Alright, alright, you guessed correctly, folks. No sense in drawing this out.
jingle.boy: Hemina
Positive: These guys know how to write the rhythm guitar parts. The whole compilation kept me interested as I was following the guitar lines. It’s honestly impressive, as I’m not even a guitar player—well, I dabble in acoustic guitar, but that’s irrelevant here—my attention was constantly on that. Also the vocals were nice for a change.
Negative: The whole compilation suffers from a few songs that are just, well, there. I’m not sure if it will change with more listens, but some of the songs are just either too safe, or too unmemorable to make any lasting impression.
The negative impression definitely didn’t stand the test of time—I think the only song I don’t really remember is Fantasy, and mostly because it’s sandwiched between Venus and Soulmates. This compilation was honestly the biggest grower of them all—I think this was either the first or the second compilation I listened to, and I was quite underwhelmed. In fact, after the first listen, I ranked it below Silent Voices and The Human Abstract. It took me a bit of time to get acquainted with the song structures and melodies, and it turned out this was one of those “better every loop” things.
I really like the light yet punchy production, and the singer here, while he lacks grit in his voice, he’s a perfect fit for the music—also he belts out some fine high notes here and there. The keyboards are very Ayreon-like. There are some good guitar solos included, and once again I’d like to praise the rhythm guitars, I like how well-written these sections are.
The variety here is pretty good, too. You included a few regular tracks, a minor epic, a heavier track and an acoustic one. All together it made for a great compilation. While it might have finished only at the third place in this round, I would say the Top 3 in this round were way better than the rest. So well, thanks for this, I’m going to explore this band further—this was a very good effort.
Favourite songs: Soulmates, Nightlives, Venus, With What I See
Honestly, I think yours might be the best ending song out of all compilations. It hits just the right amount of sweetness and musicianship to nail the mood it’s going for. I love this.
Absolutely the best closer, and honestly, one of the best songs of the round. It doesn’t have anything special or spectacular, it’s just as I said, very sweet and hits that perfect spot between honesty and cheesiness (the lyrics are a bit on a cheesy side—tell that to my wiiiiife!—and the music is on the honest side). Love how the female and male vocals here work together. Love the chorus, love the harmonies there, and I love it’s climactic conclusion. Hell, this is probably the best song of the round, because it goes against the bleak and sad songs I usually prefer. This is touching and uplifting at the same time, and it works wonderfully.
Least favourite song: For All Wrong Reasons
Not only this uses one of the most boring templates for a song—repeat the same parts over and over with increased intensity—but it also manages to use quite a dull vocal melody which is honestly a bit annoying as far as I’m concerned. This song sticks out like a sore thumb on otherwise quite polished—even though not quite that impressive so far—compilation.
I feel that this is intended more as a transitional piece than a real song. I like the buildup, but the melodies, the lyrics and the general slow pace of the vocal passages doesn’t work for me at all, and this is the only song I don’t like on this compilation. I’m not big on Fantasy, and Moonlight Bride is alright, and I love everything else—but this one is a bit of a miss. Good thing the rest of the material is very strong, though.
LordCost: Faith No More
Positive: no impression initially / This compilation takes its sweet time to get good, but as I get past the initial disappointment, there are some good tracks there in the second half.
Negative: no impression initially / As I’m said, I’m probably not a very open-minded guy. After the third track this compilation turned into a “will I want to skip this track or not?”, and I can’t skip tracks because how am I to judge this compilation then?
This compilation was the most frustrating one along with King Diamond, because there is potential there, but the direction they’re taking is just not for me. I liked some of the songs here, I could tolerate some of the other songs, I flat out wanted to skip a few of those. Let’s do this in order, maybe.
The first three songs suffer from the weak vocals, even though it’s not as noticeable on Surprise! You’re Dead!; From Out of Nowhere was just an underwhelming opener, while Epic had me reaching for the skip button, and I don’t think the rapping vocal technique is the main reason here—I equally disliked the rest of the song, too. Some of the instrumental parts were fine, but that’s it.
Land of Sunshine and Caffeine were tolerable—I actually kinda liked Caffeine more than Land—and then you correctly guessed it, came the absolute disaster of a song. And I thought the weirdest song of the round would be from The Human Abstract compilation!
The only saving grace of this compilation is the run of songs from Matador till the end. While I can’t say I like everything on these four songs, at least they feature tolerable vocals and melodies, and while the song structures are still a bit of a mess, they’re doing quite better than Cuckoo for Caca. I may revisit them a bit later, I especially like Matador, King for a Day and Stripsearch.
I mean, this was a gamble, sending this to me. I absolutely support and respect the decisions to send me your favourite artists instead of what you think I may like, and sometimes it leads to some curious discoveries. This time it leads to your elimination, though.
Favourite songs: Matador, King for a Day
Least favourite song: Cuckoo for Caca
Conclusion:
I really tried to like the Faith No More compilation, but as things stood, three listens in I knew it won’t be able to beat Hemina. As I became more familiar with the rest of the material in this round, I realized it won’t be able to beat any compilation at all here. I’m sorry, LordCost, this was a bold move, but it didn’t pay off. Chad, welcome to the semi-finals! As I said, your compilation was pretty great.
Winner: jingle.boy
LordCost, I definitely didn’t know what to expect from you, but it turns out—like most of the notable DTF peers—you have a rich collection of music some of which is quite up my alley—Rishloo, Celesty, The Ocean and Aereogramme are definitely getting a spin from me! I’m also glad you decided to stick to your guns and sent me the stuff like Cardiacs and Faith No More—that made it even more interesting! Thank you for playing and I hope you also had fun sending me all these tunes.
Topic: Evermind's Third Roulette v. Final Round Results (Read 69877 times)
