Results, Pt. 13rd Place: senecadawg2 – Falling Freely1. Lord Huron – The Night We MetFirst Impressions:As ever I have no real clue what to expect from your album. I know a few of these artists but I’m not particularly familiar with any of them. This has a nice simple, atmospheric guitar line but it’s really more about those layers of vocals than anything. Picks up the energy a bit in the middle but returns to the softer sounds by the end. I think paying better attention to vocals might help this one, especially considering the concept, but on first listen I still like it well enough, yeah. (DECENT)
Final Thoughts:Yeah, at the end of the day this is a pretty simple song, but it’s a pretty effective one for what it’s trying to do. I uhh. Dunno if I have a ton else to say about it. The vocals work for me and I definitely feel it well enough, though I don’t feel it as strongly as some of the other stuff you’ve sent. I enjoy it for what it is, though, for sure.
7.5/102. Laura Stevenson – Master of ArtFirst Impressions:That most famous drumbeat to kick off this one, huh. I get why this one has the tone it does in the context of your album and I think it sounds fine enough, I guess, but it’s a bit… uninteresting, to me. I’m not a huge fan of her voice, mostly when she goes for some of those high notes. I don’t have the time to juggle lyrics sheets and doing write-ups, especially with songs this short, unfortunately, so maybe having lyrics would help this one, but then again who knows. It’s not unpleasant, I just don’t get much from it. (AVERAGE)
Final Thoughts:This one grew on me a little, I’d say. The vocal melodies were a bit weird at first but I got used to ‘em soon enough. And while I’m still not a huge fan of her voice, she sings passionately enough that I can at least feel something from this. I don’t think I find it particularly memorable and aside from the vocals there really isn’t a ton to this one, though. It also feels like it goes one chorus longer than it needs to. I think an unspoken criteria that I’ve been applying to a lot of songs is that for something to be a 7 or close to a 7, it’s something I’d want to actually follow up on, on the basis of just the one song. And here, I am not feeling anywhere close to that, I feel like an entire album of this would make me sick, but this song in isolation… y’know, it’s alright.
6.5/103. The Smiths – Cemetry GatesFirst Impressions:This is possibly the most generic band name ever. Wow. No real clue what to expect from this one. And… I don’t really have much of anything to say about it, either. It sounds fine enough, again. Bright-sounding music in this vein is something that rarely clicks with me though. Uhh. I dig the bass work, if nothing else. It’s also really brief, too. Mmm. (AVERAGE)
Final Thoughts:I basically echo my thoughts on the previous song towards this one. It’s… kind of a depressing topic for a song this bright and upbeat but then framed in a romantic way somehow such that it actually kind of works with the music? I’m again not a huge fan of the vocals, but the melodies themselves are nice. And it’s not as dry-sounding as I originally thought. It’s even more musically basic, though, and kind of one note in that regards too. I get the appeal of this, but it’s kind of outside of my wheelhouse enough that I can’t really imagine ever being too into these guys.
6.25/104. Bjork – CocoonFirst Impressions:Bjork is one of those artists I’ve known about forever but never really dug much into, aside from the one song I got from her in my first roulette, and probably a few other scattered songs. The instrumental of this one sounds like a mum song, except maybe not as lush. And she has a nice voice, yeah. I feel it’s maybe a bit too mellow & lacking in dynamics so far, though. Yeah, I think I would like this more if there was a bit more to it, as it is it feels a bit too long for what it is, I like how it sounds though. (AVERAGE)
Final Thoughts:Sooooo this one crosses a line for me. I am asexual and explicitly sexual topics like this song inherently is make me super uncomfortable, I really don’t want to hear lyrics like these, at least not if I can actually understand them. Aaand… the song if you take away the vocals would be super dang boring, too. Like, she sings well enough. The song if you ignore the lyrics is pretty inoffensive musically, though not very interesting either. But Iiii really haven’t wanted to listen to this after like the second listens where I was actually paying attention to lyrics and figured out what it was about. Yeah, sorry, hard pass.
3/105. David Gray – Falling FreeFirst Impressions:The one artist who has two songs, so let’s hope I don’t hate them. This one seems to be a piano ballad. Fair enough. He’s got a pretty emotive voice and the piano is kind of sparse but does enough to drive a mood. There’s not much else to say about it though. It is what it is. I liked it a bit more than the past few tracks, if nothing else. I can feel something off this one. (DECENT)
Final Thoughts:I still really don’t have a ton to say about either David Gray song, honestly. They’re nice enough piano ballads, performed pretty well. I can’t say I really feel much of anything off either of them though. I guess the climax of this one is at the very least got something to it. I guess songs about death make me feel a lot more than songs about love, huh? I don’t know, I feel inclined to be at least a bit kind to this one on the basis that it doesn’t really have anything wrong with it at all, but I honestly wouldn’t be able to tell you what it sounds like without listening to it.
