This round definitely threw up some surprises!
Round 8
1st Place – 6 PointsSpace Invader
Pendragon – Indigo
This was one of the most immediately appealing of the longer tracks I’ve been sent throughout this roulette. The song has a load of different moods and styles that all combine brilliantly, and the vocals are really strong and help to ground the song in a more familiar structure for the first half. What I liked about the first, more traditional half of the song is how crazy all the instrumentation was under the verses; there were constant licks and drumfills that kept stuff interesting throughout, and the vocals themselves were good enough to not even need the awesome backup they got. Around 5 minutes in it earns it’s prog labelling, with an incredible bass-driven atmospheric section with amazing synth and acoustic work, and then it gets pretty heavy but retains the atmospheric vibe of before. This breakdown is just ridiculously good, and it’s what really made the song for me. I realise I’m essentially describing the song structure here, and I don’t want to ruin it for people. Listen to this song if I haven’t spoilt it too much already!
It’s one of the best prog tracks I’ve heard since I got into the genre, and was constantly surprising with the directions it took, and it pulled all of them off very very well. (Bonus spoiler: The vocalist seemingly turns into Steven Wilson at the end.) P.S: Ending solo = :O
2nd Place – 5 PointsSonatafanica
Kings of Convenience – Misread
Sonata waited until the final round for his best pick, it seems. Much like Fluffy’s Fat Freddy’s Drop pick, I immediately listened to this whole album on Spotify on the strength of this track. It’s immediately relaxing and jazzy, which acts as a nice counterpoint to the depressing lyrics, which are simple but poetic, and work really well. Overall this is a really nice track that I haven’t, and don’t think I will, gotten tired of listening to at all, and the whole album is great as well which makes it an even better pick.
3rd Place – 5 PointsKari
Explosions In The Sky – The Birth And Death Of The Day
I’m amazed at how little post rock I’ve been sent in this, so it was a nice choice of Kari to send some here. And what a track he chose. The intro with the high guitar parts immediately caught my attention, and conjured up really vivid mental imagery that the whole song sustained brilliantly. It really is the case with post rock (for me, at least) that when you’re in the mood for it, it offers an experience you just cannot get from other genres. Luckily I was definitely in the mood for this on my first listen, and it was a really emotional ‘journey’ of a song, with one of the more fitting song titles I’ve heard. The outro in particular really did sound like the end of a long day in musical form. Great song, I’ll make sure to check these guys out!
4th Place – 4 PointsPortucci
Diablo Swing Orchestra – Stratosphere Serenade
I knew that DSO were gonna be a bit outside of what I was used to in music simply by their genre and from what little I’d heard of them, but as it was Portucci’s recommendation I was also really looking forward to listening. This song didn’t disappoint. Admittedly, it was a little crazy at first listen, but after that it began to be a very rewarding song. The outro is my favourite part by far, it just sounds incredibly badass and, unlike Opeth’s Deliverance, I don’t think it goes on for too long at all. The female (I think
) vocals also worked nicely and fit the song well, and also made a nice break from the main vocals. A great track that has me interested, although slightly worried, to check out the band’s other work.
5th Place – 4 PointsGorille85
Mr Bungle – The Girls of Porn
Pure awesomeness. The bassline in this song might be one of the best I’ve ever heard, and it managed to fit the shorter heavy bit absolutely seamlessly into the brilliantly funky verses, which I loved equally. The vocals reminded me a lot of Faith No More in their delivery, which is by no means a bad thing; they added to the funky vibe of the song. (EDIT: I just realised they reminded me of Faith No More as it’s Mike Patton, so my bad for not realising that immediately.
I love that guy’s voice) It was also pretty funny throughout, with the various samples making me chuckle, and the final stanza having incredibly lolworthy lyrics.
6th Place – 3 PointsKingshmegland
Rush – Xanadu
I know I’m gonna get shit for the simple fact that Shmeg was able to send this to me as I hadn’t heard it before.
