this song. The high-pitched ones are definitely female.
And yeah, it's all fine, I'm just using this excuse to justify the fact I'm going over the recommended length limit.
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Cool, glad that hit home.
Epic sent....
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Haha, high five Scorp. :lol
Will send soon.
:hifive:
Will also send soon.
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OH BOY YES! :o Definitely check that album, my favorite release of 2013. Just a warning - it can be a bit more diverse than you might imagine though.
See people, David's great and your tastes suck :loser: .
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I never said that David sucks (I know that you don't me specifically, but I might as well use the chance now that the topic has come up), in fact I quite like Destiny Potato.
I just said that I found Where Is Now? extremely underwhelming and that it didn't inspire me to check out any of his other stuff.
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Yeah, that song only has two possible reactions: "Damn man, this is pretty awesome! :hefdaddy " or "What a mess - a mixed bag of good and bad ideas without any sense or direction 2/10 :tdwn ". Curiously, I think it's actually the only song from him that it's anywhere like that - most of his compositions have quite a smart songwriting, unlike Where is Now! which has more of a... jazz structure? Don't know how to describe it. Maybe this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBOFuRcgLd8) might change your mind?
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dammit, hyperactive was gonna be the opening song to my EP :lol
anyways you're gonna have to penalize me this round 'cause I have absolutely no epics over 15 minutes that I want to send to you but I'll find something that fits the bill
the fact that i haven't scored below 8 is hurting me in the adjusted standngs though :lol
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Glad you liked the 311. Pretty eclectic band, I would say, where all three of the main musicians are fantastic (not virtuoso, but fantastic at what they do).
anyways you're gonna have to penalize me this round 'cause I have absolutely no epics over 15 minutes that I want to send to you but I'll find something that fits the bill
the fact that i haven't scored below 8 is hurting me in the adjusted standngs though
pretty much all of this^
Hopefully I'll be able to send you an epic that'll bump me back up in the standings.
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Sent!
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Sent one of the best songs ever recorded.
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Sent one of the best songs ever recorded.
Hope you remember Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence is his least favourite DT album, so you know, no use sending the title track.
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That's the best song ever. I just sent one that would be around my top 10 or so ;D
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Sent one of the best songs ever recorded.
Hope you remember Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence is his least favourite DT album, so you know, no use sending the title track.
I like the title track (though there are 13 or 14 better songs in the DT discography alone). It's disc one that is meh.
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Sent one of the best songs ever recorded.
Hope you remember Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence is his least favourite DT album, so you know, no use sending the title track.
I like the title track (though there are 13 or 14 better songs in the DT discography alone). It's disc one that is meh.
No wonder I can't get a high score in your roulette, man. Total opposite for me here.
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425, I've been going the non prog route for the .5. Still, I enjoy a roulette that I can send something non prog.
I will have a hard time sending a non prog song this time. :lol
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No wonder I can't get a high score in your roulette, man. Total opposite for me here.
Yeah, I've often found that even people who I can get to agree with me that SDOIT is overrated often go the opposite way from me on what part is the problem. But, yep, I like the title track pretty well. It made #14 on my top 50 (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=40336.msg1755585#msg1755585), and though it might have slipped a bit closer to #20 since then, it hasn't slipped as much as The Glass Prison, which I would now rank in the 40s or so.
I will have a hard time sending a non prog song this time. :lol
I wouldn't expect it!
Note for all contestants:
I know some people are working on their submissions well in advance and have their EPs sketched out. I just want to be clear about the rules for that since there's been a bit of confusion, and I wasn't very clear or detailed in the OP about this.
When you make your EP, you have a maximum limit on length, which is 30 minutes. You also have a maximum of 15 minutes for how much music can be from any particular artist. So if you want to put a lot of King Crimson (for example) on your EP, you have to bear in mind that you can have no more than 14:59 worth of King Crimson on there, and the rest has to be from other artists.
The reason for this is that I want to have you all not just think about what you want to send me, but to craft a little playlist consisting of different artists that flows well. Basically, I'll be judging not just the quality of the songs you send but also the way the track order works.
Just wanted to make sure everything was completely clear so that anyone who is already working on this knows for sure what I actually want instead of having to decipher a little parenthetical from the OP.
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i combed through my entire library and there's 5 epics that I'd feel are at least passable though the only one I feel really strongly about is WAY TOO GODDAMN LONG for a roulette so :lol
might enter it anyways who knows
i could send in a longish post-rock song that's pretty good or a longish metal song that's probably too heavy, the other two reasonable-length songs i have to choose from are on the meh end of things though sigh
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Went with something a little different, I would think, but... SENT!
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Forgot to send yesterday because of work overload. Went ahead and sent this 31 minutes piece now.
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okay so I overcompensated on length but you have no one to blame but yourself 425
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okay so I overcompensated on length but you have no one to blame but yourself 425
Sounds like a guy thing.
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okay so I overcompensated on length but you have no one to blame but yourself 425
If a week and a half from now any of you are wondering why this round is taking so damn long, you have no one to blame but Parama.
I have everyone's entries except yours, king. No rush, especially given what Parama sent me, just letting you know.
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I'm pretty sure I know what Parama sent. I thought about sending it too, but I went with a choice that I perceived as a little safer.
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okay so I overcompensated on length but you have no one to blame but yourself 425
If a week and a half from now any of you are wondering why this round is taking so damn long, you have no one to blame but Parama.
I have everyone's entries except yours, king. No rush, especially given what Parama sent me, just letting you know.
I'm sending it when i get home from work!
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Sent!
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One question on the EP section. All the bands we sent are banned from the EP round I would assume?
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I'm pretty sure I know what Parama sent. I thought about sending it too, but I went with a choice that I perceived as a little safer.
screw being safe i'm just picking the best thing i can send :lol
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One question on the EP section. All the bands we sent are banned from the EP round I would assume?
I've actually been thinking some about this. Specifically, I've been thinking about a scenario where someone has already planned a perfect EP, and then one of the bands from their EP (but a different song) gets sent in a late round. Since the EP is about flow as well as quality, I was thinking that I would be less of a stickler about artists banned during this roulette in the EP round. I thought I might have a rule like "You can use an artist that has been banned during the roulette in your EP, but banned artists must make up less than one third of the EP's runtime." Thoughts?
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That's cool.
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Still struggling on the EP part. Had an actual full EP from a band I wanted to send, but that would obviously kill the time limit.
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it doesn't matter for me because even though only one artist has been submitted from the EP I planned out, the specific song I was gonna use was the one submitted :lol
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I have my EP planned basically since Round 1, and I've been slowly deleting songs and refining it through the game, so expect something of high quality. Luckily only two bands have already been banned from there - I hope no more please :lol
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I think the banned bands should stay banned for EP round. Planned the perfect EP and one of the bands was sent in the previous round? Tough luck, maybe go and plan something different then. ;)
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if I have to change the last two songs on my EP to something else i'll cry because I found the best damn transition between two unrelated songs ever that works even better than the transition originally intended by the first into the second omg
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so have you gotten through all the songs even once yet? :lol
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No because he can't stop replaying mine :hat .
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so have you gotten through all the songs even once yet? :lol
No. :lol
I've listened to four of the songs. Not including the longest song (Parama's, obviously), but including the second-longest song. In fairness, I only started listening today (I've been taking a few days off between finishing one round and starting the next to make sure that my palette is as clean as possible from one round to another). Right now, I'm listening to these songs and thinking about them as though I only am going to do three listens. I'd like to get through four, but since the total runtime of this round is 4 hours and 12 minutes, that might not be feasible without taking altogether too long to get this round done.
I'll keep you all posted on how it's going. I'm going to try to get this done in a timely fashion, but I also don't want to shortchange the songs too much by giving them too few listens. So if I get through three listens and have no idea what I'm doing in scoring, I'm going to opt to take that extra listen to get it right, even if it's at the cost of the round taking a couple more days.
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The second-longest song must be mine, hope you liked it. ;)
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Good luck man, I never envy people doing epic rounds. I did it once, never again, it just is so much to absorb one epic, much less 6 to 8.
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in my roulette I'm not gonna explicitly ban epics but warn people that I don't tend to care for most of them
anyways sending what i sent is basically punishment for asking me to send a really long song tho it's also the best epic that i can actually send 'cause the better ones are banned
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Finally listened to all the songs once. Took a little while :lol *sideways glance at Parama* but I finally got there.
My pace should increase now that I've made it through once. I don't know if anyone else has experienced this, but I get nervous about listening to a new song or album for the first time, and that can cause me to procrastinate. Previous rounds have been in the 1-1.5 hour range, so I've been able to just bite the bullet and get through the first listen for all of the songs at once. As the total length of this round is 4:12, I could not do that, which made for slower going.
Good luck man, I never envy people doing epic rounds. I did it once, never again, it just is so much to absorb one epic, much less 6 to 8.
Imagine ten, which is what I have. :lol
I don't regret having ten contestants, though. I decided to keep it open for ten because that many people wanted to play and I didn't want to miss out on any good submissions anyone might have. And whatever additional work has come from having a number of contestants that I would suppose is on the high end has been outweighed by the greater volume of good music I've received.
I could say the same about this epic round. This is going to take a while and it's going to be hard as hell to grade (because, honestly, I'm going to have to grade most of these songs before I feel 100% comfortable doing so, just in the interest of not having this round take forever). But it's also exposed me to some really great artists and songs, I can tell that already.
So I'm really enjoying this round, and I hope everyone can be patient while I continue to work through these songs. I don't have a date for when I'll be done yet *another sideways glance at Parama*, but I would guess that it'll take about a week more, give or take. It depends on how much I listen to on each day and whether I listen to the songs three or four times. After that, I'll do my best to make the last open round as snappy as possible, and then we'll already be wrapping up the roulette on another more extended round with the EPs. So there's your look at where I am now and the look ahead and how the roulette will be progressing.
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I don't regret having ten contestants, though. I decided to keep it open for ten because that many people wanted to play and I didn't want to miss out on any good submissions anyone might have. And whatever additional work has come from having a number of contestants that I would suppose is on the high end has been outweighed by the greater volume of good music I've received.
Curious thing, I barely managed to grab a spot on this one and now I'm doing great (just 2.5 points away from the top) - just like Tyrias did in my roulette, and ended up in a one-vs-one top tie with Evermind. With the exception that our whiskey-comrade won that final match by a microscopic margin ;D
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you glance sideways at me but i'm holding The Mirror and you're seeing a reflection of your own mistakes when you look at me
you've got no one to blame but yourself
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Hello, mirror, so glad to see you, my friend, it's been a while...
But seriously, Parama, though I will not stop berating you about sending me a song nearly twice as long as any others from this round, I do appreciate it in a way, because that's one of those artists that I keep seeing praised around here but would probably have not gotten the motivation to check out for a long time if you hadn't "made me." Actually got several artists that fall into that category this round.
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if it makes you feel better i would've probably sent you periphery otherwise and i have a feeling you'd not have liked 15 minutes of that much :lol
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So Parama sent an hour long song? Hell, I probably should've sent Green Carnation's second album here.
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So Parama sent an hour long song? Hell, I probably should've sent Green Carnation's second album here.
:neverusethis:
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Wait, that's what you've sent, isn't it? :lol
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:hat
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So Parama sent an hour long song? Hell, I probably should've sent Green Carnation's second album here.
If two people had sent hour long songs I probably would have given them both 1s and been done with it. Parama is lucky that he's the only one who decided to get cute.
No comment otherwise, though I probably should have been vaguer about length.
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it's okay if I don't score well in this round, any score under an 8 at this point *is* an 8 because of the adjusted leaderboards :lol
and it's really less about me being cute and more about "this is the only epic that I can send that I really have any strong feelings towards and everything else I could send isn't really that great"
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it's okay if I don't score well in this round, any score under an 8 at this point *is* an 8 because of the adjusted leaderboards :lol
Yeah, same for me, never scored less than eight so far. We're showing some consistency here.
I think 425 will like the song I've got for the open round, and will probably absolutely hate my EP because I'm going to put as much hard rock, power metal and progressive metal there as I can — I mean, I sent no metal songs in this roulette in all rounds! — so my lowest score will be either in this epic round or on the EP. I'm fine with both scenarios, honestly.
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i have no idea what the fuck 425 will think of my song
apparently he survived the first listen though so
good i guess??
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I'm gonna retool my EP before that round, for sure, the last three tracks I'm pretty set on but I might put different stuff for the first two
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I imagine there's the possibility two or more people might end up sending songs by a same artist on the EP round, but what if they send the same song? I thinks it's unlikely to happen, but would you do if such thing happens?
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Nothing, I'd just grade each EP as it was. I'd probably do the same if I got the same song twice in a regular round, though obviously in a regular round both contestants would get the same score, while in the EP round their scores would differ depending on what else is on the EP.
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i retooled my EP a bit on the front-end but now I need to shorten it a little, whoops :lol
might go back and change it again though I dunno I'm never gonna be perfectly happy with it I think
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Well, my EP is ready. It's got a nice flow and I know no one used these bands. I'll crank it again at work tomorrow.
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Damn, my EP is 10 mins longer than it should be :lol. It will be tough to eliminate stuff from there - time to bring the scissors I guess.
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I got lucky. 28 minutes. Tomorrow will be a new perspective on the flow of my songs.
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I got lucky. 28 minutes. Tomorrow will be a new perspective on the flow of my songs.
So you were up all night? ;D
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I'm 47. I need only a half hour or 28 minutes! :lol
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i'm 30 seconds over the time limit myself :lol
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Hey 425, do you prefer amazing closers, or would you leave the best song before the last, so the closer is something, eh, less intense? Like the calm after the storm, or like Anathema's albums :P
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You werected thinking of museums then. Lol. Oh wait, music.
Sacul, he's looking for you to have the creativity. He's not going to tell you.
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Damn you're right :lol .
Ok, after a listen, I think he'll love each of these tunes - have to work on the flow tho. And cut a few songs, damn.
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Does it count if one of my songs is from a side-project from an artist you love? I'd send it, but I think it'd be like cheating or something like that.
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i put a small cooldown song after my "album closer" track on the EP because that's what it is on the album it comes from and I love it
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Does it count if one of my songs is from a side-project from an artist you love? I'd send it, but I think it'd be like cheating or something like that.
I dont know the exact details, obviously, but I would imagine that if the artist of the song itself isn't on the banned list, you're fine.
Like, if somebody were to send me a James LaBrie solo song, that would be totally acceptable. Just because I listen to the band doesn't at all guarantee that I would listen to the related project of my own will.
I think the line might be if someone sent me an Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe song. In that case I would consider banning it because, as I understand it, that album basically is a Yes album. But anything shy of that, like if it's James LaBrie or The Postal Service or something, you're good, go ahead.
And yeah, I'm not going to give you guidance on how to make your EP. I've been avoiding giving people round-specific advice just in the interest of fairness.
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Fair enough - I've changed it anyways.
Ok, so I've now trimmed it to 28 mins and all the tracks are fantastic - you're gonna love this one.
Btw, how is the epic listening going on?
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Oh, it's a bit of slow going. It's kind of hard to prepare myself to listen to 80 minutes worth of epics back-to-back! I'm midway through the second listen. That should be finished before Friday, and at that time I'll make the call on whether I'll need to do a fourth listen. I should at least know when I expect to be done by then.
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Yeah, take your time - all you need. Might I suggest you do your listening by chunks? It's not necessary you listen to them all in one sit - that would drive anyone nuts. Maybe group them in, let's say, 3 groups of about the same lenght, and listen to one of the bunches at time. If you leave a few hours in between, you can even listen to them all in one day. That without counting some other music or album you might want to listen. Just my 2cents :angel:
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literally just listen to mine twice at most
and I think I'm focusing more on a good EP overall rather than getting all the best songs I have on one disc, building flow and shutff
it needs retooling tho for sure it's unfocused rn
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Yeah, take your time - all you need. Might I suggest you do your listening by chunks? It's not necessary you listen to them all in one sit - that would drive anyone nuts. Maybe group them in, let's say, 3 groups of about the same lenght, and listen to one of the bunches at time. If you leave a few hours in between, you can even listen to them all in one day. That without counting some other music or album you might want to listen. Just my 2cents :angel:
Yeah, that's what I've been doing. That's why I said 80 minutes—that's about the length of each group! The average length of non-Parama songs is a little over 20 minutes, so I have two groups of those with four in each, and then I have a group that just has Parama's and one other.
Right now, I've only been doing one group a day. I can imagine doing two in a day, if I started fairly early in the day and finished late at night, but I cannot imagine doing all three. I think I have a pretty easily fatigued ear and I want to make sure I'm giving everything a fair shake.
literally just listen to mine twice at most
It's really not as big a deal as I'm making it out to be. If someone else sent an equally long song, then yeah, it would be super inconvenient, but as is you're not really making that big of a problem for me. Right now I fully intend to listen to your song the same number of times as all the others. As much as I've been making joking comments about it, it's not like "the round is going slowly because of Parama." It's "the round is going slowly because there are ten songs here that average over 20 minutes in length."
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Yeah, take your time - all you need. Might I suggest you do your listening by chunks? It's not necessary you listen to them all in one sit - that would drive anyone nuts. Maybe group them in, let's say, 3 groups of about the same lenght, and listen to one of the bunches at time. If you leave a few hours in between, you can even listen to them all in one day. That without counting some other music or album you might want to listen. Just my 2cents :angel:
Yeah, that's what I've been doing. That's why I said 80 minutes—that's about the length of each group! The average length of non-Parama songs is a little over 20 minutes, so I have two groups of those with four in each, and then I have a group that just has Parama's and one other.
Right now, I've only been doing one group a day. I can imagine doing two in a day, if I started fairly early in the day and finished late at night, but I cannot imagine doing all three. I think I have a pretty easily fatigued ear and I want to make sure I'm giving everything a fair shake.
Cool, carry on!
Btw, two things:
1) I've noticed a lack of rap/hip-hop son your banned list... What's your take on that kind of music?
2) Do you have any musical fetishes? Like, specific things you dig a lot? For example, I'm sucker for feels, creativity, traditional Japanese music ( :heart ), choirs, pianos, and cellos, among other stuff.
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1) I've noticed a lack of rap/hip-hop son your banned list... What's your take on that kind of music?
I don't know.
Seriously, I have never sat down and listened to rap or hip-hop. I've heard some stuff in passing that I thought was fairly good, but I really have no idea what my reaction would be if you sent me a song and I sat down and listened to it several times.
My guess, and this is only a guess, is that it would be a genre where I would like some of the music, but where it would be unlikely for a song or album from that genre to rank up as high as those from some other genres. The big obstacle to me enjoying it might be that I really like vocal melodies, and if most of the vocals aren't sung, that might be a barrier.
2) Do you have any musical fetishes? Like, specific things you dig a lot? For example, I'm sucker for feels, creativity, traditional Japanese music ( :heart ), choirs, pianos, and cellos, among other stuff.
Hmm. I'm sure if I took a few weeks and just kept a running list I could come up with a lot more, but here are some things off the top of my head:
I definitely like emotionally powerful music. I think that's fairly clear at this point from my writeups. For me, that's mostly sadness and happiness. Anger in music is one of those things that I liked when I was 15 but now I only like if it is well executed (typically, more of a subtle anger like Death Cab for Cutie's Styrofoam Plates (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dvnw-8wmT8M) than, like, thrash metal). Morbid stuff also kinda hits me in a weird way. I might like a morbid song for the musical content and might even appreciate the intelligence of the lyrics, but I'll secretly be wishing that the lyricist had written about something else (this is a big part of my struggle with the music of Steven Wilson).
I like the smart use of strings, both synth and real (if it's a good synth I won't be able to tell the difference), and horns.
I love vocal harmonies. Whether that's the same singer's voice layered several times or (preferably) multiple singers or a singer and a chorus, I really like it. Basically just multiple singers is cool.
I also like certain synth sounds. I don't really know how to describe my favorite types of synth sound, but I like ones that sound kind of hollow, like the one that Jordan uses to play that solo between the Medicate and Full Circle vocal sections on Octavarium, and I really like a style that Neal Morse uses a lot, like on that big melody at the beginning of Transatlantic's Set Us Free (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-5P1hd8ckM).
I also really like instrumentally sparse, vocal-driven songs. Often you would describe these songs as being dirge-y, sad ballads or as being "spacey" or both. If there's one of those on an album, odds are it'll be among my favorites. Two examples: Taylor Swift – Last Kiss (https://youtu.be/daT-Q8pzEVw?t=2m21s) as more of a ballad type song, and Coldplay – Midnight (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkMxw2tWlpc), as more of a "spacey" song.
Finally, I really like these two songs. So there's that too.
Death Cab For Cutie – Stable Song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xctfikAsxmE)
Coldplay – Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSQsAJ7oac0)
That's what I can give you right now. May not be helpful at all, or may be too pop heavy for some people to really get me (I have to imagine that I lose at least half of my readers every time I use the name "Taylor Swift" on a prog website, and I lose half the remaining readers when I go on to also say "Coldplay") but there it is.
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Reading that, you may love my EP 425.
*Giddy with excitement*
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Ugh, i would have loved to join your roulette, 425 :facepalm:
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And I was the one who took the last spot :neverusethis:
Reading that, you may love my EP 425.
