Round 5 ResultsRound 5 PlaylistBuddy: MGMT – She Works Out Too MuchSo, I don’t particularly for Little Dark Age. The song, not the album, which I have not and, given what I’ve heard from it, will likely never listen to. I dunno, man, this is like… the worst kind of throwback to me. Everything I’ve heard from this album has a wonky, stilted sound I just do not care for.
Like, I get what they’re going for. The joke is that it’s plastering itself up in this 80’s exercise video aesthetic on purpose, but like… does anyone actually
like those things or are they just nostalgic for them? They’re dated and cheesy and everyone knows it. And the whole lyrical conceit just… does not do it for me, either, especially with how goddamn repetitive this is.
Like it just. Keeps. BEATING you over the head with the same synth loop, the same call-and-response vocal line, it’s catchy but in like, the worst way. Too catchy to the point where it gets annoying fast. It’s at least got… energy, that puts it above Little Dark Age in my mind, and it’s got some neat saxophone towards the end but just, eeehhh, no, this ain’t for me and I don’t get the hype at all.
5.5/10Reaper: Unsane – Against the GrainHmm, I’m not sure where or how I implied that a fusion of sludge metal and southern rock or thereabouts would be my thing… and it certainly isn’t. Like with last round, it’s that same kind of gruff, masculine, tough guy metal that’s just… never going to be my thing.
Unlike last round, not having four other songs exactly like it in the same round does work in its favor. Not by much, mind you, but at least a little.
Like my first impression implied, my biggest gripe is, yes, the vocals. He’s not really singing, he’s not really growling, he’s kinda just… talking loudly, vaguely in rhythm. And I get the sense the band realizes dude’s just not very good at his job considering how low he’s mixed here. Not that I’d
want him mixed louder, mind you, but…
Like, okay, there’s kind of a cool, smoky vibe to the guitars that I could see being… appealing? If it wasn’t stuck inside the kind of song it is. The riffs, aren’t half bad for what they are. The guitars have a nice crunch to them. There are things about this song I do
like, but the product overall doesn’t quite do it for me and it doesn’t help that there’s just… not that many different ideas here anyways. It’s fine, I guess.
6/10Seneca: The Amazing Devil – Farewell WanderlustI just… don’t like musicals, or musical theatre. Has never appealed to me. I feel like there’s a very clear difference between a singer, and an actor singing. The latter is going to tend to oversell everything, because they’re also
acting at the same time. And it’s just too much. It’s not what I look for in music.
And that’s my other gripe with this type of music… like, yeah, there’s obvious vocal talent here, I’m not going to deny that, but it’s so inherently vocal-centric, which is just… not what I like in music? I like music for the music itself, vocals are just, a part of that. Here, the music just feels like a backdrop for the vocals themselves, and as already established, I’m not wild for them!
Like, okay, there
is an actual song here, it starts out just with pianos, but guitars and drums and even strings come in to build at least some kind of groove, there’s a cool climax towards the end, it does make me
feel something, to some extent. But it’s also kind of… shapeless and lumpy until it gets to that point. I dunno, if I was more of a theater kid maybe this’d do it for me but it’s just the absolute last thing I want to listen to, even if it’s, kind of okay besides that.
6.5/10King: Eisley – The ValleyFor some reason I was under the impression that Eisley was, like, one of those kind of math-y prog rock bands for some reason. I don’t know where I got that impression from. What they are, is like… completely acceptable poppy-indie rock with kinda pretty strings and vocals and they’re very… competent.
Like, this is just the most bog-standard “yeah that was pretty good innit” kind of song I’ve gotten all rankdown. The vocals are… nice. The strings are… nice. The tune is… nice. There’s some interesting melodies here, I guess. It sure is a good song, I’m just… kinda stumped at what else I can even… say or think about it. I enjoy it but in like, the most basic way possible. It’s good! I got nothing else to say about it!
