Fuck this whole roulette thing. I want to give you all sevens for this round. Seriously, the quality of submissions I received here was absolutely superlative.
I'm enjoying every second of all of your songs, and hating the shit out of trying to score them against each other.
Jsem - Gorecki Symphony No. 3 "Sorrowful Songs" - Lento e Largo – 7 points
I have to applaud you for two things… A. taking a risk and sending something different and B. Sending such a lovely song. Seeing the strings performed live and hearing them put off such a deep and ambient sound was amazing. I also say that the woman singing this has a lovely voice, which added another depth to the song. The setting was perfect, the atmosphere was perfect, and the 9 minutes went by very quickly!
Gorille - Music for Money - La Marche – 6 points
Wow. This was such an awesome submission. The song fits perfectly into the theme of sadness, but with a definite eeriness and creepiness included. The piano melodies are awesome and the general electronic/glitch stuff added to the song perfectly. Then, man, the second part! It was amazing, that’s about all I can say.
Letters – Hurt – Abuse of SID – 6 points
This song was probably the angriest submission I received. Anyway, I really loved it! For a fairly standard Alt-rockish song it was very well crafted, and there were subtleties to be enjoyed. Particularly the high background vocals mixed into the middle were perfect and suited the song quite well. The singer does a great job of getting the emotion across, and altogether this was really well done.
Sonata - Bjork – Harm of Will – 5 points
Lovely. This song is really heavenly. The instrumentation and choirs were lovely. Her voice is lovely as always. Particularly, the celesta, I think it is, adds a beautiful touch with its music box-like melodies. I think my favorite part is where she sings “atop of the family tree” and the choir follows. The only gripe I could possibly have is the little delay breath thing that is going in through the first minute as it kind of distracts and sounds out of place. Not a big deal, and this is still one of the most lovely submissions I received this round.
Sneakyblueberry - Sawdust & Diamonds - Joanna Newsom – 5 points
I must say that I’m already a fan of Joanna’s work. However, fortunately you sent a song from Ys, so I’ve only heard the album once through and don’t know the song specifically. Anyway, I can now recognize it as one of her best. It features her classic, dreaming, magically flowing, harp-ish melodies combined with her rough and emotive voice.
King – Joe Jackson – Be my Number Two – 4 points
I have to commend you for making me really like something I’m not accustomed to liking. An oldie ballad, this song was one of the very best of the style I’ve ever heard. I like the lyrics, which are more often than not the weakness of the vintage love song, and the voice/melodies are great!
MG – Starsailor - Way to Fall – 4 points
This guy has a fantastic voice. The song is very strong itself, though it sees vast improvement going into the more intense and emotional section. So yeah, this song was a perfect submission for the theme and was very, very good.
Soundscape - Linda Ronstadt - Goodbye My Friend –This was a very nice ballad. The song is actually emulating about as much happiness as sadness, but her voice is lovely nonetheless. The arrangement and lyrics were all a bit typical, but it was a very pleasant listen. – 3 points
Voxyn - Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - I See A Darkness – Very nice. It was very slow paced and mellow. The voice reminded me of Jeff Buckley, which anyone would know is a wonderful thing to me, and the song held up quite nicely along side it! – 3 points
Dethklok - In This Moment - A Star Crossed Wasteland – 2 points
This was good. The vocalist was obviously talented. Unfortunately the song fell victim to the metal ballad cliché more than once, but it was still a very good song with strong and memorable melodies, and the girl singing was very talented.
Robert Wyatt - Sea Song - 1 point
Sorry, I wasn’t really feeling this one quite as much. It doesn’t really seem to have much to do with sadness at all. Not to say I disliked it, the guy has a good voice, but the whole strange synth thing definitely isn’t my type. The mellotron was cool, though.
Next round and scores will be coming soon, I just needed to get this out because you guys are already hassling me just one day after I actually got them all in!