*Giddy with excitement*
Definitely this. Went with a "pure feels" approach - 6 songs that will deeply move you. I just hope nobody sends the same artists I've planed on this open round, please :lol
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Ugh, i would have loved to join your roulette, 425 :facepalm:
I would have loved to have you! Though I think having any more than 10 participants would have killed me. Maybe one day eventually there will be a V2. Though right now I have a wealth of new music to check out.
Sacul and king, I'm excited to hear your EPs! I'm really eager to hear what combinations of songs you all put together.
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i feel like my EP is gonna suck no matter what I put on it, oh well :lol
maybe it's 'cause I tend to be an album listener and hearing these songs pulled out of their respective albums is a bit weird to me
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I'm 47. I need only a half hour or 28 minutes! :lol
Actually he only needs the last two minutes! :lol
Sacul and king, I'm excited to hear your EPs! I'm really eager to hear what combinations of songs you all put together.
TAC, don't bother!
:omg:
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:lol @ both responses Tim. Lol
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Sacul and king, I'm excited to hear your EPs! I'm really eager to hear what combinations of songs you all put together.
TAC, don't bother!
:omg:
:lol
No, but really, I'm excited for all of them!
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i might take a song off my EP that I've been having trouble working around and send it in the next round 'cause this song is PERFECT for your roulette and I want to send this artist for sure but I don't want to ruin my EP's flow over it :lol
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i might take a song off my EP that I've been having trouble working around and send it in the next round 'cause this song is PERFECT for your roulette and I want to send this artist for sure but I don't want to ruin my EP's flow over it :lol
You sure this is not the song I'm sending next round?
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If one of you guys send a song that's my EP on this next round, I swear I'll punch you all in the throath :lol
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If one of you guys send a song that's my EP on this next round, I swear I'll punch you all in the throath :lol
I think there's a good chance for this to happen. If I recall correctly, I saw you sending this artist in roulettes at least once.
Edit: not with the exact song though. But with the artist, yeah, good chance it is.
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Yeah, I'll try to give people leeway to keep people's EPs as they are if someone sent one of the artists on the EP in this round or in the next round. But if someone sends the exact song you want to include next time, I can't really help you. :lol
I'm going to start doing writeups today. This will be on my third listen to all the songs. Even though having a fourth listen would probably help me get the songs a little better, I'm not going to do a fourth listen because this round has already gone on for a while, and we need to move on. I do generally know how most of the songs are going to score at this point, and I think after a third listen and the writeups I'll have a set of scores that I'm satisfied with.
You should expect the results to come hopefully on Tuesday, because it does take me three days to go through these songs.
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i think mostly it's because there's no point on an EP where this song can be place late enough, it's not an album closer but it's not something to put near the start either and having it in the middle still doesn't put enough time before it, blah :lol
also it's way too dark compared to everything else
edit: I just keep redoing this EP omg, I'm trying to make sure I only send top-quality stuff which just results in a lot of reorganization :rollin
edit2: OKAY I GOT THIS FOR SURE 5 emotionally-driven songs that I arranged into a semi-concept album of sorts :lol
but I had to boot off two songs I really wanted to send so I'mma give you one of those next round and I'll just send you the last one after this roulette is over 'cause I figure you'll like it
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Lol, good to know that you've gotten everything worked out, Parama! And yeah, I'd totally encourage people who had like a song or two that they didn't get a chance to send during the roulette but that they think I'd like to send them to me once everything is over. Just don't be a "Parama in the epics round" and send me like ten songs! :lol
I've done four writeups so far. I'm on track to do four more tomorrow and two (Parama's and another) on Tuesday, which is when you should expect to see the results posted.
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i'm either getting 9+ or below 5 so this should be fun
and by below 5 I mean 8 exactly 'cause lowest round dropped etc. :lol
edit: lol I ended up swapping out one longer song for two shorter ones again this will never end omg i hate you for this EP thing
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I would have loved to have you! Though I think having any more than 10 participants would have killed me. Maybe one day eventually there will be a V2. Though right now I have a wealth of new music to check out.
I already know some songs to send you so, after this roulette, begin V2 immediately :P
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425's Roulette 2 v. The Outcrier-Only Roulette :P
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425's Roulette 2 v. The Outcrier-Only Roulette :P
Throw him a monkey wrench and not allow rap. :lol
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Guess it's that time.................
......................
:corn
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RJ, got your EP ready?
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VERY curious as to how this round will shake out...
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choo choo the hype train is in town
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At this rate Dr. DTVT might finish his roulette first!
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yeah this is a bit of a slow roulette but ehh that's fine :lol
the EP round is gonna take longer than average too, I expect the average length of an EP to be around 25 minutes or more so
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yeah this is a bit of a slow roulette but ehh that's fine :lol
the EP round is gonna take longer than average too, I expect the average length of an EP round to be around 25 minutes days or more so
;D
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what if I entered this for the epics round https://longplayer.org/
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So impatient at your old age Tim.
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So impatient at your old age Tim.
You say something?
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Turn up your hearing aid you old fart!
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Who farted?
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Depends.
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I fart with Poise.
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425's Roulette 2 v. The Outcrier-Only Roulette :P
Throw him a monkey wrench and not allow rap. :lol
Hehe... well, excuse me but that wouldn't make a difference, sir :hat
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Tee Hee.
I know you are over the place like me. Which is awesome. All depends on the mood!
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yeah this is a bit of a slow roulette but ehh that's fine :lol
And, noticing the slowness of the roulette, you decided to do the best you could to help make it go faster, right? :lol
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olol
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shots fired
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yeah this is a bit of a slow roulette but ehh that's fine :lol
And, noticing the slowness of the roulette, you decided to do the best you could to help make it go faster, right? :lol
hey, you're the one who has both an epic round and an EP round in a 9-round roulette :rollin
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With 10 participants! I won't deny that I tend to bite off somewhat more than I can chew! I assume, at least, that once the EP round is underway that the next person can start to get their roulette going, since the participants in this one won't actually be doing anything here other than waiting forever.
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it's a good thing that my entry this round is something like 8 times longer than any other of my entries tho
i made you listen to more this round than the past 7 rounds combined :tup
tho there's one song on my EP that's longer than anything else I sent too but obv not too long either, under 10 minutes so w/e
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That's actually quite an interesting statistic.
Just an update, I'm definitely on track to post results tomorrow. If you haven't already decided what you're going to send for the next open round, I'd recommend that you ready that as soon as possible, because I'm going to try to make that the quickest turn-around of the roulette (like 4-5 days between when I get all the songs and when I post the scores).
All jokes aside, we really do need to finish this up. I don't want to keep holding up all the people in line to do their roulettes. My thought (and keep in mind that I haven't run this by Bolsters yet) is that once you all have sent me your EPs, the next person in line can start to get their roulette going, because you all won't be actively involved in my roulette anymore except to be awaiting the final results.
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I know what to send on the open round - can I send it now?
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Yeah, you can go ahead and send it. But if you just so happen to send a song from one of the artists sent on the epic round, you'll have to then send something else. So keep in mind that there's a (rather remote, I suppose) chance of that happening.
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the artist i'm sending has like nothing longer than 11 or so minutes so i'm sure nobody sent them for the epic round :lol
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I doubt someone on this forum has even heard of this artist. Sent.
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my EP is basically:
1 - nobody knows this 2 - some people know this 3 - a lot of people know this 4 - nobody knows this 5 - a lot of people know this 6 - some people know this
and round 8 is also a lot of people know this
i think i have a decent mix of well-known stuff mixed with unknown stuff :lol
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If one of you guys send a song that's my EP on this next round, I swear I'll punch you all in the throath :lol
I think there's a good chance for this to happen. If I recall correctly, I saw you sending this artist in roulettes at least once.
Edit: not with the exact song though. But with the artist, yeah, good chance it is.
I hope that artist did well whenever I sent it :lol
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If one of you guys send a song that's my EP on this next round, I swear I'll punch you all in the throath :lol
I think there's a good chance for this to happen. If I recall correctly, I saw you sending this artist in roulettes at least once.
Edit: not with the exact song though. But with the artist, yeah, good chance it is.
I hope that artist did well whenever I sent it :lol
That I don't remember. But someone else have sent it in my roulette, and it did quite well there. I wish I could award it more points than I did though.
I'll wait until the results the announced. I'm pretty sure this artist don't have any epic songs, but, well, just in case.
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At this rate Dr. DTVT might finish his roulette first!
Well, at the very least, Winger will have a new album out by the time yours starts Tim, giving us all new material to use.
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At this rate Dr. DTVT might finish his roulette first!
Well, at the very least, Winger will have a new album out by the time yours starts Tim, giving us all new material to use.
And it won't be until Round 5! Can't wait. :yeahright
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But someone else had sent it in my roulette, and it did quite well there. I wish I could award it more points than I did though.
Damn, I think I know who you're talking about :lol. Hopefully you won't send from the same album as me, will you?
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okay i'm going to send in my next entry now while i wait in suspense
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:dangerwillrobinson:
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:neverusethis:
... a trap.
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(https://i1300.photobucket.com/albums/ag94/ShadowNinja38/kanaya_zpslfqvzxmf.gif)
damn it
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damn it
why u do this to us :'(
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At long last. Here it is. The epic round results.
First of all, I decided to not give any bonus points this round. I know that there are a couple of people who might think that they should get the bonus, but ultimately I came to the conclusion that every song sent this round could be classified as either progressive rock or a fusion of progressive rock and something else (like alternative rock, or world music, or freaky opera). So every score is just straight-up out of ten.
I've been immersed in these songs for a good long while. I have to say that I enjoyed and appreciated every submission, but also that I haven't completely digested any of them at all and just kind of went with it on scores. I might have liked to take another round of listens to get a better grasp on what scores I'm going to put, but a) that would have driven me insane, b) that would have driven you insane and c) we need to move on. So without any further delay.
Round Seven Results
Sacul: Mike Oldfield - Ommadawn, Pt. 1
This is among the more interesting and hard-to-categorize pieces that I got this round. It’s an unusual combination of prog rock and folk/world music, I suppose, and that combination has some very pretty results in this song.
The song opens right up with a demonstration of its beauty. The atmosphere set by the keyboards, bass and other instrumentation is nice, and the acoustic and then electric guitar playing the lead melody is quite pretty. I really like the way this song builds in intensity over its first few minutes using this musical progression. Overall, the guitars are really used incredibly well in this song to contribute to the happy feeling that is provided by the other instruments, like the keyboards and woodwinds. Even the long electric guitar solo sections take on a happy, carefree air.
I had the same struggle with this one, initially, that I did with the OSI song that I received this round from OpenYourEyes311: I have a harder time comprehending really long instrumental songs than I do with long epics that have vocal parts. That’s presented a challenge for me in coming to appreciate this song in just a very few listens. It’s been really hard for me to get a handle on everything that is happening here in just a handful of listens.
My biggest gripe with this song is the drumming. Personally, I’m not a huge fan of repetitive tribal drumming of the kind that is included in here. It’s not the worst thing ever, but it gets a bit annoying after a while, just hearing it over and over again, especially on the section where it’s really just the drums and the voices. I know that style of drumming is an element of “world music” (which is part of why I’ve never really looked into that genre very seriously), but I just personally find it bothersome. Personally, I would like the song better if the drumming wasn’t there. It doesn’t negate the fact that there’s really a lot of great, pretty, multi-instrumental stuff going on here, but it does, unfortunately, detract somewhat from my interest in listening to the song.
Score: 7.5
OpenYourEyes311: OSI - The Thing That Never Was
Obviously, I have heard of OSI before, as two members of Dream Theater have been involved in this project. I’d never really gotten around to checking them out, though. I was never a head-over-heels Kevin Moore fan, and there are just so many bands on my list that I never got around to this one.
From what I understand from my research, this song was kind of an interesting choice for what to send from this band. It’s a bonus track, and, as I understand it, it’s much more of a prog metal song than the rest of the band’s work, because it’s what the project was originally going to be before Kevin took the reins.
There’s not much to complain about here in terms of musicianship. Some really strong playing by all the band members—the song moves through a variety of different sections that all feature strong instrumentation and often very good melodies. Mike is spot on. Kevin’s involvement is more limited, but his contributions are also quite good. The highlight here, for me, might be the guitarist, who I suppose is the guitarist from Fates Warning. He plays a lot of memorable riffs and also drives a lot of the pleasant calm sections. The bassist is also good, so everyone is good.
The first two times I heard this one, I had trouble with a perceived lack of cohesion. It seemed like a collection of riffs and ideas with little connection between them. Which, I’m discovering, is a personal problem of mine when it comes to really long instrumental songs, where there’s not a singer really providing clear lines to mark the different parts of the song. But on the third listen, this one is really settling into my mind as more of a cohesive song. There’s pretty good pacing here between the heavy parts and the quiet parts, which makes the piece seem more like a thoughtfully composed 17-minute song than a collection of unused riffs. I guess, knowing at least a bit of the history behind its creation and knowing who Mike Portnoy is, it’s a bit of the latter turned into the former.
This one isn’t going to get top marks from me, simply because it wasn’t as powerful to me as some of the others. It’s an enjoyable listen for sure, with a lot of good musical ideas and everything, but it doesn’t quite bring the sense of journey or “wow-factor” that I hope to see in a song this long. It feels somewhat like an instrumental song that grew and grew until it reached a monster length, which is fine, it’s absolutely good at doing that, but it’s not as epic as some of the others I received this round.
Score: 8.0
lonestar: Maestrick - Lake of Emotions
This is an interesting prog rock epic, here. The opening is really strong, with some great vocal performances in the first few minutes by both the male and female singers, and some very nice melodic parts done by the keyboard player. The keyboard player is the standout of this track for me; he’s by far my favorite of the instrumentalists and gets some of the song’s very best melodies—in fact, when listening to this, I often find myself awaiting the keyboardist’s next big part. For example, he powers most of the very good instrumental bit at around 9-10 minutes in. And again at around the 12 minute mark, and the symphonic part thereafter.
The vocal melodies have some really good moments, though they sometimes fall short, for me. When the male and female singers are switching off, the melodies are pretty good. The quiet part and the bombastic section between the 7 and 9 minute marks are also really good—among the best parts from a vocal and full-band perspective. The “Love and truth” section is good as well, from both standpoints. One of the weaker sections is the verses between the very first two and the quiet part—I just don’t find the vocal melodies there to be that inspired.
Honestly, to a great extent, this song gets better as it goes on. The first few minutes are good, but the next little bit isn’t that great until the quiet section brings things up a bit, and they keep improving from there. The more symphonic section that comes in around the 13-minute mark heightens the excitement and is a really well-written part. The calm part at the climax of the song is also really quite good. I love the counterpoint between the singers, it’s quite a powerful part, and the musical buildup to the finale thereafter is quite good, too. It’s kind of strange the way the music come back after the song has seemed to have ended, but it’s kind of an interesting reprisal of some of the better themes found in the song and sets it apart by doing something somewhat unexpected.
Overall, this song has some good parts and some parts that don’t really do a lot for me (particularly a good portion of the first half). Hopefully, upon future listens, some of the parts that didn’t really do much for me on the first few listens will become more memorable down the road.
Score: 8.0
TAC: Constantine - The Darkest Grace
Here’s a pretty exciting, high-octane prog metal song. It starts right out with some pretty great riffs and guitar melodies. There’s a clear Iron Maiden influence, in a very good way. Some nice galloping bass and dual guitar melodies. The opening instrumental really is a clinic on how to write a very good heavy metal instrumental section.
I’m sure this refrain is getting a bit old by now, but the vocal style of this singer is far from my favorite style. It just seems a bit emotionally two-dimensional, to me. That said, the vocal melodies themselves are pretty good on this song. The chorus is quite good and very memorable. The growled vocals placed way in the background are, I think, an interesting but good choice.
The second big instrumental section is a bit on the bland side, but the final vocal section is good. The bassist demonstrates some pretty nice work at the beginning, and though the vocal melodies aren’t as good as on the first section, they’re solid.
This song’s biggest weakness in this round might be the fact that, at 14 minutes, it’s on the short side, especially by comparison to the meaty (and stylistically similar) pieces that Evermind and Scorpion sent, as well as, of course, Parama’s full album submission. That said, this one was an enjoyable listen through-and-through. The singer was definitely not my favorite, but he didn’t really detract from the experience for me. This one also started out well and only got better on repeat listens. Very nice submission.
Score: 8.5
ShadowNinja 2.0: Devil Doll - Mr. Doctor
This is the weirdest song I’ve ever heard.
Let’s just start there.
I mean, this has tons of different genres thrown in here. There’s a symphonic aspect, something resembling opera? And straight-ahead rock music. The singer is doing some very creepy half-sung performance vocals. I absolutely did not believe I would be receiving a song like this in the roulette.
Now, everything is well-done. I mean, this is a very good dramatic piece of music. It runs through a variety of moods and scenes. The big bombastic rock parts provide a nice counterpoint to the creepy quieter parts. There’s a definite importance placed throughout on setting the mood, since everything fits in well with the overall creepy tone. And there was a definite result. This song scared me on first listen. It was just fascinating in a really scary, creepy way. It’s among the songs that affected me most upon first listen, in this roulette. It wasn’t an entirely positive effect, but it was powerful.
This has been a tough score to come up with. On one hand, this is a well-done, very powerful song that affected me. On the other hand… I’m just not sure how inclined I am to listen to this song more in the future. It’s so out there musically, and the macabre tone is not really something I go for all that often. It loses a bit of steam, too, between about 9 and 13 minutes in, though not too markedly. I also think that a lot of the song, especially the second-last verse, around the 13 minute mark, is just too much lyrically. That grosses me out and I don’t really appreciate it. All that said, this is a really good composition that affected me and that I’m sure I will come back to at least at some point. It deserves a score that reflects the quality and power of this submission, while also reflecting my hesitation about it.
Score: 8.5
Big Hath: Symphony X - The Odyssey
You have a habit of sending me material from prog-power albums that I’ve only listened to once. I listened to this Symphony X album once, and nothing really jumped out at me, so, like your Redemption submission, this was allowed because it’s forcing me to take another look at something that, frankly, might have continued to gather dust on my shelf, otherwise.
This song really starts brilliantly. The symphonic metal section at the start is truly stellar and is totally how I would imagine The Odyssey to be scored. This, in my opinion, is this style of music at its best: creation sweeping melodic music with a heavy accent. I like the way the guitars also contribute to the melodies and are not just there providing the low end. The first vocal part is almost as good. Russell Allen has never been a favorite of mine—he’s an exemplar of that power metal style that I find overly gritty and head-voice-y. But on this quieter first vocal section, where he sings mostly clean operatic vocals, he really does shine. He’s a talented guy. And the music here is very good as well.
The series of heavy passages that follow were a bit of a letdown for me initially after the very good intros. As I have listened to the song more, though, they’ve improved in my view. I’ve begun to see how fitting they are. This, musically, really does fit into the idea of a treacherous sea voyage, and I can really see Allen as Odysseus/Ulysses (hey, there seems to be a bit of a Greek/Roman confusion within the song). He has a lot of good vocal parts and does carry the song by combining the desperation and masculine toughness that you’d expect from the Greek hero. That said, some of the riffing is not as good as I’d like it to be. That might be the greatest weakness of the song—that the guitar work is sometimes very good, but sometimes just there. I definitely have nothing to complain about from the orchestral folks or the keyboard player, and Allen does his part.
Things return to the very high level of quality provided in the first few minutes as we move towards the finale. I’m a big Iron Maiden fan, and I love the Steve Harris gallop that we get here, and the teasing of the big final vocal melody played on the guitar. Once again, this genre of music at its best. Allen singing some very good clean vocals over some powerful music. And then “Triiiiii-um-phaaaaaaant” is an excellent part.
I have to say, this one is borderline for me, between two scores. Ultimately, though, I’m going with the lower one. Still a very good entry, though.
Score: 8.5
kingshmegland: The Pineapple Thief - Remember Us
Here’s a long, melancholic prog rock song with a whole lot of emotional power. There’s a lot of great work done here at setting the mood from the musicians, especially the guitarist and keyboardist.
The first couple of minutes are a very good melancholic opener, which then go into a brief vocal section in which the singer sings some really great melodies; I like his voice quite a bit and would like to hear a bit more of him in some of the bands other songs, where there are a bit more vocals.
That said, the instrumental work on this song is so good that it doesn’t really need any more than the brief moments of singing. The instrumentals are really good and set a nice mood. I really like when the song gets briefly experimental and includes a bit of an electronic influence. That was a perfect time and place to bring in that element; some really admirable experimentation. It also helps set up a really good moment when the song is at its most intense and the vocals come back in. That boost in energy carries nicely through the rest of the song.
Overall, this is quite a nice prog/alternative rock piece. Not as stunning as the top songs of this round, but a very good entry.
Score: 8.5
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Parama: Green Carnation - Light of Day, Day of Darkness
Parama, you absolute lunatic.
So, many of you probably figured out what Parama sent me since I gave too much away. And yeah, he did send me an entire album. I’m still not sure why, something to do with it being the only long song he likes or something. Hopefully it was not on the assumption that I would have time to understand and digest the nuances of a 60-minute slab of prog metal + other genre influences.
