Song Contest 111 (RESULTS POSTED!)

[Song Contest]

Western Sahara has been added. Please listen to it before you vote!

[drealmerz7]

exciting!

[PJ.]

I entered just now, let me know if I get in

[drealmerz7]

ohhhhh I don't knowwww!!!!!!! I guess you had to travel further than Mexico...I suppose it's okay!

after you we might have to draw the line!



(like I have a say, and I'm just being silly, it dun matter to me!)

[Song Contest]

I entered just now, let me know if I get in

You're in bruh

[Song Contest]

Bhutan has been added to the contest! Please listen to it before you vote!

Also, I've decided that will be the last entry I take.

It's been nice to fill out the contest a bit more, but at this point I'm worried that I'm discouraging people from voting, and we're also getting to the point where if we add more we might need to push the voting deadline back.

[drealmerz7]

that could shift us into a parallel universe

...

do it!

[Song Contest]

Reminder: Votes are due one week from today, at 11:59 p.m. Pacific time on 10/23

[Bicephalous Bob]

Venezuela - it seems that Enrique Iglesias has not fostered a coke addiction
Slovenia - the genre trash metal has already been taken
USA - seasons change - 6,4
CAR - deja vu
NK - 6
Nam - 7,3
Greece - it seems that Air made an album after moon safari and the album after moon safari - 7,2
Iceland - but there is no one there!
BF - 7,7
Gabon - 5,9
India - 7
Sweden - 7,4
Equador - "die young" must be the most common title for recent pop songs - 6,4
Wales - 6,5
Chad - I am qualified to screw in lightbulbs
Latvia - camel case makes sense
Mex - 6,1
Bhutan - 7,5

[Creature]

Sweden isn't available.

[Song Contest]

Alt link for Sweden added. Sweden, PM me if there are any problems with that version of the song and/or you have another alt link you'd prefer me to use.

[Parama]

Burkina Faso – Even at 4 minutes this feels really underdeveloped. Long intro that ramps up too slowly, then long heavy bit that doesn’t really have any variation. None of it sounds bad and I do dig the heavy riff but it’s not enough to sustain my interest. (AVERAGE)

Slovenia – Yup, this is a power metal song alright. With like, no unique flavor. It’s serviceable for what it is certainly but… there’s no real substance to this whatsoever. I’ve heard these riffs and vocal lines before plenty of times.

USA – This song is sort of a mess all around? Like stuff just… happens in it. I don’t feel anything really cohesive here. Vocals sound a bit too clean/lifeless for me too. I think it’s interesting as a whole and I appreciate that it gets heavier towards the end but it’s maybe a bit too aggressively cheery? Still more interesting than the last two tracks here for sure. (DECENT)

Western Sahara – Feels like background music for a commercial about donating to fight cancer. I also feel like I’ve heard it before but that might just be because of how it sounds. And it’s like, not even bad or anything? The vocals that come in later are fine, it’s certainly got solid atmosphere to it but it’s just got that generic vibe to it. Ehh. (AVERAGE)

Gabon – Not only is this rap, it feels like a comedy tune. The music is in the vein of the indie rock I’ve never been much a fan of, lumpy, misshapen bassline and understated, twinkly guitar, with basically nothing else really happening. Also, considering revelations about Cosby that happened not longer after this release, not someone you want to associate yourself with. Has aged very poorly. So yeah, there’s not a single thing about this I like. (BAD)

Sweden – There are definitely elements I like here, and the riffs have a lot more bite than the song from Slovenia, but at the same time it gets a bit too goofy at times for my tastes, and feels a bit incohesive as a whole – the song rarely stops to catch its breath and just bounces between a variety of folk, symphonic, and metal elements without making a great effort to tie them together. Still, better than everything thus far for sure, though I wouldn’t say I’m in love. (DECENT)

Chad – The rest of this being pretty solid is almost enough to make me forgive the trap percussion near the start. Almost. But really, the rougher-edged vocals here are actually pretty decent, though the cleans are that same lifeless robotic clean voice a lot of -core has problems with these days. Riffs are solid and it keeps things fairly dynamic too. I’m okay with this, don’t love it, but it’s pretty solid. (DECENT)

Bhutan – This is like, on the verge of turning into breakcore twice but doesn’t commit to it and instead mostly spends 6 minutes being kind of dull and inoffensive. Like, I would’ve liked it less had it turned into breakcore but it would’ve been something happening, at least. (MEDIOCRE)

Latvia – No offense, that is maybe the worst artist photo ever submitted in a song contest, including Bhutan’s this contest which I also hate looking at. Considering how absolutely abysmal every single element of this sounds though I almost have to assume this is a joke entry. Like geez. Singer is absolutely awful, synths sound really date and bleepy, the guitar is almost nonexistent. The violin is trying but it gets lost in the mix most of the time. Yeah this is an absolute trainwreck if I’m being honest. (BAD)

tool i don't pay attention which one is yours. is it the clippng one. i've actually heard that one before a few times bcuz a friend on another side likes it (spoilers: i think it's pretty meh, effective for what it is but wouldn't wanna listen to it as music)

[Save The Dragons]

Despite the limited entries I think this is my favorite contest I'm having trouble picking who to vote for

[Vijarada]

Good lord 19 entries? 6 people got cut like 2 contest ago!

