Song Contest 95 (Entries up, votes due 6/11!)

[Parama]

gonna send weird proggy post-metal when I get back home, from one of the best albums I've discovered recently

[Parama]

I love it but it wasnt something I fell in love with instantly, the album is one of those "you have to keep listening to it for it to really click" types of albums but it's amazing

[Parama]

and sent. this will do badly but irdc i've done pretty well in previous contests and that's disappointing.

[Parama]

getting pretty hyped to get cut tbh

[Parama]

so excited

to get cut

[Parama]

26 entries + the people who didn't vote last contest that I have priority ovdr

[Parama]

did you submit bb king

[Parama]

the entries are going to be a birthday present from you all to me

and/or the cut i get

[Parama]

alright, rabble time

[Parama]

thanks.

i'm going to judge all your submissions tomorrow, just all of them

if they suck i'll hunt you down irl

[Parama]

only 19 songs, whoa what happened

[Parama]

if your song is only 2:30 I'll probably listen to all of it tbh

[Parama]

USA – I’ve only ever heard of Saosin but I don’t think I’ve ever listened to them? I know they’re some degree of post-hardcore though. Oh god I don’t like the singer’s voice at all. Sounds way too helium-y. The harsh vocals are as screechy as expected but thankfully they mostly seem to be used as background layers. Drummer’s pretty solid all things considered. Overall this is better than the Alexisonfire song from last contest, the instrumentation is at least a bit more interesting here even if the singer’s kinda blah. (AVERAGE)

Finland – The main beat of this feels like it was ripped from Psy’s Gentleman, which is already a pretty cruddy song on its own merits. I can’t tell if there are multiple singers here, the group image suggests that there’s probably three, but I can’t distinguish the voices at all, other than “they sound okay”. This is basically just radio-filler pop, but it’s not really that grating I guess, except for the aforementioned Gentleman synth thing. (AVERAGE)

Uruguay – Ahh, one of those kind of dry and “always sounding like it’s slightly offkey” low-voiced 80’s-ish singers. Or at least the best I can describe it. He sounds especially rough though. don’t really care for the vocals overall. I’m totally okay with the music here, it’s nice and atmospheric with enough of a pulse and some nice build that keeps it interesting. Could probably serve to be a bit shorter though, the last two minutes get pretty redundant. (AVERAGE)

Philippines – Man, she’d fit in on the radio perfectly. Which is a half-compliment I guess, she sounds fine enough but also maybe a bit lifeless. Sounds like Rihanna with slightly less of an accent, I guess. I’ll take this kind of bright, glittery pop production over the influx of dreary trap beats the radio’s been flooded with lately though. Really dig the percussion on the bridge too, gives it a bit of flavor. Nothing about this I really dislike but it’s not especially compelling either, just solid. (AVERAGE)

Hungary – Oh yeah, delicious autotune slathered all over all the vocals here, just what I’ve always wanted. Music here is too minimalistic to do much for me, it’s just… there. Too percussion-heavy. Has absolutely no power to it so the music just stays at a middling “meh” all song long and combined with the kind of monotonous vocals, just ends up really dragging a lot. It’s just, really repetitive and kind of pointless. (BAD)

Central African Republic – I’ve barely gone back to explore late 60’s/70’s prog much, never been able to get too into most of it. And I listened to Thick as a Brick once a few years back but it didn’t really do a lot for me. I quite dig the sound of this though, the flute adds some nice flavor, the guitar/bass lines are strong, the noisy drumming creates a nice frantic feel, the vocals have a lot of personality. It’s aged quite well too, doesn’t sound particularly dated to my ears, so. Yeah, can definitely dig this. I should probably look into more Jethro Tull at some point, alongside Yes and Genesis and all the other early prog bands I’ve barely explored the discography of. (GOOD)

Chad – Oh yes, some more post-hardcore, there’s been a lot of this in recent contests it feels like. Prefer this singer over Saosin’s pretty easily. The guitar riffing here has some nice rhythmic flair to it and the drums are pretty solid as well, maybe not quite on the same level as Saosin’s drummer but more than serviceable enough. Harsh vocals here are better, as in, “pretty standard core-ish vocals, so, pretty indifferent on them”. I think this is probably less musically interesting than Saosin by a little bit but the singer’s a lot more tolerable, for sure. Not gonna make me go and listen to more of the band, but, I’m okay with this. (AVERAGE)

Spain – Right out of the gate I really dislike that synth sound. Neither the synth bass, though the bassline itself is pretty cool, there’s some solid groove to this track. 80’s throwback tracks are one of my least favorite things though because it seems like everyone feels obligated to use very dated-sounding synths all over the place and it’s just. Agh. You can recreate the sound of the era without mimicking its worst aspects. The synths just really drag down what would otherwise be a really fun and upbeat track. Feels like it maybe goes on a little long but the very end is pretty cool. Even despite the synths this is a solid track overall, yeah. (AVERAGE)

Sao Tome and Principe – Maybe some day I’ll “get” jazz, but for now I find myself generally struggling with it. I do like that this is pretty upbeat, and of course the instrumentation is nice. Clearly all the players here have a lot of talent and they play off each other really well. This is pleasant overall, I guess, and I’d take it over most of what’s in this contest thus far, but it doesn’t really blow me away either. (AVERAGE)


i really should split "average" into two tiers bcuz finland and sao tome are at least a level or two apart in quality lol

[Parama]

that particular track definitely isn't a standard late 60's rock song though

[Parama]

Burkina Faso – Always like this kind of drum rhythm the intro has and the noisy guitars play off it pretty nicely. Song kind of loses me a bit after that though, the calmer build to the verse is okay but not really that interesting. Vocalist sounds like she’s oversinging a little bit, I dunno, something about her is bothering me. The electric violin that comes in near the end is nice though, the song definitely ends on a pretty strong note. Yeah, I dunno, as a whole this is just kind of “there”. Wish the rest of the song was as interesting as the intro and outro. The entire middle is just very “okay” but I like this as a whole, I guess. (AVERAGE)

Republic of Palau – Right from the start I’m pretty much expecting “something pleasant enough but not very unique or interesting”. And yeah, that’s what I got. The singer’s alright enough, fits the music well and has a nice slightly rough voice. I dig the guitar work in the second half and the build at the end though. It’s okay.

