My write-ups are done a day early, again. I’m more confident in my scores this time around, as I gave every song at least 6 listens. Overall, this was a very strong round for me, so even if your write up seems relatively positive, you might still be in last place as far as my scores go. I recommend telling your fellow participants to fuck up a bit more because sending consistently good songs will probably get you in last place if the level continues to be as high as it is right now
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Parama: The Hirsch Effekt - AthesieLike I already said, I’m not particularly fond of this particular German accent. It doesn’t distract from the song though, and the song itself is stellar and definitely one of my favorites this round. It’s pretty pop/rocky with some prog elements thrown in. I love the kind of childish/playful keyboards that appear from time to time. They really make the song a lot better, even though they’re such a small part. The guitars are heavy and loud, but at the same time they have enough room to breathe. The guitar parts are relatively simple, but the simplicity is again a point in this song’s favor. I love the heavy outro with the subtle choir elements in the background. His voice is not particularly special, but it fits really well with the mood of the song.
Also, I love the mix and arrangements. Everything is clearly audible, and even though it’s pretty loud it still feels dynamic. Good job, this is one of my favorites so far in this roulette.
Lonestar: Kingcrow - On The Barren GroundMy first impression of this song was pretty positive, I love how “in your face” it starts off (after a short ambient intro), with heavy drums and this distorted guitar riff (and the guitar sound is great as well!). Everything up to the chorus is gold, than the mood shifts and it suddenly becomes a lot more … epic and positive, providing a contrast to the darker intro. I like the chorus itself; I’m just not sure if it fits all that well with this particular song (I’ve heard a lot worse misfits though). The whole song stays quite heavy and dark, again with the exception of the chorus. Also, the bridge drags on a bit too long for my taste. And while I’m generally a fan of calm outros, this one doesn’t quite do justice to everything that happened before it.
To give a final judgment; I’d say that this could have been another perfect score if it had been as good as it’s high points all the way through. As it stands, some less than perfect parts drag it down a bit, but I still really like this.
Senecadawg2: Glen Hansard - Bird Of SorrowWell, I can certainly see how this is one of your favorite songs in recent years. It’s most certainly the best song in this roulette so far, and by quite a bit. In fact, if this was my own roulette I’d probably make up some rule and give it more than full points, because “This is absolutely amazing. I don't wanna listen to any other roulette submissions right now but check out this artist discography instead” is quite true, but doesn’t come near to describing how much I love this song.
From the first piano note, it has this wonderful sad, very personal feeling. It doesn’t feel fake at all, but wonderfully honest. It didn’t work that well for me on my first listen, but knowing what comes afterwards just makes it so much more intense, like the calm before the storm. Then it slowly gets a bit louder, until a wonderfully depressing and desperate climax, mainly driven by his emotional screaming. And those strings in the background. Love them. They could have sounded really cheesy, but they are perfect here. Chills everywhere, and this sad feeling in my gut. I know something is absolutely gold when I can feel it in my gut. I really feel that the vocal performance here elevates the song to another level.
One last thing, I really like how “live” the production feels, especially the vocals. Often a studio recording lacks emotional impact because it’s just too perfect, not really human anymore, but this does a perfect job of combining a studio quality recording with raw live emotions.
Nekov: Dream The Electric Sleep - Listen to meThis is one of the more happy songs this round. It’s proggy, but still accessible. There’s nothing here I dislike. I’m fond of the overall feeling, really like the moment the vocals first kick in and the first few minutes, but after some time the song just loses my attention for a while and only gets it back at around the 6 minute mark, then loses it again. I actually have to make an effort to stay focused on the song, and even then it does not always succeed, especially during the second half. I think it has something to do with most of the same song being around the same volume, and loud at that. I find this is something that occurs with songs with little variation in dynamics for me a lot. There are some more special moments that draw my attention back to the song (like the vocal harmonies before it gets softer), but then I lose attention again. And while that’s okay for a song that’s more focused on feeling, for a proggy song it shows that there was more potential there that was not used. Again, like some other songs before, I really like the guitar tone of the clean parts and in the verses and the vocals. There’s just the one problem with keeping my attention that lowers my score.