7/10HOF: Sweet Billy Pilgrim – A Shelter of ReedsI’ve gotten a good number of this kind of slow, mellow piano ballad throughout this roulette and to some extent I feel like that kind of submission is always hard sell because, while it’s generally something I
enjoy, it’s also definitively something I’m not
looking for. Not the kind of music I actively seek out. And maybe that’s a bias impacting how I feel about songs and how I rate them. Which is… fine, it’s my roulette, I’m allowed to have my biases.
Anyways, I also feel like this would benefit from having a lyrics sheet available because I definitely feel like I’m missing something with this one by not having the words in front of me. It’s also a bit of a slow burn, of the type where I may just, not “get” it yet in the handful of listens I’ve given to it. But it feels like it’s just… missing, something. I don’t know what.
Like… everything about this is very
nice. Both vocalists are solid, the pianos and strings are very lush, there’s a few spots where it develops a more steady rhythm & groove that punch out of the ambient mellowness, it’s got build throughout… I
like the song, for sure, I’m just not… captivated, by it, in the way I’d want to be. Maybe it just doesn’t make big enough swings for my liking, I dunno.
7/10Stadler: Allman Brothers Band – Nobody KnowsAn Allman Brothers Band song that dropped the same year as Smells Like Teen Spirit. That’s certainly a proposition, alright. I’m not sure Gregg’s voice has aged particularly well over the years, he’s definitely the weak link here, but… I mean, yeah, besides that, this is a pretty cool jam. The drums, the organs, and especially the guitars all strutting their stuff.
And it’s one of them songs about how, no matter what we do, no matter where life takes us… the world do go on tho. That’s so true bestie. The song, too, does go on… and on, and on, and I’m not sure I needed 11 minutes of it, but I dig it. As background music, mostly. Kinda hard to actively keep my interest for that long mostly on the strength of a cool jam session, but it’s pretty dang fun background music! Dunno, not much to say about this one, I just. Like it!
7/10Faizoff: Holy F*ck – Lovely AllenI feel like limiting the entire melodic element of the song to that one single eight-bar melodic loop was a mistake ‘cause like… that literally makes the entire song feel like that melodic loop on repeat. Which is a bit unfair ‘cause there’s a lot going on in the background, a nice ebb and flow, build and climax, roaring guitars and soaring strings, and the overall… sound of this song, is really nice!
It doesn’t really… have much going for it beyond that though, because of how simplistic and limited it is. I get the same vibe from this as I did Ooyy in round 3 or Floex in round 4 where, like, the core sound itself is really up my alley but the song just doesn’t do much else beyond have that sound. It’s… there’s nothing about it I dislike, I just wish there was, y’know, more here. Doesn’t really leave me with a lot to say either!
7/10Vmadera: The Pineapple Thief – Our MireI think of all the songs this round this is the one I’m like… least sure what to do with? It’s neat, for sure. The low-key groove, the kind of sinister atmosphere, the overall tense sound… I’m not sure the, like, whispery crooning works that well over those sounds, but, ehh, it doesn’t clash that badly either? And the hook is pretty memorable too, so.
The lyrics give me this sense of some kind of pre- or mid-breakup song, seeing the ship going down and not wanting to sink with it? Or something like that. It’s kinda vague. I’m not sure it really matters when the focus is clearly more on the music itself here. Which builds quite nicely throughout before it transitions to a moodier, more languid final movement.
I dunno, there’s a lot of… cool elements to this that don’t really come together in a way I quite
love, but it doesn’t feel overly long or tedious, either. It’s just. Good in a kind of plainly obvious way. That sets its ceiling kind of low, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.
7/10Lonestar: Hanabie – Invisible WallSo, yep. This is a metalcore song with a j-pop/j-rock chorus alright. I’m gonna go out of my way and guess that’s this band’s entire gimmick? It’s a fine gimmick to have, but it’s the kind of gimmick where, like… the two halves of the fusion themselves are both very… standard, for their sounds and the novelty comes only from putting them together.