6.25/106. Aphex Twin – JynweythekFirst Impressions:Another real short one here, I’d expect this to be an instrumental interlude? It’s uhh. A unique enough sound, I guess. I don’t really feel like it has any appeal to me, though. I don’t really get anything out of this. Don’t find it at all unpleasant to listen to, I’m just really wondering why it was included at all. (AVERAGE)
Final Thoughts:Okay, I know conceptually why this song was included. And it’s pretty short, so it’s not like it takes up a ton of time in the album, either. But uuhh. Musically this is nothing. I don’t dislike it, I don’t like it either. It’s clock sounds to symbolize the passage of time. I feel like you could’ve probably had that effect in a gradual way rather than hammer it home with this song’s existence and it would’ve both had a better effect conceptually and not wasted 2 minutes of my time each listen to this album, but. Whatever.
5/107. Tori Amos – Precious ThingsFirst Impressions:Okay, this one starts off kind of quiet but it does pick things up a little bit, which I feel like this album was desperately in need of at this point. In general I feel like this has a more unique sound to it than pretty much everything up to this point, at the very least I can’t draw any comparisons to anything I’ve heard before with it. It’s got some singer-songwriter vibes, some rock vibes, and even a bit of country twang. I can’t say I’m super in love with it, but I like it more than anything else on this album up until now for sure. (DECENT)
Final Thoughts:Yeah, this one has been pretty cool on every listen to this album thus far. For one, it’s got a ton more swell to it than anything that came before it, and it’s just generally more dynamic. There’s some of those quieter moments with the tense piano line and even the muted screaming vocals. The percussion feels like it drives the mood the most and when some of the bigger drum hits come in for the louder moments it really makes them sound propulsive and effective. And when the song really kicks in around the three minute mark for a pretty solid climax… mmm yeah that’s good stuff. I sort of feel like I almost want it to get more intense than it does end up getting, but that’s maybe because of how much of a metalhead I am and this doesn’t sound quite powerful enough for my tastes. I still definitely get a lot more from this than a lot of the previous songs here though, for sure.
7.5/108. David Gray – Ain't No LoveFirst Impressions:Okay, so both songs from this guy seem to be piano ballads then. This one adds in a bit of orchestration to back up the piano and vocals too, though. I don’t have much to say about this that I didn’t already say about the last one. Still drives up some emotive resonance, he’s still a solid singer, it’s still pretty nice. I guess I like this one slightly more but it’s slight alright. (DECENT)
Final Thoughts:I feel like the main difference between this one and the other one is that that one is driven mostly by the vocals, whereas the music is pulling most of the weight on this one, while the vocals do sound nice here they don’t really reach the intensity, which I guess for the subject matter makes sense. Meanwhile there’s strings and choir vocals and some plucky instrument I can’t name. Again I don’t have a ton else to say beyond that. Still not that emotionally impactful, but, it’s nice enough.
6.5/109. Sarah Fimm – Story of UsFirst Impressions:A bit of a low-key electronic groove to this one, another pretty solid though not particularly unique vocal performance. I recognize this artist’s name but I’m not actually sure from where. It’s again a bit lacking in dynamics for me, seems to mostly be carried by the vocals and presumably the lyrics. This one does feel a bit long for what it’s doing, though, felt a little bit bored of it by the end. (AVERAGE)
Final Thoughts:Still not sure where or how I recognize the name. There’s something about the downbeat, chill vibe of this one that’s actually grown on me a little since my first listen. There’s actually some trip-hop vibes to this one, even. It is definitely a little dry and not particularly catchy or memorable, but I think it’s better than I originally gave it credit for if nothing else.
6.5/1010. Gregory Alan Isakov – Big Black CarFirst Impressions:Folksy acoustic piece here, something about the vibe of this one is really working for me though. Especially when those strings come in towards the middle. There’s just something to the laidback, chill groove that appeals to me. Kind of reminds me of the Bill Callahan songs from your earlier EP, though it’s not going for that same vibe. It’s working for me, though. (GOOD)
Final Thoughts:This song has a nice vibe to it. I already said that like five times in my first impression. I dunno what else I can really add! I like his voice and I like the vocal melodies. The simple instrumentation accompanying it is again pretty effective, even if not that special, and there’s a few moments of swell throughout to keep it feeling at least dynamic enough. It’s pretty solid.