As much as I would love to just give Parama a 1/10 for being obnoxious, I actually listened to what he sent, and it’s… good. It’s quite good. Exactly how good, I don’t really know, since it’s an hour-long song and I’ve only listened to it three times, but it’s quite good. After a quiet intro, it starts right away into some very good prog metal, with some good heavy melodic riffing and clean singing. A constant on this song is the melancholic nature of the clean singing, which is not outstanding, but very nicely in fitting with the downcast tone of this epic. The best part, vocally, is the chorus that includes the part “a perfect world, from this cold imperfect world.” That’s definitely one of the memorably good vocal parts. The only growls on the song take place very early on, and are really quite well used to provide counterpoint in a loud-soft section and emphasize some very good heavy riffs.
This really is one of those prog metal albums where, and I don’t understand quite how, all the heavy riffs seem really effortlessly melodic in nature. I feel the same way about a lot of Opeth’s work. This makes the heavy and soft sections feel like sides of the same coin and gives the song a really consistent vibe. This consistency is one of the most interesting attributes of this album-song. I really love the fact that this 60-minute song is not a collection of distinct movements, like Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence or The Whirlwind. It’s just a block of music that moves seemlessly between phases for its hour runtime.
The other instruments are well-integrated into the prog metal scenery. The keyboards don’t often step out to the front, but they provide necessary background, and when they are prominent, they are, again, perfectly in keeping with the song’s tone. Same can be said of the string section when it shows up about a quarter of the way through. The female vocals/saxophone part is an interesting one, but it fits in well and makes for a much needed change of pace that doesn’t break the flow of the 60 minute song.
My main doubt is that the song seems to meander a bit towards the end. There are still good parts in there, and it might just be the effect of listener fatigue, but I find the last quarter of the song to be my least favorite quarter.
In any case, this writeup really can’t go into too much more detail than I’ve already given. I’m not sure I can really pick out too much in the way of favorite parts of the song, because, really, could you pick out all your favorite parts of a fairly complex album on third listen? But this is a really good piece, a really good submission. It’s really just taken me a few listens to really come to appreciate this song, and it will definitely be a part of my rotation in the future. As much as I hate to reward Parama for being obnoxious, this deserves a really good score.
Score: 9.0
Evermind: Dimension Act - Drawing the Lines of Mortal Existence
Another big prog-power epic, and this one was quite a pleasant listening experience. I’ve never heard of this band, but these guys are really talented. This epic starts off with a long instrumental section, and it’s really quite good and interesting. Dream Theater is clearly an influence, especially on the keyboard player, but not so much that it seems like a copycat.
The singer is always a question for me in these prog-power bands. A lot of times, as should be clear to you all now, I don’t really like the singer too much. In this case, though, the singers pass my test. Neither one of them is technically extraordinary, really, but they are plenty talented to hit the notes, and they both have nice clean tones. The “we draw the lines of mortal existence” chorus is one of the best parts, vocally, and the male vocalist does very well on that part. Both singers excel on the “are we immortal souls” chorus in the last movement, as well.
I don’t really have that many standout favorite parts to point to here. The strength of this song isn’t in having a lot of “wow" moments, but in being just straight up good all the way through. If I had to pick a favorite movement, it would be the fifth movement, because that’s a really good instrumental section, especially in the second half. But, really, it’s about the compositional and musical strength of the whole more than any one part. This is just a really good song played really well.
Score: 9.0
Scorpion: Seventh Wonder - The Great Escape
Wow.
So, how did you know I love a) space travel and b) tragic stories? You must have, because you picked a really fantastic epic that unites the two and then sent me that.
This is a really good prog metal song. It’s absolutely brimming with great melodies, from the singer and from the keyboards, guitars and orchestral moments. Each of the many different sections seems to feature some good instrumentation supporting a memorable, soaring vocal melody. This song just has so much to give.
The story told in here is really beautiful and tragic, as well. The desperate, tragic tale of a group of survivors flying away from a war-torn Earth and missing Mars, going hurtling off into space is really poignant and beautiful. I absolutely love what these guys did in bringing this story to life in music.
There are a lot of really good parts here. It’s hard to name some favorites. But I’ll try.
Shine your light! Be the beacon of hope at night!
We have no home anymore! When Mima showed the final war…
The guitar solo at the 18-minute mark
*bring it down to just piano* Away, some say never, we’ll leave this godforsaken place…
We crown the skies with our tiara, the life and fate of Aniara… ...Twenty years today!
The instrumental stuff shortly after the 26 minute mark
Somewhere in time we were living, remember us then!
I’ve spent the second half of this final listen debating the score. This song is exceptional. I really love it, already, after just three listens. It’s hard to grade songs I haven’t listened to in weeks against a song I’ve just listened to, and it’s hard to grade a four minute rock song against a 30 minute prog epic. But this could easily be my favorite song of the roulette. And what’s the point of having this bullet in my gun if I’m not going to use it? I’ve actually written the last paragraph of this writeup two ways, one for the lower score and one for the higher score. Only one of the two feels right.
Score: 10.0
Natural Standings:
ShadowNinja 2.0 - 62.0
Parama - 61.5
Scorpion - 61.5
OpenYourEyes311 - 60.0
Evermind - 60.0
kingshmegland - 58.5
Sacul - 58.5
lonestar - 58.0
Big Hath - 57.0
TAC - 55.0
Adjusted Standings:
Scorpion - 55.5
ShadowNinja 2.0 - 53.5
Parama - 53.5
Evermind - 52.0
OpenYourEyes311 - 52.0
Sacul - 51.5
kingshmegland - 51.0
lonestar - 50.5
Big Hath - 49.5
TAC - 47.5
Let me know if you see a problem in my math. I'll recalculate from scratch after next round be sure that I'm definitely correct in the math then.
Round Eight: Open
This is the penultimate round, and the final open round. I'm going to try to make this very very snappy. The purpose of having this open round here is twofold: 1. To give me a breather between the epic round the EP, and 2. To let you submit any songs or artists that you haven't found a place for elsewhere. Parama seems to be using this open round exactly as I imagined people would, as he's sending a song that he feels I need to hear, but that he didn't put in any other round and can't find a place for on his EP. In any case, the sooner you send the songs, the sooner we can get to the final round that everyone has been waiting for. So let's go! Send anything you like. But don't send me a 60 minute song like Parama.
And yes, that set of writeups was in fact so long that I exceeded the forum character limit.
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Honestly, I didn't expect you to like it at all. :lol
Kudos to The Great Escape and Light of Day, those are great songs. Will send almost immediately.
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Well, it did scare me! But it was a really well-written song, and I enjoyed it while also being scared.
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So the epic ending, the damn climax, the sorrowful guitar solo on it isn't even mentioned? :'(
Oh well, I'm sure you'll love the album when you give it more and more spins. Already sent for this round :)
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Well, it did scare me! But it was a really well-written song, and I enjoyed it while also being scared.
I can understand that. I was pretty freaked out the first time I listened to them. Though to lay aside any concerns about Mr. Doctor's mental stability, most of the lyrics are based on horror films and such, not his own internal musings.
Also I have sent a more pleasant song for this round. :lol
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i'm fully aware LoDDoD is pretty hard to digest in just three listens yeah, that's fair enough :lol
personally my biggest gripe is the 5 minutes of female vocals and sax, it's not a bad section but it brings the song to a halt for too long
and yeah most of the last 10 minutes is basically just remixes of earlier riffs, I like it but I can understand it meandering a bit for sure, the best part of the song is that big damn solo section from like 40-44 minutes or so anyways
and yeah i could've sent this in an open round earlier but it wouldn't work for any other round and trying to build my EP around it was killing my EP's flow, it's just way too dark
anyways i'll listen to the 10/10 song real qu- well right now okay
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if I was going to lose to three other songs this round, those are some pretty good ones.
the teasing of the big final vocal melody played on the guitar.
oh man do I love that
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i've legit never heard any of the other songs in this round though haha i'll at least listen to the 9/10 one too tho
the only one I even know of is Symphony X too
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So the epic ending, the damn climax, the sorrowful guitar solo on it isn't even mentioned? :'(
Oh well, I'm sure you'll love the album when you give it more and more spins. Already sent for this round :)
I did like the song! I had written that the guitar throughout the track is really, really good. Solo was too. Honestly, while the drums were a bit of a barrier for me, everything else about the song was really good.
Also I have sent a more pleasant song for this round. :lol
So... I suppose... this could be a pleasant submission, or some Steven Wilson song about murderers. One of the two. :lol
i'm fully aware LoDDoD is pretty hard to digest in just three listens yeah, that's fair enough :lol
Meanwhile Parama is just over here laughing that his crazy long submission to be annoying actually worked.
the teasing of the big final vocal melody played on the guitar.
oh man do I love that
That part is just like... Yessss :metal
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regardless of what you think, i legit entered that song only due to a lack of anything better to enter
i could've sent you periphery but you wouldn't have liked that
i could've sent you GY!BE but I don't think there's a single one of their songs that I think is really good from beginning to end, East Hastings is the closest but Sleep has the best moments and blah
TMV was also an outskirt choice but I don't like Cassandra Gemini enough and Tetragrammaton is good but not great
other than that i basically have no epics not covered by the banned artists list :lol
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I'm just poking fun at you! You can't really send a 60 minute song (right on the wake of me being like "well, I won't put a maximum on it, because I expect you all will be reasonable") and not expect me to crack a few jokes. :lol
Hopefully, the score I gave your submission shows that the truth is that I really appreciate you sending it.
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I was so disappointed with my score I sent you two songs for the next round! (whoops!)
The second one is the one I want to send for round 8.
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Got it! :tup
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round 8 sent.
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i spent those 30 minutes working on my banned list and a few rules for my roulette 6 months from now, my roulette is going to be awful omg :lol
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I'll make sure to join and send you a 70 minute song.
Jk I can't join a roulette have you seen my banned list?
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no, join my roulette and send me a lot of great pop stuff :lol
also here's a preview of my roulette's rules:
Wagers:
1. [REDACTED]
2. [REDACTED]
3. There is no length limit on entries, but only the shortest song over 12 minutes will not be penalized. The next shortest song will be penalized .5 points, and all longer songs will be penalized 1 point.
4. [REDACTED]
so go ahead send that 70 minute song
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I totally would, but I really only have a handful of pop artists. I'd send you like a Taylor Swift song and then a Coldplay song and then a Death Cab for Cutie song, and then I'd have to track down a 70 minute song since I assume Transatlantic will probably be on your banned list, and then I'll be out of artists and also I'll have a total score of like 8.
Well, now that I look at my library, I might maybe barely be able to swing it. We'll see when the time comes.
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Hey man if you want to join my roulette and send Taylor Swift and other pop stuff you can. I already listen to Coldplay, though.
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Seriously, I would love to join y'all's roulette's, but, as you can tell by my banned list, I really don't have a deep bench over here. So how about this: once you all post your threads, I'll look at the rules and look at your banned lists and see if I think I can swing it.
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hey 425: realize this -
I don't know a large chunk of the artists being entered in this roulette :P
and yeah Transatlantic is totes on my banned list
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Hmm, good point.
No promises, but I will definitely take a look at your banned list once you start your thread.
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Glad you liked it! My first 9.0 earned without any bonus here.
LoD, DoD is great - made my Top 50 albums list, and The Great Escape is amazing too. I thought of including some Seventh Wonder in my metal EP, but I guess that's out of the table now. The other songs I've heard from this round are SX one and the one RJ sent.
My chances of winning this are really small even after that 9.0, so I'll do one more serious round - my song is ideal for a breather, it's really good, deserves a 0.5 bonus and I think it'll be up your alley - and then you should prepare for my glorious metal EP (which I really should start planning now) :lol
Will send this round when I get back from work (~11 hours from now on).
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Woohoo! I wasn't quite sure on the song, but I'm glad that you liked it.
Will send the open later today, and maybe start planning my EP after work whoops.
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Glad you liked it! My first 9.0 earned without any bonus here.
You're welcome.
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Glad you liked it! My first 9.0 earned without any bonus here.
You're welcome.
Well, I thought of sending The Great Escape, so it could've been a 10. :biggrin:
But yeah, the song is fabulous and I love it, so screw roulette etiquettes.
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Glad you liked it! My first 9.0 earned without any bonus here.
You're welcome.
Well, I thought of sending The Great Escape, so it could've been a 10. :biggrin:
But yeah, the song is fabulous and I love it, so screw roulette etiquettes.
No etiquette problem at all - I'm not a player. And even if I was, my motto is "win if you can; lose if you must; but always cheat". RJ and others know that all too well.
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I've never really been able to get into The Great Escape..
Well middle of the pack for me. If you don't like the singer on this round, you'll hate the one on the next round. :D
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Glad you liked it. Got the EP ready but haven't picked the open round song. Will do that tonight.
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Sent, switched up my gameplan a bit so I could do something a bit remarkable with my EP. :biggrin:
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Sent, switched up my gameplan a bit so I could do something a bit remarkable with my EP. :biggrin:
A used condom from Steven Wilson?
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Sent, switched up my gameplan a bit so I could do something a bit remarkable with my EP. :biggrin:
A used condom from Steven Wilson?
I was gonna say "who do you think I am, Jackie?", but then again, She would have the thing framed.
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Sent.
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Sent.
Hmmm, promos just arrived, may have to re-think things. ;)
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Sent, switched up my gameplan a bit so I could do something a bit remarkable with my EP. :biggrin:
A used condom from Steven Wilson?
I was gonna say "who do you think I am, Jackie?", but then again, She would have the thing framed.
Right next to the framed Nicolas Cage used condom.
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Sent.
Hmmm, promos just arrived, may have to re-think things. ;)
Yeah, now that I'm looking through the list and thinking about it, I'll go send this Evil Scarecrow band instead. :lol
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Sent!
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I have all the entries except Scorpion's. I'll be patient, though, since it's only been a day and he is the current leader.
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I don't know, sounds like about a 10 point deduction to me.
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penalize him by removing the "drop lowest score" rule :biggrin:
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:lol
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penalize him by removing the "drop lowest score" rule :biggrin:
Wouldn't you rather that you remove the 'drop the lowest score' from everyone EXCEPT Scrop?
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His lowest score is 6.0 I think? Yeah, it's got to stay.
How about instead of the lowest score, Scorp gets his highest score removed?
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all scorps points are immediately transferred to me
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penalize him by removing the "drop lowest score" rule :biggrin:
Wouldn't you rather that you remove the 'drop the lowest score' from everyone EXCEPT Scrop?
i'm just looking at the overall rankings and he's in first because he's a bastard who got a 6.0 in one round and my lowest score is an 8.0
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penalize him by removing the "drop lowest score" rule :biggrin:
Wouldn't you rather that you remove the 'drop the lowest score' from everyone EXCEPT Scrop?
i'm just looking at the overall rankings and he's in first because he's a bastard who got a 6.0 in one round and my lowest score is an 8.0
Yeah, this seems strange to me. It's pretty much punishing those who were consistant the entire run. It doesn't effect me, really, as I'm tied for 4th in both rankings, but it still doesn't sit right. If any scores are dropped, it should be both the lowest AND highest. That way you're getting all the middle scores which would show more consistancy. Frankly, I don't know why scores are being dropped at all. But hey, it's not my roulette, and like I said it doesn't effect me! :hat
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Yeah, this seems strange to me. It's pretty much punishing those who were consistant the entire run. It doesn't effect me, really, as I'm tied for 4th in both rankings, but it still doesn't sit right. If any scores are dropped, it should be both the lowest AND highest. That way you're getting all the middle scores which would show more consistancy. Frankly, I don't know why scores are being dropped at all. But hey, it's not my roulette, and like I said it doesn't effect me!
Yeah, me and you, we've got the same score in both rankings. Consistency for the win. :tup
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You guys are soft.
OFF WITH HIS HEAD!
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Jesus fuck guys, I'm sending /right now/. Calm down, will you?
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I AM COMPLETELY CALM >:( >:( >:(
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Jesus fuck guys, I'm sending /right now/. Calm down, will you?
We love you Scorp. You need the Samuel L. Jackson meme to throw back at us.
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My planned EP is 30:04 in length. Damn.
Edit: or even 30:21 if I want to include a better ballad. Fuck, this is hard.
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Jesus fuck guys, I'm sending /right now/. Calm down, will you?
Best laugh all day :lol
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I cheated maybe a little tiny bit to get my EP under 30 minutes (the last minute of the last track is basically just the band leaving audio recording for a minute after the song ends, anyways... xD )
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Yeah, this seems strange to me. It's pretty much punishing those who were consistant the entire run. It doesn't effect me, really, as I'm tied for 4th in both rankings, but it still doesn't sit right. If any scores are dropped, it should be both the lowest AND highest. That way you're getting all the middle scores which would show more consistancy. Frankly, I don't know why scores are being dropped at all. But hey, it's not my roulette, and like I said it doesn't effect me! :hat
If I was doing this all over again, I wouldn't have that rule. It was originally intended to encourage risk-taking, because I had this vision in my head of everyone playing it very safe and just sending stuff that they were very confident I would like (like a bunch of just straight prog rock/prog metal). I realized during the roulette that this was not needed to encourage risk-taking at all. However, I am still dropping the scores because I think it would be unfair to establish at the beginning that the lowest score would be dropped and then to turn around and not do that. I think it would have been unfair to, for example, Sacul, who took a risk and got a relatively low score in the first round, to turn right around and say "yeah, every score counts."
I understand being a little unhappy with the way things have fallen with regard to that rule, especially if you are Parama or ShadowNinja. But I'm not going to take back a rule that I said from the start that I would implement. That rule could just as easily have benefitted someone else.
And there's definitely still time to overcome Scorpion. There are 10 points to earn this round and then 20 points to earn in the EP round (because it's a collection of songs, it will be scored out of 20, as we decided would happen at the beginning). That's 30 points, though technically you could get perfect scores with bonus points, so there's a total of 31.5 points that you could conceivably earn in this roulette, out of a grand total of 105. So 30% of the total points are still on the table.
Pre-posting edit:
My planned EP is 30:04 in length. Damn.
Edit: or even 30:21 if I want to include a better ballad. Fuck, this is hard.
I cheated maybe a little tiny bit to get my EP under 30 minutes (the last minute of the last track is basically just the band leaving audio recording for a minute after the song ends, anyways... xD )
If I can hit the stop button at the 30:00 mark and not miss out on anything, I don't care if the video goes on for four more seconds. :lol
Edit: And yes, now I have everybody's.
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btw i don't want to send a video because that adds page loading time and can interrupt transitions (and I edited another one of the songs very slightly because there's like two seconds of transition into the next song at the end of it), I was planning on sending a .zip folder of mp3 files to you though :lol
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Yeah, that works just as well, maybe better, for these purposes. And, Evermind, if you did what Parama is doing, you could actively trim four seconds off of the files.
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I can't find the post on the EP round, so two questions.
1. The OP said something about wagers, I gather from your recent posts that that's off the table?
2. Any minimum length for the EP that you'd prefer?
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- Yeah, I believe we discussed within the first couple pages of the thread that nobody really wanted to do wagers, so I said I would change it to a system where the EP score is out of 20 instead of 10. I just wanted to somehow reflect that this is not an ordinary round, and having a higher weight in the standings works just as well as the wagers that people didn't want. So there will be no wager. Scores will be done out of 20 instead of out of 10.
- I didn't think a whole lot about a minimum length; I'm used to trying to hold people to a maximum length! I would say that if your EP is under 20 minutes, you ought to think about making it longer, because you'll be competing against 30-minute EPs that could have as many as 6 or 7 songs on them. I won't enforce that as a hard rule, but I would say that in this case more is probably more (as opposed to less is more).
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So results around Sunday/Monday? ;D
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Yes, that would be my estimation. Hopefully Sunday, if I do four rounds of listening in four days, but I have to allow for the possibility that I won't be able to do that and that it will be Monday.
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i hope my song kills you
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i hope my song kills you
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBLxcYpB9-A
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i'm super hyped for first impressions, i figure mine will be easily spottable or impossible to figure out, one of the two
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So it's Sunday for me, how about them first impressions? ;)
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I've been delayed a little bit by the fact that I couldn't access someone's song on the link they sent me, so I had to wait for that person to send me a new song. I'm still hoping to provide the results on Monday night, but I have actually not yet listened to the new song that person sent. Tonight I will provide first impressions.
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john cage 4'33" the end what up
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0/10 too long, try 1'33"
Here are some first impressions, since you crazy kids can't stand not having them:
"This isn't absolutely astounding, but it's a really fun little song."
"This is exactly one of the types of music that I've been looking for."
"I think I like this, but I can't be 100% sure because of how unusual it is!"
"I know I'm supposed to like this one, and there are parts that I do like, but I haven't really made sense of the whole thing... yet."
"The vocal approach on this song is really pretty. Pretty vocals, pretty music, pretty lyrics."
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I'm sure the second and the last one are about my tune :hat
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1 definitely isn't me. I hope 2 is me. 3 could be but I don't think it is. 4 probably isn't because my song doesn't exactly have a ton of parts, that sounds like more complex music. 5 is DEFINITELY not me holy freaking hell :lol
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let's play hangman!