Though I do appreciate that its brand of metalcore is distinctly… not, the modern metalcore style of midtempo djent riffing, it’s got a very late 00’s sound to it, albeit the heavy parts
are still kinda, lacking for melody, but the catchy hook makes up for that! So, yeah, I think it works?
…I’m not really sure I ever needed to hear it more than, like, twice in my life though, feel like I’d pretty well gotten the gist of it after that, and I’ve listened to it four times for this roulette, so I’m already a biiiit tired of it, it’s not exactly the kind of metalcore I’m particularly into, but it’s… cute, yeah. It’s neat.
7/10Puppies: Pure Wrath – Elegy to SolitudeYes, this was the specific song I had in mind when I made that frustrated post near the start of the round, ‘cause like. This sure is black metal, alright. I’ve actually listened to this album before, for what it’s worth, and I just… don’t care about it. I am saturated on samey-sounding atmospheric black metal. And I’m frustrated that this still ended up in the top half of the round even despite all that!
Like, yes, as far as black metal goes, it sounds good. The mixing is well-balanced, the guitar tone is deliciously sharp and scuzzy, it’s intense as all get out, the only thing that doesn’t
quite sound great is that arpeggiated piano that plays throughout the first half, which kinda just sits on top of the mix in an awkward way while sounding thin and chirpy… which is especially weird considering the piano at the end of the song sounds fine? I dunno what happened there.
And I appreciate that this has multiple parts to it, not just, The One Sound the whole way through, the slower moments also have cool texture to them and keep the song dynamic, but all its parts are so… stock. Quality, but stock. Like if you bought a higher-end store-brand John Blackmetal song. On one hand, it’s obviously good, on the other hand… I mean, I’ve already had my fill of it in just the few listens I’ve given it, man!
7.5/10Litho: First Signs of Frost – The SaviourI’m biased as hell towards this breed of Protest the Hero-lite melodic metalcore, so this was always destined to score well here, even if it doesn’t have great flow, or great build, or particularly great lyrics… and some really bad mixing and production… and an overly loud bass kick… okay, yes, it has PROBLEMS, but. Hear me out: I don’t care?
Actually, I do care at least a bit which is why it isn’t higher. Like, the vocals, what’s going on with them? They’re both mixed really well and produced in a really synthetic way and the end result is that you can barely make out the words and no real hook emerges, which is… kind of important in this kind of metalcore? And the way it feels like a bunch of disparate parts stitched together… Protest the Hero can get away with that because the manic energy lends itself to those constant mood swings, this song’s too relatively mellow to make that work.
But on the other hand… damn, that’s some cool, melodic guitar work. Damn, those riffs hit pretty hard. Damn, the quiet parts are pretty and build some nice atmosphere. That bit in the middle with the uptempo drumming goes the hell off, especially. Damn, that slower hook does have a kinda grandiose, epic feel to it. It’s like. Got so much potential but its problems are just, impossible for me to ignore because you don’t even have to pay close attention to notice them! I dig the song, sure, but this feels like a demo that desperately needed an audio engineer to fix it.
7.5/10Luke: Civilians – GwendolynI’m still not sure what band you’re trying to convince me these guys sound like because they do not sound at all like Thank You Scientist and that’s the only vague comparison I can think of? They do, however, sound like good music that I enjoy. So. Jazzy rock? Yeah, that’s a thing I am renowned for enjoying.
I do like how there’s like, a roaring electric guitar playing sludgy riffs in the background of the horns going off for parts of this, it’s two things that sounds like they exist in separate worlds but kinda go together really well, it turns out. Though, like I pretty much already said in my Wupatky review, instrumental jazz fusion – which this definitely qualifies as – is harder for me to get into than stuff with lyrics, so…
Like, okay, this does have vocals for one bit and that’s one of my favorite parts of this for sure! But the whole thing is like, pretty fun? No moments that really stand out above the rest, it’s just, cool, start to finish. Okay, that one part stands out, but other than that. I don’t have… a ton to say about it, it’s just a good time.
