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Glasser – Mr. Reality1. Anonymous
2. Fourth of July
3. Honest Innuendos
First impression: Slightly middle of the road perhaps? But nice melodies and especially nice vocal harmonising.
Final opinion: This is another example of something that’s pretty straightforward stylistically but works because of the strength of the vocal melodies. It’s basically acoustic pop rock with a mix of tones. Anonymous is pretty musically upbeat with a bit of a bounce to it, although the lyrics are perhaps not as jolly. On the other end of things, Fourth of July is pretty moody, while Honest Innuendos is somewhere between the two - energetic but tonally mellower. Oddly enough that song reminds me a lot of Freak Kitchen. Anyway these songs are all really good, with the first and last having some great hooks, and all the songs making good use of engaging vocal harmonies to help it stand out.
Score: 8.2
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Crow – Black Country, New Road1. The Place Where He Inserted the Blade
2. Snow Globes
First impression: 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.
Final opinion: Ok so this grew on me a reasonable amount, thanks mostly to some of the music being absolutely gorgeous. The first song is, in a way, the safer of the two - emotional indie rock with some other influences brought in to nice effect, like the saxophone which plays some really lovely sorrowful stuff. The music is very nice and the vocal style, while a bit more mumbly than I would normally go for, works well and I’ve come around on them in this song. Snow Globes, on the other hand, is both better and worse at the same time. Some aspects of the song are slightly grating. The vocals are… not terrible I suppose and I do get the emotional delivery where his voice breaks, but there are moments where he just goes weak and out of tune that don’t really work for me. But more so is the drums. The song doesn’t really develop much in the rest of the instrumentation but the drums get noisier and more frantic and frankly it’s kind of distracting. But despite all that, the main theme in the orchestration is just stunning, and performed in a way that’s really evocative and heart-wrenching.
Score: 8.2
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soupy – The Pierces1. It Will Not Be Forgotten
2. Boring
3. Glorious
4. Kings
5. We Are Stars
First impression: 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.
Final opinion: Yep this is really nice stuff. Funny to get them in the same round as Fleetwood Mac who, as you say, are clearly an influence, but being more modern this does have a slightly fuller sound which is rather lovely. Indeed the way it’s produced is really nice and enhances the music, full of little details and sounds that are in the background but help create a very warm effect. The music is great too, it’s pretty straightforward and yeah I guess a bit safe on the whole, but it’s full of strong melodies and has a nice range of styles - the poppy infusions and occasional synths for example are really nice. The only song that does something a little unusual is Boring, and I don’t know that I love the verses but the idea of the song is cool and the chorus is still great anyway.
Score: 8.3
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TAC – Dark The Suns1. Everywhere
2. Raven
3. Alone
First impression: 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.
Final opinion: You were really pushing the “light” theme with this one, Tim. It’s firmly in the melodic death metal camp.
But there are a few elements that, in combination, do make it distinctly lighter than your heavy round submissions. There are some clean and whispered vocals, although that doesn’t mean much as your heavies did that as well. But crucially, the music is very pretty throughout. There are delicate moments, lots of use of piano and it’s all very melodic and attractive. In Raven especially, the piano work offers an ethereal vibe, and the melodic chorus is really great. As I said in my first impression, those are also the features that combine with the general style/genre to make something really engaging to listen to. The other “light” element is that one of the string motifs in Everywhere sounds a bit like The Final Countdown.
Score: 8.3
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seneca – Unleash the Archers1. Legacy
2. Through Stars
3. The Wind That Shapes the Land
First impression: These are basically anthemic pop songs with more distorted guitars, and I'm here for it.
Final opinion: Taking out the instrumentation, the first two songs here really do just sound like pop songs. The music is very light and upbeat, the melodies are catchy, it’s all just rather fun. And then thrown in the metal stylings, distorted guitars etc. and it’s a great effect that reminds me, oddly enough, of some of Devin Townsend’s more accessible stuff (especially in Legacy) which I tend to like a lot. Brittany has a great voice too - not wholly unique maybe, but it has a lot of power and charm. The Wind That Shapes the Land is also great in different ways - a little less poppy and a bit more proggy. The melodies are less immediate and catchy, but the chorus is still pretty great, and the way the song is composed and developed appeals to me in a different way, engaging the brain more if the heart a little less.
Score: 8.3
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lonestar – Atarashii Gakko!1. Otonablue
2. Nainainai
3. Janaindayo
4. Suki Lie
5. Pineapple Kryptonite
First impression: 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.
