Round 5 Results:Shadow Ninja 2.0: Now, Now – ThreadFirst Impressions: Okay, so, the funny thing, apparently this gets compared to Death Cab For Cutie a lot? At least from what I’ve looked up. This, to me, is… umm… the same indie rock song I’ve probably heard somewhere else and wasn’t too taken with. I can’t really find anything here that strikes me as something new, something fresh, it’s all fine and pleasant enough but, just very inoffensive.
Final Thoughts: This probably suffers from the fact that another board that runs a music-listening kind of thing like this has this kind of song in it so goddamn often that I am just entirely null to this flavor of indie rock. I can’t say that it does anything bad in any way, other than that it completely fails to interest me. It has decent atmosphere, it has pleasant vocals, it’s not overly long, it’s just… tame. And there’s no real emotional pull for me here, so this just feels like another dime-a-dozen indie rock track to me. Sorry.
Score: 6/10Train of Naught: Seether ft. Amy Lee – BrokenFirst Impressions: I feel like I recognize both these voices, though I know I’ve heard at least some of Seether before, somewhere??? This is like, totally fine, but it’s again, pretty inoffensive. The kind of thing I wouldn’t turn off it if came on the radio, but nothing I’d ever actively seek out. It kind of makes me feel like post-grunge never really should’ve been a thing because we already had enough grunge to begin with.
Final Thoughts: The context I have to compare this with is the Shinedown song from round 2. Especially, the vocals. Because both of them are using the same grungy kind of singing (this is post-grunge, after all). And goddamn, does the Shinedown singer just absolutely blow Seether’s singer out of the water.
Also the female singer is apparently the Evanescence chick. I should’ve guessed. She’s okay. I can only think of one Evanescence song off the top of my head (Bring Me Back To Life) and she was decent there too.
Musically this is okay, but not really that special, and those strings sound fake as heck. This is still a little powerful at times, but it’s not especially compelling, and again, I feel like this kind of song is a dime a dozen.
Score: 6.5/10425: Death Cab For Cutie – We Looked Like GiantsFirst Impressions: The first thing that immediately jumps to mind is “I’m not sure how much I’m going to like this singer”. Not horrible at all, really, just… a voice that kind of irks me and I can’t explain why. I think the problem here is going to end up being, a lot of enjoyment from this song depends on the singer, the instrumentation is nice on its own but doesn’t strike me as too special, the piano is okay and the opening riff is okay, but nothing that’s blowing me away, or even really impressing me much.
Final Thoughts: Will be completely honest that this probably wasn’t a good choice to send based on the subject matter alone. It’s not something I can emotionally connect with at all and it’s a bit uncomfortable for me, honestly. Sexual stuff, no thank you… the lyrics feel a bit too personal, too, a bit too specific and oversharing.
Now that the awkward part is out of the way, what of the rest? Well, I like the guitar line in the intro. It’s compelling and kind of catchy, and it’s unique to this song. The entire second half of the song seems to just want to jam on some chords and a piano line, which would be fine, except… yeah, that goes on way too long, this is another case of “cut a minute off this please” because I like it for a minute but I don’t really like it anymore after two minutes of the same thing. It doesn’t even have anything to build to either, the song just kind of dies out at the end of that. This is a decent song if I ignore the lyrics, I suppose, but I don’t feel too strongly about it in the end.
Score: 6.5/10Sacul: Ed Harrison – AnnulFirst Impressions: Those voices are super unnerving, but I’m not sure if it’s in a good way. This seems a bit awkwardly start-stop at times and while the atmosphere does tend to work decently well, it ends up feeling a bit incohesive. Still, I think it’s pretty alright, don’t know if it will end up being one of my favorites this round though.
Final Thoughts: I think you were going for “haunting” again, but this ends up more “unsettling” than anything else, to me. It’s probably the voices mostly to blame for that, but the bassline also adds to the feel, especially with how persistent it is throughout the entire song. And I don’t really see this as “ambient”, it seems closer to electronica than anything. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
I guess what this is going to come down to is the percussion. It’s… ehh. The stop-start nature of it when it basically controls the feel of the song seems a bit off. It switches between being frantic and between being more sluggish, and while I find myself preferring the sluggish feel, the real issue I have is how it comes in and out so often in the second half. The flow of the song just gets completely jerked about by the drums coming in slow, disappearing, coming in fast, disappearing, coming in slow again. And then there’s the fact that, well, it doesn’t really have a build, and it doesn’t really feel too diverse over the course of its 6-and-a-half minute runtime. I would’ve preferred this track to be maybe two-thirds this long, or even as short as half as long.
