Round 2 – Emotional Songs
1st Place – 6 PointsFluffy Lothario
Rob Dougan – One And The Same (Instrumental)
My reaction when I first heard this:
and
and
all at the same time.
While it’s interesting that most of the other picks here went for songs where the lyrics were really the focus of the emotional stuff, Fluffy chose to go the opposite route and recommended this instrumental version. He also recommended that I listen with headphones first time round, which I did, and good lord. This was the closest any song this round came to bringing me to tears, but instead of the emotion just being like ‘wow, I can feel their pain,’ this was just sort of everything all at once; it was, as Fluffy said in his description, a nigh-on religious experience. I don’t really want to say too much about it, as there’s nothing structurally or instrumentally I could actually specifically pick on as making it as moving as I found it, but basically every single thing in the song is EXACTLY as it should be, and I wouldn’t change anything in it, which is something I can say for very, very few songs. As soon as I heard this I jumped to find a download for it, but then I thought that I might actually want to savour this and not listen too much, as it’s seriously the most emotion a song’s inspired in me in a very, very long time. Magnificent track.
2nd Place – 5 PointsKari
Bon Iver – Re: Stacks
Weirdly, I actually really loved Justin Vernon’s voice here on first listen, which I wouldn’t expect as I normally take a while to get used to this kind of singing. The main word I’d use to describe this song is ‘haunting,’ the sparse instrumentation really works well to complement the (almost for me, and certainly for Vernon) heartbreaking lyrics. That guitar backing doesn’t get boring somehow, despite going on throughout the whole song, and by the end I was left sort of speechless. It really feels like Bon Iver poured their collective soul into this, and the final line really rammed home how emotional this was, in fact the entire last verse is wonderfully written. By the end I thought ‘this MUST be the album closer,’ and now thanks to Wikipedia I know it is, it really must be one of the most powerful closers of all time after listening to the whole album, which I now intend to do on the strength of this track. ‘This is not the sound of a new man, or a crispy realization,’ has got to be one of the best lyrics I’ve ever heard.
3rd Place – 4 PointsGorille85
O+S – New Life
The production in this really is, as Gorille said in his message, incredible. Everything is perfectly balanced so you really hear everything that’s going on in the track with perfect clarity. Her voice does really sound desperate here, and it’s a weird kind of emotional song but a very good one. It’s like she’s trying to restrain her emotions, but you can still definitely feel them coming through. The background sounds in the second verse, and then throughout the song from then on, are amazing and paint a really nice visual picture in my head. The lyrics are also really good here, and she sounds more and more desperate and defeatist as the song goes on until the very end where you’re actually worried she might have committed suicide or something.
Not much to say about this, except that it was a very cool trip hip song, and a great pick for this round.
4th Place – 4 PointsPortucci
Forseti – Letzter Traum
As soon as this guy starts to sing, you can tell you’re gonna be in for a depressing ride.
The way he sings, despite the language barrier, gets across the sort of emotions that lyrics wouldn’t be able to express anywhere near as well. The instrumentation also adds to this depressing feel, with the flutes and stuff all giving the song a sort of ethereal atmosphere. What makes this all the more impressive is the fact, which Portucci told me in the description, that this guy is playing all the instruments himself, which I find amazing as all of them are so perfectly and understatedly used. Even when the tempo of the song picks up, it still sounds very dirge like, but without the ‘boring’ connotations that the term usually brings with it in music. The outro sounds almost hopeful, but the whole song just evokes depression so strongly that you can’t help but feel kind of drained by the end. A very emotional song, and a very good one too.
5th Place - 3 PointsSpace Invader
The Pineapple Thief – My Debt To You
Wow, I’ve heard some TPT before but the singer’s voice never stood out to me as much as it did here, the singing is perfect for the lyrics and he’s got a really strong voice. Plus, the harmonies are perfectly done, ie not too many layers and not too few.The lyrics here are pretty good and nice, but not amazing or anything, which is okay, as the music is so good. The production is really good, specifically the really slight reverb/echo on his voice that I might just be tricking myself into hearing. There’s some great guitar work here that is weirdly depressing, and the final seconds of the song with the second-long entrance of the strings are really nicely done. This reminded me a bit of a cross between Radiohead and Porcupine Tree, which wasn’t a bad thing by any means. Good song, and one that will remind me to check out the rest of their discography I haven’t heard yet.
