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 = 17.0Scorpion (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
).
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 = 17.5Big 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