Song Contest 108 (RESULTS POSTED)

KuroiXHF · Post Post #225 (ISO) » Thu Jun 22, 2017 3:24 pm

My Top Ten, In Order:
(Good > Best)

Italy - Taproot - Poem
Latvia - Blutengel - You Walk Away
Kenya - Glass Animals - Pork Soda
Chad - Dead By April - Stronger
Fiji - Minako Honda - Kaze no Uta (Song of the Wind)
Nicaragua - Yoshiko Sai - Taiji no Yume
Cote d'Ivoire - TO-MAS ft Chima - FLIP FLAP FLIP FLAP
Azerbaijan - Shulman - OMG
Sweden - Electro-Light - Maze in the Sun feat. Sidekicks
Somalia - The Brotherhood of Dae Han - For the Glory of Olde Virginia

BigYoshiFan · Post Post #226 (ISO) » Fri Jun 23, 2017 8:28 am

I definitely don't share a common taste in music. If it's not EDM, it will likely not receive an 8 or higher, and if it is EDM, it will likely receive an 8 or higher.

TOP 10

Spoiler:

Full Scoring

Spoiler:

KuroiXHF · Post Post #227 (ISO) » Fri Jun 23, 2017 8:32 am

I like your formatting.

notachipmunk · Post Post #228 (ISO) » Fri Jun 23, 2017 4:17 pm

Definitely didn't like this contest!

Parama · Post Post #229 (ISO) » Sat Jun 24, 2017 7:23 pm

USA – The piano line at the start of this sounds really familiar, but that might just be because it’s a kind of standard/generic melody for the sound they’re going for here. But I mean the style they’re going for here is pretty great and man this song does a lot for only three minutes. I think the vocals are probably the weak element here, this would’ve been perfectly fine as an instrumental. Nonetheless I do still enjoy it quite a bit, good start to the contest. (GOOD)

Greece – Oh hi, Moby. Never heard anything from you ever before. But I mean I’ve never heard this one so whatever. This is… pretty nice. Feels a bit generic, but it’s pleasant. More rock-oriented than I was expecting really. Yeah, don’t mind this at all, it’s alright. (DECENT)

Chad – The riffing in this song feels really djent-y, but the synths at least make this kind of interesting. Also okay suddenly clean vocals. On that note I don’t like the harsh vocals here much at all though, but they at least have personality compared to generic metalcore singer #500. Yeah I’m not fully on board with all of this but it’s alright enough. (DEcENT)

Burkina Faso – This is a bit of a nothing song, isn’t it? Yeah the atmosphere is nice and mellow but beyond that there’s basically nothing here. The instrumentation barely changes, and the vocals are so off-kilter that there’s barely a tune being held. It’s not bad or anything but it fails to evoke any real reaction from me. (AVERAGE)

Italy – I was kind of digging this at first but those vocals just do not fit at all. They don’t even sound bad, they just sound completely out of place. Also the random screamed words make this give off a suspiciously nu-metal feel with how forced they come off. I think the guitar work saves this one somewhat though, it’s nothing special but I can groove to these riffs. So yeah, s’ok. (DECENT)

Afghanistan – Y’all know what I’m gonna say. The instrumentation is nice but a bit repetitive. The chorus vocals are okay but don’t really feel strong as a hook. And the verses are rap, so. Yeah. (MEDIOCRE)

Bhutan – Two in a row huh. This is also really dated though. Early 90’s hiphop is all really dated & everyone’s inflections all sound exactly the same to me. Again the music is alright enough, actually does a decent variety of things especially with that saxophone(?) in the background. But it’s still playing second fiddle for the vocals, which I just can’t get into at all. (MEDIOCRE)

Ecuador – Such an awful band name. Getting strong country vibes from this right away though, especially the deep, booming vocals. Okay and when this kicks in it’s actually pretty great. Good energy to the song, addition of the fiddle at moments is pretty nice too, it’s just an all around fun listen. Awful band name though. (GOOD)

Laos – I’m a sucker for this kind of 6/8 cadence so I’m already biased to like this from the start. And yeah, it’s pretty nice. I don’t quite think I’m on board with the vocals, and they are definitely given a bit too much prominence, especially when you have those strings coming in in the distant background, they definitely should’ve been given more of the attention. Despite its problems though I do end up liking this a fair bit, though it’s also maybe a bit generic? I dunno. It’s nice though. (DECENT)

not a bad start all things considered

rb · Post Post #230 (ISO) » Sat Jun 24, 2017 7:45 pm

giving my first listen now since i finally have some extra time off

not sure if i should rate every song publicly or just give my top10? what do people normally do/what's acceptable?

