Round 5 first impressions
[Stadler – Fleetwood Mac] 1. I hear a lot of more recent acts in this, which leads to me to think this artist may have been more influential than I had previously appreciated.
[wolfking – Blessed By A Broken Heart] 2. Hair metal with metalcore vocals is a bit… actually you know what, it's a ton of fun.
[Luoto – Sisare] 3. Really loving the warm melancholy mood and some lovely playing in this.
[King – Joe Jackson] 4. The sound feels somewhat dated and the vocal style isn’t my favourite, but the music seems nice enough, with a slightly punky energy in some songs, to make it enjoyable anyway.
[HOF – The Clientele] 5. This was rather calming and relaxing - not much jumped out at me melodically, but it has a nice sound and a range of styles and tones.
[Buddy – Della Zyr] 6. This isn’t a style that tends to excite me, but this sounds pretty - I don’t really have a sense yet of how much I’ll end up liking it.
[lonestar – Atarashii Gakko!] 7. Started more understated and less off-the-wall than I expected, but gets more varied as it goes - it’s a lot of fun, and has some groove and nice hooks.
[Puppies – Kiss Kiss] 8. The dark theatricality to this was something I wasn’t particularly expecting and it works great - nice emotionality and strong hooks.
[Reaper – KOAN Sound] 9. It's very odd to be sent an artist that I myself have sent in other roulettes.
[luke – Billy Talent] 10. This somewhat reminds me of my university days but funnily enough I’m more into this style than at any other point since then.
[Vmadera – Angel Vivaldi] 11. This was very nice stuff but I did still feel, at times, like I wanted to know where the vocals had gone.
[Sacul – George Clanton] 12. So that genre I’ve seen some people banging on about lately, this is what it sounds like. It’s pretty cool.
[Evermind – Galahad] 13. Not sure what you were worried about, this is definitely up my alley - not the strongest production maybe but it’s still punchy and dramatic.
[Crow – Black Country, New Road] 14. This was elegant and attractive, though I didn’t love all the vocals and the songs maybe don’t develop as much as I might have liked.
[nick_z – Kent] 15. The style is not dissimilar to other bands from that genre and era, but the music and sound are really lush and rich and had me hooked.
[jingle – Robert Plant] 16. This was a nice surprise - more varied than I expected and probably some of the most interesting stuff I’ve heard from this artist.
[romdrums – Imogen Heap] 17. Rich, creative, varied and really interesting - even the simpler-sounding, more accessible songs have a lot going on in the instrumentation.
[faizoff – Coldplay] 18. I’m not sure this band will ever excite me, but there are some lovely vibes and nice surprises here.
[Elite – Kurt Rosenwinkel] 19. It's that guitar noodling again! This is nice though, has a sort of mellow elegance to it.
[soupy – The Pierces] 20. This seems like incredibly attractive pop music with some folk rock influences - chance it could be a bit too safe but then the warmth and the melodies really are very nice.
[Glasser – Mr. Reality] 21. Slightly middle of the road perhaps? But nice melodies and especially nice vocal harmonising.
[seneca – Unleash the Archers] 22. These are basically anthemic pop songs with more distorted guitars, and I'm here for it.
[TAC – Dark The Suns] 23. This is surely the least light submission in either of the light rounds, but I’ll allow because it is indeed pretty and energetic, which incidentally are also what I’m finding attractive about it.
[Litho – Haerts] 24. I love the sound of this - somewhat reminiscent of other things I like, with the poppy style contrasting nicely with some gorgeous melancholic hooks.