7.5/10TAC: Carchosa – Worlds BeyondWhyyyy are the vocals like that. They aren’t a huuuuge problem because they’re not a huge part of the song but god do I not like them. Aside from the comically bad vocals, yeah, this is a really good slice of progressive death metal! In a kind of unremarkable way, sure, but it’s an unremarkable with at least a bit of ambition behind it, so!
Like, nice and dynamic across its runtime, a good amount of cool guitar work, a ton of energy… a lot of little moments where none of them really, y’know, blow me away, but I enjoy it start to finish, yeah! It’s like, primo junk food prog metal to me, not sure it’s the kind where I’m gonna want to seek out more, but… I mean, rock solid for what it is, yeah. Except those vocals, eugh.
7.5/10Dacul: SOHN – LessonsOh this is the good stuff. Super cool synth tone, a lumpy groove that has a ton of forward momentum, smooth vocals that fit right in, really cool buildup all throughout, and then-
BAM. It’s ogre. Before it really kicks into full gear. Like… wait, what, that’s it? Where’s the rest of the song? Talk about the ultimate cocktease, man! That’s just… the most incorrect possible place to end the song, man!
The lyrics don’t really give me much more to work off of, either. Really… not much of anything to talk about there. Which makes this whole thing… frustrating! The tune’s really cool, I could see a really awesome song that sounds like this, and I’m kiiiind of curious to hear more, but it feels like an unfulfilled promise of a song, even if the actual experience of listening to it
is really cool.
7.5/10Tomi: Kingcrow – Night's DescendingDaniel Gildenlöw really is The Singer of All Time, isn’t he. Like, dude just has the most appealing voice possible and he knows exactly how to use it. It’s really quite unfair to everyone else who’s ever sung a song.
Oh, uhh, everything else is really good too! I like the string layering, I like the synths, I like the guitar solos, it all sounds good and then The Guy is there to push it over the top! Like, I’ve listened to this album before I remember liking it then, too, though I don’t… really… remember any of it, other than that Gildenlöw is there.
Also worth noting that when I say this sounds like a Pain of Salvation song, I mean, more like, a ballad off the more recent albums, not the old stuff. Which, I like the new stuff too, so that’s not a problem at all! It’s not the most remarkable song ever by any means, just, really nice to listen to, sung by a dude who I always like listening to.
8/10Ariich: Fjokra – Love, Thrust, BurnAriich, I know we both agreed to rig our roulettes and give each other easy wins, but you gotta make it a little less obvious, man! I can’t let you have the come-from-behind victory if you keep sending the obviously best song of the round like this! This has been stuck in my head the past few days which is the sign of 1. a round winner and 2. a song that deserves a particularly high score, ‘cause goddang this is just. The coolest goddamn thing, man!
There’s just… so much here. Jazzy/swingy moments, goofy pop rock, prog metal energy, it’s just, god, they’re going all out with everything here and it’s catchy as hell on top of it all! The fact that the main chanted melody is so awkward and weird is probably
why it works so well and is so sticky - and the rest of the song is way smoother than it, but it also works?
The song also… doesn’t exactly take itself too seriously – no song that uses the word “hatorade” is gonna be a profound statement or high-class piece of art – but like, that only adds to the charm that they went
this hard with something so goofy? I dunno what to tell you man, this is just, stupidly good and I’m mostly just upset they don’t seem to have released anything besides one EP and a few singles. I need more, man!
8.5/10Standings:Ariich – 39
Tomislav – 38.5
Puppies – 37
TAC – 36.5
Litho – 36
Seneca – 36
King – 35.5
Luke – 35
Vmadera – 35
Buddy – 34.5
Stadler – 34.5
HOF – 34
Lonestar – 34
Faizoff – 33.5
Dacul – 33
Reaper – 33
Round 6! Weird round! Send in the next few days!
Mind this warning! Go, go, go!
Topic: Crow's Overdue Roulette v8 - FINAL RESULTS!!! (Read 46961 times)