Final opinion: And so your scores continue their slow but steady upwards trajectory. I wonder if you can keep this up in the final two rounds. You’d be the only person to ever do so in one of my roulettes.
The quirky sense of fun here is something I find I can really enjoy in modern Japanese music because they have such a wonderful cutesy way of approaching it. As you know, by far my favourite j-[genre] band is Gacharic Spin and one of the things that pushes them that bit higher is exactly this poppy aspect (combined with all the other qualities of course), particularly in their earlier and mid-era stuff. Anyway this doesn’t have the full range of what GS do, but is a great example of the poppy end and still dips into the more rocking side too. It’s fun, catchy, varied, quirky and just a bit silly, but without feeling like a novelty (for the most part anyway).
Score: 8.3
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wolfking – Blessed By A Broken Heart1. Thunderdome
2. Holdin' Back for Nothin’
3. Shut Up and Rock
4. Scream it Like You Mean It
5. Sleepless Nights
First impression: Hair metal with metalcore vocals is a bit… actually you know what, it's a ton of fun.
Final opinion: Alright so this just got better and better with every listen, what an absolute blast. In the vocal department, it’s very metalcore in style - not only the harsh vocals but also the style of the clean singing. Sounds like the sort of thing I’d expect to hear over some intense angst, but instead the music is super-melodic hair metal basically, with lots of cheesy synths, flashy guitar playing, big falsetto and fun, groovy riffs. The reason I think it works so well is that they just really go all out. I wasn’t sure what to think about the fusion at first but the energy and the catchiness are just so great - there’s no subtlety to it whatsoever but that’s just what’s so entertaining about it. I can just imagine this band (or any other band) trying the same thing again and it sounding contrived or awkward, but in these songs at least they’ve hit on a sweet spot and nailed it.
Score: 8.4
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romdrums – Imogen Heap1. First Train Home
2. Swoon
3. Cycle Song
4. Xizi She Knows
5. Closing In
First impression: Rich, creative, varied and really interesting - even the simpler-sounding, more accessible songs have a lot going on in the instrumentation.
Final opinion: I’ve obviously heard of and read about Imogen Heap - she’s a fairly big name in the UK - but I didn’t really know anything about her music. It’s not always the case, but pop artists who are big in the UK tend to be… not that interesting.
Anyway this is a lovely surprise and just really great music all round. She uses a variety of different sounds and plays around with different styles and genres in very creative ways, layering ideas over each other and creating some really interesting effects, but crucially tying it all together with a very warm and rich melodic approach. However esoteric or experimental the instrumentation might sound, each of these songs is grounded by something catchy and/or emotive in it.
Score: 8.4
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nick_z – Kent1. 400 slag
2. Revolt III
3. Dom Andra
4. Ded Doda Vinkeln
First impression: 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.
Final opinion: You mentioned this band having a bit of a Muse sound, and yeah I can kind of hear that (especially in the vocal lines of Revolt III, obviously), but also just as much if not more so other poppy, indie-ish, alternative rock bands from around the turn of century. Definitely some Radiohead in there as well at times. But it has its own identity and doesn’t sound quite like any of those bands. I like those bands a lot and was especially into them in my formative late teens, but they do have an angsty coldness to a lot of their sound, where these songs have more of a rich warmth. Both are great in different ways, but this vibe definitely works great for the melodic approach these guys use, and the effect is incredibly inviting.
Score: 8.5
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luke – Billy Talent1. Devil in a Midnight Mass
2. Red Flag
3. Pins and Needles
4. Fallen Leaves
5. Surrender
6. River Below
First impression: This somewhat reminds me of my university days but funnily enough I’m more into this style than at any other point since then.
Final opinion: It surprised me just how much I ended up enjoying this. It’s definitely of its era in the early to mid 2000s, a sort of mix of pop punk and emo. I wasn’t hugely into the latter at that time, but I was a big fan of the former and some stuff that sat in between them. Then I kind of went off them a bit - in that pretentious phase where I liked the new thing and stopped liking the old one, a phase I’m very glad to have moved on from! Having more recently got (pretty much) past genre-based biases, I’ve definitely been finding myself enjoying the theatricality to be found in emo-adjacent music like this and honestly these songs are just really great. Pretty simple in essence, but punchy, energetic, a little cynical in tone and with ridiculously catchy hooks throughout.
Score: 8.5
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Litho – Haerts1. Shivering
2. Hemiplegia
3. Lights Out
4. No Shame
5. All the Days
First impression: I love the sound of this - somewhat reminiscent of other things I like, with the poppy style contrasting nicely with some gorgeous melancholic hooks.
