Spoiler: sorry i really go off on some of these
bolivia: hi! the song/artist aren't something i have particular attachment to but i did like it a good bit, id expect it to be easy to listen to, i think the extended metaphor of the song is a little bit charming. kind of just submitted it to see how it plays out, worried the vinyl crackle sound might be offputting.
greenland: yeah this is one i listened to the first minute of and then set aside in case i'd be forced to give it one of the low points slots. really don't tend to like this whole musical atmosphere, nothing rly stood out to me about the track otherwise. "wow! hes really british. and i'm sure i'd be sold that he cares about the subject matter except all of the words are just rolling through my brain"
poland: um i dont like the dancing. the song feels like the output of a sterile, bloodless venture capital environment trying to squeeze more juice out of the michael jackson idea and they hired a guy with a funny voice. like if he's american and not like european or anything and thats just the voice he uses in music then i have only contempt for him. sorry
hungary: really nice vocal harmony. and like, they're very into allah and its infectious. it has the sort of production feeling of the one christian rap thing where the guy says "jesus christ is my n**a" and it doesn't have a full 5 minutes worth of original substance but it has a lot of character and it makes me happy to listen to
USA: couldnt choke down more than 25 seconds of this, with a break in the middle. the video is like a car accident. this band is one of many warnings as to what happens if men are left unsupervised
sweden: at the beginning i was kind of like. "oh god this is going to become metal any second now." but surprisingly i kind of fw this. i think the fact that the grounding seems to be in the orchestral / choral components and not the typical metal stuff (i.e., the guitar / angry yelling will lapse but theres always strings in the background) makes this appeal to me more, and i dont find the yelling guy as off-putting as a lot of other metal (another thing i dont tend to like) and in fact some of it is nice. tom waits-y. surprisingly did not drag on at all either at 5 min
norway: it has a daft punk sort of quirky vocal track but i'm not incredibly into the turn-of-the-millenium "what if we made the same noisy synth song 100 times" aesthetic (alice deejay crazy frog darude fatboy slim (he's good but he has a lot of misses) vengaboys eiffel 65 and many more)
israel: i don't dislike this, some of the synth is interesting & i like passionate vocal in non-english languages since i don't hear it often. a common theme i find in song contest songs is that they feel like the artist was trying really to make the best song ever - which makes sense to draw from if you're trying to submit the best song ever. but like, so many elements of this song sound like "what can else can i fit into the instrumental portion to amplify the effect
japan: i'm gonna take my hands and leave. yeah, this is a normal bop, its good. i like the major modulation at the end of some of the chorus thingys. i like them but i dont love them. its a good track. the singers are all very smooth
the booty: wow!!! so fun. "if ur under him u aint getting over him" so good line!!!! i like the video. incredibly into the intermittent low-bass. super fun track. don't know how i don't know this already its got like 1.8bn views, i dont think 2017 was in my peak under-a-rock years. FLAMINGO!! she's wearing heels in the pool and also it is now dua herself giving the breakup advice at the end.
portugal: like the aesthetic. tacocat is a group i've been meaning to look at for a while. not a lot of compositional flair but the idea is nice and it works. the video is pleasant though the fact that it all takes place in the one room is sort of emblematic of the song as a whole lol
chad: love her. melissa wasnt my favorite of hers but still super interesting. the album cover for this one should raise the question, "is schadd really pushing it that hard with his avatar thing?" this totally just pushes all my buttons though. its like the opposite of the israel song, its so densely produced but it doesn't feel redundant at all, every component is doing something.
liechtenstein: i sort of credit adrianne lenker / big thief as the person who made me realize how much i can like bare-bones songwriting but paul mccartney also deserves a lot of credit for that, especially earlier on in my music listening. i'd say this is only a nice song and i still tend to like the more thick and gaudy beatles songs but it's still an impressively simple idea for how much of the distinct beatles character it has. i like the foot tap noise & the bird interlude
bhutan: i think idon't really like the motif of the last 6ish years of pop music where entirely white people (ariana grande, the coldplay guy, others) adopt some latino-accent vocal tendencies as latino people are heard more. i like some of the bells and whistles of this song but i don't think there's any part of it unique to this song's production rather than the whole electronic-dance-pop thing of late.
