Results, Part 11st Place: senecadawg2 – Emotional Proximity1. Eddie Vedder – SocietyFirst Impressions:I know Eddie Vedder as the one big grunge singer who’s still, like, actually alive. Oops. But I mean, I’ve always liked Pearl Jam. Never loved ‘em, never been a huge fan of the grunge style of singing, but I’ve heard most of Ten and there’s some good tunes there, yeah. This obviously is far from grunge, more of a singer-songwriter type deal. The guitar work is pretty basic but the guitar lead that comes in during the middle of the song is pretty nice, yeah. And he carries the emotion of the song pretty well for what it is. I don’t know if I’d say it’s hitting me super hard, but I do like this, it’s pretty nice and there’s enough little touches to keep it from getting boring. (DECENT)
Final Thoughts:Yeah, my thoughts on this one didn’t really change too much. I think where this doesn’t work that the other ones do work is that all the lyrics and the sentiment of the song seem very… vague. I imagine him going like, “Oh society, you’re a crazy breed” rolling his eyes sarcastic-like. There’s just not a strong message to this one. And thus it feels like he’s oversinging a lot of the time, like, I can’t imagine getting this emotional over a sentiment like this. I do think the guitar solo in the middle does at least give a nice instrumental moment but pretty much the rest of the song is just chords, too. I dunno, it’s… vaguely pleasant, at worst. I don’t dislike it but it kind of pales in comparison to the other two tracks here. Not much else to say.
5.75/102. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – If We Were VampiresFirst Impressions:So while I’ve never listened to him myself, I know a music critic/acquaintance big into his music, and this song in particular. And this is… nice, yeah. Again, going for the soft-spoken but emotionally potent route. The guitar work on this one is a little too basic for me though, honestly. His singing is good, for sure, and the message of the song is relatable, but for me it’s rare a song is going to be carried entirely by its vocals. And if it does it’s more in the context of the album that it works, rather than an isolated song. I can’t say I dislike it at all but it doesn’t really hit hard for me. (DECENT)
Final Thoughts:So yeah on this one I think the issue was I didn’t quite -get- what the lyrical sentiment of this one is, on the first listen. But on the second listen I paid a little more attention and… oof, that’s pretty hard-hitting isn’t it. Especially that chorus and the line “Maybe time running out is a gift / I'll work hard 'til the end of my shift” especially. And it helps that he spends the entire song sounding like he’s on the verge of tears, and having the female accompaniment in the chorus which really sells the sentiment of the song. Also, I was like, kinda harsh on the music of this one? It’s simple, but the guitar lines do drive some good melodies mirroring the vocal lines, it’s delicate and effective for the mood the song is going for. So yeah. I don’t think this hits quite as hard now that I’ve given it as many listens as I have, which is kind of the risk this kind of song has, but I still can say it’s a damn good and very effective tune.
8.75/103. Phoebe Bridgers – FuneralFirst Impressions:Okay, see, the first few lines of this song already have me more sold on this song than the past two combined. Ooh and the touches of strings in the background after the chorus… yeah. Mmm. It’s funny because this is more of a narrative piece than something general, which I should relate to a lot less, but y’know, usually it’s the opposite. I can really get strong emotions off this one even as soft-spoken as it is. Even if nothing else on this one really resonated strongly with me I’m glad you sent this one, yeah. (GREAT)
Final Thoughts:The one thing about this song I’m not madly in love with is the chorus. It’s… technically the mood of the song, and it’s well-sung and usually has some instrumental swell backing it up but it’s not lyrically as strong as any of the verses. This is a nitpick. Since basically everything else about this is just. Incredibly effective. Verses 2 & 3 are a bit vague in the context of the lyrical narrative but they fit in tonally, and Verses 1 & 4 connect the main narrative of the song, especially that goddamn line “Wishing I was someone else, feeling sorry for myself / When I remembered someone's kid is dead” and the string swell that’s backing it up. God. It’s completely pointless to critically analyze something like this though, honestly, because all that really matters is that it’s really damn emotionally potent. Screw you.
