Round 3 ResultsRound 3 PlaylistDacul: Nicolas Jaar - Killing TimeY’know what, I’m calling this one early because it’s both almost twice as long as the second-longest song in this round and by a huge margin my least favorite. The risk you take when submitting an eleven minute ambient song, I suppose. I was kind of on board with this for my first listen, but the more I listened to it, the less I liked it, and it’s for a pretty obvious reason.
The song is just too dang long. It didn’t need to be this long. It starts off badly, what with all the glass breaking sounds – haha, smashing clocks, killing time, I get it – but then it doesn’t really do anything to recover from that? It just… never goes anywhere. No real build or climax to it, it just kinda, sits there and simmers in its own misery for eleven whole minutes, then it just… ends.
Which I guess is fitting for its lyrical conceit, of how the younger generations are waiting for older generations and their regressive politics to die out, which… I don’t vibe with either? One, that’s plain untrue, those same regressive politics are passed down through generations anyways, but it’s also a weirdly content and stagnant attitude to have? Absolutely nothing is getting done that way, and we
need action to move forward.
So yeah… this one irks me both on a musical level and a lyrical level, while also being the longest and most tedious song I’ve been sent all roulette… this honestly doesn’t even feel like a great roulette pick in general, if I’m being honest? I can see why you’d like this, but this just doesn’t do it for me.
5/10King: Squirrel Nut Zippers – HellAlright, I
gotta start with his voice. There’s no way around it, so I’m just gonna say it. He sounds like friggin’ Kermit the Frog. Aged up like a decade or so. Mush-mouthed, kind of uncanny, it’s just… what. Like, I’ve heard a
bit of swing and I don’t recall vocals like this. That being said… it’s kiiiind of grown on me the more I’ve listened to it? Like, it’s still a hard sell, but he does make a tempting offer.
The other big “problem”, and it’s not really much of a problem, is that I’m just… not really interested in the idea of listening to Literally Swing? At any given point? But especially not in the evenings when I’m usually listening to this. I’m trying not to be unfair to this one because, like, for what it is, I can tell it’s really good, it’s just… outside my wheelhouse.
Oh. But like, yeah, the groove is strong, all the horns and woodwinds are goin’ off all over the place, there’s a cool, darker undertone present in both the sound and the lyrics, this kind of satirical play on hell itself, I can see it pairing up well with, like, a 30’s cartoon depiction of the underworld or something. Even for all my reservations, I do have a good time listening to this, I don’t dislike it, just… I’m not gonna return to it either, y’know?
6.5/10Stadler: The Cars – Let's GoFirst and foremost: Yeah, I’ve definitely heard this one before. Probably on classic rock radio. That synth-y riff and the chorus sound way too familiar to not be some deeply lodged memory. And second, and more frustratingly… yeah, this was definitely not what I was looking for in this round, and though I’m not gonna dock it points for that… I mean, that inherently works against it anyways?
Like, this is pretty much the most “head empty. no thoughts” pop song of the round, and I don’t mean that as an insult… though I’m also not sure I mean it as a compliment either? It’s catchy, it’s fun, it’s basically just a song about a hot girl doing hot girl things which, hell yeah, we take those. It’s not the deepest or most engaging song I’ve hear or anything, but I have fun listening to it.
I can’t help feel like I’d like this a bit more if it were a proper rock song, though? Like, those synths are kiiiinda weird, I imagine a guitar playing that riff and hear a song with more punch to it, but then that’s also baaasically the only thing that needs to change to just make this a straight up rock song? I dunno, I’m only really thinking about this because the song doesn’t give me a ton else to say, it’s just. Neat. Fun tune, glad I listened to it.
7/10Seneca: Osi and the Jupiter – HollowedMan, I kinda feel bad about this one because, like, on first listen I
really liked it, and my first impression reflected that, yet… every time I’ve come back to it and reread that first impression, I’m… not? Sure? What I was on? And I’ve liked it just a little bit less each time too, unfortunately. I have more patience for this than Killing Time, anyways, but… it does kind of test it.
Like, this
sounds phenomenal. Beautiful acoustics, silky-smooth strings, reverb-drenched soundscapes, the atmosphere it crafts is absolutely
immaculate, yet it still ends up sounding… kinda sparse and slow, by the end? There’s a lot of empty space here and I’m not sure it’s used to any greater effect, it just feels like gaps in the mix. It’s missing
something, though I can’t quite put my finger on what.
Other than that… well, I do think this is yet another slow, atmospheric song that’s not really stuck in my mind, not standing out melodically, and it ends up feeling like the strings are pulling a loooot of weight here – maybe that’s what struck me on first list? – but I still overall come away liking this more than not. It’s very pretty. It sounds great. I just wish it gave me a bit more to latch onto, I guess.