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
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e
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r
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R E _ _ _ _ _
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s
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R E S _ _ _ S
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:lol I know what this is
My response is
:soon:
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the hype machine never runs out of fuel
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Didn't know you were a RoadRunner employee :'(
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Yeah I'm actually friends with that guy who runs the Roadrunner Facebook page.
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I guess it took a few months until he answered your friend's request.
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Everyday in the office I'd ask him when he was going to accept that and he'd just say :soon:
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Well, I just hope Evermind didn't send the artist I think he sent, and better not from the same album I had planned for my EP :lol
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i'll cry if anyone ruins my perfect ep
I know at least two artists there is literally zero chance of anyone else entering them at least
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Advance warning, this is going to be another one of those rounds where everybody has almost the same score. I found that this round, maybe even more than most of the others, had a lot of songs that I would rate really similarly, songs that I liked, often quite a bit, but didn't love. There are a couple of exceptions, the main one being a song that was a clear favorite for me from the very first time I heard it. But most of the songs are really bunched up in here, and are really testing my ability to determine between two scores in particular.
So maybe not a big shakeup in the standings here, with one exception. Everybody maybe gained or lost a half point or so on everyone else. That's what happens when everyone sends me songs of a similar caliber.
Round Eight Results
Parama: Oceansize - Only Twin
This was kind of an interesting listening process for me. I’ve heard of Oceansize on this forum and I knew that they are a band that I really should like. That said, the first couple of listens to this song were tough for me. I really didn’t find a lot to like the first few times, though there were a few good aspects.
Fortunately, this song settled in a bit better for me on the third and fourth listens. A big aspect of what makes this song so challenging, I think, is the fact that it really is an aural onslaught, in which the instruments do a lot of different things in an effort to build the song’s crescendos. It’s a really complex song hiding under a veneer of simplicity, and I think there’s a good chance that I will come to like it better on listens after the fourth one. There are some good melodies here, like the vocal melody at 5:00 that is repeated again at 5:42. The song is just such an onslaught that parts of it still haven’t really fallen into place for me. The parts of this song that I do like, I really like, and I feel like the musical direction is really interesting. But these four listens just haven’t been enough time for everything to really fall into place for me.
One last weird aspect for me was how much the singer reminded me of Steven Wilson at the beginning. This really didn’t affect my liking of the song, it’s just an interesting note.
Score: 7.5
lonestar: The Deadstation - Subsistence Defined
I really didn’t know what to expect going into my first listen to this song. The band’s name and artwork are… kind of strange. I wasn’t surprised to hear a ton of metal riffing, but I was somewhat surprised at how heavy the Dream Theater influence is here. There are noticeable differences, obviously, but the influence is definitely there.
Overall, I think this is a very interesting song. It’s a heavy song with some strong melodic qualities, many of which are found in distorted vocals, which I wouldn’t have expected to like, but really did.
There a lot of aspects of this song that I find really interesting and likable. My best explanation for the relatively low score here is that this isn’t really my usual style of music. The onslaught of staccato heavy riffing and distorted vocals really work here, but it’s still not something I’m often looking for in music. I do like the song, though.
Score: 8.0
TAC: Glass Mind - Your Name in Silence
So here’s a really solid progressive metal song, one with perhaps an even more noticeable Dream Theater influence than lonestar’s submission (even bordering on an homage with the "woah, oh oh”s at the end?).
The instrumentation here is really spot on. The keyboard intro is quite nice, and the guitar work, both in terms of riffs and melodies, is quite strong. The quiet part in the second half leading into the climax of the song is really good. TAC, you might have been right in guessing that this singer is one that I would not be inclined to like, and you’re right in that he’s not my favorite because of that particular style, but for whatever reason, he feels to me like one of the less egregious examples of this style. I’m still not crazy about the vocal style, but it doesn’t bother me. Perhaps because the chorus is really, really strong melodically.
This is definitely a textbook progressive metal song, but it’s a pretty good one. I’ve never really heard of the band, but they seem to have a knack for putting together a pretty solid prog metal song.
Score: 8.0
ShadowNinja 2.0: Steam Powered Giraffe - Brass Goggles
I see that you decided to stick with the policy of sending me really weird stuff. :lol
You know, I don’t really know how these guys wound up making this type of music or how people got into this type of music, really. This was so strange to me, just from a stylistic standpoint, that I really didn’t know if I liked it or not. In fact, I’m still not 100% certain! :lol
But this song was definitely in my head all day. It’s infectiously catchy and a lot of fun, so I think I do like it. The chorus about “a very big steam-powered giraffe that smokes” is very catchy, and I have taken a liking to some of the unusual lyrical aspects about, apparently, whether a robot is capable of having feelings. I’m still not completely certain how interested I am in hearing more songs of this style, but this was a fun song and an interesting submission.
Score: 8.0 + 0.5 bonus = 8.5
kingshmegland: Dada - Star You Are
This is a really pretty little love song. It’s really nice lyrically and musically, with a memorable and emotional chorus and some touching lyrics, particularly the line from which the title comes. I think it would be hard not to like this song, really.
Perhaps my favorite thing about this song is the vocal approach. The two singers work well together to create a cohesive and emotional vocal sound, and both of them have really good voices. I think it’s really interesting that two people with pretty similar styles sang on this song, but I think it really works here. Kind of a distinguishing factor for this pretty little song.
Score: 8.0 + 0.5 bonus = 8.5
Scorpion: Steve Rothery - Morpheus
Well, here’s a really nice, pleasant instrumental song. I didn’t really expect to get a song like this in the roulette or for it to perform all too well, but this one just really works.
The highlight of this track is obviously the guitar work. I don’t know Steve Rothery’s own work all too well, but to me, the influence from David Gilmour is clear, though he certainly doesn’t sound like a copycat. The playing and the tone are definitely Gilmour-esque, though.
What I really like here is that, though this is a prog guitarist’s solo album, the emphasis here is on composition. There aren’t a ton of long, shreddy solos that show off Rothery’s technical skill; in fact, there isn’t much soloing at all. Instead, there’s just a really strong composition built around one or two really good themes. The guitar work is, of course, very strong, but so is the presence of the piano. On the whole, this is just a really nice, calm instrumental track. A pleasant experience.
Score: 8.5
Open Your Eyes311: Styx - One With Everything
Here’s a really nice, fun, groovy prog rock song. This is nice retro prog song complete with Hammond organ and everything. The instrumentation is nice and tight. I really like the big melodies played on the keyboard, especially during the instrumental sections. The singing is pretty as well; the choral effect on the choruses is really quite a lovely touch.
There’s just something about this song that makes it feel big and wide open and joyous. I really love the first chorus “… something in the atmosphere…”, it’s really pretty and happy. The second chorus doesn’t do it for me quite as much, but it still carries with it this general sense of openness and joy. Really quite a nice song and one that will inspire me to check out more of Styx’s work.
Score: 8.5
Sacul: No-Man - Back When You Were Beautiful
No-Man is a name I’ve long been familiar with as “one of those other Steven Wilson projects.” I’d never really given them much of a look, to be honest. I thought maybe they were one of the more esoteric SW projects, and so I never really bothered. That was clearly a mistake, because if this song is any indication, this might be my favorite of the sounds that SW has had. His co-collaborator’s singing brings a bit of a different feel here than is on those projects where Steven sings, but Wilson’s presence is here as well.
I really do think that, given the frame of reference I had coming in, this song can be described as a Steven Wilson ballad with a very clear, distinct other songwriting presence involved. And it’s really quite appealing to me, actually, because, though I admire Wilson’s obvious songwriting talent, I find that he is often very cold and not very relatable, at least to me. I won’t say that I find No-Man to be the warmest band I’ve ever heard, but I think the presence of the other songwriter/singer provides a bit of a counterweight to some of the coldness I’ve experienced with SW’s music in the past. His voice is SW-esque, but warmer and more personable, which I like.
I realize that this entire writeup has been about how this song compares to other songs by Steven Wilson, which is probably caused by the fact that I’m already kind of familiar with this artist, but kind of not. In any case, I really do like the song. It’s not astonishing, but it’s a very good sad little ballad. If this is any indication of No-Man, I will definitely have to give them a serious look.
Score: 8.5 + 0.5 bonus = 9.0
Big Hath: Snarky Puppy - Amour, t’es là
Why didn’t you send this on the happy round? True, I don’t really know if the lyrics are happy or not, since I don’t speak French. But even if they’re really sad you’d have gotten away with it, since, as you can tell, I didn’t look them up. Oh well, that’s in the past with the Alcest happy round submission, and this is now.
This fun, romantic (I feel like it’s romantic, though that might be because that’s how anything French sounds to me) little song is one of my favorite songs of the round. I like the instrumentation provided here. The horns and other instruments sound really good, and the drums really provide the song with a sense of motion. The singer is really good, her voice fits very well with the song, and the group vocals just add to the overall feel of the song, particularly on the very pretty chorus.
When I listen to this song, I feel like it could easily be used in a movie of some kind, in some kind of romantic montage or something. It just feels like the music to a movie scene where there’s a lot of really joyful activity going on, like the whole world is dancing. I don’t know, that’s just really what I see in my head when I hear this song. In any case, this is a really pretty, fun little song with some nice, tight instrumentation and a great vocal performance by the lead singer and the background vocalists.
Score: 9.0 + 0.5 bonus = 9.5
Evermind: Susanne Sundfør - The Brothel
This is exactly what I want to hear. This is pretty much spot on one of the types of music that I hoped find more of with this roulette.
This is an absolutely beautiful song that I fell in love with on first listen and have only liked better every time I heard it. The sparse electronic instrumentation is really beautiful and sets the scene with its beautiful sad notes. The centerpiece is Sundfør’s absolutely stunning voice. Her singing is just so excellent, beautiful and emotional. Her amazing voice works perfectly in rise and fall with the instrumentals. I love when the symphonic elements come in to back her growing intensity on the later choruses. The lyrics are also amazing, fitting perfectly with the sadness of the song as a whole.
Just… everything about this song is really fantastic. The music, the lyrics her voice. Spectacular.
Score: 9.5 + 0.5 bonus = 10.0
Natural Standings:
ShadowNinja 2.0 - 70.5
Evermind - 70.0
Scorpion - 70.0
Parama - 69.0
OpenYourEyes311 - 68.5
Sacul - 67.5
kingshmegland - 67.0
Big Hath - 66.5
lonestar - 65.5
TAC - 63.0
Adjusted Standings:
Scorpion - 64.0
Evermind - 62.0
ShadowNinja 2.0 - 62.0
Parama - 61.5
OpenYourEyes311 - 60.5
Sacul - 60.5
kingshmegland - 59.5
Big Hath - 59.0
lonestar - 58.0
TAC - 55.5
I re-added the scores from scratch to get the new scores in hopes of avoiding a situation where I committed an error several weeks ago that I've carried over until now. I'll do the same on the final score as well as just adding it on to make sure I get everything right. However, I encourage everybody to add up their own scores and let me know if there are any errors. I don't want to get anything wrong.
Round Nine: EP
I think we've mostly gone over what I expect in the EP round. There's a maximum length of 30 minutes, no more than 15 minutes of music can be from any one artist, etc. Your submission will graded both on the quality of the songs and the quality of the playlist itself, so the songs should work together as an EP, as well as a collection of songs from different artists can.
If you send me YouTube links, which is perfectly fine, just be sure it's clear in your PM what the running order of the songs is. If you want to make my life easier and/or if it's important that the playback be as gapless as possible, and you still want to use YouTube, you might make a playlist and send me the playlist. Alternately, if some of your songs aren't on YouTube, you could send me the files themselves. If you do that, it might be best to put track numbers in the file names—that is, the song you want me to listen to first could be called "1 Dark Chest of Wonders.mp3", followed by "2 Another Day.mp3" and so on. If you send me a Spotify playlist, keep in mind that I don't have premium Spotify. As I found out this past round, that means that there are some songs I can listen to and some that I can't. For that reason, it's probably best to do YouTube and if that's not viable to send me the files.
EPs will be scored out of 20. I'm not sure if I will include half point increments yet. The way bonuses will work is the following: if 50% of the EP by length is neither prog nor metal, it's a 0.5 bonus. If the entire EP is neither prog nor metal, it's a 1.0 bonus (it may seem like a lot, but it's the same as the regular bonus since the round is out of 20, not 10).
At this point, I'm going to make a declaration on banned artists in the EP. If the artist was banned in this round or in the previous (epic) round, you can include one song from that artist so long as that song is less than 30% of your EP by length. I don't see any reason to open the thing up to artists that were banned in earlier rounds, since I'm trying to not force people to change their EPs last minute, not allow a field day on artists I've already heard. Obviously this doesn't help you if someone sent the particular song you were going to include on the EP this round, but it's an attempt to try to preserve the running order of EPs that have already been made, since running order is important here. The 30% limit is to prevent people from loading up an EP of 50+% something I already liked here.
Since this is the final round, I'll say for the first of what I assume will be several times how much I've enjoyed having you all involved here. Every single person in this roulette has sent me multiple songs that I have really liked and have made me interested in checking out bands or albums. I really appreciate you all being a part of this.
At some point during the EP listening, I'll make a post listing what I've learned from running this roulette. This will include personal items about my own tastes as well as my thoughts about running a roulette—things that I would do again and things that I would change if I ever run another roulette. If you're coming up on your own first roulette pretty soon, you might be interested in seeing what I have to say about my experience running my own and what I think works and doesn't work. Some of you, of course, are far more experienced than I in the world of roulettes, and to you I'm afraid this post will not be very useful, but I still think it's worth sharing for anyone who might find it interesting.
If there are any remaining EP-related questions, please ask them. If not, go ahead and send for the final round of my roulette!
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That No-man album is quite warm actually, that song alone being the saddest on it. You'll really enjoy it :biggrin: .
Evermind: Susanne Sundfør - The Brothel
Goddammit :lol . I'll something from another album, don't worry.
Also
Score: 9.0 + 0.5 bonus = 10.0
does not compute
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oh well i scored an 8.0 basically
only twin is far from the easiest oceansize song though (actually one of the harder ones, tbh, though me and my love for dark music i immediately loved it :lol )
if you want something more accessible and still great, try Catalyst or Unfamiliar, those two both give a pretty good idea of what Oceansize is about (and the later is secretly one of their most complex songs musically but masks it really well haha)
anyways i'll score the .5 and not the 1.0 on my EP, that's fine
gonna give my EP a once-over and then send you the .zip
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That No-man album is quite warm actually, that song alone being the saddest on it. You'll really enjoy it :biggrin: .
Good to know!
Evermind: Susanne Sundfør - The Brothel
Goddammit :lol . I'll something from another album, don't worry.
Somehow I just knew.
Also
Score: 9.0 + 0.5 bonus = 10.0
does not compute
Yikes. That was supposed to be a 9.5 + 0.5 = 10.0. Fixed.
only twin is far from the easiest oceansize song though (actually one of the harder ones, tbh, though me and my love for dark music i immediately loved it :lol )
if you want something more accessible and still great, try Catalyst or Unfamiliar, those two both give a pretty good idea of what Oceansize is about (and the later is secretly one of their most complex songs musically but masks it really well haha)
I'll try those. I definitely haven't given up on liking the band, I just couldn't get completely into that song within the time allotted.
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Hey I'm glad you at least kind of liked it! I'm a huge fan of that sort of cabaret/vaudevillian over-the-top type stuff, so that song is like, made just for me. :lol Also Oceansize was a band I was initially kind of lukewarm on, but the album that song is from (Frames) is now one of my favorite albums, so you may turn around on them yet!
Also, thank you for having me in this roulette! I love sharing music with people, and even more so when they actually like it! :lol
I will be doing some final checks on my EP, and it shall be en route shortly.
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I'm a huge fan of that sort of cabaret/vaudevillian over-the-top type stuff.
Sign up for my roulette. Right now.
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you motherfuckin got it, bro
edit: also sent
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Sent yo.
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Will have a few more listens over the day because I'm not completely happy with the track order and then send tomorrow.
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Been working on the EP for a while now, but still haven't gotten it right. I will send by the end of tomorrow though, regardless.
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OpenYourEyes311, great pick for a song!
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OpenYourEyes311, great pick for a song!
:tup
One of my favorite bands, and such a killer song that pretty much ends their recorded career (at least for original material). I knew I wanted to send a Styx song, it was down to this and Suite Madam Blue, but I figured if he likes One With Everything, he can get a greatest hits CD and get SMB.
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So when can we expect results?
:footloose:
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Tomorrow.
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Big Hath: Snarky Puppy - Amour, t’es là
Why didn’t you send this on the happy round? True, I don’t really know if the lyrics are happy or not, since I don’t speak French. But even if they’re really sad you’d have gotten away with it, since, as you can tell, I didn’t look them up. Oh well, that’s in the past with the Alcest happy round submission, and this is now.
This fun, romantic (I feel like it’s romantic, though that might be because that’s how anything French sounds to me) little song is one of my favorite songs of the round. I like the instrumentation provided here. The horns and other instruments sound really good, and the drums really provide the song with a sense of motion. The singer is really good, her voice fits very well with the song, and the group vocals just add to the overall feel of the song, particularly on the very pretty chorus.
Ha! Color me shocked at my score. It was an impulse entry for this round just hoping to "cleanse your musical palate" so to speak after the epic round. I guess it worked!
First off, if you are checking out more from Snarky Puppy, keep in mind this is a mainly instrumental jazz/hip-hop group (although this song was from an album that had guest singers on each song). Second, the singer (Magda Giannikou) is also playing accordion on this song, which is quite impressive given how well she does both. She is extremely talented.
On the lyrics, it's kind of a longing and maybe a hopeful song more than anything I guess. The title translates to "Love, are you there?". She's dreaming of love and can't seem to find it, but remains hopeful that today is the day.
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:lol
I'll send mine tonight.
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Oh hell yes. I just kind of knew you'll like this one.
This score also makes me to rethink my full-blown-metal approach... Actually no, screw it, I'm going to send metal anyway.
I had weird problems with connection to DTF now (couldn't access it for two days and had to use proxy now to make it), so I'll send tomorrow after work. Hope that's alright.
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Sent!!
I'm glad it's over! :lol
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I had weird problems with connection to DTF now (couldn't access it for two days and had to use proxy now to make it), so I'll send tomorrow after work. Hope that's alright.
Should be fine. I only have four submissions in at the moment anyway.
Sent!!
I'm glad it's over! :lol
:lol
Sorry about all this, it seems that, for the most part, aside from Dream Theater and Iron Maiden, we are not a match. I will be getting Constantine's album, though, and I'll look more into Fates Warning and Iris Divine, so it's been far from a complete failure.
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I had weird problems with connection to DTF now (couldn't access it for two days and had to use proxy now to make it), so I'll send tomorrow after work. Hope that's alright.
Should be fine. I only have four submissions in at the moment anyway.
Alright then, I might take two days at best, seeing as now I kind of have the chance to actually win. :lol Want to dwell on the EP a bit longer. Maybe.
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I have my EP pretty much figured out, I'll just give it a last spin today and will send later.
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Sorry about all this, it seems that, for the most part, aside from Dream Theater and Iron Maiden, we are not a match. I will be getting Constantine's album, though, and I'll look more into Fates Warning and Iris Divine, so it's been far from a complete failure.
Well that's what it's all about.
I only joined after looking at your banned list and thinking that most of it is right up my alley.
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Sent.
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Sent!
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Sorry about all this, it seems that, for the most part, aside from Dream Theater and Iron Maiden, we are not a match. I will be getting Constantine's album, though, and I'll look more into Fates Warning and Iris Divine, so it's been far from a complete failure.
Well that's what it's all about.
I thought the hokey pokey was what it was all about. My entire life has been a sham!
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also, sent!
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My EP has been sent.
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sent last night!
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I've cut all the gaps and silent parts I could and still ended up with 30:04 because I want to squeeze another ballad here instead of the one I was planning to include before. Well, Parama got away with sending an hour long song, so what the hell, I'm listening the last time and sending my EP. :lol
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Too long, -1 point.
Nah, 4 seconds is no big deal. But don't anybody get any ideas and try going higher. Do your best to cut it to under 30 and if it's over by a margin of <10 seconds, who cares.
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I cut stuff to get my EP to be exactly 30 minutes long which is easy when the last song has a minute of basically silence that I can easily cut a little off of yay
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Alright, sent the songs with 2500 words wall of text describing my EP and other stuff.
I will probably land on the last place this round. Went full-metal approach. :lol
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I will probably land on the first place this round. Went full-feels approach. :hat
FTFM
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i basically made a semi-concept album with the songs but it's vague :lol
also feels and some metal
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My EP is atmospheric, with one ambient piece, two chamber folk songs, a techno tune, a prog ballad with flutes, and a pop hit.
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my EP contains only screams of agony, backed by light percussion
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20/20 we have a winner
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20/20 we have a winner
And a loser! ;D ;D
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i basically made a semi-concept album with the songs but it's vague :lol
also feels and some metal
this exactly.
