Song Contest 94 (Results posted!)

[Parama]

entering one of the most emotional songs I've heard recently

when I get home

[Parama]

yeah I'm not even going to listen to the Floyd track tbh, odds are I already know it

[Parama]

;-; can't submit panda since hitting billboard number 1 spot i'd feel like a faker

also because it blows? like hardcore? i'm so mad

[Parama]

;-; can't submit panda since hitting billboard number 1 spot i'd feel like a faker

also because it blows? like hardcore? i'm so mad

just cuz u don't like trap music don't mean its bad

nobody would give a damn about the song if not for Kanye lol

[Parama]

i have some artists i want to enter for the sake of seeing people's reactions to them tbh but i probably will enter stuff people actually will listen to instead

[Parama]

it's almost rabble time again

[Parama]

is it dogs

[Parama]

raaaabble to the left
raaaabble to the right

[Parama]

oh, alexisonfire. I vaguely remember them ok

[Parama]

lawl ms.net the land of soullessness
srsly tho what all about it don't you like?

[Parama]

Azerbaijin – Oh god an 8 minute indie rock song? I’m going to die. But actually this is pretty solid, when the drums pick up it gets a lot more interesting especially. It’s like, whoa, an indie rock song that can actually claim to rock. And then it gains a triplet groove, nice. Yeah, okay, I take back what I said, this is likely going to end up with high points. Geez, I hope I didn’t burn the best song of the contest as the very first song. (GOOD)

Mali – Whoooaaa it’s indie pop. Shocking. Wow, this is really short and still has refused to go anywhere at all halfway into the song. Like wow, what a nothing of a song. I’ll never get those 2 minutes and 42 seconds back. (BAD)

India – Oh hey, literally Mexican Jazz that identifies as Mexican Jazz and sounds like Mexican Jazz. So yeah, this exists, is pleasant enough as background music, and is likely something I will never listen to again. (AVERAGE)

Republic of Kugelmugel – Instantly I am bothered by the sample and the drums not lining up at all. If you’re going to do something like that, can you at least try to sync it? Anyways this is like rap except the guy inhaled some helium beforehand. Feels like he’s trying to copy Kendrick honestly, who I already don’t care for. Seriously, even more than the messy music I can’t stand his voice at all. (DID NOT FINISH)

Belarus – It’s impressive how the strings are produced to sound like synths. Maybe they’re synth strings, I dunno. But at first I thought they were just synth-synths, until I realized “whoa they’re not”. The singing is okay, I guess, not really feeling the music though. (AVERAGE)

Singapore – Badly produced drums with too much bass, a reverb-soaked but generic piano line, and a pointless sample, and it lasts about a minute. So yeah, it’s definitely “a beat” like the artist’s name says. (BAD)

Bhutan – Oh look, it’s more rap. Well, the sample is solid, but it’s just a sample. I don’t like sampling, by the way. And the sample is literally the entire chorus. That’s lazy as heck. Musically this is okay, I guess, there’s decent atmosphere to it but I imagine that guitar is sampled too, it sounds like it. Also yes there’s rapping. Shocking. (DID NOT FINISH)

Hungary – I discovered a really cool Hungarian black metal band a few weeks ago and I’ve already ordered three of their albums and I’m super hyped about them all. Can’t wait aaahhh I love their style and their genre fusions. Shame that one of them was kinda pricey but worth it. Oh yeah, and this song exists. Musically it’s bland as hell guitar stuff, she’s a solid singer though but a bit too good to really sell the emotion she’s trying to convey. (AVERAGE)

Cote d’Ivoire – I like the guitars on this, but absolutely cannot stand the vocals. They’re that perfect high pitch to get on my nerves and sound really breathy as well. Also kind of monotone honestly, there isn’t a lot of pitch differentiation. Honestly this band would be a lot better if they went instrumental, it seems, the guitar and the drums are both pretty solid. (AVERAGE)


i added a basic rating scale mostly for myself
anything in BAD or DID NOT FINISH ain't got a chance at points, as i'm not going to listen to it again

[Parama]

Uruguay – I kind of dig the way this is building up at the start, honestly. I guess this is some form of rock, it’s hard to tell. It’s pretty noisy and the bassline makes the song feel a lot heavier than it actually is. I guess, maybe it’s a little aimless, and I’m not sure if it “appeals” to me in any way, but it’s… alright. (AVERAGE)

Cook Islands – So it seems like this is some form of electronic, and apparently a soft but noisy kind. I mean, the thing is, there’s not much melody to be found here? I guess there’s vaguely some degree of rhythm, but, no, I don’t really get much at all from this. (DID NOT FINISH)

Spain – Wow, a fair number of songs this contest are relatively long by song contest standards. 7 minutes, 8 minutes? So anyways. Annoying sample in the intro aside… what does this even qualify as? Really repetitive percussion, piano and horns that sound really 70’s, a kind of country-sounding guitar line. I really dislike those samples but the rest of this I can kind of get behind a little, though it doesn’t really hold my attention for 7 minutes. But, okay. (AVERAGE)