PJ. · Post Post #231 (ISO) » Sat Jun 24, 2017 7:59 pm

I give fake criticism to every song to pretend I listened to it, then pull names out of a hat and vote that way

Errantparabola · Post Post #232 (ISO) » Sat Jun 24, 2017 8:02 pm

on the other hand, I give panzer a phone call, ask him to give me 10 randomly chosen numbers, then take those corresponding songs and give fake compliments to them

PJ. · Post Post #233 (ISO) » Sat Jun 24, 2017 8:06 pm

Fact.

PJ. · Post Post #234 (ISO) » Sat Jun 24, 2017 8:19 pm

@parama, saxophone yeah. It's a tom scott sample. 90s hip hop can sound dated, and I definitely agree a lot of it can sound samey, because the rhyme structure most everyone used was hella basic.

rb · Post Post #235 (ISO) » Sat Jun 24, 2017 8:25 pm

Ratings so far. Haven't liked that many at this point, some of the songs started out interesting but just didn't go anywhere at all?
Fiji was really nice, I liked that song.

Albania: 4.4/10
Laos: 1/10
Somalia: 5.8/10
Fiji: 8.6/10
Burkina Faso: 2.3/10
USA: 6.2/10
Kenya: 7.9/10
Cote d'Ivoire: 1.9/10
Taiwan: 5.1/10
Canada: 2.3/10
Hong Kong: 3.1/10
Afghanistan: 5.9/10
Ecuador: 6.2/10
Iceland: 4.3/10
Bolivia: 2.7/10
Georgia: 2.8/10

Parama · Post Post #236 (ISO) » Sat Jun 24, 2017 8:26 pm

i'm actually deaf and i listen to music just by feeling the vibrations coming through my speakers. i pick the songs with the most vibrations and give them the most points

rb · Post Post #237 (ISO) » Sat Jun 24, 2017 8:45 pm

Stumbling upon Nicaragua actually cured the building headache that was everything after Iceland and up to Latvia.

republic of kugelmugel: 3.2/10
federated states of micronesia: 2.6/10
greece: 2.2/10
chad: 2.9/10
italy: 3.6/10
latvia: 2.3/10
Nicaragua: 8.9/10
sweden: 1.8/10
bhutan: 8.5/10

I was going to write notes for each one but lost interest after about 11 songs. I might have another listen through, some of these have definitely been a pleasure to listen to and will make me explore some new artists. The others will be avoided like the plague I guess. Some of them were okay enough that I'd see if the artist has anything else noteworthy. So all in all this was pretty cool, time to figure out what the top10 were now.

rb · Post Post #238 (ISO) » Sat Jun 24, 2017 8:54 pm

Top10 in order:

1. Nicaragua: 8.9/10
2. Fiji: 8.6/10
3. Bhutan: 8.5/10
4. Kenya: 7.9/10
5. Ecuador: 6.2/10
5. USA: 6.2/10
7. Afghanistan: 5.9/10
8. Somalia: 5.8/10
9. Taiwan: 5.1/10
10. Albania: 4.4/10

Will probably re-listen to some of these to see how much replay value they have. The top4 might shift around a bit and 5-8 as well. 9+10 were both kind of 'meh' songs so I won't bother trying to reorder them.