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my original EP concept had Oceansize on it and an ambient This Will Destroy You piece and I ended up having to cut the latter to fit in all the songs I wanted but I am sad that I had to cut it :(
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I've got everyone's EPs now. I just started listening! :tup
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don't hate me
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Why would I hate you? Did you sneak an hour-long song on here?
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mine is great. feel free to post often about how great it is ok thanks
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Why would I hate you? Did you sneak an hour-long song on here?
i'm never confident
you'll probably like this stuff though or i hope you do i'll cry if you don't
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Well, that adds some pressure.
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I think that mine will probably either be the best thing ever or totally tank.
But I will at least get 0.5 bonus points. That'... something?
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yeah i'll get .5 bonus points and there's at least four songs that i'm sure you'll love tbh, the proggier ones are the ones where i'm worried i'll lose points
tho tbh neither of them are that proggy anyways and more focused on being big and powerful
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At least four songs? My EP has four songs overall. :lol
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let's play a game: ep songs by song length only :lol
1: 3:48
2: 3:54
3: 6:38
4: 4:09
5: 8:49 (8:55 unedited)
6: 2:42 (3:10 unedited)
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Song 1: 6:20
Song 2: 3:16
Song 3: 3:16
Song 4: 3:42
Song 5: 7:36
Aside from 1 and 5, these are all songs that I discovered because of DTF.
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Song 1: 4:37 (4:40 unedited)
Song 2: 11:07 (11:15 unedited)
Song 3: 5:08 (5:20 unedited)
Song 4: 9:13 (9:33 unedited)
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1:44
5:57
3:47
4:27
3:46
5:23
3:59
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Track 1..7:15
Track 2-4 is a Trilogy
2:51
5:47
2:31
Track 5..7:34
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hmm... 3 of the artists I submitted I discovered on one site, one other I saw at a music store and looked them up bcuz of the album name/cover, another I'd heard of waaay before I got into prog and checked out their stuff when I heard they had proggier stuff than I'd heard, and one other was an artist I'd heard as background music in a video on another site I used to frequent
completely unintentional but every artist in my EP is an artist I -didn't- find on DTF, lol...
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another I'd heard of waaay before I got into prog and checked out their stuff when I heard they had proggier stuff than I'd heard
Sounds like Genesis! ;D
one other I saw at a music store and looked them up bcuz of the album name/cover
I had only ever done this with Nightwish. The Once album cover made me want to get it. Looking at the back I saw the female (who I assumed was the) singer, and I was intrigued. So glad I ended up getting that because Once and DPP made my LIFE around that time (2006-2008)
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i'm gonna be honest, I listen to basically no band from before the 90's
i'll listen to some Pink Floyd, and DT technically started in the 80's but all their good stuff was 91' onward, and I have like one 80's Fates Warning album I don't like much
i haven't really ever listened to Genesis :lol
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i'm gonna be honest, I listen to basically no band from before the 90's
i'll listen to some Pink Floyd, and DT technically started in the 80's but all their good stuff was 91' onward, and I have like one 80's Fates Warning album I don't like much
i haven't really ever listened to Genesis :lol
I should probably join your roulette and send you only 60s - 80s stuff. :lol
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Never listened to Genesis? Well, you aren't missing that much :neverusethis:
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i will also be honest, i find it hard to listen to anything from either the 60's or the 80's 'cause the production in both those eras generally sucked
I dunno why we got decent production in the 70's and then lost it again until the 90's
but you can try :lol
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I should probably join your roulette and send you only 60s - 80s stuff. :lol
I'm up for that............but just 80's :P
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I should probably join your roulette and send you only 60s - 80s stuff. :lol
I'm up for that............but just 80's :P
I think you already know almost all the stuff I have from that era. :lol
i will also be honest, i find it hard to listen to anything from either the 60's or the 80's 'cause the production in both those eras generally sucked
I dunno why we got decent production in the 70's and then lost it again until the 90's
but you can try :lol
Hey, 60s - 80s interval does include 70s, so don't worry. Not that it's the kind of music you will like though.
Edit: I'll be honest, Parama, if I ever join your roulette, I will do it just for shits and giggles and to send some weird stuff. Our tastes are too far apart. :lol
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:lol
You guys are making me feel old.
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Never listened to Genesis? Well, you aren't missing that much :neverusethis:
I dunno, I'm not a fan of Genesis, but I think Selling England by the Pound is pretty decent.
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send me weird stuff, that's more fun than sending safe stuff :lol
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Count me in then! :lol
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Count me in then! :lol
This - I do have some special weird stuff just for you ;D
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david maxim micic is banned btw bcuz i know of him now even if i haven't listened too much to his stuff yet
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Oh, I still have lots of stuff for ya, don't worry.
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Yeah, like Destiny Potato.
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Sshh, mah secret! :angry:
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So how is the listening going on? ;D
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It's going pretty well! It's a bit of slow going again, like the epic round, as you can imagine. Hopefully it won't be quite as slow as that one was, though, because listening to a set of songs that total 30 minutes is usually less draining than listening to a 30-minute song. At least it is for me.
I've just finished the last EP of my first run-through, so I've listened to all of them once. I'll begin the second listen tomorrow. I don't know if I'll ever post first impression quotes from this round, because any quote about the whole EP would be really obvious for most of them and any quote about a particular song would often not be that telling because it's just one song of several (or even many). But I will give a general description about my thoughts after one listen.
To briefly sing my own praises: I think it was really good that I did this EP round. I'm not sure if I'm the first one to do this in a roulette, so if I'm not, then whoever came up with it came up with a really good idea, and if I am, then I guess I came up with a really good idea. It's been really interesting to just see how everyone used the space allowed by the two rules I gave you (less than 30 minutes of music, no more than 15 minutes per band) to come up with different samplings of songs. Some people went with a particular mood or style of music and gave me an EP that consists mostly or entirely of that style, which is probably a more effective way of getting me to check out the particular style than just sending one song from one artist. Several EPs really focus in on particular styles of music that I wasn't that familiar with coming in, and I'm enjoying wading in to the examples they've provided to get to know that style. Others focused on a style that I already know in an attempt to get me into some artists in that style that I don't know. And then there are some that offer a wide stylistic variety that often seems to still work in the 30-minute playlist format.
All this to say that one listen in, I don't regret doing the EP round (like I thought I might). Scoring might be a little bit more of a challenge this time, and I realize that the stakes couldn't be higher here than at any other point in the roulette, but just in the interest of being a music listener who is trying to sample a number of different styles, I really like the way this round is turning out.
Second listen starts tomorrow! :) I'll keep you all updated on this process, which hopefully won't take quite as long as the epic round did. And, also, I'll be making a "what I learned running this roulette" post in the not-to-distant future, so that will be coming as well.
Oh, one other little tease: Two artists were included on two different people's EPs. And one person sent both artists (in case that wasn't clear, it was like Person B sent an artist that Person A sent, and Person C sent a different artist that Person A also sent).
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four of the artists i entered could possibly have been entered by other dtfers (other two is like 0% chance) so who knows
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I'm pretty sure someone noticed this artist missing in you banned list, as it's a must-listen on this forum ;D
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So, when can we expect results?
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For you and Shadow Ninja, right now.
Scorpion: 0/20, hates Song of Myself
Shadow Ninja: 0/20, hates Song of Myself
:P
Nah, seriously. I've listened to every EP twice, which was quicker than the epic round to get to this point. That's the good news. The bad news is that I really feel like I need a total of four listens to be able to score these properly. Then more good news is that starting today I'm going to try to listen to five a day. I'm not sure that will happen every single day, but I would say results this weekend.
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the golden hype machine
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Man, Song of Myself just fucking sucks. The first half is just good, not great, and the trainwreck of shit that is the second half just completely ruins any chance it ever had of being considered a good song.
Spoken word bits can be done well, and can ever be great, like Ulver's Stone Angels. That one is 15 minutes, and there's nothing other than spoken word and backing instrumentation.
But goddamn, Song of Myself sucks hard. Even more so when you compare it with the brilliant epic on the previous album, which is one of Nightwish's best songs, in my opinion.
...
uh
Anyway I hope you enjoy my EP. :lol
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4. The Poet and the Pendulum
5. Song of Myself
And there forever remains the change from G to E minor.
:biggrin:
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Just wrapped up the third listen. Fourth listen will include the writeups and will kick off tomorrow. I would estimate Sunday for when the results will be posted.
Here's a fun little tease to tide you over until then. I've ranked the songs on each EP, and I'm posting those rankings here without track names. Fortunately, there are multiple EPs with the same number of tracks, so the rankings aren't quite a giveaway (for example, there are two EPs with seven tracks, so the people who had seven tracks still won't be able to tell which of the two rankings is theirs). The only exceptions are that there is only one EP with three tracks and one EP with four tracks. So the ranking of the EP with three tracks has a decoy "Track 4" entry in the rankings.
Maybe this idea is a bit revealing about what I think of aspects of EPs, but there are people in other roulettes showing exactly where a submission ranks among that person's other submissions, so I think I'm fine. You still won't know how well I liked your EP as a whole.
Here are all the EP track rankings, with song names removed.
EP #1:
1. Track 2
2. Track 1
3. Track 3
4. Track 4
EP #2:
1. Track 2
2. Track 4
3. Track 3
4. Track 1
EP #3:
1. Track 5
2. Track 1
3. Track 2
4. Track 4
5. Track 3
EP #4:
1. Track 1
2. Track 3
3. Track 2
4. Track 4
5. Track 5
EP #5:
1. Track 1
2. Track 6
3. Track 4
4. Track 2
5. Track 5
6. Track 3
EP #6:
1. Track 1
2. Track 5
3. Track 3
4. Track 4
5. Track 6
6. Track 2
EP #7:
1. Track 3
2. Track 4
3. Track 2
4. Track 6
5. Track 5
6. Track 1
EP #8:
1. Track 2
2. Track 3
3. Track 6
4. Track 5
5. Track 4
6. Track 1
EP #9:
1. Track 3
2. Track 4
3. Track 7
4. Track 5
5. Track 2
6. Track 6
7. Track 1
EP #10:
1. Track 3
2. Track 5
3. Track 7
4. Track 4
5. Track 2
6. Track 6
7. Track 1
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I bet the second one is mine. An absolutely outstanding epic song > a great epic song and awesome closer for the album > a nice sad ballad with male and female vocals > a pretty generic power metal song that makes for a quality opener.
Though it would be indeed weird if mine is the first one.
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hmm how would I rate my EP's tracks
4 - fantastic piano and vocal piece with some electronic and symphonic flourishes
5 - probably my favorite power metal song and a good epic-ish track for a short EP
2 - an oddly bright rock song for the lyrics
3 - good ol' power ballads
6 - very emotional piano ballad closer, i cri everytim
1 - a very pleasant and quirky song
off the top of my head i guess, but all 6 songs are great. there's like, a super narrow gap between 4 and 1, they'd all rate at least 8.5 or higher on my grading scale :lol
judging by your taste, im going to say EP #5 is probably mine :lol
one draft of my EP actually had like 8 tracks but that was with two really short tracks in it and it didn't flow so well
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hmmm... looking at the rankings, there's a 50/50 shot that you either loved or hated my opener haha. I'm going with that you LOVED it, and picking EP #6. It makes the most sense, to me anyway, that after the blistering hard rock/punk opener you would love the three ballady-type songs the most and put them 2-4. My closer is one of my favorites from a particular Classic Rock band, but I could see how it could be bland for someone (although.... DAT DRUM SOLO!). And the song you ranked 6th may just not be your cup of tea, although it's one of my favorites from a '90s band and is actually a very cool re-recording of a very old song of theirs.
All that is, of course, assuming I'm right and that EP #6 is mine. I just don't see the other rankings making sense lol. Maybe #7........ Maybe.
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I can say with confidence that Track 4 was your fourth favourite on my EP.
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I have no idea which one of these is mine.
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Well, I know I'm one of 2.
Hint, hint.
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I have 6 out of 10 writeups done, as well as the intro of the final results post. I won't provide a 100% guarantee that the final results will be up tomorrow, but I'd say it's more likely than not—I'll probably do two writeups during the day tomorrow and two at night and then post. I've been trying not to do more than two in one sitting.
I promised a "what I learned post." I don't know if anyone cares, but I figured I'd go ahead and provide that:
What I learned, or what was re-emphasized to me, about my music taste:
- I really do like good music of a lot of different styles. There were some songs that I didn’t like too well for stylistic reasons, yes, but I was surprised by the breadth of what I liked here. And relatively few things scored low.
- I like serious or mostly-serious music.
- I like female vocalists a lot.
- I prefer clean-sounding production to dirty-sounding production, though it’s not a dealbreaker. By this I mean that I like crisp instrument tones over dirty ones and I don’t like a lot of background sounds that seem pointless to me.
- Atmosphere, mood and emotional impact are all important to me.
- Vocal melodies are among the most important things to me in any non-instrumental song.
What I learned about running a roulette:
- Nine rounds was too many for me to do given my rate of listening. It was really awesome in terms of the quantity of music I got, but it just took too long.
- I don’t regret having ten contestants at all. Yeah, it made listening longer and scoring more difficult and more crowded, but it meant getting more music. And it never really felt like I had too much in any given round.
- I shouldn’t have done both an epic round and an EP round without shortening the number of rounds in the roulette. I don’t regret having either round, but they’re both really lengthy.
- The EP round was a really good idea. It complicates things a bit, but it’s just really interesting to see what mixes and samplers everyone comes up with.
- I shouldn’t have scored things out of ten. I should have done a ranking system, where the highest ranking gets a set number of points, then the next, etc. I had little consistency in what scores I gave, and virtually all my scores were bunched up in 7.5-9.0 natural scores.
- Doing a ranking system (or, alternately, head-to-head) would have added clarity, reduced listening times, and just generally made things easier for me.
- I almost think that on V2, if that day ever comes, I will have a relatively low number of rounds and include multiple EP rounds. Something like five rounds including two EP rounds and an epic round.
With that done, there's little more to do than make the final results post, hopefully tomorrow. I'll also try to provide some analytics either tomorrow or in the next few days after including the rankings of the songs sent by each contestant and a top ten songs from the entire roulette.
And, of course, there's the matter of who won this thing. Which I either already know right now and am keeping secret from you or don't know yet pending my thoughts after listening to these final four EPs one last time. Pick one. :biggrin:
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Look, the winner should obviously be the guy who participated in Nightwish survivor and didn't vote Song of Myself even once. We both know that.
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**Surreptitiously adds Song of Myself to Evermind's EP**
WELL WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT
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You missed one point: Doing roulettes is a fantastic way to expand your tastes a bit more, and find some of your new favorite albums and bands.
Anyways, its been lots of fun, and now you have a hell lot of new music to listen to. Enough for 2-3 months I'd say.
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You missed one point: Doing roulettes is a fantastic way to expand your tastes a bit more, and find some of your new favorite albums and bands.
Well, yes, that too! In fairness to me, though I forgot it in this particular list, I really emphasize it in the final writeups.
Anyways, its been lots of fun, and now you have a hell lot of new music to listen to. Enough for 2-3 months I'd say.
:rollin For me, it'll be a lot more than that (which is why, right now, V2 is more of an "if" than a "when")! Especially if I like a lot of the artists enough to get their whole discographies. I've seen your spreadsheet, and I have to say that I am not at all like you in terms of music discovery speed! That spreadsheet would take me a lifetime!
But it's been great, really.
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i'm sad because i couldn't sell you on Oceansize
i should've sent Paper Champion though I bet you'd have loved that one :lol
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Hey, I may not have been sold, but I wasn't turned off either.
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life goal is to make oceansize everyone's favorite tho
you and bolsters both stand as obstacles to my goal :(
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Aaaaaaaaaan.... :corn
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(https://i.imgur.com/Dx9Xm8d.png)
:corn
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:dangerwillrobinson:
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i scored a 20
out of 200
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Since he has a chick, I though RJ would be off his game.
Man among boys.
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i scored a 20
out of 200
(https://i.imgur.com/Y4lftEZ.png)
:omg: How did you know?
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:lol
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oh, my one-day-in-the-future self hacked my account and posted that, screw that guy
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life goal is to make oceansize everyone's favorite tho
you and bolsters both stand as obstacles to my goal :(
And me ;D
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Just wrote the most glowing review I've written all roulette.
#425roulette2k15
#maybetwentyoutoftwenty
#maybe
The wait continues...
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oceansize is literally the best because even their few below average songs are still decent and they have about 20 amazing songs as well :'(
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I used to say the same about DT :P
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I used to say the same about DT :P
I never said that about DT but I've felt that way about Oceansize for 4+ years now SO.
it helps that the band is dead and thus can never "get worse" tho I doubt another album would've been a nosedive in quality lol
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my power is out and i'm on my 3DS waiting for you to post results, help :c
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I'm on the second-last EP. I'm a bit less than halfway through this one, and then I have another to do. So it'll probably be about 45 minutes to an hour still.
And I still don't know for sure who won...
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hint: I am the winner.
It's me.
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prob, my EP is only getting 6 out of 21 points so
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:dangerwillrobinson:
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i'm listening to sigur ros rn how about you?
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I'm on the second-last EP. I'm a bit less than halfway through this one, and then I have another to do. So it'll probably be about 45 minutes to an hour still.
And I still don't know for sure who won...
Hurry up. It's slow at work and I need entertainment.
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Alright, here come the results. They're going to come in several posts because of how long the writeups are. And I know that the razor-thin, photo-finish of a victory here is going to spark some controversy, so I'll head everything off by saying that I am 100% confident in my decision.
Okay now you can comment. On the next page. :lol
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I have to repeat: I’m really pleased with the way that the EP round turned out. I really did get 10 playlists that I really like to listen to. There is not a single one here that I dislike. I really encourage you to, if you get the chance, check out some of your fellow contestants' playlists. There’s really just so much good material here. By my count, I received 55 songs in total this round, and they ranged from ambient atmospheric music to trip hop to djent to all-out power metal to pop punk to folk. This is really an impressive, diverse almost 5 hours worth of music. And I really feel like some of you kept back your best submissions for this round, because this is almost certainly my favorite round of the roulette. I hate that I have to score some of these higher than others. However, that’s the way these things work!
These writeups are bit different here from usual, as you can imagine. First of all, they’re all really long. This is mostly because I’m trying to cover five, six, seven songs in one writeup. I try to keep things succinct, but I also think more commentary is not really a bad thing to provide. I also included a section where I talk directly to the contestant. Here I kind of say I’m sorry you didn’t win unless you won, and note what I liked or didn’t like about your submissions in the roulette as a whole. I also say what artists you sent that I’m most likely to be checking out very soon.
The other thing I added is a final ranking of the songs on the EP. Some of these have changed since the third listen, when I made those teasers. Because I’m sure you’re all curious, I’ve included these. I also decided to quickly come up with a brief score guess for each song—raw scores out of ten. These scores do not reflect the same amount of thought that I normally give to individual song scores, and it’s important to note that the score of your EP is NOT related to the average of these song scores (though it’ll usually be pretty close to double that average). Throughout this round I’ve been thinking of and scoring the EPs as units and the score represents my score out of twenty for the full unit of music. The individual song scores are more of an afterthought. Also, right next to your username, I noted which EP from the teaser post is yours. This can kind of show you where I was after three listens with yours and how I evolved into the fourth. And also I know you’re all eager to find out which you were.
Alright, no more meta. Enough of me talking about me talking, time to get on to just plain old me talking. Multiple posts here because these are long and the character limit. Here goes.
Round Nine Results
TAC (EP #4)
Fields of the Nephilim - Endemoniada
Alice Cooper - Years Ago
Alice Cooper - Steven
Alice Cooper - The Awakening
Fields of the Nephilim - Love Under Will
Many of the contestants decided to use the EP round to send me half-hour samplers of a particular genre of music, usually ones that I was unfamiliar with going in. TAC sent one such sampler, bringing to the table a bunch of what I suppose is called gothic rock. This really resulted in an intriguing playlist, though also certainly a creepy one.
This EP is bookended by tracks from Fields of the Nephilim, starting with Endemoniada. The intro, the first couple of minutes of the song, is pretty strange and creepy. The creepy vibe does not vanish once the main part of the song sets in, with some memorable downcast guitar riffing leading into the faster-paced vocal part of the song. The vocalist employs a very creepy style, or really a variety of really creepy styles. It’s not at all sympathetic, but it really fits with the mood of the song. I like the verse that starts at around 6:12 quite a bit, with the deep voice.
Fields of the Nephilim gives way to the famous Alice Cooper and his Steven Trilogy. I have to say that Alice Cooper is someone who I had obviously heard of, but hadn’t given a second thought. Though I wouldn’t say that he’s exactly moved into my list of favorite artists, this collection of songs definitely caught my attention and demonstrated to me that he’s not just a straightforward hard rock musician. This whole trilogy is very atmospheric and rock-opera-esque. Years Ago sets the scene with a kind of creepy atmosphere and Cooper doing all sorts of different vocal styles. This continues on the centerpiece of the Trilogy, Steven, where the rather impressive theatrics of Cooper’s voice are joined a symphonic element. The creepy trilogy comes to a close on The Awakening. Overall, I thought this was a well-executed little mini-rock-opera, though it’s also kind of a creepy thing.