Evermind: Absolute Priority – Fear Of The NightYou got really close to me declining your song, because lonestar send a song from this same album in my last roulette, I think it was the closer. I really like the dense sounding intro, and I love the moment it just explodes into that riff. After that, it reminds me of some of Kamelot’s stronger moments. That’s a good thing, since Kamelot used to be my favourite band in the days where I basically listened to Metal exclusively. In contrast to what you wrote in your description of the song, I think the end is one of the weaker parts here. I can appreciate the cleverness of the vocal harmonies and layered vocal lines, but they don’t do anything for me on an emotional level. Everything up till that point also managed to stir some kind of emotion up in me, but that part just falls flat on that level. I do really like all the wacky keyboard- and guitar soloing, even though they’re clearly showing off their instrumental chops a bit in that part, the solos are still very well constructed and focus on melody.
Overall, I agree that this song is crafted quite excellently, with some parts that don’t manage to hold my attention and my emotions as much as others.
Wolfking: Pagan’s Mind – IntermissionSo, straight up Heavy Metal? While it’s not what I usually listen to, I do have a certain fondness for good songs in that style, although there is a lot of stuff I find pretty hilariously bad. Luckily for you, this song doesn’t fall into that later category. It’s mostly straight up Heavy Metal (I hope that genre classification is not completely wrong), with all the elements that make a song in this genre great: cool riffs, great, fun soloing, and a good vocalist (especially that. Laughably bad vocals are the main reason I can’t take a lot of Heavy Metal seriously. This one knows how to sing though, and nails the style.) I think this would be a really cool song to see live, rock out and scream along. I don’t really have anything else to say about this, except that I really liked it.
Jingle.boy: Headspace – SoldierI like the very simple instrumental part here, just piano and some other sound in the background, they could have been the foundation of something amazing. It accentuates the right moments by dynamic variations an really enhances the emotional impact. I’m really torn on the vocals. On the one hand, it feels like there is genuine emotion behind them and the lyrics are great, on the other hand a part in me just wants to laugh because it kind of sounds like a grown up chipmunk singing. I know that sounds ironic coming from someone who loves Sigur Rós (and Jonsi’s vocals) and many people will probably violently disagree with me on that point, but that’s just my initial reaction when the vocals kick in. It also ends a bit too abruptly for my taste.
That’s the bad. The good is, this song still manages to captivate me completely, and the vocals grow more tolerable with every listen. This was originally the worst song of the round for me, but the more I listen to it, the more I like it. I mean, why can’t chipmunks sing about emotional topics? There must be chipmunk soldier somewhere as well, right? Even if it just in a fictional universe, that shouldn’t mean they can’t feel emotion and have other chipmunks back at home they really want to return to, right? Why can’t chipmunks have family and friends they long for? Why must chipmunks die in war? Is the world really that cruel of a place?
Damn, I do like this song quite a lot.
Sacul: Blue Sky Black Death – The Era When We SangI’m not sure what liking the Hammock song last round has to do with liking this song, as they’re quite different in my opinion. At first I found this really lackluster, with the exception of some parts in the second half, and my opinion stayed that way for the first five listens. I was prepared to give this a low score, as sorry as I was because you seemed so confident. Then I decided to do one last listen on our Hi-Fi sound system instead of my ok-ish computer speakers, and this song just completely came to life.
At first it felt like there was just not that much going on, but then I realized there’s just so many subtle details in the background that really needed a quiet environment and 100% attention to fully be appreciated. The so lackluster first half suddenly is really good, the vocals I thought were out of place before suddenly fit. And the second half is just godlike. The emotions conveyed here are a lot more subtle than in some other songs here, but nevertheless it is absolutely fantastic. I can’t quite pinpoint what I feel, the closest I can get is a happy peacefulness. Like relaxing on a beach or on a balcony somewhere in a warm spring evening, being happy about life in general and watching the sun slowly set, maybe chilling in a hammock (haha, get it?). We had 10 centimeters of snow outside today, and inside I feel like it’s spring and butterflies are flying around me, a warm breeze blowing through the leaves.
I still don’t think this is that similar to the Hammock song last round, but I like it just as much.
Scorpion: Heart of Cygnus - The Mountain King This is somewhere between Folk and Prog, with an overall pretty happy feeling. It has a very distinct intro that is more folky than the rest of the song, then the prog parts take the forefront in the main part and in the ending (awesome guitar solo in the end by the way). Somehow, the overall feeling of the song manages to stay very similar all over the song. So, even though there are some pretty rough transitions in between parts, they never feel jarring. I also really like the addition of a flute. Like Sacul’s song, this has a bit of a spring-feeling to it, but it’s not as strong.
Did I mention the awesome guitar solo in the end? I did, but I guess it just deserves another pointer in its direction, because it’s probably the strongest part of the song for me.