7/10Reaper: Ooyy – Lepiten FallsSee, you have the right idea here. This is definitely a
sound I like – namely, a Porter Robinson-y brand of dreamy electronic music. Somewhere halfway between Worlds and Nurture. The synthscapes are lush, the drums are punchy, there’s a density to the production that just
sounds good, on sound alone I probably like it more than several other songs I’ve ranked above it.
But I wouldn’t call this a Porter Robinson song so much as, like… a half-finished Porter Robinson demo. It feels more like the framework for a song rather than a proper song and it’s kinda hard to ignore. Like, there should be some vocals on top of this, or a more melodic synth lead, or just, something! An actual tune! It’s frustrating how much potential this has that isn’t capitalized on in any way!
Honestly, this is probably the absolute upper ceiling for “song I really like the sound of that lacks any substance or tune”. There’s just… nothing there, beyond Ooyy demonstrating that, yes, I do know how to produce good EDM, I’m just actively choosing not to. Don’t just publish the rough draft, make all those little edits and turn in a nice, proper final draft next time and then we’ll be talking. Until then… nice effort, but I’m underwhelmed.
7/10TAC: Birdy – RaincatchersHere’s another I definitely liked more the first time I heard it, and I wouldn’t necessarily say I like it
less now so much as that it didn’t really grow on me the way a lot of other songs in the round did. It’s a good pop song! I do feel like I’ve kinda, like, heard a bunch of versions of this exact song in the mainstream pop scene, though, which makes it a struggle for this one to really stand out.
Like… the strings have weight to them, the drums have a cool, primal groove to them, Birdy herself is a strong singer, all the
elements of this are good, it’s well-made, but its biggest crime is anonymity! I wanna say this feels like… diet Florence + the Machine, specifically? Lyrically it’s apparently about “losing your inner child and then finding her again” which… okay, I wouldn’t have gotten that on my own but looking at the lyrics, yeah, I can kinda see it.
This is paradoxically one of the easiest to like and yet hardest to love songs of this round, hell, this entire roulette, because it’s so obviously competent and enjoyable without doing a single interesting thing outside of that. It’s less that I dislike it and more than I’m… incurious, about it. It’s just… markedly unspecial. Good, for sure, but god, I wish it excited me even a little bit.
7/10HOF: Prefab Sprout – Bonny (Acoustic)My understanding of Prefab Sprout is that they’re like, some kinda new-wave act? A genre I’ve never really cared for. I did check out the original Bonny though and… yeah this would not have been eligible, but it’s also pretty good? I like both versions and I think it’s neat how different and deconstructed the vibe of this acoustic version is, it does feel like its own song and has its own appeal.
That appeal being: a very somber, melancholic, kinda folky little breakup song. There’s a degree to which it almost feels kind of… pathetic, but that feels intentional, in a way it makes the song
more compelling. Like there’s both a sadness and a desperation here and yet you can tell he’s not getting the girl back, Bonny’s not coming back home.
The vocal performance is pretty strong, the guitars sound great, the… harmonica? That layers itself throughout the track, the way the mix really fills up with more guitars towards the end, it’s all really pleasant in a way that doesn’t undercut the inherent melancholy of the song. I wouldn’t say I’m… particularly taken by it, I’ve heard plenty of acoustic breakup ballads before, but this is a pretty dang solid one nonetheless.
7/10Vmadera: Morcheeba – Blood Like LemonadeSo… if love is like blood, and blood is like lemonade… does that make lemonade, love? Yes I know someone already made this joke in-thread but I’m still making it anyways, nyeh. Anyways, this is goofy as hell. Feels like it’s trying to be self-serious, but it’s kinda edgy to the point where it’s hard to take seriously, yet it’s just got such a cool trip-hop vibe to it that I’m all here for it.
Also, it sounds a lot like
What it’s Like by Everlast. If it were a goofy, edgy vampire story. So, a lot like What it’s Like by Everlast, basically. I kid, I kid… I think? Also, uhh, why lemonade specifically? I wouldn’t drink a lot of lemonade at once, it’s pretty sour, y’know. This song isn’t very sour, though, it’s smooth and cool. Like, uhh. Milk. Though I guess Blood Like Milk doesn’t have the same ring to it.
You can kinda tell I’m struggling to actually say much about this one, because it kinda is just what it is? Uhh. The guitar work is pretty nice? The concept, at the very least, amuses me? It’s very easy to turn off my brain and just jam along to the
vibes? It’s a cool tune, yo. I like it.
7/10
Topic: Crow's Overdue Roulette v8 - FINAL RESULTS!!! (Read 46957 times)
