Spoiler: Reactions
Ireland // The Con - Tegan and Sara
Every time someone submits a Tegan and Sara song to a contest, I hope this is the one that's gonna make them click for me - like, beloved gay indie-pop? Yes please! I want to be on this train! - but it just keeps not happening. This is fine, to be clear, but not making waves with me. Their vocals have an element of cacophony here that I'm not used to from them - it reminds me a bit of some of the group-shouty parts from Arcade Fire's Funeral (fuck you, Win Butler) in an interesting way. Instrumentally, I feel like this should be making me want to bop around more than it does.
Chile // Barro Tal Vez - Pedro Aznar
Nice voice on yer man here. My Spanish has atrophied majorly since my university days so I'm working off melody and his guitar work here, both of which I like without really finding anything that's going to pull me back to this over other moody acoustic songs.
Mali // Witch - The People Versus
(my entry!)
I rushed to check out everything that the People Versus have released so far after discovering them as a support act at a Joy Formidable gig last year. They haven't put out a full album yet but almost all of their singles have been delightful - lots of mythological, baroque and Shakespearean imagery, plus a healthy dose of queer longing, and an asexual and agender perspective from their lead vocalist which is so rarely seen in pop music.
Portugal // It's Something I Do - Frog
I struggled to acclimatise to the voice here - too nasal for my taste, and felt at an odd clash in the mix with the acoustic guitar. I liked it a little more when the plinky keys came in to give it a bit of extra dimension, but I still don't expect to return to this.
Zanarkand // I Don't Know - Beastie Boys
As someone who only knows, like, the one or two biggest Beastie Boys hits, this came as a surprise, for sure, but a welcome one. Parts of this felt like they could have come from an Elbow (fuck you, Craig Potter) or even Radiohead song. I could have spent a lot more time with it before I got bored of its vibe.
Australia // City of Angels - The Distillers
Gosh, it is hard to get over those vocals. I can definitely work with some growl, but I need to actually be able to tell what words you're growling out, which is far from a thing I can reliably do here. Although I don't know if I'm missing out on much, lyrically, from what I can pick up. And I think I'd need to be, because it doesn't feel like anything unusual is going on instrumentally. This one just solidly wasn't for me.
Kiribati // Overture - Arm's Length
Sounds a little bit too much like the lead singer is on tranquilisers, methinks, but otherwise I thought this was pretty palatable - which is better than I usually feel about stuff in this emo wheelhouse.
Mount Celeste // The Last Page - ARForest
The little percussive crunches - is that a typewriter with some production on it? - are particularly neat in a generally very pretty affair. I'm not convinced that it does enough to earn its big drum-and-bass drop after less than two minutes, though.
Antarctica // Feel So Numb - Rob Zombie
That pre-chorus is quite effective but most of the time I do, in fact, feel quite numb to all of this. Not actively annoying at any point but not even the part of me that loves to rock out is particularly grabbed by it.
Scythia // Excalibur - Pain
That riff is gonna be stuck in my head for a while, I think. I'm not really feeling the lead vocals but I dug the drums quite a lot and kept being pleasantly surprised by the extra details that were fed in like the synths and the slightly ghostly backing vox. Quite fun, and built to a satisfying final stretch.
Indonesia // Asidi - Nihiloxica
I'm glad that this wasn't the black metal that the band name and font on the CD cover strongly implied. I'm much more into the drum side of this fusion than I am the bass, but it's still an interesting angle.
France // The Dragonborn Comes - Malukah
Check out Todd Howard's new single "Skyrim" if you get the chance. Sound of the summer.