Kingshmegland: The Pineapple Thief - “Show A Little Love”: I liked this. I think. To be honest, I don’t really know what to make of it. It’s certainly another King sleeper, as it got better the more I listened to it, but it seemed to hit a peak. I took the lyrics to be about a failing relationship that was on the cusp of something momentous, so the tension of the music was fitting, but that tension has to go somewhere, and it didn’t. It didn’t factor into the score, but I contrast that with the song that played after, “The Final Thing Om Your Mind”, which was a more dynamic piece, reminiscent of Marillion. I think I want to hear more. 7.5
Antigoon: Anderson.paak “Come Down”: I’ll give you credit: FAR and away the most challenging submissions of this roulette have come from Antigoon, and I mean that in a good way. I had my doubts when it started, and repeated “my n***a’s” didn’t help (it seemed self-conscious). It’s not really my first choice of music, but as I listened, I could see two things that really endeared itself to me: one, it channeled all the right things about James Brown, and two, I really dig the concept of four guys standing there, facing each other, playing something like that that has swagger and groove. Probably not something I’ll revisit again, thus the score, but I’m better for having heard it, and I’m pleased that there is music like this out there. Four guys in a room… 7
Jingle.boy: Pretty Maids – “Pandemonium”: Well, it starts with Barack Obama talking, in quotes, about what is presumably climate change, so Jingle is capped at a fucking five right out the box. Ok, but we’re here to be fair and give the benefit of the doubt. Love the “Dio-esque” keyboard figure into some slamming hard rock, so we’re headed in the right direction… then the vocals come in. I toyed with a score of 0, but thought that would be too harsh, so we crept up to 1 or 2, but I still had to tough it out…. next thing I know, I’m bobbing my head along and even singing the chorus. I was impressed by the singer; that’s I think the opening song of the set, and unless he’s accustomed to blowing his wad on the first lap of the race, it’s a pretty impressive performance (and my assumption proved true with the second song I.N.V.U.) I liked this a lot; not the best of the group (that’s Lethean, this round) but pretty goddamn solid hard rock performed by guys that clearly have been doing this for a while and doing it pretty well. I’d listen to this again, in a heartbeat (and for the record, the first sentence is totally facetious). 8
TAC: Loudness – “Black Wall”: I had of course heard of Loudness, but to be honest, I can’t say that I’ve ever heard them before this. I know – or at least I think – they opened for Van Halen for a while, which is a double edged sword; VH is not known for taking headlining acts on tour with them (Private Life?). Musically it was good, and the singer sounds reminiscent of Klaus Meine, which is a certain plus, but it didn’t really gel. I had a hard time with the lyricism of the lyrics; I’m not saying that to be xenophobic, but near the end it just didn’t seem mellifluous, and so to me it reduced to sounding generic. 7
Topic: Stadler's Wheel of Fortune! (A Roulette) - ROUND 7 RESULTS (Read 37901 times)