addendum: happy w 4th!! slight positive for a large number was about what i expected
greenland: yeah this is one i listened to the first minute of and then set aside in case i'd be forced to give it one of the low points slots. really don't tend to like this whole musical atmosphere, nothing rly stood out to me about the track otherwise. "wow! hes really british. and i'm sure i'd be sold that he cares about the subject matter except all of the words are just rolling through my brain"
poland: um i dont like the dancing. the song feels like the output of a sterile, bloodless venture capital environment trying to squeeze more juice out of the michael jackson idea and they hired a guy with a funny voice. like if he's american and not like european or anything and thats just the voice he uses in music then i have only contempt for him. sorry
hungary: really nice vocal harmony. and like, they're very into allah and its infectious. it has the sort of production feeling of the one christian rap thing where the guy says "jesus christ is my n**a" and it doesn't have a full 5 minutes worth of original substance but it has a lot of character and it makes me happy to listen to
USA: couldnt choke down more than 25 seconds of this, with a break in the middle. the video is like a car accident. this band is one of many warnings as to what happens if men are left unsupervised
sweden: at the beginning i was kind of like. "oh god this is going to become metal any second now." but surprisingly i kind of fw this. i think the fact that the grounding seems to be in the orchestral / choral components and not the typical metal stuff (i.e., the guitar / angry yelling will lapse but theres always strings in the background) makes this appeal to me more, and i dont find the yelling guy as off-putting as a lot of other metal (another thing i dont tend to like) and in fact some of it is nice. tom waits-y. surprisingly did not drag on at all either at 5 min
norway: it has a daft punk sort of quirky vocal track but i'm not incredibly into the turn-of-the-millenium "what if we made the same noisy synth song 100 times" aesthetic (alice deejay crazy frog darude fatboy slim (he's good but he has a lot of misses) vengaboys eiffel 65 and many more)
israel: i don't dislike this, some of the synth is interesting & i like passionate vocal in non-english languages since i don't hear it often. a common theme i find in song contest songs is that they feel like the artist was trying really to make the best song ever - which makes sense to draw from if you're trying to submit the best song ever. but like, so many elements of this song sound like "what can else can i fit into the instrumental portion to amplify the effect
even more!!!!!
" specifically i hear a lot of the same melodies/accompaniment notes imitated between several of the different instrument components. e.g.: the vocal in the verses is imitated by the "wub-wub" synth; in the second chorus at about 1:30 the big dramatic electric guitar power chords also have a big chorus of people stacked on top of them. it feels overdone; space in the song is filled not to add nuanced or conflicting feelings but rather to try very hard to amplify a single one. its like trying to make a speech land better by having multiple people do the speech at the same time.japan: i'm gonna take my hands and leave. yeah, this is a normal bop, its good. i like the major modulation at the end of some of the chorus thingys. i like them but i dont love them. its a good track. the singers are all very smooth
the booty: wow!!! so fun. "if ur under him u aint getting over him" so good line!!!! i like the video. incredibly into the intermittent low-bass. super fun track. don't know how i don't know this already its got like 1.8bn views, i dont think 2017 was in my peak under-a-rock years. FLAMINGO!! she's wearing heels in the pool and also it is now dua herself giving the breakup advice at the end.
portugal: like the aesthetic. tacocat is a group i've been meaning to look at for a while. not a lot of compositional flair but the idea is nice and it works. the video is pleasant though the fact that it all takes place in the one room is sort of emblematic of the song as a whole lol
chad: love her. melissa wasnt my favorite of hers but still super interesting. the album cover for this one should raise the question, "is schadd really pushing it that hard with his avatar thing?" this totally just pushes all my buttons though. its like the opposite of the israel song, its so densely produced but it doesn't feel redundant at all, every component is doing something.
liechtenstein: i sort of credit adrianne lenker / big thief as the person who made me realize how much i can like bare-bones songwriting but paul mccartney also deserves a lot of credit for that, especially earlier on in my music listening. i'd say this is only a nice song and i still tend to like the more thick and gaudy beatles songs but it's still an impressively simple idea for how much of the distinct beatles character it has. i like the foot tap noise & the bird interlude
bhutan: i think idon't really like the motif of the last 6ish years of pop music where entirely white people (ariana grande, the coldplay guy, others) adopt some latino-accent vocal tendencies as latino people are heard more. i like some of the bells and whistles of this song but i don't think there's any part of it unique to this song's production rather than the whole electronic-dance-pop thing of late.