6th Place – 3 PointsKingshmegland
Toto – I Will Remember
WOW, this song was immediately very powerful even before the lyrics had begun. I’ve always (guiltily? Possibly.) enjoyed every Toto song I’ve heard immensely, and this was no exception. The production is always awesome with Toto, and this was up to PT standards as soon as the drums kicked in. The lyrics are a bit cheesy, but based on what the band must have been going through at the time, I can’t really level that criticism, as they really do seem to be coming straight from the heart. When it kicks into the (pre?)chorus for the first time around 2 minutes in, I was blown away. The song is really emotional, but instead of just being so in a depressing way, it sounded more like a positive kind of sadness, which I needed after the emotional drain that a lot of the other submissions this round imposed on me
I think my favourite thing about this track took a while to realise and, much like Fluffy’s pick last round, it was the piano. The fills and stuff it does in the verses and the chorus really add to the sound of the song, and the intensity. This was another fairly long song (for it’s genre, at least) that went by in what felt like seconds, and every time I reach the 5 minute mark and THAT outro starts again it’s just so powerful. The ‘woahs’ or ‘oohs’ or whatever they are might not be to everyone’s taste, but I thought they worked excellently. I also love how the outro kind of mirrors the intro, and it’s cool how essentially the same thing can make such a good intro and outro. In short, Toto ftw.
7th Place – 2 PointsSonatafanica
Bright Eyes - Easy/Lucky/Free
This was another pick that had great lyrics. What’s interesting is that I thought that 5 plus minutes sounded like a tough ask for a sinsger songwriter to keep me occupied, but when it reached the end I thought there were loads more verses left, it went by really quickly, which is definitely because I was so absorbed in the lyrics. I loved Oberst’s delivery, it really drove home the kind of attitude the song was condemning in a way that would have been funny were it not for how depressingly true and relevant it all was. My favourite lines were easily the ‘I never really dreamed of heaven much, Until we put him in the ground,’ couplet, it was so powerful the first time I heard it that coloured the whole song with the kind of morbid happiness that the music reflected really well, too. I’d already heard ‘I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning,’ before this but I’ll definitely have to check out their/his other work now, even though it’ll make me hate the world even more than I do now after hearing this.
8th Place – 2 PointsZxlkho
Brand New – The Boy Who Blocked His Own Shot
Looking at the other song titles on this album had me a bit worried about how emo this was going to be.
But this track wasn’t the genero-emo I’d been expecting, despite how crushingly sad it was. I followed along with the lyrics each time like you suggested, and they really are very well written, especially for this genre. By the time it got to ‘Standing trial for your sins, Holding onto yourself the best you can, You are the smell before the rain, You are the blood in my veins,’ it was almost unbearable, and the harmonies they had going on at this point really added to it. The guitar work here was also understated but I really liked it, and the numerous pauses they had between lines and stuff was also really interesting and added to the ‘depressed-stream-of-consciousness’ type vibe that I was getting. I’ll check out the albums you mentioned based on this track, it was pretty impressive.
9th Place – 1 PointJamesman
Disciple – One More Time
So, I’ll admit that, being an agnostic, I was a bit sceptical when Jamesman told me that this was a blatant praise song. HOWEVER, I went into this with as open a mind as possible, and I was not let down. I don’t need to agree with the lyrics whatsoever to see, when watching the video James linked me to, that this guy is just so into what he’s singing that I can’t help but be moved slightly, and the song is, while a little cheesy, really powerful. The chorus is, for lack of a less overused word, epic, and the vocals are just so emotional that I immediately get into the song every time I listen. The guitar parts are also great; I’ll have to give those a go sometime soon. But basically, despite me not being religious at all, this was a really great and emotional track that wasn’t hindered at all by its subject matter. My only problem would be that I do find it very cheesy, but I guess that’s the tradeoff you have to do when you make something as emotional as this. Cool pick.
10th Place – 1 PointDTVT
Enchant – Pure
This was a nicely emotional song. The guitar work was what stood out to me here the most by far, with some great solos throughout the song. On repeated listens it keeps surprising me how well it transitions from the quiet and understated opening, to the crazy guitar theatrics and general ‘epicness’ of the second half. The lyrics here were also a bit cheesy, but I didn’t mind too much as it sort of fit the song nicely. That guitar at the beginning is also weirdly catchy, I’m gonna have to learn that and annoy my family with it for hours straight.
My only problem was that the guy’s voice wasn’t really to my tastes, which dragged the song down a bit. But yeah, not too much to say here, just a really nice song that was actually happily emotional, with some great electric and acoustic guitar work and really nice lyrics. It was good, but all of the picks this round were, once again, really enjoyable, so something has to come last.
Fluffy Lothario – 10 Points
Kingshmegland – 9 Points
Sonatafanica – 7 Points
Gorille85 – 7 Points
Kari – 7 Points
Zxlkho – 6 Points
Space Invader – 6 Points
Portucci – 5 Points
DTVT – 3 Points
Jamesman – 1 Point, although he missed the first round (feel free to send me a song for the open round and I’ll just give it a score based on roughly where I’d have put it if you want)
Round 3’s category: Late night songs. This will understandably be pretty subjective, but some examples of my favourite late night songs are this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEeuetOsxKg&feature=relatedThis:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2mJpQSkae8And this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4s-OafVVG5USo basically, just say why it suits late nights for you if it’s not obvious, and even if I don’t agree I won’t necessarily mark the song down anyway.