9.25/10Overall:First Impressions:Basically what I’d expect from you, really, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. To me, these are three very similar songs with the primary difference being the singer, and that means that one of them way overshadows the other two for me, but at the same time I do at least somewhat like all three.
The strength of the last song here is likely going to be enough to carry you through to the next round by itself, most likely. I do see potential for the other songs here to click on relistens, though. I suppose the greatest obstacle for me is a lack of real variety, but I sort of suspect that’s hard to come by in a genre focused mostly on the lyrical content like this.
Final Thoughts:This is the shortest EP, not even reaching 11 and a half minutes, yet it’s by a good margin the one that stands out most in my mind simply because it’s the only one that really struck a chord with me emotionally, despite having probably the most simple instrumentation of any EP in this round. And while, yeah, there’s one song here that didn’t really click for me, the other two did in a big way. This style of music isn’t one where I necessarily need the songs to flow into each other, and I think each song stands out enough with a different mood or lyrical sentiment to provide for enough variety to keep from getting boring. My only true worry is that maybe a full 40 minutes of basically playing russian roulette as to whether or not a song clicks with me emotionally could backfire but in terms of this sampler EP I’m completely on board.
12th Place: Dacul – Prelim Round1. Linda Perhacs – Winds of the SkyFirst Impressions:Five seconds in and I already know this is gonna be some Zantera / Sacul Music™ alright. I will say this has a nice enough bassline. The singer makes me think of, like, Christian music or something though, she sounds nice enough regardless. The snare doesn’t sound very good though, reeeally blocky sound there, it’s mostly only notable when it does the BA-DUM BA BA-DUM thing every time the drums come back in but still. I dig the sound of this well enough, it’s plenty lush and atmospheric on top of having solid groove, but it does feel a bit too… long, for what it has going on. Like halfway through the song I was ready for it to be over and seeing there’s still over two minutes left makes me wonder how that time is going to be filled at this point. Apparently, with a guitar solo and a fadeout. Ehh. Yeah, it’s pleasant enough to be sure but it doesn’t… really… leave much of an impact or create much of an emotional connection. Also, I see she has Julia Holter on one of the songs here. I dunno why you didn’t send that one for the easy cred. (AVERAGE)
Final Thoughts:Hhh. Okay. So we’ve got to get this out of the way first. Is this… Christian soft rock? Because it sure does sound like it, both in terms of tones and the lyrical content. And look. Discussions of religion are a complicated thing I don’t want to get into here. And I won’t. But I will say that Christian music in particular has this habit of going out of its way to be as inoffensive and bland as possible. And yep, that’s certainly how this sounds. It’s very… nice and lush, I guess. You’ve got a bright, looping bassline, ethereal vocals, a really basic and bright guitar line. It sounds nice enough, yeah. But I don’t feel like this has any ambition or any intent to be anything meaningful. There’s nothing emotionally resonant about this. It’s 6 minutes of basically nothing. It’s incredibly repetitive, too. After like the first minute you’ve heard basically everything this song has to offer. It’s just… filler. I don’t know why you’d go out of your way to send me musical fluff. It’s not the worst-sounding song I’ve received this round, but it really begs the question why this exists at all.
3.75/102. Arms & Sleepers – Twentynine PalmsFirst Impressions:Ooh, this started out kind of unassuming but the vocals and glitchy effects both work really well here. The effects make me think of mum a lot. The vocals make me think of… well, a lot of indie rock/pop tones, but both singers sound nice and work well together. I think… Gregor Samsa is maybe the particular act they remind me of, maybe mostly for the blending of the vocals. It’s like the hybrid of mum and Gregor Samsa I never knew I wanted. Because uhh yeah I do like this one a fair bit. I suspect maybe a full album of it could get drab for me, but this song in isolation, pretty dang nice, atmospheric without ever really getting dull or too repetitive. Even picks up the pace a little bit with trip hop-y percussion and folky guitar. Yeah this is just a whole huge mashup of sounds isn’t it, but they work and that really just makes it unique at the end of the day. (GOOD)
Final Thoughts:This song is just everything the Linda Perhacs song is trying to be and fails to be. It’s simple and dreamy, but the instrumentation doesn’t sound stock, it’s a fairly solid blending of a few different styles into something that, at the very least, I’d never heard before. And the chorus is really nice and pretty memorable, the two vocalists harmonizing throughout is a cheap but effective trick and they sound especially good on the chorus. I’m not even quite sure what this song is supposed to -be- about but whatever it is, it makes me feel something. There’s even a very full-sounding outro to the song with some ethereal wordless vocals that’s exactly the right kind of climax for a song like this. It certainly doesn’t resonate as strongly as some of the most emotional tracks in this round but it’s still pretty dang nice regardless, I’ll probably check out this artist further.