Maybe I’m being super nitpicky with this one, but in the end…
This is background music… if I don’t pay attention to it too well then it’s a fairly enjoyable listen, for that purpose, and it’s a soundtrack song, again, and for a game, where most of the music tends to be background music. And it probably serves that purpose well! It’s just not that great as active listening music.
Score: 6.5 (+.5 Bonus) = 7/10senecadawg2: Clint Mansell – Death is the Road to AweFirst Impressions: This is certainly a… strange choice for a roulette. I really don’t think it’s going to work out for you, I don’t think I’ve ever been interested in movie soundtracks. And while this is a fairly fine piece on its own, it lacks context, and without context, it can’t really reach the power and depth it would be able to otherwise. The instrumentation is solid, there’s plenty of string presence and there’s some decent build to it. I can see why you would choose this specific song, but without the context, it ends up feeling a bit meandering and I can’t really connect with it. Decent, though…?
Final Thoughts: I just have a hard time finding this to be too enjoyable as a song by itself because… yeah, it sounds super soundtrack-y. It’s also kinda post-rock-y which is I assume why you sent it, I won’t go saying it’s completely pointless as a standalone track because it isn’t.
That being said, I don’t have much to say about this. The main motif is a 5-note melody that just repeats a lot, in different octaves, at different volumes. I get tired of it pretty quickly. And it’s a pretty long track. It does build well and it gets pretty “epic” at times.
But the second half does a sort of stop-start thing that, I’m sure works well in the context of a movie and fits the scene, but as a song, -that- kind of thing exactly is what steers me away from soundtracks. They have to fit the context of a movie, game, tv show, etc., more than they have to stand on their own, so stuff that may work really well in context doesn’t work well at all out of context. Twice it kind of dies out only to go right back to being loud.
I dunno man. In theory, I like this, and I bet it’s really cool in context. But I can’t really connect with it much. Meh.
Score: 7 (+.5 Bonus) = 7.5/10Tomislav95: If Trees Could Talk – The First FireFirst Impressions: Post-rock is a genre that I always enjoy listening to but never can really find much to say about. It’s got some good atmosphere and some nice buildup, a very melancholic sound overall, and it’s relaxing. But that’s what I can say about most post-rock.
Final Thoughts: The drumming is the highlight of this one for me, I think. The drums do a lot of different stuff that keeps things fairly interesting, compared to standard post-rock. But everything else here, really, just feels like the same kind of stuff I hear other post-rock bands do. Clean or lightly distorted tremolo picking, several layers of pretty but non-descript guitar parts, a dreamy atmosphere. The bass line is a bit compelling at first but it gets kind of beat into the ground by the end.
Post-rock is a genre I tend to listen to for only a few select purposes, and for those purposes, it’s really good. Background music for when I’m working on something else. Music for long car rides where I want to relax. Sleeping music. Hammock’s Departure Songs is an album that tends to be a favorite for these purposes, in that it isn’t exactly what I’d call a unique or astounding album, but it serves the purpose of being very dreamy, pleasant music very well. This is a fairly decent song by that standard, but as with other post-rock, fails a little in the active listening department. That being said, I may end up checking out this album anyways.
Score: 7.5/10FlyingBIZKIT: Boards of Canada – Dayvan CowboyFirst Impressions: I really don’t remember anything about this song, other than I know I’ve heard it before like, once or twice, a long time ago. I probably know why I liked it, it’s very post-rockish with a long buildup in the intro. The second half especially, a very full percussive atmosphere with the other instruments filling in the empty space. Though the keyboard thing feels a bit dissonant there, but not a huge detractor.
Final Thoughts: Out of all the instrumental post-rocky songs this round, I think this one did the most for me by a slight margin. Mostly, I think it just captures a sense of build-up the best. The fuzzy atmosphere of the song helps a lot, too.
Also I lied the keyboard is fine, first-listen me was dumb I guess. Though at a point it does kind of reach a peak that I think it could go beyond but never does. It’s a very pleasant listen though, for as simple as it is.
Score: 8/10mikemangioy: Symphony X – King of TerrorsFirst Impressions: Brief comment about how my wishlist doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll like something, but. I am prepared for the cheese, nonetheless, because apparently this band is cheese to the extreme. The groove that starts about a minute in is pretty cool, simplistic as it is. And the rough edge to the vocals, too, is something I really like. The production on this track is really… rough, for 2002, though, haha. The slow breakdown with the synths going crazy on top creates a pretty cool effect, too. There’s a lot of… parts here, that I like, but taken as a whole it doesn’t do as much for me, though I imagine with more listens that could easily change.