Finland – Okay, right off the bat, that piano sounds compressed as heck. I can tell because the first few seconds were trying to blow out my speaker with static. Seems to get better after that though. Anyways, this is like, the counterexample of my entry this contest. Sure, sounds nice and all, pretty strings and piano and smooth vocals, but it also sounds kind of… lifeless? It sounds too clean, too perfect, to really hold any emotional weight. That being said, I mean, it still sounds pretty nice. (AVERAGE)

Portugal – I think I got these guys confused with iwrestledabearonce because they both have dumb names and are both heavy hardcore kind of stuff, I dunno if I’ve ever actually listened to these guys before. Anyways. The mixing on this is weird. The bass is, for once, too loud, at least during the verses. It kind of buries the guitars and some of the drums, the only thing that can compete is the vocals. Beyond that, well… this is pretty standard, flavorless post-hardcore stuff, but that makes it “pretty okay I guess”. (AVERAGE)

Philippines – I’m actually surprised Beyoncé is letting herself sound this bad. For an angry song like this though I think it works, since she can like, actually sing when she wants to. Also, hi Jack White. I don’t really care for you or your music. But this sounds alright. The bass and drums are pretty solid, the organ is a nice touch. This is messy enough and non-pop enough to work for me somewhat, but I get a bit tired of it by the end. (AVERAGE)

Ukraine – Ahh, vaguely ska-influenced indie rock. This has some edge to it that I kind of appreciate and the vocalist gives me Talking Heads vibes, to some degree. Still, a bit too short to leave an impact and doesn’t have a ton of stylistic appeal for me. (AVERAGE)

USA – Weirdly cinematic intro for what’s another goddamn rap song. Anyways that’s a nice, really safe and standard flow there. I kind of dig the instrumentation I guess, but it’s too sparse to hold the song on its own, and the rapping has no appeal to me, of course. (BAD)


oh man, lots of "ok" stuff with nothing i'll remember after the contest

[Parama]

i know who bb king is, please stop condescending
either way i didn't finish listening to the song, and that's not bb king's fault

[Parama]

yeah i'm glad we came to the conclusion that me not knowing this one thing about this one song i don't give a damn about makes me mentally handicapped

[Parama]

i said it sounded okay musically, despite being sampled.
just that, it's rapping, which is a turnoff for me

[Parama]

Bhutan – Oh look, it’s more rap. (DID NOT FINISH)

fixed

[Parama]

nah it's fine i already said the same thing, just let him be a baby

[Parama]

you're acting like the reason i disliked it was primarily the sampling

spoilers: i never said that

[Parama]

not judging rap as a genre for laziness. saying songs that use a sample as their entire chorus are lazy. not every rap song does that.

for the record:
i dislike rap because it's an inherently lyric-focused genre of music, and my musical interests steer pretty exclusively towards the actual music of songs, how they sound, etc.
rarely give a damn about lyrics tho and if a song sounds bad to me i'm not gonna enjoy it, no matter how masterful the lyrics could be, because i'm not even paying attention to them in the first place
and that's fine for rap to be. not every genre of music has to appeal to everyone. there's a lot of rappers who are really talented lyricists and have good rhythm/flow and make genuinely good rap, but personally there's no appeal for me. this is just my musical taste. it is not yours.

[Parama]

i mean, i did say the bb king parts sounded pretty okay. and if they're not sampled, then there's no problem in that regards. that's pretty cool.
i still wouldn't listen to it again, as it's still a genre that doesn't appeal to me. you're acting like i'm still asserting it is a sample even after you telling me it isn't.

[Parama]

you throw pretentious and ignorant around so much that you've basically made them meaningless buzzwords
so sure, i'll be pretentious and ignorant. works for me. not going to, like, stop giving all my thoughts on songs or anything.

[Parama]

see, you're the one being pretentious now, quite literally

[Parama]

you're telling me to not give my opinion because i'm uninformed, implying that you are informed and thus better than me.
that's literally what you are doing. that's literally being pretentious.
you need to chill and not take this stuff so personally. it's an inconsequential music sharing game on a site based around pretend lynching, not some kind of hardcore battlefield for teh elite music lordz. who even cares.