8/103. Owen Pallett – The Great ElsewhereFirst Impressions:Well, a scare chord sure is a way to start off your song and transition from the chill previous track, isn’t it. Uuhh yeah this one kind of sounds like a hot mess to me so far. Is this what anxiety sounds like. The percussion is just all over the place, and you’ve got the frantic synth lines, but then you’ve got warm atmosphere and really straightforward vocals in the mix as well. And there was the whole thing about the scare chord at the start too. Like, man, I think this works well as a closer I guess but aesthetically I reeeeally did not like much at all about this one. The chill ending is nice I guess? Ehh. (BAD)
Final Thoughts:Umm so I really dislike this song. Honestly it makes me kind of uneasy to even listen to it. This song sounds broken. The main synth lines throughout sound frantic and never resolve at the right times. The percussion sounds like bass-boosted samples lifted from some breakcore song. I sometimes have a hard time even finding what the main rhythm is supposed to be before the drums come in proper. That first third of the song is the worst by far. The middle of the song at least has a constant rhythm to it and I could almost see it working. I don’t like how janky and jagged the drums are, coming in and out. The vocals sound… nice, I guess but at the same time they sound practically robotic, the melodies are at least nice. The strings basically end up drowning out everything by the end and I’m thankful for that considering they’re like the one part of this that works well, and the song ends with a fairly nice string and piano bit but it’s not nearly enough to salvage how bad the first parts of this song are. I will say this though. I suspect I’m only giving this as high of a score as I am because it’s still better than Slint, but I probably overscored that Slint song way back when. Bleh. I’m stupid for ending my write-ups on what is by a good margin my least favorite song this round, I guess, woops.
2.5/10Overall:First Impressions:So uhh yeah one song I was kind of meh on, one song I really liked, one song I did not like at all. Maybe it’ll grow on me on relistens but it’s kind of like, sensory overload in the worst way.
I’m not versed enough in the weird types of music you like to really properly say if these all go together well but they all seem to be going for a different kind of aesthetic. First track is very organic and down to earth, the second is very ethereal and dreamy, the third feels really harsh and jagged and frantic. Thinking about it that way, they don’t really go together that well at all and only one of them I particularly liked, but I can’t fully dismiss this one either.
Final Thoughts: Mmmm yeah we basically never have overlapping tastes anymore and while at the very least there’s one song here I like a good bit, the other two range from “no” to “dear god no”. This one was basically dead on arrival to me and while I guess I can’t say it isn’t completely incohesive as an EP I couldn’t imagine any of these artists working together because they’re all going for very different sounds – one seems terrified of having any personality, one has way too much personality to be enjoyable, one gets it just right and stands out without collapsing into a jumbled mess. I can’t say I’ll be revisiting this EP in the future though, I’m just gonna take the one artist that does work and leave the rest in the trash can. Sorry, haha.
Current Standings:1. senecadawg2
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Phoebe Bridgers – Funeral2.
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Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – If We Were Vampires4.
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Arms & Sleepers – Twentynine Palms8.
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Eddie Vedder – Society26.
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Linda Perhacs – Winds of the Sky36.
Owen Pallett – The Great Elsewhere
Poll
Topic: Parama's EP-onymous Roulette v4 (Final Round Results) (Read 41801 times)