Latvia – Disclaimer: Live versions are never my thing, always prefer studio recordings, anyways. 2 minutes in and I feel like I’m still waiting for this to really start. Sure it’s pleasant enough, the female vocals here aren’t my favorite but they’re nice and I always dig me some strings. I still am getting the impression that I’d be enjoying the texture of this more if it wasn’t so muddled by being a live recording. But I mean, sure, I enjoy this. (AVERAGE)

Republic of Kugelmugel – As far as I’ve ever heard, I’m supposed to like Chance the Rapper, hate 2 Chainz, and be perpetually disappointed in Lil Wayne. Chance sounds like he’s trying to imitate Fetty Wap. Badly. 2 Chainz sounds more alive here than I’ve ever heard him. Lil Wayne sounds awful though. Shocker. The music is what sounds like nonstop looping samples under a basic drum beat and bassline and it never really changes or goes anywhere. It ends up sounding really noisy without any sent of melody to it. I don’t really like any part of this but it’s kind of fascinating in a weird way. (BAD)

Tuvalu – Well, this definitely exists. The strings and horns are nice enough but everything else about this is incredibly unremarkable. Reverb-drenched vocals, basic drum beat and basic bass playing off it, nearly nonexistent guitar. Sort of just drones on and on, at 3 minutes in I’m going “there’s still a minute and a half left, really?”. It’s vaguely pleasant but pretty flavorless and forgettable on the whole. (AVERAGE)

Bhutan – I mean, obviously, this isn’t gonna be something I’m gonna return to, but as far as songs made up of samples go it’s about as good as I’ve ever heard it done. There’s a decent variety to what they use, and it’s pretty constantly on the move. It’s just that I’d rather listen to original songs written by an artist rather than one constructed of chunks of other songs. Oh and rapping being the primary drive of the vocals doesn’t help either. (AVERAGE)

Seychelles – Well, I liked how it started at least. Then it just devolves into electronic glitchiness that doesn’t really appeal to me in the slightest. I guess there’s a solid energy going throughout this and it isn’t grating or anything, but you better believe I’m not listening to a whole 7 minutes of stuff like this. Skipped ahead out of curiosity and whatever was happening around 5-5:30 sounded okay enough but it seemed like the song was gonna stay pretty samey throughout. (DID NOT FINISH)

Cote d’Ivoire – I was already a little turned off by the intro but daaamn can I not stand those vocals at all. Can you please sing without a hundred layers of effects on your voices? Even the tone of the vocals kind of irks me. Apparently this is Franz Ferdinand with a few extra people involved. I’ve heard probably like 2 songs from them before, never really were a fan. And I mean it’s not like this is awful or anything but there’s not really anything here for me to like. The instrumentation is decent at a few points, I guess? Meh. (BAD)

Russia – I’m trying to figure out what band this makes me think of. Kind of The Beatles, but not quite. Definitely not Pink Floyd. I’unno. I like it though. The bass is really bright and loud, the drums are nice and laidback, the organs kind of intentionally create this wall of slight dissonance, there’s a lot of texture courtesy of the layers of vocals. Doesn’t really ever feel like it goes anywhere by the end, I guess, but it makes me happy. Sure. (GOOD)

Iceland – I doubt this is going to be particularly popular since growly vocals and all that, plus it’s just kind of generally weird and the crowd who digs growly vocals more than I do is going to be turned off by the lighter sound of the song, but. There’s just so much about this song I love, it’s almost like it was hand-crafted to appeal specifically to me. Really the album as a whole feels like that, definitely one of my favorite discoveries in recent memory. Sludge metal and post-rock and prog all thrown into a blender for a really potent result. Bass > Vocals > Guitar > Drums here for the record but they’re all great. Also always kind of feels incomplete to me without the two instrumental tracks that follow it up but that's mostly because I tend to just listen to the whole album, which you totally should.


overall this contest was fine. no real standout songs but it was a lot less boring than usual, i actually don't think i'll feel too bad giving 10 of the 18 songs points lol

[Parama]

voted. not a particularly thrilling contest but oh well

[Parama]

no clue what Norma Jean is tbh so I'll take your word on it

[Parama]

yeah I knew about intense flutage before even listening to that Jethro song, I'd have been disappointed if there was no flute at all

[Parama]

votes due tomorrow, prepare for the tigers

[Parama]

the "harsh vocals body count" is my favorite part of submitting metal

[Parama]

damn, was hoping for a delicious quilford F

[Parama]

Note to self: Parama gets reported B–s regardless of his actual grade from now on

B-S is the face I make to this post tbh

[Parama]

the deadline is midnight tonight.

[Parama]

(quietly rabbles)

[Parama]

damn, those 12's really propped up my score
i'll take top 4 tho, which is way higher than i expected considering the growls and all