In any case, Fields of the Nephilim returns to close things off with Love Under Will. After another creepy intro, they once again deliver creepy guitar work, this time scored with a bit heavier of a keyboard presence. The singer comes in much earlier in this song, and I like him quite a bit better in this song. The melodies are a bit stronger, especially the line “when I’m gone, lay here.” The big guitar riff at around 2:13 is one of the most memorable parts of the EP, as is “lay, lay, lay it on me.” This is my favorite song of the EP, for both atmosphere and songwriting.
This EP is a nice introduction to a style of music I hadn’t given a second though to. Through this playlist, Alice Cooper has at the very least caught my attention as an artistically interesting musician, and I was introduced to a band that I might end up liking pretty well in Fields of the Nephilim. In the end, though, the problem here is the same one that Shadow Ninja faced back in the epic round with the song he sent from Devil Doll. The songs here achieve a very creepy atmosphere and do so really well. I like them, and I like the way I do this. But that type of atmosphere is not really what I look for in music. That really sets an upper limit on scores here, unfortunately.
TAC, this must be getting all too familiar for you. I imagine that how I’ve responded to your entries has been frustrating for the both of us. I can tell that you’re sending me songs that you like quite a bit, and almost every time, the songs just don’t quite connect with me. I suppose that’s just the way it goes sometimes. I appreciate the effort and your participation, I really do. And in Iris Divine and Constantine, you’ve introduced me to a couple of newer bands that I’m definitely interested in checking out further.
Final Song Ranking
Fields of the Nephilim - Love Under Will (8.0)
Fields of the Nephilim - Endemoniada (8.0)
Alice Cooper - Steven (7.5)
Alice Cooper - Years Ago (7.0)
Alice Cooper - The Awakening (7.0)
Score: 15.0 + 1.0 bonus = 16.0
OpenYourEyes311 (EP #8)
Rise Against - Survive
The Offspring - Dirty Magic
Eden’s Curse - Guardian Angel
SR-71 - Alive
Eve 6 - Girlfriend
Queen - It’s Late
This EP is a heavy dose of hard rock with a lot of punk influence, with a tiny bit of prog thrown in. Punk influence is a tough nut to crack for me. On an ideological level, I don’t really appreciate the intent of punk, as a stripping down of rock music in response to prog. I can enjoy music that has a punk/hardcore influence, but I also tend to find that there’s a ceiling on it—usually the best case scenario is for me to consider it good, but not great. I do appreciate the attempt to get me to expand my comfort zone, and there’s at least one of the punk-influenced artists on here that I’ll be checking out. This EP has helped ease some of my musical prejudices for sure.
The first song here is Survive, from Rise Against. The intro to the song is quite good, but the step into fast-paced thrashy hardcore music is a bit of a step down for me. Fortunately, it doesn’t stay that thrashy, and there are some good vocal melodies later in the song. This is one of my least favorites from this EP, but it’s a solid track.
We go from there into The Offspring’s song Dirty Magic. Dirty Magic was my definite favorite song on this EP. The punk influence isn’t as prominent as on the Rise Against song. It’s got a cleaner song and is more melodic. The chorus is absolutely infectious. I absolutely love the melody and the way he sings it. This is one of the 55 songs here that I’ve been singing the most over the past few days. The instrumentation and verse vocals aren’t too shabby either, so those combined with the great chorus make for a very nice listening experience.
The Eden’s Curse song, Guardian Angel, is a nice stylistic shift from what we’d heard before. There’s a nice keyboard presence on this song, and I’ve grown to like the singer more on successive listens. This is a big melodic power ballad, and I really have grown to like it quite a bit.
SR-71’s Alive starts out as a bit of a quiet ballad. The vocal melodies are catchy and well-done. It launches into a bigger sounding rock song and the solid melodies continue. Not as good as some of the top-billed songs on here, but a very nice contribution.
Eve 6 follows with Girlfriend. Another nice rock song with strong vocal melodies, and here, a nice keyboard presence. Again, not as special as something like The Offspring song, but a solid addition.
The grand finale here is all-time classic band Queen with It’s Late. I’m not a Queen devotee, but I’ve always liked what they’ve done. I hadn’t heard It’s Late before, and though it won’t be my favorite track from Queen, it’s still absolutely an impressive performance. The main attraction, as always, is Freddie Mercury, who belts it on this song, as usual. The verses here are my favorite part. The chorus is maybe a tiny bit weaker than on other Queen songs, maybe, but the verses really make up for that.
I have to imagine that the way this roulette has progressed has been somewhat frustrating for you, OpenYourEyes. You jumped off to a great start and a bit of a lead with the fantastic songs from The Lone Bellow and Christina Perri. But after that, things started to not go so excellently for you. I don’t think there’s a single one of your submissions that I didn’t like, and you sent me a good number of artists that I plan to check out, with The Lone Bellow, Perri and Styx leading the list, but you didn’t really ever return to the heights that you achieved in the first round. Unfortunately, that trend continues here, with an EP that I have grown to like quite a bit but do not love as much as the highest scoring ones, partially because of just a slight stylistic gap between the music on this EP and my preferred style of music. It’s unfortunate that things turned out this way after such a promising start, but you have definitely contributed some artists whose songs I loved a lot. I’m glad I was here to be your first roulette host, and I’m pleased that you decided to play.
Final Song Ranking:
The Offspring - Dirty Magic (8.5)
Eden’s Curse - Guardian Angel (8.0)
Rise Against - Survive (8.0)
Queen - It’s Late (7.5)
SR-71 - Alive (7.5)
Eve 6 - Girlfriend (7.5)
Score: 16.0 + 0.5 bonus = 16.5
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kingshmegland (EP #9)
People In Planes - Barracuda
Slow Motion Reign - Isn’t It Time (Rats)
The Raconteurs - The Switch and the Spur
Shudder To Think - X-French Tee Shirt
Slow Motion Reign - Life Simulator
People In Planes - Moth
The Raconteurs - These Stones Will Shout
Here’s yet another rock-centric EP, this one featuring seven songs but just four bands—three of the bands feature two songs each, which may have helped me get a bit more familiarity with each artist here.
The EP opens with Barracuda by People In Planes. This is a fine hard rock track. It’s one of my least favorite ones from the EP, but it’s not bad—a perfectly solid song. I like the chorus, not the “barracuda” line, but the other, more melodic chorus.
Slow Motion Reign follows with Isn’t It Time (Rats). This is another strong rock track with a memorable vocal melody on the chorus. There’s also a stronger piano presence here, which gives the song another dimension. This is also not among my favorite songs on here, but it’s a perfectly solid contribution.
The next song is from The Raconteurs, who are my favorite of the bands on this EP. This is one of my favorite songs on the EP as well. This rock song has a strong brass element and a western feel. I like the vocal melodies throughout, and the singer is pretty good as well. My favorite part of the song is definitely the “Any poor souls who trespass against us” section. It really adds to the vibe of the song and is just pretty cool vocally.
The other contender for my favorite song on the EP, and probably the winner in that category, is X-French Tee Shirt by Shudder To Think. The vocal melodies throughout are very strong, and the singing and instrumentation are both strong on the “Hold back the road that goes” section.
After that centerpiece, we come back to Slow Motion Reign with Life Simulator. This is definitely my favorite of their two songs on this EP. The back and forth between loud and quiet is appreciated, and I like the electronic elements. The vocalist does a good job telling the “story” of the song, and the chorus is very memorable. This song comes in a close fourth among the tracks on this EP.
People In Planes returns next with Moth. I prefer this one to their last song, I think it has stronger melodies and instrumentation, though on the whole, unfortunately, People In Planes is my least favorite artist on the EP. This is still a good song, though.
The closer is These Stones Will Shout, the second song here by The Raconteurs. I like this one about as much as I like The Switch and the Spurs. It has some very strong singing and vocal melodies, once again, and interesting guitar instrumentation. I think, when put next to the other bands in this EP, The Raconteurs superior instrumentation is very apparent. This is a very nice song and a good closer.
The whole EP is a very good sample of rock music. It’s not necessarily my favorite style of music, but many of these songs are very strong. This is a fun listening experience for sure.
King, you’ve had a lot of entries in this roulette that I’ve liked but haven’t necessarily loved. There isn’t an artist here that I wouldn’t be interested in hearing more songs from, but, unfortunately, there are also relatively few songs that scored excellently. I do appreciate that you kept trying with the artists you wanted to send, and you did send me a steady stream of very good songs. I liked The Pineapple Thief, The Raconteurs and This Day & Age quite a bit, and you did hit the jackpot once with Ben Folds Five’s song Brick, which is among my favorite songs of the entire roulette. I don’t quite know why that worked for me, and some of your others didn’t, but that’s just the way it falls sometimes, I guess. Thanks for participating!
Final Song Ranking:
Shudder To Think - X-French Tee Shirt (8.5)
The Raconteurs - These Stones Will Shout (8.0)
The Raconteurs - The Switch and the Spurs (8.0)
Slow Motion Reign - Life Simulator (8.0)
Slow Motion Reign - Isn’t It Time (Rats) (7.5)
People In Planes - Moth (7.0)
People In Planes - Barracuda (7.0)
Score: 16.0 + 1.0 bonus = 17.0
Scorpion (EP #3)
“425’s Awesome EP"
Massive Attack - Angel
The Cat Empire - Fishies
Ozric Tentacles - Snakepit
Caravan Palace - Brotherswing
Kirlian Camera - Drifting
Scorpion sent me this lovely EP of songs that have one-word titles (though I think Brotherswing is cheating a bit :P).
No, really, Scorpion sent me the most curiously constructed EP of this round. Only two of these songs, the opener and closer, could be said to really have any stylistic similarities. The mood runs the gamut, too, from fun dancing songs to depressing electronic music.
The EP opens with Massive Attack’s song Angel, a trippy bit of electronic music emphasizing beats and one main hook “You are my angel…” Either Scorpion got really lucky here, or remembered from one of my earlier writeups that I love the television show The West Wing. This song scores one of the most excellently choreographed scenes in that show. I won’t spoil what happens, but it’s in the episode Commencement, and it’s incredible. So, I already had a predisposition towards liking this song, and as I listen to it more, though it does not reach up into the level of my very favorites, it doesn’t disappoint, either. I like the way the song mixes beats, guitar work and the vocal melodies to create a song that is at the same time low-key and intense.
We go from that pretty intense experience into a sort of Latin-influenced dance song. This song is really quite a lot of fun. I like the singer quite a bit, he’s a lot of fun, and brass-powered instrumentation and nice rhythms make for a very fun listening experience. It’s kind of a strange transition out of the Massive Attack song, as are most of the transitions on this EP, but the more I’ve listened to them, the more they’ve worked for me.
Then, we jump from there into Ozric Tentacles’ song Snakepit. I’d heard of Ozric Tentacles as being a very strange prog-esque band, and this doesn’t really disappoint. There’s guitar playing, both acoustic and electric soloing, to all sorts of crazy time signatures with some synth stuff going on in the background. I can’t not mention the bass player and drummer either, because they’re obviously talented and drive this whole thing. This song is certainly nothing like I’ve ever heard before. I’m not sure I could listen to a whole album of this, but as a single song, I like it pretty well. It just happens to fall as my least favorite song on the EP.
The next song is so weird, I didn’t even know anything like this existed before. It’s Brotherswing by Caravan Palace, and it’s I guess what you call “electroswing,” which is not a misleading genre name. I mean, this is definitely swing music combined with electronic music. I found it really tough to listen to at first, but as I continued to listen, this one really found its way into my head. It’s still not one of my favorites, but it definitely came to impress me with its creativity by the end of listening. I also like that it has a female singer who employs some grit.
Then, we return to trippy electronic music with Kirlian Camera’s Drifting. This one is my favorite song on the EP, topping Angel. The main electronic musical theme is memorable, and the singing that comes in over the top is very nice, both the wordless “ahh”s and the distorted singing. On the whole, this song is just an excellent piece of melancholic electronic music, one that really elevates my view of the whole EP by closing it out excellently.
Scorpion, when I look at the lists of everyone’s submissions, on the whole, yours are the strongest. Yes, you sent me one of my least favorite songs with that Extreme track on the happy round, but under the rules of the roulette and in my own mind, the quality of many of your other submissions makes up for that. You sent me several of my favorite songs of the roulette, namely, Glory Box by Portishead, The Great Escape by Seventh Wonder and one that is growing to be one of my favorites, Limousine by Brand New. Grayceon and God Is An Astronaut were also appreciated submissions as well. When I just look at everyone’s submissions and guess who seems to be the most likely winner, you’re one of the most likely answers that comes to mind. Well done, and thank you for participating!
Your EP was not one of my very favorites of this round, but I liked it pretty well and it falls into around the middle of the pack, getting a pretty good score. The question that everyone wants to know is: will that be enough? I don’t know. Really, because I have not done the writeups and final scores for the EPs that follow.
Final Song Ranking:
Kirlian Camera - Drifting (9.0)
Massive Attack - Angel (8.5)
Fishies - The Cat Empire (8.0)
Caravan Palace - Brotherswing (8.0)
Ozric Tentacles - Snakepit (8.0)
Score: 17.0 + 0.5 bonus = 17.5
Big Hath (EP #10)
“It May Be Too Late to Make a Comeback, But Here Are Some Good Songs”
The Dear Hunter - The Lake South
The Dear Hunter - City Escape
Thrice - Open Water
Dave Matthews Band - Minarets
Fair to Midland - Walls of Jericho
Harvest - Roundabout
The Dear Hunter - Lost But Not All Gone
Big Hath’s EP is a prog-rock centric selection of songs and a really solid grouping, at that. Like some of the other EPs, one artist bookends the EP, in this case, The Dear Hunter. I am interested in checking out their work after listening to this EP, as well as that of several other bands on this submission.
The EP begins with The Lake South and City Escape by The Dear Hunter. The former serves as an intro for the later, and is a solid folky instrumental piece. It’s a solid intro, though nothing spectacular. It gives way to City Escape, that really feels like the beginning of a prog rock concept album, if that makes sense. Both musically and lyrically, it feels like it’s unfolding the beginning of a story, making a big dynamic statement at the beginning of the thing before, presumably, the album proceeds to later aspects of the story. Because it feels this way for me, it doesn’t impress me as much as an individual song as you might think a band so popular on this forum would. I think it’s a solid song in all respects—I really like the instrumentation, which is dynamic, powerful and virtuosic without being overly aggressive or anything, and the singing is quite strong—but it also doesn’t seem like a standalone powerhouse. Incidentally, that makes it a perfect entry for this round—it’s a nice intro into this EP and does provide a nice energetic opening that unfolds into the later parts of Hath’s mix, as well.
Then we move into my definite favorite song on this EP, and one of my favorites of the entire round: Thrice’s Open Water. This is a really nice atmospheric, vocal driven piece. There’s a really dark, powerful vibe here related to the title. I really love water and ocean imagery, so this is a big win for me. I like the vocals quite a bit, his restrained yet emotive style is really a perfect fit for this track. And I really like the way the guitars and keyboards lead into a crescendo on the choruses. Honestly, this is a band that had not been on my radar at all before this round, and now, having gotten this superb song on this EP, and another one that I liked pretty well on another entrant’s EP, they are near the top of my list. So well done.
This gives way to Dave Matthews Band with Minarets. This is one of those bands I had heard of, obviously, but had not really thought about checking out their music. This song definitely changes that. The instrumentation is very nice and subdued, with some nice guitar, keyboard and drum work. The vocals are really nice for the most part, very soft and well-suited to the strong melodies.
Then comes the centerpiece, Walls of Jericho by Fair to Midland. This is a really strong prog/alt rocky song. It’s got that nice soft verse/building prechorus/explosive chorus dynamic that’s in a lot of alt rock, and it executes this very well. Honestly, this song actually reminds me a lot of The Mayan Factor’s Warflower that you sent earlier in the roulette, though a happier version. But this song has enough of its own identity (and I really liked Warflower anyway) to not feel like a duplicate, and so this is another very solid contribution.
After this comes Harvest, with the prog rock song Roundabout, which is seemingly unrelated to the Yes song of the same name. This was one of the weaker songs on this EP, and I still liked it a whole lot, which shows a lot about the general strength of this playlist. I like female vocals, you all know that, so it’s no surprise that I like the singing here, particularly on the chorus. The instrumentation is good too, so though this is a pretty standard prog rock song aside from the female singer, it’s also a pretty strong contribution to the EP.
For the closing, we return to The Dear Hunter, with their song Lost But Not All Gone. This is my favorite of this band’s songs on the EP, as a standalone song. The piano drives this one at the very beginning, and launches into a still-piano-heavy prog rocker. I really like the vocal melodies on here and the counterpoint between the male lead singer and female backing vocalist. It’s a solid closer, and brings the EP to a nice end.
Overall, this is a very strong, consistent EP. There is not a song on here that I don’t like, and like pretty enthusiastically. The Dear Hunter has moved up my list, and Thrice really wowed me. The other artists are also very solid, and ones that I’m interested in looking into in the future. This is just a very nice EP—if you’re reading all these writeups from start to finish, this is the first one where I’m saying “very good, all the way through” with few caveats instead of “this is good, but…"
Big Hath, you’ve been one of the middle of the pack people here, with some successes and some songs that I didn’t like as well as you probably hoped. I really do greatly appreciate your participation in this roulette, though, for several reasons. For one, you sent me a couple of really good songs in Song For a Dead Friend by Kevin Gilbert and Warflower by The Mayan Factor. For another, you got me to give a second look to Redemption and especially Symphony X, which were bands I had listened to but not seriously. I’m definitely more interested in Symphony X after you sent The Odyssey on the epic round. You also gave me good introductions to several bands I hadn’t really had on my radar (Thrice, Dave Matthews Band, Fair to Midland) on this very strong EP (and one I had on my radar, The Dear Hunter). Finally, you really did do a good job of selling me on soul/funk/jazz music. Tower of Power and Snarky Puppy were pretty different submissions within similar genres to open and close the traditional rounds, and I really liked them both. Snarky Puppy scored higher for me, and still would, but Tower of Power is one that, if I could go back, I would score somewhat higher. Both have my interest for sure, and I’ll be checking out those bands works. Even though you didn’t really finish in the upper echelons here, I really did find a lot to like about your varied contributions. Thanks for playing!
Final Song Ranking:
Thrice - Open Water (9.5)
Fair to Midland - Walls of Jericho (9.0)
The Dear Hunter - Lost But Not All Gone (8.5)
The Dear Hunter - City Escape (8.5)
Dave Matthews Band - Minarets (8.5)
Harvest - Roundabout (8.0)
The Dear Hunter - The Lake South (N/A, since it’s basically an intro)
Score: 18.0
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Shadow Ninja 2.0 (EP #5)
The Tallest Man On Earth - I Won’t Be Found
Jon Gomm - Passionflower
The Tallest Man On Earth - Love Is All
Low Roar - Patience
Half Moon Run - No More Losing the War
The Tallest Man On Earth - Weather of a Killing Kind
Shadow Ninja’s EP focuses around the modern folk artist The Tallest Man On Earth and includes several other artists, in a similar folky/soft rock vein. Definitely one of those genre samplers here.
The EP opens with The Tallest Man’s I Won’t Be Found. What’s immediately evident here is some really strong acoustic guitar playing and a very Bob Dylan-esque vocal performance. This was such a different experience from the music I typically listen to that on first listen I wasn’t sure if I liked it or not! But this is a really strong song. I like the acoustic playing and I’ve come to like his singing a lot. This is definitely an artist to check out, on this song alone, let alone the other two.
Then we go to Passionflower, a song by Jon Gomm. Just watching the video, I was really impressed by this guy. He plays all sorts of melody, rhythm and percussion just on a single acoustic guitar, all at once. It’s just his guitar and his voice, making some relatively complex music, which really impresses me. At first, I was so focused on how he was doing it all that I almost forgot to focus on the song itself! But on subsequent listens, I focused more on the song, and really found it to be one of my favorites on this EP. He plays some really strong melodies on that guitar, and his high voice is really good on some pretty strong vocal melodies as well.
The Tallest Man returns with Love Is All, another very strong folk song. He’s got some strong melodies played on acoustic guitar in this one, as well as very good sung melodies as well. This is another really pretty song. I’ve also found that, though I haven’t looked at all of them as a whole, I really like his lyrics too. He’s definitely a good one, and this is another good song from him.
Low Roar is next, with Patience. This song takes the EP on a bit of a diversion from the folk-heavy earlier parts to a more electronic song. The electronic elements are really strong here and set a nice atmosphere. I really like the singer here, too. The chorus is kind of haunting and very memorable. “Get out of my mind.” I love the string aspects, when they come in, as well, particularly towards the end. This is also among my favorite songs here.
Half Moon Run’s No More Losing the War follows. This is another quiet song, this one with a great deal of acoustic guitar and string-sounding synths. It’s stylistically similar and not quite as strong as Patience, but it’s another really good song, for sure. The chorus here is quite memorable as well, and there’s something about the use of a name, when done right, that makes a song seem that much more personal and powerful.
