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: 19.5Sacul (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.
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 = 20.5Final 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.