[Parama]

Wales – Just feels like a fairly standard indie rock kind of track with vocals I don’t particularly care for. Comes close to hitting on something interesting in the last minute or so but doesn’t really build to anything substantial & doesn’t justify the rest of the song before it quite strongly enough. (AVERAGE)

North Korea – This is another track in the same vein of USA that pulls together a lot of different elements and doesn’t quite know how to make them all fit together quite right but it’s still decently interesting and has its moments. Maybe relistens will benefit both this one and that one. (DECENT)

Iceland – Pop songs that I like tend to be pretty arbitrary for the most part and this is definitely in the upper echelons of pop tracks I really enjoy. The chill production works better than it should, especially with that blaring siren sound, and she’s just, a damn good singer, she can sell both the calmer moments and the intense moments really dang well.

Mexico – OH CHRIST THIS SONG. Well. It’s okay. It feels overlong and kind of repetitive tbh. I think if I didn’t already know this I’d find this more boring that I do. It’s very meh. (AVERAGE)

India – On one hand I kind of zoned out while listening to this for some reason, but on the other hand, it is actually pretty solid? Definitely feels kind of Floyd-y aside from the vocals, but the singer is pretty good and the instrumentation is solid too. Dunno why the video is 3 minutes longer than the song though. (DECENT)

Vietnam – Like I already said I’ve heard this one a few times before, not by choice. I can appreciate using nonstandard rhythms in a rap track & there’s decent intensity to the vocals & the way it builds up towards the end but it doesn’t really evoke anything too strong in me. It’s more effective than some of the stuff here at least? (AVERAGE)

Central African Republic – Nice meme.

Greece – Yup, I don’t like anything about this. Especially not the vocals, and especially not the glitchy stuttering applied to them on occasion. But the music is too minimalistic to be relaxing and doesn’t go anywhere in any decent amount of time. It’s not unpleasant to listen to but it is pretty dang dull. (MEDIOCRE)

Ecuador – Right out the gate I will say that I dislike that synth, quite a bit. Sounds cheap and plastic as heck. She’s an okay singer but doesn’t really have much unique personality or tone to her voice. Overall this one’s just kind of dull too, better than the last track but not by a ton. (MEDIOCRE)

Venezuela – As soon as I saw who the artist was I was immediately ready to zone out. And, yeah, this sounds exactly like I’d expect an Enrique Iglesias song to sound. Which makes it not his worst song, but I also don’t understand what about this song in particular stands out to make it worth entering? It’s the kind of thing I ask with a lot of entrants but even some stuff I dislike I can at least see the justification – for something as generic as this though I just don’t get it. (MEDIOCRE)

there are barely enough entries in the decent/average tier to fill out a top 10. great

[Tammy]

One of my favorite things about the song contest are paramas reviews. I look forward to seeing my song shredded almost every time.

I'm not being snarky or sarcastic here. It really is one of the highlights!

[Parama]

I have no clue which song is yours but I tend to not find much I like in these contests

The good stuff I do find makes it worth it though imo

[Song Contest]

Reminder: Votes are due Monday at midnight Pacific time!

[Parama]

voted. only 11 songs i even considered & didn't even listen to the last one because it was that stupid what it's like song that i already knew
12 was an easy pick, 10 was easy too, 8 thru 1 were all various levels of "i don't really care about this" though so this was very much not a great contest

[Creature]

I barely listened, just kept my sketch ranking.

[JurgenVW]

Overall, not the best contest. I thought my top 3 were relatively clear, but the rest ended up being pretty tight. Contest wasn't really to my tastes, but I can see how people would like the rest of the tracks.

[Randomnamechange]

i ac quite enjoyed this contest. rly liked my top 7.
slovenia, gabon and ecuador were clear faves for me tho

[Tammy]

There were a few songs not on Spotify that I'll have to listen to tomorrow, but unless there's something really really good there, Iceland is my top favorite. I really really loved that song.

[PJ.]

@parama on the artist picture thing: the difference between my picture and the awful Latvia picture is mine is just something decided to use cause there are 0 rules governing picture entry and there is no pictures of tyme. witth tujiko cause its a one of collaboration with 0 promo pictures apparently(i just used a prop from ichi the killer cause I re-watched that a couple weeks ago). His is actually representative of the artist, which is yuck.

[Parama]

yeah i am in 100% agreement that latvia's is worse just gorey stuff makes me super squeamish lol