7.25/1011. Ingrid Olava – Mens Jeg SoverFirst Impressions:Okay I already know I’m likely to have trouble with this one, it being a piano ballad type song in a foreign language to boot. The sparse percussion up against the pianos gives this at least a bit of a different vibe, though. It’s a nice vibe, though. And this is a bit more dynamic than some of the other piano tracks here which does make it stand out. I don’t think it has the raw emotion of the David Gray tracks but makes up for it with its own little bits of flavor. (DECENT)
Final Thoughts:I genuinely don’t know what to say about this one. I just don’t get much of anything from it. I don’t even know what I got from it the first time. It sounds… nice. A bit shallow, perhaps. I did look up the lyrics but I don’t really remember them and I don’t have them in front of me right now. Sure, it’s kind of dynamic, but it’s also just not something I can really… feel, especially with the language barrier.
5.75/1012. Jonsi – KolniðurFirst Impressions:I’ve never actually checked out Jonsi’s solo work surprisingly enough but considering he comes from a Sigur Ros pedigree I’d hope it’s pretty good. There’s definitely a good atmospheric swell to this right off the bat. Ahh and then the way it kicks in towards the middle. Uhh, yeah, I like this one a lot. Is that particularly fair? I dunno. Who cares though. It’s definitely a good climax to close off the album aside from just being a good song in of itself. (GOOD)
Final Thoughts:On the other hand, the language barrier doesn’t really affect this one, since a bit part of the appeal is very much the instrumentation. Also because I’m already familiar with his vocals from all the Sigur Ros I’ve listened to. And this does kind of have some of the same vibes as Sigur Ros. Unsurprisingly. This feels like it wouldn’t be too out of place on Takk in particular. But no, whew, I’ve been missing out by not checking out his solo stuff before, there’s just a lot about this one I like, by a very sizeable margin my favorite on your album.
8.25/10Concept:There’s a lot of really clever things going on with this concept album. For one, the way it’s structured to always be alternating between male and female perspective, with only the very first song being the one with both their voices, though it’s situated chronologically after everything else on the album. And the use of the Aphex Twin song for the passage of time is I guess a clever thing even if I feel a more gradual shift would have worked just as well. And your comment about how “by the end, they can hardly understand each another” being represented by
two songs in different languages is actually incredibly funny to think about. The progression of themes across each song is also pretty clear. It’s a sad but realistic story conveyed well by the songs used to craft it. Maybe not a particularly unique one, and I do have minor gripes as I’ve pointed out, but on the basis of just the concept alone this feels like the best executed of the three albums I was sent.
9/10Overall:First Impressions:It’s hard to comment on this one in a first impression context because I can already tell this is the kind of thing that’s either going to grow on me with relistens as I get more familiar with the songs, or lose my interest and start to bore me. Considering that I feel this album picks up significantly towards the end I’d hope it’s the former rather than the latter, and there’s nothing here I disliked, but it’s not as strong of a first impression as any of your previous submissions so far have left on me either.
Final Thoughts:Yeah, it’s kind of plain to see, but this was not ever really in the running for my favorite of the round. Hell, I’d probably call it my least favorite of your submissions. The concept is well-executed and there are a few songs here I like a fair bit, but there’s a lot here I can’t find more than just “nice”, and one or two I’m not much a fan of. It’s cohesive enough and structured well enough and all the pieces of a solid “album” are there except for the fact that a large portion of this kind of stuff is very hit and miss for me and there just weren’t a lot of hits. I feel like you focused too much on the concept at the expense of the songs themselves, or maybe just ran out of the kinds of songs I really like in this vein after having sent a bunch in previous rounds. I still don’t dislike this album but I didn’t get as much out of it as I would’ve hoped to.
Song Rankings:1.
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Jonsi – Kolniður 7.
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Lord Huron – The Night We Met 13.
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Tori Amos – Precious Things 16.
Gregory Alan Isakov 17.
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Sarah Fimm – Story of Us26.
David Gray – Ain't No Love27.
Laura Stevenson – Master of Art28.
David Gray – Falling Free29.
The Smiths – Cemetry Gates 30.
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Ingrid Olava – Mens Jeg Sover32.
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Aphex Twin – Jynweythek34.
Bjork – Cocoon