Parama · Post Post #239 (ISO) » Sun Jun 25, 2017 4:03 pm

Taiwan – Hmm. It’s a “nice” song. And the instrumentation is a bit nonstandard at times, it at least has a bit of flavor. But beyond that there really isn’t much to say beyond “I liked it, kinda.” (DECENT)

Hong Kong – I only know these guys as “that one band what did a song that was in guitar here one time”. I actually kinda dig the vocals here, both the rougher edged ones and the clean ones. It’s preferable to the standard metalcore growls, for sure. And yeah I guess these guys are metalcore but this has more melody to it, though it honestly doesn’t feel that heavy at all. But I mean that’s fine, I like this. Maybe not that special but it’s enjoyable. (GOOD)

Kenya – I feel like I should enjoy this more than I do, but it’s kind of just. A nothing of a song. The vocal melodies are a bit off but not in an interesting way, the instrumentation is pretty basic, and it never really feels like it goes anywhere. I can’t say it’s bad but I can’t say I care for it either. (AVERAGE)

Bolivia – I lasted about 3 minutes. (DID NOT FINISH)

Fiji – For an anime song, this is okay I guess. I don’t think it has much personality but it sounds nice enough for the decent tier. I lower my standards quite a lot for these contests. Actually no you know what now is the perfect time to realign my ratings. (AVERAGE)

Cote d’Ivoire – I was tempted to literally just copy + paste the comment from the previous song here to be memey but no this is actually a fair bit better, for one this does actually have some personality to it while being just as lushly orchestrated. Granted, the personality it does have I can’t say I’m a huge fan of, but I notice it. It exists. It stands out. (DECENT)

Georgia – More like YYZ amirite AHAH. But mostly this is. Boring. No way around it there’s just not much to this. The guitar line gets really repetitive really fast and besides that and some percussion the vocals are the only thing this has. And they’re not that interesting either. And it’s too short to ever go anywhere, it’s completely static really. So yeah, pass. (MEDIOCRE)

The Federated States of Micronesia – Well, this is pretty nice. It kind of sounds exactly like a lot of other indie rock in a similar vein, but it’s, pretty nice? I don’t know. It’s just kind of. There. (AVERAGE)

rb · Post Post #240 (ISO) » Sun Jun 25, 2017 9:43 pm

Ye fuck it Bhutan is 9.1/10

Perfect for blasting in the car

PJ. · Post Post #241 (ISO) » Sun Jun 25, 2017 10:47 pm

rb · Post Post #242 (ISO) » Sun Jun 25, 2017 10:49 pm

I'm curious who entered what.

I entered Azerbaijan

In retrospect not the best idea, first time playing so didn't realise how exhausting it can get to listen to all the music. Have some much better ideas for future competitions

toolenduso · Post Post #243 (ISO) » Tue Jun 27, 2017 6:36 am

Top 10!

USA - Megumi Hayashibara - Usuraii Shinjuu: This.........I know this piano riff. Where is that from? It's like the song they always use in movies for scenes where characters are frantically and comically running away from something or someone. Ah that's it, it's Sing Sing Sing by Benny Goodman. I went and listened to that one again and this one is quite different though. Basically they spun the head to a lower key, and everything else is different. So this isn't exactly original, but that's forgiveable because the rest of the music is awesome. It's so fluid, it runs from frantic to snappy to dancey to fluttery and back again. GOOD. Yep, I still like it. GOOD.

Burkina Faso - Jenny Hval - Conceptual Romance: Mmm tasty face skin. I like this! The vocal melody is very interesting, I feel like she keeps winding from major to minor and back again. See this is sort of chill like foxygen but much more interesting and unique. GOOD. Yeah, I really just respect this song for taking a concept that so many people take a stab at and just end up creating something bland, boring or otherwise purposeless. It's the atmospheric artsy track, but there's so much nuance in here that it makes me like it even when I'm not devoting all my attention to it. It's one of those songs where I can just feel the artistic prowess coming through. GOOD.

Iceland - Sigh - Voices: Ah, the standard black metal vocals. Always hated them. They're pretty much the only bad part of the song so far though, the rest of it is pretty cool. The rhythm has a level of subtlety to it that I can confidently say I never in a million years thought I'd hear from a band with vocals like this. What I would expect is endless, poorly-recorded blastbeats. What there is instead is glitchy, electronicky, atmospheric backing punctuated by rhythmic, distorted vocal samples. It's hitting a lot of the right buttons for me. God I wish the singer would just stop the nonsense though. This was overall pretty enjoyable. GOOD. I do like this. Maybe not the most out of anything this contest, but like, it'll be near the top for sure. GOOD.