The Tallest Man returns to close things off. Weather of a Killing Kind is another very strong folk song. I’m really impressed by how well he captures a sense of Americana in his lyrics, especially since he isn’t actually American. It’s all quite authentic, while still clearly being its own thing. This song feels quite sad, really. The instrumentation is solid as always, as is his singing.
This is a very good EP. All six songs are quite nice, and definitely make me interested in investigating the works of The Tallest Man On Earth, Low Roar and Jon Gomm. For whatever reason, it isn’t quite as enjoyable of a listen straight through as Big Hath’s, so that is why the natural score is a tiny bit lower. But a half point here is like a quarter point on a score out of ten, so it’s a really minor step down. And it’s not the difference between winning or losing, Shadow Ninja, since Scorpion has you beat even if you get a natural 18/19 with bonus, so that half point shouldn’t be not too much to worry about. Very well done regardless.
Shadow Ninja, you’ve been one of the best and most consistent scorers here. You’re one of the two or three participants who, when I look at the lists of everyone’s submissions, I would guess would be close to the top of the standings. Unfortunately, it looks like you’re going to fall just a bit short, but it’s been a really strong performance from you on the whole. The Katy Song by Red House Painters was the only song that scored extremely well from me, but I liked all of your submissions quite a bit. Beach House, Santigold, Justin Cross and God Is An Astronaut were all very good, and are artists I will be looking into more. Your other submissions were all quite good as well, even Devil Doll, which kind of scared me. Really well done, really close to pulling the whole thing off. Thanks a lot for participating here!
Final Song Ranking:
Jon Gomm - Passionflower (9.0)
The Tallest Man On Earth - Weather of a Killing Kind (9.0)
Low Roar - Patience (9.0)
The Tallest Man On Earth - I Won’t Be Found (9.0)
The Tallest Man On Earth - Love Is All (9.0)
Half Moon Run - No More Losing the War (8.5)
Score: 17.5 + 1.0 bonus = 18.5
lonestar (EP #2)
Tesseract - Of Matter
Voices From the Fuselage - Meteorites
Voices From the Fuselage - A Principle God
lonestar probably had the most interesting idea for an EP. While remaining within the confines of the limits on amount of time devoted to an individual artist, he included only one singer on the EP, Ashe O’Hare from Tesseract and Voices From the Fuselage. The results is a ton of good (and well-sung prog metal)
The EP begins with Of Matter, a lengthy three-part song by Tesseract. It begins with a quiet intro and vocals from Ashe before moving into a “djent” section. I was not overly familiar with djent coming into this round, and I didn’t really have a formed positive or negative opinion of it. Here, in my mind, it works, because it’s not just djentdjentdjdjdjdjent—there are plenty of other aspects to the music as well. The first section, “Proxy,” really oscillates pretty nicely between the djent section and some softer musical sections that do well to highlight Ashe’s soft voice. The next section, “Retrospect” is an improvement over Proxy, because the djent moves further back and plays a role more as a part of an overall musical landscape. It also features some more interesting vocal melodies for Ashe to tackle. I really do like, particularly in this section, the way that the song effortlessly moves back and forth between heavy djent sections and soft, melodic sections. And Ashe’s voice is applied well to both types of music. Retrospect gives way to the final section, “Resist,” which is a very nice quiet outro. I like the way the synths and guitars provide nice backing music to Ashe’s very nice vocal melodies on the softer opening to this section, and then the song launches into a pretty good epic ending before fading out nicely.
We then turn to Voices From the Fuselage, who open with Meteorites. This song is really special right from the intro, a nice piano opening with a very memorable and powerful vocal melody sung by Ashe. This leads into a much heavier section, in which, again, Ashe’s soft voice oddly does not feel out of place. The chorus of this song is very nice indeed. Then we go into a softer section in the middle, on which the instrumentation is really memorable, as is Ashe’s fast spoken/sung section. It’s really a very good part. And then it launches into this huge “Have I lost you…” section, which is very good as well. Honestly, this whole thing is a really, really good prog metal song, one of my favorite songs of the whole round.
The final song on the EP is A Principle God, also by Voices From the Fuselage. This is not as good as Meteorites, the preceding song, but it absolutely holds its own and is a very good contribution to the EP. Ashe’s voice is, again, amazing, and the chorus is very good and very memorable. This band, which seems to be relatively unknown, is really quite good. I definitely plan to buy their album, and encourage others to check them out.
This EP represents lonestar finally hitting a homerun with the “mostly prog rock” approach he has taken this roulette. These two bands are really good and have quite a good singer. I like Voices From the Fuselage a bit more, but Tesseract is very good too. What’s more, these three songs work really well as a playlist. This is one fo the better EPs of the round, so well done.
lonestar, I suppose my overall scoring of your submissions here might have been a bit of letdown compared to your reputation as roulette grand champion. You delivered a lot of songs that I liked, and a few that I loved, but ultimately I just didn’t enjoy your submissions as much as those of the others, which I suppose is just how that goes. I really enjoyed the submissions from The Grateful Dead, After Forever, Marillion and Enchant quite a bit. And though it didn’t score that well at the time, Destrage’s Destroy Create Transform Sublimate has really stuck in my head and will definitely merit another look. You may have provided your best submission right here in the very end, as your EP ranked among my favorites from the round, so you went out on a high note indeed. Thank you for participating here!
Final Song Rankings:
Voices From the Fuselage - Meteorites (9.5)
Voices From the Fuselage - A Principle God (9.0)
Tesseract - Of Matter (8.5)
Score: 18.5
Evermind (EP #1)
“All A Man Can Do (To Win the Roulette)”
Kamelot - Fallen Star
Avantasia - The Scarecrow
Vanden Plas - Vision Eight: Misery Affection
Beyond the Bridge - All A Man Can Do
As promised, Evermind sent an EP dominated by heavy metal. Though one of them is a ballad, all four tracks are from metal bands, and two of them are big prog metal epics.
The EP starts off with Kamelot’s song Fallen Star. Kamelot is a band I had heard a lot of good things about prior to the roulette, but hadn’t listened to much until I received two songs from them in the EP round, from two different contestants. Evermind’s Kamelot submission is from their newest album, on which they seemingly have the Seventh Wonder singer, so I already like that about this one. It begins with a nice piano and sung intro before launching into more of a heavy metal section. The riffing here is pretty good and is complemented nicely by the keyboards and the singing. The chorus here is quite good, “You are my reason to stay…” Generally, this is quite a good power metal opener with a singer who I like, quite a bit more than I like singers on a lot of other power metal bands.
Avantasia’s The Scarecrow, the first of two epics, follows, and this one is clearly a different sort of metal song right of the bat, as the intro heavily incorporates the folky, celtic sound that appears throughout the song. It’s a pretty good moment when the heavy guitars and then the keyboards come in and play the same riff that had been playing before. Now, I know this is multiple singers because Evermind told me, but I’m not quite sure where one ends and the other begins. But in general, I would say that the vocal aspects of this song are very good, though not great. The chorus is really brilliant, quite anthemic. The more aggressive of the two singers, I guess, is good for that particular style of vocal, which I’ve been warming to. The other one, the cleaner one who sings on the verses is a bit more emotive and is good too. The instrumentation here is really good and it moves quite well underneath the various vocal melodies. There’s a really good vocal melody that comes in a bit before the 8 minute mark, I like that one a lot. And it gets even better during the minute that follows. That’s a really good section, really good climax for this epic going into the final chorus.
Then, things slow down a bit with Vanden Plas’s Misery Affection, the ballad of this EP. It’s a really nice ballad, and was definitely worthy of inclusion here. It’s definitely more heartfelt than most ballads you hear from metal bands. I really like both singers, and their voices combine well to make those nice harmonies (“I’ve been waiting for you”). The piano melody is solid as well. When it builds up, it gets really good there, too. Nice ballad.
That sends us into All A Man Can Do, the finale. The present listen of which is win or lose for Evermind. No pressure, though. After a nice proggy intro, showing off both guitars and keyboards, we calm down for a second before the singer comes in with “Tinker Tailor…” I liked his voice on this song from the start, and I like it more on each successive listen, as the melodies start to make sense to me more and more. My main complaint here might be that we go into the big chorus too quickly, within two minutes and after just one verse. I think that makes sense when this song is at the end of a long concept album, but as a standalone it almost seems to get very big very fast. The verses are really good. It might hurt that I’m not 100% in love with the chorus at this moment, though. This is starting to sound more epic on later listens, but this is a 9 minute song that is frankly somewhat repetitive. I get the Finally Free vibe as there are different variations in the background music to the same chorus. And it’s very good. I think it might be better in the context of the album. I really do like the big epic finale towards the end. It’s good. This EP is very close, very close indeed.
Evermind, I can tell that, though you’ve done very, very well, you’ve been a bit frustrated with how I’ve responded to some of your submissions. I know you’d wanted me to like the David Gilmour song you’d sent a bit more than I did, and weren’t crazy about the score I gave The Gentle Storm’s song (to be honest, I’m not too crazy about the score I gave that one either). But honestly, you’ve done well by me. I really liked the emotional Mark Knopfler and Jon Lord songs you sent me, and Dimension Act and Phideaux were both worthy prog submissions. And, of course, you sent me Susanne Sundfør :heart .
I didn’t really want to know exactly how much everybody needed to tie/win, but the numbers stuck in my head, so now I know consciously when scoring this EP how much you need. Which makes this all the tougher. But unfortunately, I’m going to have to say no. The qualms I have about the final song make this EP equal to a 9.5, not a 9.75, which is what would be the equivalent of that 19.5 you need. You came so close. Thank you greatly for participating.
Final Song Rankings:
Avantasia - The Scarecrow (9.5)
Vanden Plas - Vision Eight: Misery Affection (9.0)
Kamelot - Fallen Star (9.0)
Beyond the Bridge - All A Man Can Do (8.5)
Score: 19.0
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Parama (EP #7)
Patrick Watson - Tracy’s Waters
Mew - She Came Home For Christmas
Coheed and Cambria - Mother Superior
Olafur Arnalds - Old Skin
Kamelot - Memento Mori
Thrice - Child of Dust
Parama sent this EP, which he claims to hate. But I don’t hate it. I like it. It features a combination of prog and other sorts of rock music with some nice ballads as well, and I think it’s p. cool.
We start things off here with Tracy’s Waters by Patrick Watson. Some of the instrumentation here is kind of unusual, but I really love the singer and the vocal melodies. He kind of reminds me of a young Chris Martin (Coldplay), which I like quite a bit. He’s certainly heartfelt, and the instrumentation is kind of charming, in the end. This is a very solid opener.
The next song is She Came Home For Christmas by Mew. I’ve heard a handful of songs from this band and had liked them, but this one definitely took things to the next level. There’s a lot of strong melody on here, both in the instrumentation and in the vocals. The chorus is highly memorable and the singer just carries the song beautifully. His high pitched vocals near the end are spectacular.
Coheed and Cambria follow with Mother Superior. I actually saw them open for Iron Maiden a couple of years ago, but I don’t remember much. I remember they covered Heaven and Hell. In any case, this is a pretty fantastic song. The singer is fantastic, he has some quirks but he passionately belts out these melodies. The instrumentation here is pretty good too, building some nice crescendos, especially on the choruses. The “Mother Superior, come catch the rabbit” part is excellent as well. Really good song. I’ll definitely have to check out this band.
Then we have Olafur Arnalds’ Old Skin. This starts out as a piano driven song with some nice, soft singing and string elements coming in and out. The chorus of the song is really pretty. The electronic elements that come in later are a nice touch and distinguish the song a bit from typical piano ballads.
Then comes the string of the EP when Parama sends two artists that other contestants also sent. The first of these two is Kamelot. Parama sent Memento Mori from them. This song opens well with a quieter section and some nice singing by who must be Kamelot’s old singer, Roy Khan. The riffing section that follows is very good. All of Khan’s singing on this song is very good, including the big chorus, which is quite memorable. This whole piece is really big, really epic.
The finale is by the second artist on the EP who someone else sent, Thrice. The Thrice song that Big Hath sent, Open Water, I really loved. Child of Dust is almost, though not quite, as good. I love the vocal-centric approach with harmonized group vocals. The melody is good and memorable and really does feel like it’s bringing the EP to the close. I especially love the way the vocals fade out.
Parama, despite the way you talk all the time, you’ve done really well in this roulette. Casualties of Cool, Green Carnation, Lorde and fun. were all very good artists whose songs you sent me. I liked Thank You Scientist a lot, too. I know you’d wanted me to like Oceansize more than I did (and I wouldn’t completely count that out), but even with that in consideration, your roulette performance has been impressive.
This has really been one of my favorite EPs of the whole round. I’ve really liked all these artists and songs. Unfortunately, the way the scores fell, you came just short of winning the whole thing. But very, very well done to come so close, and thank you very much for participating.
Final Song Rankings:
Mew - She Came Home For Christmas (9.5)
Coheed and Cambria - Mother Superior (9.5)
Thrice - Child of Dust (9.5)
Kamelot - Memento Mori (9.0)
Olafur Arnalds - Old Skin (9.0)
Patrick Watson - Tracy’s Waters (9.0)
Score: 19.5
Sacul (EP #6)
“Feels”
Ulver - Eos
Ayreon - Day Six: Childhood
iamthemorning - Gerda
Susanne Sundfør - White Foxes
Marketa Irglová - Time Immemorial
Boards of Canada - Dayvan Cowboy
As Sacul himself described it, this is “a quiet, intimate EP.” A lot of really soft, pleasant music, which Sacul correctly figured I would like.
Ulver starts things off with Eos. Which is spectacular. It’s a very quiet opener, featuring a keyboard and vocal dominated soundscape. I really love the sad atmosphere, which is perfectly captured by the album artwork. The vocals here are perhaps the most spectacular part of the whole piece. The singer’s deep voice brings a lot to the overall atmosphere of this song. This song is really excellent and resonnates a lot with me emotionally. My favorite of this EP and probably my favorite of the entire round.
So, from there, there’s nowhere to go but down. :lol No, but really, the Ulver song was excellent, and Ayreon takes on the task of following it up on the song Day Six: Childhood. And, I mean, if anyone was going to succeed in following that, it would probably be Arjen Lucassen with guest appearances from James LaBrie and Mikael Åkerfeldt. This is a very good prog rock ballad. James and Mikael are both excellent here, as is the third singer who I’m afraid I don’t know. The vocal melodies here are superb, particularly the chorus, which Mikael sings spectacularly. The keyboard tones seemed out of place to me at first, a bit, but they’ve settled in nicely, in my mind, the more I’ve listened to this song. Though this is no Eos, this is a very good song and one that makes me interested in hearing more from this album.
Sacul has me figured out as well as anybody else. The song Gerda by iamthemorning features a female singer with an absolutely beautiful, soft voice, singing some very lovely sad words and melodies, which I was 100% guaranteed to love. And I do. I love this singer and this song. The verses are pretty, the chorus is pretty. The sparse instrumentation is good and builds nicely over the course of the song. Everything here is very good.
Susanne Sundfør is the only returning artist this round. And this is a bit of a different side of Susanne than what Evermind sent me last round. I think I like The Brothel better, but White Foxes is absolutely excellent as well. It’s got a bit more of an electronic drum element and has some bigger electronic instrumentation, but ultimately, it’s Susanne singing, and I love her singing. Her voice is beautiful and powerful, and she absolutely nails the spectacular chorus. I also really love how the intro seems quiet and then that beat comes in and builds into the electronic sound of the overall song. It’s a really good intro. This artist is absolutely a keeper, and one of my favorite ones that I’ve received in the whole roulette. Evermind may have beaten you to the punch on introducing me to her, but I appreciate you including another song from her, which I think you were planning to include before you knew that Evermind had sent her song.
Marketa Irglová comes next, and she has a lot to live up to. Luckily for her, she’s a talented female singer with a soft, pretty voice, so that already gives her a good start. This is a really good little ballad. Her voice is very good, as are the choral vocals behind her. The verses are really good. But the chorus is spectacular. This song is absolutely beautiful and really inspiring. What I understand of the lyrics are really beautiful too. This is really good.
I was worried a bit on first listen to Dayvan Cowboy by Boards of Canada, because the intro was a bit weird for me. Over time, I got into it, and it started to make more sense to me. That’s still slightly my least favorite part of the EP, but I now consider it good and think it makes sense in the song. And the second part of the song is stellar, with the electronic elements creating a pretty nice atmosphere. And it really does feel like the closing song of an album. I’m probaby selling this one a bit short. I like it a whole lot, it’s a nice closer for the EP, and it would score very well on its own. It’s dwarfed a bit by the other excellence that is here, and was a bit more of a grower, but that’s not its fault. Another very good song.
Sacul, you might well be the contestant that got my musical tastes best by the end of the roulette. Unfortunately, a couple of missteps along the way set you back a bit. I didn’t love two of your early electronic submissions, and something that you couldn’t possibly have accounted for hurt my perception of Ommadawn, your epic. But all your other entries were really good, Janelle Monaé, Brand New, No-Man, and especially the David Maxim Micic song (thereby making your primary roulette mission complete: get the host to like David). Sufjan Stevens was no less excellent, taking you to your second straight round win. And, oh, by the way, here’s another one of those. This was the best EP I received. A spectacular set of songs and a very good running order. Well done. I’m sorry that you were too far out to pull off the win, but since that’s how it is anyway, I’m going to go ahead and throw every point I can at you, because this EP absolutely deserves it. Thank you for playing and for sending me this.
Final Song Rankings:
Ulver - Eos (10.0)
Marketa Irglová - Time Immemorial (10.0)
iamthemorning - Gerda (9.5)
Susanne Sundfør - White Foxes (9.5)
Boards of Canada - Dayvan Cowboy (9.0)
Ayreon - Day Six: Childhood (9.0)
Score: 20.0 + 0.5 bonus = 20.5
Final Standings:
1. Scorpion - 81.5
T2. Evermind - 81.0
T2. Parama - 81.0
T2. Sacul - 81.0
5. Shadow Ninja 2.0 - 80.5
T6. Big Hath - 77.0
T6. OpenYourEyes311 - 77.0
T8. kingshmegland - 76.5
T8. lonestar - 76.5
10. TAC - 71.5
Scorpion is the winner of the roulette! Congratulations!
Thank you so much to everyone who played! I really enjoyed running this, and couldn’t be happier with the selection of new artists I’ve heard over the course of the past couple of months.
Evermind, Parama and Sacul (and really Shadow Ninja, too), I know it must hurt to lose by so slim a margin. Honestly, a small break or two at any point in this roulette and things could have gone your way. You four and Scorpion all sent submissions where, when viewed hollistically, any of you could potentially have won the thing. It was really razor-thin. But ultimately, the reason why we have rules and multiple rounds is to settle such close circumstances as those, and, following those rules, it makes things clear that Scorpion earned the victory here. Well fought by everyone here, congratulations to our winner, Scorpion, and thank you to all ten of you for playing!
Now you can comment! More analytics to follow tonight and tomorrow, including top ten songs of the round and of the roulette.
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go check out Comforting Sounds /RIGHT NOW/ by the way, I was considering sending that at some point 'cause that's some solid 10.0 roulette winning madness right there
also screw the drop-lowest-score rule :rollin
how did the point sums add up in the end?
EDIT: oh there they are w o w
i figured at least one of my artists would overlap in the end, haha.
I nearly sent Betrayal from Ayreon off the same album too, good stuff right there yo, my fav Ayreon song
i'd have won if I sent Paper Champion as my Oceansize song, prob
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Yeah sorry, I realized I forgot them and had to edit them in.
Yeah, Parama, I know you don't like that rule. Its merit is debatable at this time in my mind as well, but everybody played as though it was in effect, so there it stands. Scorpion may have sent something else in his lowest round if the rule hadn't been there.
To upset you more, you missed the 0.5 bonus on the EP by 37 seconds.
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eww gross ugh :'(
also i edited my post above too haha, some more recs 'cause why not
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Fuck me.
I'll go eliminate Song of Myself from the survivor now. :lol
More eloquent response is coming up later when I'm done with that.
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Congrats Scorp! :woot: :woot:
Thanks for having me in this roulette 425, it's been a lot of fun!
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eww gross ugh :'(
also i edited my post above too haha, some more recs 'cause why not
Actually, I think it was 27. Either way, I had to calculate it, because I was considering Coheed and Kamelot to be prog/metal and nothing else, and I had to use an online calculator and everything to add them and see if it was more than 15. And it's 15:27.
I'll check out your recs, though not RIGHT NOW because, you know, listening to EPs, making judgements along razor-thin margins, that stuff.
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evermind didn't send anything lower than an 8.0 tho so I'd have still lost to him without the drop-lowest-score rule to be fair, so i feel a little better about that
and to be fair, mew get proggy sometimes (and the glass handed kites is a pretty proggy album) and thrice get really heavy sometimes and a bit proggy at other times but it's not really the norm for either, i'd say. both great bands too though yeah wow
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Fuck me.
I'll go eliminate Song of Myself from the survivor now. :lol
More eloquent response is coming up later when I'm done with that.
It was a tough call. As close as it gets. I really appreciated you playing.
Thanks for having me in this roulette 425, it's been a lot of fun!
Thanks for playing! It's been fun for me too; I appreciated your submissions!