Final Thoughts: This ends up occupying the same slot of “this is a cool metal song, but it isn’t quite good enough to make me hyped about seeking out more from this band”. On the other hand, whereas I’ve heard a fair few other Nightwish songs before, I haven’t really listened to any Symphony X, so you could make a fan out of me yet.
That being said, this seems to be pretty halfway between power metal and prog metal. I really dig how the triplet-feel riff evolves into a standard feel riff in the verse, that kind of thing is a prog thing I love seeing. The chorus strikes me as a bit… ehh, though. The drums are doing the good ol’ double bass thing, the chords aren’t –that- powerful, the vocals are okay, the lyrics seem a bit cheesy (which I expected).
The instrumental break is probably my favorite part, the time signature madness goes through staccato, palm muting, and full-sounding notes with the same kind of structures. The way the synth runs are used in contrast to the relatively sluggish feel of the rest of the band works well, they add texture to the guitar crunch. Really don’t dig that solo at all, though. It’s just shreddy and pointless. Could’ve done without that.
Score: 8/10LordCost: Mr. Bungle – Ars MoriendiFirst Impressions: I have heard vague whispers of the weirdness of Mr. Bungle, I guess it’s time to experience it firsthand. And yep, what the hell is this. I don’t know if this is the “best” song in the roulette thus far (answer: it’s not, at all) but it’s definitely the “most” in one category. Honestly I just have trouble following this at all. It doesn’t sit on any ideas at all and instead bombards you with new ones every few seconds, it’s a bit overwhelming.
Final Thoughts: Okay, my enjoyment of this one is definitely going to suffer from the roulette format. I’d need at least 10, if not more, to really “get” this song, I imagine. The eclectic instrumentation, the constant need for new ideas, it’s very quirky and very unique. It’s overwhelming. I am overwhelmed by this, and not in exactly the best way. At the very least, there are a few melodies to keep it a little bit grounded. And I can’t say I dislike any of the ideas being presented. I just wish it would sit still for a moment so I could have any point of entry into this.
The entire first half seems to have a sense of a slow build to a middle section where the song explodes, then goes off and gets a lot faster-paced. The song is very dynamic though, a lot of louder bits, a lot of softer bits. Tons of instruments represented here, I wouldn’t even be able to begin to name them all, I can’t even tell.
I have to wonder though, if all of the instruments are needed, or if it’s just a gimmick? I really don’t know. This is hard for me to rate because I still don’t feel I’m too familiar with it, even after five listens. It feels stronger than a 7.5 but weaker than an 8, and I’m not letting myself have any middle ground between the two… nor do I let the bonus half point affect my rankings… going to cautiously go with the latter because I can see this growing on me if I had time to give it more listens.
Score: 8 (+.5 Bonus) = 8.5/10Elite: maudlin of the Well – Gleam in RanksFirst Impressions: I think I listened to both this album and Bath once a while back but I remember them being… both pretty schizophrenic and all over the place, but overall pretty enjoyable. I think this taps in pretty well to my recent musical mood (though, since it was on my wishlist, not a huge surprise). It’s got atmosphere, energy, and plenty of heaviness, and there’s a pretty nice flow to the whole thing. It does kind of just… end, though, haha.
Final Thoughts: It’s really a miracle how all the disparate elements of this song mix together into making a wholly unique as well as pretty compelling song. The piano runs, the swelling synths, the pretty guitar lines, the chugging riffs. There are a lot of little touches that really elevate this, I feel, that really makes the song demand attention. There’s a slow build going on too, the background slowly filling up with more and more noise over the course of the song, the vocals getting more and more intense as everything else builds.
And then… it does really just cut off abruptly after the shreddy guitar bit in the background. I’m not so sure about that ending, it feels a bit anticlimactic. Still, the ride is great, so I can’t fault it for only really getting a bit weaker right at the end.
Score: 8.5/10Current Standings:mikemangioy – 43
Sacul – 42.5
senecadawg2 – 41.5
Tomislav95 – 40
Elite – 40
425 – 38.5
FlyingBIZKIT - 38
LordCost - 33
Train of Naught – 32.5
Shadow Ninja 2.0 - 27.5
No rush to get your round 6 entries in, I'm not even going to touch them until next Monday at the earliest.
I think what I will do is go over some entries that I feel scored a bit too low. I think I'll leave any scores that I felt were a little too high, though. I feel it would be too mean of me to lower people's scores, even if there are a few I probably should. Don't expect a huge amount of bonus points, and nothing from round 5 will be rescored except maybe Mr. Bungle, probably none from round 4 either. Mostly though I need a break + i have several albums i need to give a number of dedicated listens to