CIV - TOMAS - Flip Flap: She made this on drugs didn't she? This sounds drug-influenced. Given the bigass mushroom on the artwork, I'm gonna go ahead and guess it was shrooms. I mean, I don't really care that much, but that said I'm conflicted on this song. On the one hand it has a lot of stuff I like (diverse instrumentation, key changes, drum rolls), and on the other hand it has a lot of stuff that bugs me (childishly silly chorus, fake-sounding percussion). The back half of the song is pretty cool, though. I kinda like this. GOOD. Definitely like the back end of this song more than the front end. It's that chorus. I like half-step key changes and all, but it's so silly. Why'd it have to be so silly? Anyway, I still like this, just not as much as some of the others in the contest. GOOD.

Bhutan - Pete Rock and CL Smooth - TROY: Wait it's this fucking song? I remember looking this up a while ago when somebody said this was like a cornerstone of hip hop. A foundational moment. Almost seems unfair to put in the song contest, but...let's be honest here and compare this to people submitting the Abbey Road Medley and Smells Like Teen Spirit. Not quite on the same level. So, on to the song itself. The track is real good. Rapping is pretty good. It's not exactly my cup of tea as far as rapping styles go, but it's not bad. This will likely get points. DECENT. This'll be near the top of the songs in its tier. DECENT.

Taiwan - Jim O'Rourke - Ghost Ship in a Storm: Hahaha once it got to the ba ba bas I couldn't help but think of Foux du Fafa by Flight of the Conchords. Oh look horns! I like those. I gotta say, I really appreciate the rawness of the recording here. They found that magical space above lo-fi and below radio pop production. This is a nice little song that I don't really care that much about. DECENT. OK I liked it more on second listen. The part where it goes instrumental and picks up energy is good. It'll beat out others in the same tier. DECENT.

Nicaragua - Yoshiko Sai - Taiji no Yume: I was just kind of adrift in the fluffiness of it all and then ah I was so happy when it went into that Spanish-y part around 1:15 or so. Wait this is nine minutes long?? Wow. Well....I hope it doesn't just cycle endlessly from floaty to dancey. Because as much as I like the motif, I don't really wanna hear two parts over and over again for nine minutes regardless of what they consist of. Yeah this is starting to remind me of those bands they get to stand up on stage at a free event in the park where they just like fuckin jam for god only knows how long and it's nice to have as background music but it's not like you're not gonna go buy one of their CDs or anything ya know? That said, I like these solos sprinkled through out. I'm not so much a fan of the needless vocalization behind them, but yeah the solos themselves are good. And there's even better soloing later on. I think I'm digging the piano more than the guitar, interesting. This could maybe get points. DECENT. Actually you know what this kind of reminds me of is like an extended Bond theme. Yeah I could see that. Like half-formed, silhoutted forms of naked ladies striking poses, but instead of only lasting for a couple minutes it just keeps going and going and eventually Bond gets tired and like sits down or something and just waits for the movie to start. I still maintain that I'd like this a lot more if it were shorter. The length, I think, is self-indulgent past the point where that indulgence overlaps with the interests of the audience. The audience being me. OK definitely the piano is my favorite part of this. DECENT.

Afghanistan - Saba - Photosynthesis: Hmmmmm this is an interesting triplet motif. And then there's all this dragginess. I see a lot of Kendrick in here, actually, though he's by far my strongest connection to hip hop so I probably see more of him in hip hop than actually exists. This is better than middling. DECENT. No change in opinion here. DECENT.

Albania - foxygen - oh no 2: Well The Needle Drop said he liked these guys so I think I'm required to???? JK. We'll see. I think somebody said these guys sound like The Beatles, I definitely see that in the beginning of the song. It's funny tho bc this is basically exactly what I would expect from the first song if it was Empire like it usually is. As for the song itself.....it's aight. It's chill and jam-y. It's reasonably unique but not terribly complex or interesting. It could get points just based on strength of contest. DECENT. On second listen, this kind of seems like either an interlude or an ending song. It's just so floaty, ya know? There's the spoken word part, and then the singer just goes "oh noooooooooo" in the background for a while. It's definitely longer than it needs to be, though I guess I would understand the lengthiness more if it turned out to be the final track on the album. At any rate, this song is fine but it's not my idea of tops. DECENT.

