Egypt (Aretha Franklin) - Nice, nothing ground-breaking, but obviously her voice is incredible and the song is pleasant enough.
Low points.
Switzerland (From Ashes To New) - Not into the vocals at any point, particularly the lyrics, and the instrumental is too homogenous.
No points.
Burkina Faso (The Gift) - The hook especially is catchy as hell but I find every part of this very captivating in a way.
High points.
Ireland (Westerman) - Great atmosphere and the melody is nice, if a little too repetitive.
Mid points.
Flavortown (Tallah) - This feels like it grows on me more as I'm listening every time.
Mid points.
Drench's House (Måns Zelmerlöw and Petra Mede) - I see Will Ferrell had to try even less than usual if this is the source material for his latest.
No points.
USA (Forests) - The guitars are pretty groovy.
Low points.
Germany (LeeSSang) - The sung vocals are great, but I'm not a fan of the rapper's flow, and the instrumental is very generic.
Low points.
Gaugamela (Ludo) - Good conceptual songwriting, the instrumental follows the story well.
Low points.
Denmark (Fort Minor) - I wish this had a lot more emotion to it. There is a lack of progression all around. Where'd You Go is the only song that seriously stuck with me from this album.
No points.
Vermont (385) - I'm into this.
Mid points.
Transylvania (Magoria) - Honestly I was expecting this to be a lot cornier. The instrumental is decent and the vocals are pretty solid.
Low points.
Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria (MandoPony) - No cohesion at all, and the instrumental is completely uninteresting.
No points.
Armenia (Tanita Tikaram) - Okay but it loses my attention very easily.
No points.
Iceland (Svalbard) - The intro had me piqued but that's about it. I get what this is going for but I don't know if it got there.
No points.
Hinamizawa (Built to Fade) - The rumbly bass notes are my favourite part, the vocals and the rest of the instrumental are pretty great too. Wish there was more of a climax.
Mid points.
Canada (Poppy) - I'm surprised I'm only now listening to Poppy for the first time. Vaguely reminds me of Mother Mother. This is excellent pop, I'm digging this a lot.
High points.
Jamaica (Damien Escobar) - Vibe here is unmatched. The hip-hop instrumental really works, and I don't think I would have been into it as much if the violin were any more rhythmically complicated. I like how the violin functions in its simplicity as a stand-in for a vocal track, while still packing a tonne of expression into its dynamic range of timbres.
High points.
The Place Where Vi Hides Their 12's (Haruma Miura) - Hard to get into the groove. I don't like how on-beat everything is during the chorus, and the vocals are generic at best.
No points.
Libya (Saosin) - Not a big fan of the vocals, but otherwise nothing super notable here. Could use a change up in chord progression.
No points.
Norway (Sigrid) - She has an excellent voice for a piano duet. Very nice.
Mid points.
Greece (Two Feet) - The entire instrumental is painfully unoriginal. I'm not sure the minimalism works when I've heard each of these sounds and phrases a million times before.
No points.
Bolivia (Chromatics) - Cool sounds decently executed.
Low points.
Poland (The Wombats) - Not terrible but I can't really get into this at all.
No points.
Nauru (The Crane Wives) - Sort of interesting on the surface.
No points.
Anguilla (Boldy James / Sterling Toles) - Boldy is one of my favourite rappers these days, this being only one of two personal album-of-the-year contenders he has dropped in 2020. His recent signing to Griselda, my current favourite hip-hop label, has me excited for more future releases as his features this year have also been top-notch. This album was mainly recorded in 2007, long before Boldy had anything in the way of a music career. Sterling Toles, who mainly does work on movies, finally released their collaborative project this year after working on it slowly over 13 years. As someone already mentioned, most if not all of the sampling on this track/album is in fact recorded in-studio.