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Damn, so close, and so far... Anyways, congrats Scorp! :tup
Yup, knew you'd love my EP - was a bit worried about EOS, but it couldn't have played off better. Have fun digging into al the albums you'll get now. Enough for a year or so :P
Btw, is the bonus determined by something specifical? Like Shadow Ninja got 1, but others nothing - just curious.
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I mean, once Scorpion's score came in, you were statistically eliminated... But you still made it extremely close. I love your EP, I really do.
The bonus has always been something you would get for sending an artist that is not either metal or prog. The "artist" aspect is there to ensure that you don't just send a metal band's ballad. On the regular rounds, it is just a determination of whether the artist is metal or prog, and if it's not, you get the 0.5 bonus. On the EP round, I set it up so that if over 50% of the EP by duration is non-metal and non-prog artists, you get 0.5, and if the whole thing is non-metal and non-prog artists, you get 1.0. You got 0.5 because nothing was metal or prog except for Ayreon. Shadow Ninja got 1.0 because none of his artists were metal or prog. Someone like lonestar or Parama, for example, didn't get anything because their EPs were over 50% metal/prog artists.
And yes, it's enough for a year or more! :P
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Fuck me.
I'll go eliminate Song of Myself from the survivor now. :lol
More eloquent response is coming up later when I'm done with that.
It was a tough call. As close as it gets. I really appreciated you playing.
Ain't gonna help the song. :lol
No worries, it's just a game after all. Now I know how RJ felt in my roulette. What goes around, comes around I guess. :lol
Did I win in overall score though? Without dropping the lowest one?
Oh, and well done Scorp!
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Did I win in overall score though? Without dropping the lowest one?
Just glancing at it now, I think you tied with Shadow Ninja. I didn't calculate those because I wanted to get the results out quickly and limit the amount of controversy that happened right away, at least until Scorpion shows up to claim his crown, which I expect won't happen 'til morning in the US. But I'll include the unadjusted scores tomorrow in my analytics post.
Edit: Or Scorpion is here now. Still tomorrow, because math. I'm really confident though that it would be an Evermind/Shadow Ninja tie atop the unadjusted rankings.
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Fair enough - once I saw Ayreon missing on your banned list, I HAD to send it. Obligatory listen on this forum :police:
If you do a v2 sometime in the future, please reserve me a spot. Thanks. I love introducing people to new artists and genres, so this roulette has been a blast.
Oh, and there were a few songs left out, may I sent them on a PM, or you already have enough with this roulette? :lol
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If you do a v2 sometime in the future, please reserve me a spot. Thanks. I love introducing people to new artists and genres, so this roulette has been a blast.
I will for sure save you a spot if V2 ever happens.
Oh, and there were a few songs left out, may I sent them on a PM, or you already have enough with this roulette? :lol
Yeah, you can send me a PM. So long as it's a reasonable number of songs. :lol
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:victorydance: :victorydance: :victorydance:
Awesome! I wasn't sure if my EP would be enough and if you would like the dramatic genre shifts, but going with my gut once again paid off! Thanks for letting me play, and it's been a pleasure to introduce you to a plethora of different bands that I love. :heart
Also, I want to compliment you on your roulette. I know, it took a little long, but it was all worth it, because, honestly, out of all roulettes that I have participated in, your's were definitely the write-ups that I enjoyed most.
Now let's get the controversy started! :P
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I was very happy to have you! Congrats on the win!
Thank you for the compliment on my writeups! I always end up writing these long things, and I wonder if anyone actually likes reading them, so hearing that you like them so much is great validation. Thanks for that.
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Damn, not a good roulette to be over 40 in.
Anyhoo, glad you enjoyed the EP, and thanks for a fun roulette bud. Congrats Scorp!!!
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Damn, not a good roulette to be over 40 in.
Anyhoo, glad you enjoyed the EP, and thanks for a fun roulette bud. Congrats Scorp!!!
Yeah, glad I sat this one out. Clear mis-alignment of musical tastes. Though Ruslan's EP is :hefdaddy. All A Man Can Do deserves that extra 1/2 point though.
Congrats Tommy Boy. You're still gonna get a whooping in Bolsters' roulette tho.
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Thank you 425. I had a blast!!
Congrats Scorp!!!!!
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Ah, well color me surprised that The Offspring was your favorite track on my EP! Great song, though, I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Little disappointed that I came out so good and just got progressively worse and worse haha. Oh well, it was fun! Enjoy the Lone Bellow, Christina Perri, and Styx (and any others from this roulette)! Some great music in there, no doubt. Also, feel free to check out that Greenwheel song I sent you and ended up not using. They're a really good rock band from last decade that deserved a better fate.
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Damn, not a good roulette to be over 40 in.
Anyhoo, glad you enjoyed the EP, and thanks for a fun roulette bud. Congrats Scorp!!!
Yeah, glad I sat this one out. Clear mis-alignment of musical tastes. Though Ruslan's EP is :hefdaddy. All A Man Can Do deserves that extra 1/2 point though.
Congrats Tommy Boy. You're still gonna get a whooping in Bolsters' roulette tho.
Yeah, how th efuck did I miss BtB not being sent. :zeltar:
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Damn, not a good roulette to be over 40 in.
Anyhoo, glad you enjoyed the EP, and thanks for a fun roulette bud. Congrats Scorp!!!
I'm 19, so yeah, there's a couple years' gap between us. Not too much of a gap for Voices From the Fuselage to bridge, though. :tup
Ah, well color me surprised that The Offspring was your favorite track on my EP! Great song, though, I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Little disappointed that I came out so good and just got progressively worse and worse haha. Oh well, it was fun! Enjoy the Lone Bellow, Christina Perri, and Styx (and any others from this roulette)! Some great music in there, no doubt. Also, feel free to check out that Greenwheel song I sent you and ended up not using. They're a really good rock band from last decade that deserved a better fate.
Yeah, I really liked that one a lot. And I will check out the Greenwheel song pretty soon!:tup
Thank you to everyone, once again, for playing. I enjoyed it.
In a few hours I'll make that post of miscellany that I promised I'd make. The main things in there will be my picks for top ten songs of the EP round and top ten songs of the whole roulette.
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425, great roulette. Glad you liked most of what I sent, especially felt good about the songs I included on the EP. Great write-ups!
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Yay, I suck! :lol
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Yay, I suck! :lol
You might have done better if you'd submitted .... wait for it ...
Duran Duran.
(or Winger)
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Apparently! :lol
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Also, I want to compliment you on your roulette. I know, it took a little long, but it was all worth it, because, honestly, out of all roulettes that I have participated in, your's were definitely the write-ups that I enjoyed most.
Definitely this - makes mine look fucking lazy :lol
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Also, I want to compliment you on your roulette. I know, it took a little long, but it was all worth it, because, honestly, out of all roulettes that I have participated in, your's were definitely the write-ups that I enjoyed most.
Definitely this - makes mine look fucking lazy :lol
:lol Thanks for the compliment!
I'd forgotten to make that analytics post last night, so here it is. This is the last big thing I'm going to put in this thread, I think.
First, the unadjusted scores—what the scores would be without dropping the lowest one:
T1. Evermind - 89.0
T1. Shadow Ninja 2.0 - 89.0
3. Parama - 88.5
4. Sacul - 88.0
5. Scorpion - 87.5
6. OpenYourEyes311 - 85.0
7. Big Hath - 84.5
T8. kingshmegland - 84.0
T8. lonestar - 84.0
10. TAC - 79.0
Now, here are the top ten songs from Round 9, the EP round. This is approximate.
- Ulver - Eos (Sacul)
- Markéta Irglová - Time Immemorial (Sacul)
- Thrice - Open Water (Big Hath)
- Coheed and Cambria - Mother Superior (Parama)
- Mew - She Came Home For Christmas (Parama)
- Voices From the Fuselage - Meteorites (lonestar)
- iamthemorning - Gerda (Sacul)
- Susanne Sundfør - White Foxes (Sacul)
- Avantasia - The Scarecrow (Evermind)
- Thrice - Child of Dust (Parama)
Now, here are the top 25 songs from the entire roulette. This, also, is a very approximate list. This is even more of an approximation than the list before, because I haven't listened to a lot of these songs in well over a month. But this is just a general idea so you get a sense of what I liked best. I realize that even going to 25 I left a ton out, and it doesn't mean that I didn't like yours if it isn't here. It's just a general sense.
- Seventh Wonder - The Great Escape (Scorpion)
- Susanne Sundfør - The Brothel (Evermind)
- Ulver - Eos (Sacul)
- Markéta Irglová - Time Immemorial (Sacul)
- Thrice - Open Water (Big Hath)
- David Maxim Micic - Wrinkle Maze (Sacul)
- Ben Folds Five - Brick (kingshmegland)
- Sufjan Stevens - Chicago (Sacul)
- Brand New - Limousine (Scorpion)
- Casualties of Cool - Moon (Parama)
- Portishead - Glory Box (Scorpion)
- The Lone Bellow - Green Eyes and a Heart of Gold (OpenYourEyes311)
- Lorde - Buzzcut Season (Parama)
- Red House Painters - Katy Song (Shadow Ninja 2.0)
- Coheed and Cambria - Mother Superior (Parama)
- Mew - She Came Home For Christmas (Parama)
- Voices From the Fuselage - Meteorites (lonestar)
- iamthemorning - Gerda (Sacul)
- Susanne Sundfør - White Foxes (Sacul)
- Mark Knopfler - Dream of the Drowned Submariner (Evermind)
- Grateful Dead - Uncle John’s Band (lonestar)
- Kevin Gilbert - Song for a Dead Friend (Big Hath)
- Christina Perri - Jar of Hearts (OpenYourEyes311)
- Santigold - The Riot's Gone (Shadow Ninja 2.0)
- The Mayan Factor - Warflower (Big Hath)
The last section, and the longest, is the song rankings by participant. I know a lot of roulette organizers did these through the course of the roulette, but I thought that doing so would give too much away about the results of the upcoming round. Here they are now. These are also very approximate.
Also, if you note some weird inconsistency where I have a song higher in the by participant rankings and lower in the overall rankings, don't worry too much about that. These haven't been labored over or made perfect, they're a very rough cut to just give you a general idea.
Big Hath:
- Thrice - Open Water
- Kevin Gilbert - Song for a Dead Friend
- The Mayan Factor - Warflower
- Snarky Puppy - Amour, T’es là
- Fair to Midland - Walls of Jericho
- Symphony X - The Odyssey
- The Dear Hunter - Lost But Not All Gone
- The Dear Hunter - The Lake South/City Escape
- Redemption - Love Kills Us All/Life in One Day
- Dave Matthews Band - Minarets
- Tower of Power - Squib Cakes
- Harvest - Roundabout
- Riverside - Hyperactive
- Alcest - Summer’s Glory
Evermind:
- Susanne Sundfør - The Brothel
- Mark Knopfler - Dream of the Drowned Submariner
- Avantasia - The Scarecrow
- Dimension Act - Drawing the Lines of Mortal Existence
- Jon Lord - Pictured Within
- Vanden Plas - Vision Eight: Misery Affection
- Kamelot - Fallen Star
- The Gentle Storm - New Horizons (Gentle Version)
- Beyond the Bridge - All A Man Can Do
- Phideaux - The Claws of a Crayfish
- Amethystium - Treasure
- David Gilmour - Where We Start
kingshmegland:
- Ben Folds Five - Brick
- The Pineapple Thief - Remember Us
- Shudder To Think - X-French T-Shirt
- The Raconteurs - These Stones Will Shout
- This Day & Age - More of a Climb, Less of a Walk
- Dada - Star You Are
- The Raconteurs - The Switch and the Spurs
- Umphrey’s McGee - Rocker
- Butterfly Jones - Sunshine and Ecstasy
- Slow Motion Reign - Life Simulator
- Slow Motion Reign - Isn’t It Time
- Lo-Fi Resistance - Fading Pictures
- The Feeling - Sewn
- People In Planes - Moth
- People In Planes - Barracuda
lonestar:
- Voices From the Fuselage - Meteorites
- Grateful Dead - Uncle John’s Band
- After Forever - Through Square Eyes
- Marillion - Sugar Mice
- Voices From the Fuselage - A Principle God
- Enchant - Juggling Knives
- Tesseract - Of Matter
- Maestrick - Lake of Emotions
- Destrage - Destroy Create Transform Sublimate
- The Deadstation - Subsistence Defined
- Kingcrow - The Hatch
OpenYourEyes311:
- The Lone Bellow - Green Eyes and a Heart of Gold
- Christina Perri - Jar of Hearts
- The Offspring - Dirty Magic
- Styx - One With Everything
- Eden’s Curse - Guardian Angel
- 311 - Sometimes Jacks Rule the Realm
- Michael Jackson - She’s Out of My Life
- Rise Against - Survive
- Queen - It’s Late
- Fastball - Warm Fuzzy Feeling
- OSI - The Thing That Never Was
- Frameshift - La Mer
- SR-71 - Alive
- Eve 6 - Girlfriend
Parama:
- Casualties of Cool - Moon
- Lorde - Buzzcut Season
- Coheed and Cambria - Mother Superior
- Mew - She Came Home For Christmas
- Thrice - Child of Dust
- Green Carnation - Light of Day, Day of Darkness
- fun. - Walking the Dog
- Kamelot - Memento Mori
- Thank You Scientist - My Famed Disappearing Act
- Olafur Arnalds - Old Skin
- Patrick Watson - Tracy’s Waters
- Pain of Salvation - Undertow
- Oceansize - Only Twin
- Ronald Jenkees - Disorganized Fun
Sacul:
- Ulver - Eos
- Markéta Irglová - Time Immemorial
- David Maxim Micic - Wrinkle Maze
- Sufjan Stevens - Chicago
- iamthemorning - Gerda
- Susanne Sundfør - White Foxes
- Janelle Monae - Cold War
- No-Man - Back When You Were Beautiful
- Boards of Canada - Dayvan Cowboy
- Ayreon - Day Six: Childhood
- Brand New - Handcuffs
- Mike Oldfield - Ommadawn
- DJ Shadow - Midnight in a Perfect World
- Burial - Raver
Scorpion:
- Seventh Wonder - The Great Escape
- Brand New - Limousine
- Portishead - Glory Box
- God Is An Astronaut - Snowfall
- Grayceon - War’s End
- Kirlian Camera - Drifting
- Massive Attack - Angel
- Devin Townsend - Deep Peace
- Steve Rothery - Morpheus
- Caravan Palace - Brotherswing
- Ozric Tentacles - Snakepit
- Extreme - Play With Me
ShadowNinja 2.0:
- Red House Painters - Katy Song
- Santigold - The Riot’s Gone
- Jon Gomm - Passionflower
- God Is An Astronaut - Suicide By Star
- The Tallest Man On Earth - Weather of a Killing Kind
- Lone Roar - Patience
- Justin Cross - Drink the Water
- Kishi Bashi - Philosophize In It! Chemicalize With It!
- Beach House - Myth
- The Tallest Man On Earth - I Won’t Be Found
- The Tallest Man On Earth - Love Is All
- Half Moon Run - No More Losing the War
- Steam Powered Giraffe - Brass Goggles
- Devil Doll - Mr. Doctor
TAC:
- Iris Divine - Prisms
- Constantine - The Darkest Grace
- Fields of the Nephilim - Love Under Will
- Fields of the Nephilim - Endemonaida
- McAuley Schenker Group - Neverending Nightmare
- Heavenly - Evil
- Gary Moore - Empty Rooms
- Glass Mind - Your Name in Silence
- Alice Cooper - Steven Trilogy
- Fates Warning - The Eleventh Hour
- Deep Purple - I’m So Glad
I hope somebody actually wanted/cared about this. If not, well, here it is anyway, read it.
Thanks again to everybody for playing!
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it's funny, 'cause as someone who loves thrice a ton (see: avatar) i've just never found Open Water that great. Especially with the company it's keeping on the Water disc. Digital Sea, Lost Continent, Night Diving, The Whaler, all flipping fantastic :lol
not that it's a bad song though, for sure, if thrice has any bad songs i've never heard them (but i haven't heard the first half of their discography so)
and woo my best entry was the very first one. I can't say I'd be inclined to disagree there, Moon is an amazing song :tup
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David Gilmour's song is last in my rankings? Screw you.
Glad you liked Mark Knopfler's song this much. You should check out more albums by him, he's got a lot of awesome ballads. In any case, if you will start discovering any of the artists I've sent, I'll be glad to help answering some questions or providing some hints about where to start.
And yeah, the compliments, now that I'm home. Yours was definitely the best roulette I've got to play in. I loved your write-ups. I don't know what else to say, this roulette was awesome.
Still, you suck for not liking that David Gilmour's song. :lol
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ranking my own songs
Casualties of Cool - Moon
Oceansize - Only Twin
Pain of Salvation - Undertow
Olafur Arnalds - Old Skin
Mew - She Came Home For Christmas
Thank You Scientist - My Famed Disappearing Act
Green Carnation - Light of Day, Day of Darkness
Coheed and Cambria - Mother Superior
Kamelot - Memento Mori
Thrice - Child of Dust
Lorde - Buzzcut Season
fun. - Walking the Dog
Patrick Watson - Tracy’s Waters
Ronald Jenkees - Disorganized Fun
that seems about right, for being done in about 2 minutes
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If you do a v2 sometime in the future, please reserve me a spot. Thanks. I love introducing people to new artists and genres, so this roulette has been a blast.
I will for sure save you a spot if V2 ever happens.
Forget him, let's proceed with the Outcrier-only Roulette :loser:
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David Gilmour's song is last in my rankings? Screw you.
What if I told you I liked all of your songs a lot and that's just the way it fell? I knew that would upset you as soon as I made the list, but really, every song on the list is quite excellent.
Glad you liked Mark Knopfler's song this much. You should check out more albums by him, he's got a lot of awesome ballads. In any case, if you will start discovering any of the artists I've sent, I'll be glad to help answering some questions or providing some hints about where to start.
I will! And thanks for the offer, I will probably take you up on asking questions about where to start with some of the artists.
And yeah, the compliments, now that I'm home. Yours was definitely the best roulette I've got to play in. I loved your write-ups. I don't know what else to say, this roulette was awesome.
Good to hear you're home. Thank you so much for the compliments. I'm really pleased that I was able to provide a good experience for everyone! (well, except maybe TAC :P )
Still, you suck for not liking that David Gilmour's song. :lol
I know, I'm the worst.
But I like it, just not as much as you want me to. :P
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Forget him, let's proceed with the Outcrier-only Roulette :loser:
Outcrier-only Roulette: Nov. 2016
Full Roulette V2: Jul. 2017
Seriously, I'm gonna need, like, ten minutes to recover from this one and actually listen to the artists I've received.
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I'm really pleased that I was able to provide a good experience for everyone! (well, except maybe TAC :P )
No no, it was good..
..for nuthin'! :lol
Seriously, I wasn't going to sign up until I saw your banned list, and I thought, hmm, I can probably complement this list. :facepalm:
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Seriously, I wasn't going to sign up until I saw your banned list, and I thought, hmm, I can probably complement this list. :facepalm:
Eh, I can definitely see how my banned list could have been misleading. That's the result of having a lot of evolution in music taste while buying a comparatively small amount of music. A lot of artists on there are ones that maybe I really loved a couple of years ago but now aren't quite up my alley anymore. Either way, you did send stuff that I liked, it just wasn't the best pairing of roulette organizer and roulette participants. I would probably do far worse if I was playing in your roulette. :P
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Yup, I would certainly see to it! :lol
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"Come on now, this isn't worth even one out of ten?" :lol
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"Come on now, this isn't worth even one out of ten?" :lol
Yeah you would do just fine.
If you want to see what a one out of ten looks like, tune into Round 5 of my roulette.
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If you want to see what a one out of ten looks like, tune into Round 5 of my roulette.
i still have no clue what a winger is but the entire point of the roulette is for round 5 disasters to happen :lol
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"Come on now, this isn't worth even one out of ten?" :lol
Yeah you would do just fine.
If you want to see what a one out of ten looks like, tune into Round 5 of my roulette.
:spitcoffee:
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"Come on now, this isn't worth even one out of ten?" :lol
Yeah you would do just fine.
If you want to see what a one out of ten looks like, tune into Round 5 of my roulette.
:lol Trust me, I'm definitely tuned in. I can't say that I've ever heard a Winger song, or that I really want to at all, but I wouldn't miss this.
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Interesting final post of rankings, it was all worth it to bring the Grateful Dead to another generation... give this one a taste for a fuller experience... (they are always better live)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCgZxrf8nrU (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCgZxrf8nrU)
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i just realized that Suzanne Sundfor was an artist I heard a song from on another site and liked a fair bit, though it was not one of the songs sent here, i prob should check out more from her too
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Interesting final post of rankings, it was all worth it to bring the Grateful Dead to another generation... give this one a taste for a fuller experience... (they are always better live)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCgZxrf8nrU (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCgZxrf8nrU)
Definitely will be giving them a closer look. :tup
i just realized that Suzanne Sundfor was an artist I heard a song from on another site and liked a fair bit, though it was not one of the songs sent here, i prob should check out more from her too
You definitely should. Both the songs I received from her in this roulette were stellar.