Ecuador - Murder by Death - I'm Comin' Home: They're called Murder by Death and this is what they sound like? Definitely woulda guessed metal. I like the deep voice! Ugh why does it fade out so weirdly at the end??? That was a buzzkill. I liked it except for that. GOOD. Huh. What did I like about this so much the first time I listened to it? It's only OK. DECENT.

toolenduso · Post Post #244 (ISO) » Tue Jun 27, 2017 6:41 am

And one sentence from my notes on all the other songs:

Laos - Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - Believe: This kinda reminds me of the softer parts of In Love and Death.
Fiji - Minako Honda - Kaze no Uta: I'm gonna have trouble keeping all the Japanese artists in this contest straight because I don't speak Japanese.
Kenya - Glass Animals - Pork Soda: This is just Macklemore in radio-indie form.
Canada - Wave Racer - Bubble Wrap: The intro made me dread what was coming, and then there was a dumb little "Let's go!" and I was like "Fuck this is gonna suck isn't it."
Hong Kong - Shadows Fall - Redemption: I cannot stress enough how low my expectations are for this song based solely on the hair of the band members.
Bolivia - Let's Bang on Things Until the End of the Universe! - Der Bang Bang: Like, why?
Georgia - YYU - Body's Waltz: Ah, here's that once-per-contest song that's so short and flat I don't notice anything about it before it ends.
Azerbaijan - Shulman - OMG: 11 minutes, hooray!
Kugelmugel - Joey Badass - Christ Consciousness: Like, literally, the hard consonants have spit behind them.
Micronesia - Moth and Flame - Red Flag: Why is he saying flog?
Greece - Moby - Spiders: Finally, I get to listen to Moby!
Chad - Dead by April - Stronger: It has that just-a-little-too-shiny sound to it, but I don't hate it.
Italy - Taproot - Poem: Holy god that opening guitar riff was basically the Smells Like Teen Spirit riff, which was itself basically the More Than a Feeling riff.
Latvia - Blutengel - You Walk Away: You can't fool me, Manson!
Sweden - Electro-Light - Maze in the Sun: Bleh.

toolenduso · Post Post #245 (ISO) » Tue Jun 27, 2017 6:43 am

Funny follow-up to that Canada/Wave Racer sentence: I nearly ended up voting for that song.

Ser Arthur Dayne · Post Post #246 (ISO) » Tue Jun 27, 2017 8:05 am

Not sure if I should make Parama and Tool aware USA is also an anime song

Parama · Post Post #247 (ISO) » Tue Jun 27, 2017 8:13 am

The album Voices is off of is not very standard black metal either, it's actually a lot closer to nwobhm with some weird stuff happening too & it's pretty solid but this track is the only one i really love

toolenduso · Post Post #248 (ISO) » Tue Jun 27, 2017 8:35 am

In post 246, Ser Arthur Dayne wrote:Not sure if I should make Parama and Tool aware USA is also an anime song

Hey good music is good music. On the whole I tend not to like anime music, but this song didn't sound like most of the anime music I've heard.

Ser Arthur Dayne · Post Post #249 (ISO) » Tue Jun 27, 2017 8:39 am

Oh, I meant it as the opposite, about how any genre can have good and bad songs. It's why I don't pay much attention to the genre of a song when I'm listening, and still listen to like screamo and stuff every time in case I might end up liking it, etc.

Country	Song	Rating
Canada	Wave Racer - Bubble Wrap	(8.5/10) EXCELLENT
Cote d’Ivoire	TO-MAS ft Chima - FLIP FLAP FLIP FLAP	(7.7/10) EXCELLENT
The Federated States of Micronesia	The Moth & The Flame - Red Flag	(7.5/10) EXCELLENT
USA	Megumi Hayashibara - Usurai Shinjuu	(7.2/10) GOOD
Taiwan	Jim O'Rourke - Ghost Ship in a Storm	(6.7/10) GOOD
Hong Kong	Shadows Fall - Redemption	(6.5/10) GOOD
Ecuador	Murder by Death - I'm Comin' Home	(6.4/10) GOOD
Laos	Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - Believe	(6.2/10) GOOD
Somalia	The Brotherhood of Dae Han - For the Glory of Olde Virginia	(5.5/10) OK
Greece	Moby - Spiders	(5.2/10) OK

Afghanistan	Saba ft Jean Deaux - Photosynthesis	(5.2/10) OK
Kenya	Glass Animals - Pork Soda	(5.0/10) OK