[Parama]

The Principality of Sealand – Okay, just, why. This is a lame and generic techno beat with voice clips from, apparently, the Irish version of The Simpsons? Isn’t this like a joke song or something? God I hope so. (DID NOT FINISH)

Federated States of Micronesia – Yeah, this is the kind of percussion-heavy bassy electronic that generally gives me headaches. I like the guitar, sure, but it’s a small factor compared to the really compressed percussion and bass that I just outright do not like, period. Vocals are alright too I guess. There are some nice moments here sure but they get drowned out by the annoying ones. (BAD)

Chad – Just looking at the band image I’m expecting to hate this. Yeah, it’s more really bassy electronic with some bleepy bloopy synths. And… well, actually, the vocals on this are pretty great and I dig the guitar and drums too. I definitely prefer the chorus to the verses though, ‘cause I don’t really care for the bassier synth stuff at all. Decent atmosphere on the bridge. Yeah, I can actually kind of dig this. (AVERAGE)

Netherlands – I thought I remembered these guys being entered before, though I didn’t really remember anything about them either. And… I swear I’ve heard this song somewhere before, but I can’t place where. The chorus in particular sounds really familiar. But I do kinda dig this, the fuzzy guitars and the female vocals create a nice contrast in the verses, dunno so much about that repetitive synth thing though. Maybe a bit basic though, doesn’t really have much to it besides the verse and chorus, but it’s enjoyable enough. (AVERAGE)

Iceland – When I keep complaining about piano ballads and the like that don’t feel like they have enough power behind them, it’s because I have songs like this to compare them to. I dunno if there’s any specific context to this song, but I don’t really care, ‘cause he just sells the emotion with his vocal performance. Not the most perfect singer, but I’d rather a slightly rough yet evocative performance over a perfect but lifeless performance. Only real complaint I have about this song is that the instrumentation during the louder parts of the song can’t really match the vocals, but it’s a minor thing.

Burkina Faso – There’s a solid warm atmosphere to this that’s pretty pleasant, and I like the backing vocals on the chorus, though a lot of the vocal melodies here aren’t really great. This doesn’t really ever seem to go anywhere though, it’s alright enough to listen to but not very memorable or really that interesting. (AVERAGE)

North Korea – So yeah I’ve been dreading this since the second I saw the artist image. Oh god, on top of everything else it’s a pretty bad-sounding live recording. This is really silly and dumb but actually pretty tolerable, there’s a decent groove to it and everything about it sounds “fine”. A bit repetitive though. It’s like, the Korean Moskau basically? Ehh. Surprisingly not awful, but I’ll probably forget about it in a week. (AVERAGE)

Latvia – Ehh. Not a fan of this synth sound in general, but the vocals are pretty solid, surprisingly not drowned in effects. Between the synths and the vocals there’s a kind of 80’s vibe to this. The bridge in the middle with the title drop is solid too, mostly because of the vocals. I can’t really imagine a different kind of music behind these vocals either so I guess it works well enough. Probably would be better if a bit shorter though, the entire last minute especially feels completely unnecessary. (AVERAGE)

Greece – Yeah, I can dig the groove of that guitar line. And the vocals too, she has a somewhat unique voice and a decent amount of power behind it. Really dig how bright and bouncy this is, it’s just really fun to listen to. Not really much else to say. (GOOD)

pretty ehhh contest on the whole, the best song i heard was the very first one and that's always a bit disappointing

[Parama]

that tends to mean you'll rightside

[Parama]

y'know what i'm entering weird metal next contest and rightsiding especially hard, ok

[Parama]

yeah that's fine

[Parama]

voted. especially not thrilled with this contest. only songs i really liked much at all were my top 3, and even then only my 12 was really that memorable

[Parama]

which one is you I don't even know

[Parama]

I listened to like 2.5 minutes or so of that one iirc, I don't turn off things until at least halfway

[Parama]

which was your entry
i really don't keep track of these tbh except the people who have been aorund forever with the same country
i forgot who's hungary now

[Parama]

no clue tbh

[Parama]

I am the wonderfully amazing Principality of Sealand

yours was probably my least favorite of the entire contest

[Parama]

i want some rabble-flavored ice cream

[Parama]

caw caw caw

[Parama]

i simply won't stand for losing to finland, but i don't remember what it sounds like

[Parama]

yeah, i'll take third that's fine
this was a very divisive contest, though, apparently

also less voters bcuz site crash lol

[Parama]

InflatablePie (Netherlands), Cephrir (Portugal), ChannelDelibird (Mali), The Bulge (Republic of Kugelmugel) and Pala (India) didn't vote, meaning they take a 20-point penalty. Under normal circumstances, I would also ban them from the next contest, but because of the site crash I'm going to modify it a bit this time. Instead of being banned outright from the next contest, all those who didn't vote will be placed in equal priority at the top of the list if and when I need to make cuts in the next contest. That is, if we have more than 26 entries, I will choose among the entries from these people first as the ones who get cut

I think it'd be cool if that was the rule all the time.

Interesting proposal. I suppose that could help avoid contests where we don't reach 26 entries. Anybody have thoughts on this?

"this is literally how it was in the days of old contests but i think bans give people a better incentive to vote than placing them in a lower priority spot where they could still potentially get in"

but i've only not voted like, once ever so what do i know

[Parama]

ready to rightside next contest rabble