I’ve heard a fair bit of Rush, but Lee’s voice had always put me off slightly. For some reason this wasn’t really an issue for me here, perhaps because the majority of the song was instrumental. The intro was immediately captivating, and the riffs were as memorable and creative as I’ve seen with every Rush song, which is one of the most appealing factors of their music to me. Peart was also on top form here as always, and I guess that every Rush song would have awesome drums, but as I haven’t heard that many forgive me for being amazed by them here.
The verses were very cool rhythmically, let alone instrumentally, with the ridiculous drums and the occasional time signature switch ups keeping everything interesting. The solo at the end was as awesome as any of Lifeson’s I’ve heard, which is most certainly a good thing, and the intro reprise was a great way to finish. This song definitely makes me want to continue my incredibly slow journey into Rush’s music.
7th Place – 3 PointsFluffy Lothario
Bedřich Smetana - Vyšehrad (The High Castle)
I was expecting a bit of a trek when I saw the length, truth be told, but this song surprised me by holding my attention far better than a lot of prog epics do ([/controversy.) It started off very gently, which I always like in classical music, and slowly built up, and then down again, several times, but never in a contrived manner. The album art here also added to the song a lot, it really suited the music, which wasn’t something I’d have expected to ever be an issue, or a plus point, in classical music, before. Admittedly, as I’ve said before, I don’t have much of a frame of reference in classical music to compare this to anything too strongly, but I’ve listened to a fair bit before and this stood out to me as being better than a lot of the rest. The final couple of minutes were especially well done.
8th Place – 2 PointsZxlkho
Katatonia – Omerta
Ooh, very interesting. This isn’t what I was expecting based on what other Katatonia I’d heard, but it was a very pleasant surprise nonetheless. I can almost imagine Opeth doing something like this in their next album; it just evokes that feel to me for some reason. The vocals were slightly strange but very cool, and the guy has a really unique but interesting voice. As Letters said, it does end ridiculously abruptly, but that doesn’t really take away from the rest of the song for me. Very interesting track.
9th Place – 1 PointJamesman
Waterdeep – I’m Afraid That I’m Not Supposed To Be Like This
I really liked the soundscape this song had going on during the verses, which was the most immediately appealing thing to me on my first listen. After that the vocals began to grow on me a lot (they weren’t bad to begin with or anything, I just didn’t realise how good they were) The lyrics were nice, even if I’m not a huge fan of worship lyrics, but I can certainly admit that they were well written. My only complaint is that the song didn’t really go anywhere, which I know is sort of the point (it would be completely incongruous to have an epic solo tradeoff, for instance
) but I still felt kind of let down by the end. All the same, Jamesman once again convinced me that I absolutely cannot write off music just because of a preformed conception I had about it, and I’m tentatively looking forward to checking out some more worship music after this roulette!
10th Place – 1 PointDTVT
Reverend Horton Heat – Cowboy Heat
Lol. As epic as this track was, I think this might have possibly been intentionally bad. Thanks for playing DTVT!
I would like to say now how thankful I am to every single one of you for participating so awesomely in this roulette, all of you have sent me mindblowing, surprising, insane and completely amazing tracks, and given me a massive spread of artists and albums to check out. I'm gonna do the now traditional post roulette thing and keep updating this thread with my thoughts on the stuff I check out: I think some I Mother Earth is first on the cards after this is over, and I'll check out stuff round by round from there. Once again, thank you all for playing, you've been consistently brilliant every single round.
Now, the scores throw up a bit of a problem:
Fluffy Lothario – 31 Points
Jamesman - 29 Points
Kari – 29 Points
Gorille85 – 28 Points
Portucci – 27 Points
Space Invader – 27 Points
Sonatafanica – 24 Points
Kingshmegland – 23 Points
Zxlkho – 21 Points
DTVT – 15 Points
I did want to use Kari's system, but that would result in 7 people going through to the top 5.
What do you guys want to do here? Once again, I don't really mind. We could just end it here, but I feel like the people tied for positions might want 'closure,' or something.
Topic: Marvellous G's Song Roulette - Round 8 Resuuuuults! (Read 41493 times)
