Here come round 7 writeups. This may be my favorite round of the roulette (though it's hard to judge the quality of a round of 5 versus that of a round of 9). Five strong submissions here. Which, of course, means that there's less differentiation between a lot of your scores than some of you may have been hoping for... But that's not my responsibility!
So, very diverse round, very strong round. I liked it a lot. One song was one of my favorites of the whole roulette. So here are the writeups.
Evermind: Amadeus Awad - Lonesome ClownLeave it to Evermind to send a song that takes up almost half the total length of the round.
This is a pretty cool, epic piece of prog rock/metal. The long intro is very strong and sets the dark mood for the rest of the song pretty perfectly. Anneke comes in to provide the vocals, and I’ve decided I really like her. The melodies she has here are very strong and she gives a pretty emotional performance. I’m not quite sure what she’s singing about, but I know from the words I can hear (“I filled your lungs with toxic gas”? “I lost my crown”?) and her intonation that it’s pretty serious and dark.
The heavy riffs that come in and out of this song are placed pretty well. This song succeeds so well at being very dark and desperate without the metal instrumentation in there that when the riffing does come in, it doesn’t feel obligatory, it feels like it’s just another part of the musical landscape that contributes further to the mood.
The interlude fits perfectly well into the song. It’s a bit long, but I think it’s fine as part of a piece this long, and is probably welcome in the context of a full album. The buildup out of the interlude is pretty awesome as well, so there’s a good payoff. The voiceover is pretty creepy, but it fits well into the song, so no complaints there.
Nekov: Nordic Giants ft. Beth Cannon - RaptureHere’s one of several songs this round that is really just very beautiful. This one features a sort of ethereal rock sound and a really soft, pretty female vocalist. She’s really the highlight of this song for me, as I really love this type of high, soft, almost fragile-sounding female singing. And they give her some really good haunting melodies to sing.
That said, the instrumentation here is good as well. I love the sense of dynamics in this song, where there are some quiet parts interspersed with those loud choruses and whatever is causing that loud, clear percussive sound. There’s a solid atmosphere created on this one as a result of those dynamics.
The thing that limits this somewhat for me is that it seems a little too repetitive given how short it is. That isn’t really a problem so much as a limit on how much I like this one. There’s nothing wrong here at all, it’s just not one of my favorite songs this time.
Sacul: Saltillo - Giving InMeh.
Just kidding. I really like this. This is my favorite hip/trip-hop song that you’ve sent me. The atmosphere is strong here, as it seems to be in a lot of songs from this genre. The difference here is that the strong atmosphere is paired with a really strong singer who gives a fantastic performance on this song. She does a good job of providing a somewhat subdued performance that fits in with the mood of the song while still being powerful when necessary.
I still don’t understand the need for disc scratching stuff, but here it doesn’t significantly detract too much. I’d prefer that it wasn’t there, but it doesn’t really bother me that it is.
Congratulations, Sacul, you’ve finally managed to send me a trip hop song that I really like and to which I have no significant objections.
Scorpion: Diablo Swing Orchestra - Voodoo Mon AmourThis is one of the more unusual songs of the roulette, I’ll definitely give it that. I guess I would characterize this as swing metal, and I have to say it’s an interesting concept. It’s pretty bizarre to hear the brass instruments playing in conjunction with heavy metal riffs, but it’s also pretty cool.
Unfortunately, the downside is that sometimes with stuff that is bizarre stylistically, to the point where it seems almost like a novelty, it can get kind of stuck in a novelty box for me and that can inhibit me from liking it as well as some other things. This song does succeed in breaking out of that box… somewhat. The songwriting is strong enough to definitely make it worthy of attention for reasons that go beyond its novelty status. The vocal melodies may not be outstanding but they're strong enough, and the instrumental work is very strong.
My biggest issue is the style of the vocalists. I suppose I understand what they’re going for, but both singers have strange singing styles that don’t really connect with me. So that’s something that keeps this one back for me a little bit. But even so, I definitely did like this song as more than just a novelty.
senecadawg2: Mazzy Star - Fade Into YouIt’s either very strange or totally logical that in a round with dynamic post rock, swing metal, trip hop and a 12 minute epic, all of them very good songs, that my favorite of this round would be arguably the simplest and most accessible one.
This song is just beautiful. It doesn’t try to be more than what it is, but what it is is amazing. The singer’s voice is absolutely perfectly suited to this song, she does a stellar job and really draws me into this on an emotional level. The guitars, piano and other instruments aren’t really doing anything complicated, but they’re doing exactly what is necessary for the song, and they don’t get boring. The voice and instrumentation, particularly the lead guitar, create a nice tapestry of beautiful melodies that result in an emotionally moving song that is my favorite of this round and among my favorites of the roulette. I really love this song, so the only question here is whether the 5 goes before or after the decimal point.