Final opinion: Yes yes yes, this is just excellent. There are a handful of artists it’s somewhat similar to, but I’ve figured out who it reminds me of most, and that’s Susanne Sundfør. Not exactly the same style, but a lot of the same stylistic and melodic elements. It’s poppy, synth heavy, energetic but very melancholic. On the surface it sounds simple but it’s all deceptively intricate, clearly with great care and attention paid to all sorts of subtle sounds both in the main musical ideas and sometimes just background effects. The music is all very rich and memorable, and I love the way the songs build - they’re very well paced, with sometimes quite nondescript beginnings quickly leading to really lush choruses and synths. And it just gets better and better with every listen. Lovely stuff.
Score: 8.8
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Puppies – Kiss Kiss1. The Best Mistake
2. All They Draw
3. Innocent I (The Corruption of Self Through the Introduction of Naturally Existing Self Producing Chemicals)
4. Innocent II (A Drop From the Ethereal; Swimming Towards the Crescent Moon)
5. Hate
6. Through the Day
First impression: The dark theatricality to this was something I wasn’t particularly expecting and it works great - nice emotionality and strong hooks.
Final opinion: Where to start with this? It might be instrumentally lighter than the extreme metal you sent in the heavy rounds, but it sure isn’t tonally light.
But despite being very weighty and emotional, it’s also incredibly vibrant, and the contrast is quite wonderful. It’s like it takes all the most compelling features of indie rock, art rock, post-hardcore, symphonic prog, music theatre and probably various other things and fuses them together like Frankenstein’s monster into something kind of bonkers and yet very affecting. There’s the odd moment that’s a little rough around the edges and some of the wackier moments border on too wacky, but never stray that far - it’s always brought quickly back to something thrilling. I love this more and more with every listen and just can’t get enough of it. Congrats on the first (and possibly only) 9/10 of the roulette!
Score: 9.0
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Scores after Round 5:
1. Crow = 8.8 + 8.4 + 8.6 + 8.3 + 8.2 = 42.3
2. wolfking = 8.6 + 8.1 + 8.4 + 8.5 + 8.4 = 42.0
3. nick_z = 8.2 + 8.5 + 8.3 + 8.4 + 8.5 = 41.9
4. Luoto = 8.3 + 8.7 + 8.0 + 8.6 + 8.2 = 41.8
5. Litho = 8.3 + 7.8 + 8.4 + 8.4 + 8.8 = 41.7
6. TAC = 8.2 + 8.7 + 8.2 + 8.2 + 8.3 = 41.6
7. Evermind = 8.4 + 8.2 + 8.3 + 8.4 + 8.2 = 41.5
8. Glasser = 8.1 + 8.1 + 8.8 + 8.2 + 8.2 = 41.4
9. Buddy = 8.4 + 8.3 + 8.3 + 8.3 + 8.0 = 41.3
9. Puppies = 7.9 + 8.3 + 8.3 + 7.8 + 9.0 = 41.3
11. soupy = 8.4 + 7.9 + 8.2 + 8.4 + 8.3 = 41.2
12. jingle = 8.2 + 7.7 + 8.6 + 8.4 + 8.1 = 41.0
13. Sacul = 8.3 + 8.9 + 8.0 + 7.8 + 7.9 = 40.9
13. romdrums = 8.0 + 8.2 + 8.0 + 8.3 + 8.4 = 40.9
15. luke = 8.2 + 7.9 + 8.2 + 7.9 + 8.5 = 40.7
16. seneca = 7.6 + 8.3 + 7.8 + 8.6 + 8.3 = 40.6
17. lonestar = 7.8 + 8.0 + 8.2 + 8.2 + 8.3 = 40.5
18. Stadler = 7.9 + 8.4 + 7.9 + 7.4 + 8.0 = 39.6
18. Reaper = 7.6 + 8.1 + 7.7 + 8.0 + 8.2 = 39.6
20. Vmadera = 8.0 + 8.0 + 7.3 + 8.3 + 7.9 = 39.5
21. HOF = 7.5 + 7.9 + 8.7 + 7.7 + 7.5 = 39.3
22. King = 7.3 + 8.2 + 8.2 + 7.8 + 7.7 = 39.2
23. faizoff = 7.2 + 8.2 + 8.3 + 7.0 + 8.1 = 38.8
24. Elite = 7.8 + 8.0 + 7.5 + 7.2 + 7.9 = 38.4 Click the graphs to enlarge.