Song Contest 133 (Results posted!)

hitogoroshi · Post Post #50 (ISO) » Fri Jul 19, 2019 7:17 pm

In post 44, Formerfish wrote:How do you guys pick your entries?

I usually go for something that has been stuck in my head for a bit and I dont hear many people talking about, or like a super deep cut of your favorite track from a famous artist or group that not many people know about.

I like being exposed to new stuff and have taken some heavy shit for stuff ive posted, but its always fun to see who votes where when what is submitted is.

mostly I pick songs that I have wanted to loop over the last few weeks. Youtube algorithm is nice for this because it notices when you do this and keeps those songs in "My Mix", so I tend to just skim there. And then I've just learned from experience to filter out stuff that requires really dedicated listening and/or is super-simple musically and entirely driven by the lyrics. Things like Haruka Nakamura's "SIN" and John Prine's "Sam Stone" are good examples of songs I adore but wouldn't submit.

Or to put it another way, I don't have any special formula for "oh, this is a GOOD song for song contest" - I just pick songs I like - but there are definitely some BAD songs for Song Contest I will veto. But luckily, the kind of song you want to loop in the background while you do things tends to be the best kind for the contest, so it usually just works itself out.

Parama · Post Post #51 (ISO) » Sat Jul 20, 2019 4:37 am

i guess it's time to rabble

vizIIsto · Post Post #52 (ISO) » Sat Jul 20, 2019 5:32 am

vizIIsto · Post Post #53 (ISO) » Sat Jul 20, 2019 5:37 am

In post 44, Formerfish wrote:How do you guys pick your entries?

[...]

There's usually plenty of good songs that I can pick from. I keep them in my database. It's called 'the Netherlands'.

vizIIsto · Post Post #54 (ISO) » Sat Jul 20, 2019 5:39 am

Yeah whatever I probably shouldn't have shared my strategy to being successful (bcuz so far, I'm being pretty successful) with all you guys. Oh well.
There are enough stellar Dutch songs anyways, so it's not like I'll run out of great songs soon if you were to also submit a bunch of songs by Dutch artists all of a sudden.

Parama · Post Post #55 (ISO) » Sat Jul 20, 2019 5:48 am

"i've been listening to this recently and this song might do pretty good i guess"

actually the song i sent isn't my favorite off the album but it's close & it's been a universal constant that both music critics I follow & friends I've shown it to all like it. last place. right side

Song Contest · Post Post #56 (ISO) » Sun Jul 21, 2019 11:54 am

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Song Contest · Post Post #57 (ISO) » Sun Jul 21, 2019 12:12 pm

Entries posted! Apologies for the delay.

ISO · Post Post #58 (ISO) » Sun Jul 21, 2019 1:27 pm

Spoiler:

Formerfish · Post Post #59 (ISO) » Sun Jul 21, 2019 2:40 pm

I can dig it:
Latvia- NF- The Search
USA- Wired For Havoc - Safely Sleeping
Libya- Emery - In a Lose, Lose Situation
Iceland- La Dispute - Rhodonite and Grief
Portugal- Olympia - Shoot To Forget
Sealand- K's Choice - Everything for Free
Poland- Bjarte Ylvisåker - I Will Never Be A Star
Sweden- Suvi Teräsniska - Jäätkö kanssain valvomaan?
Bhutan- Kaytranada - Dysfunctional

S'ok:
Costa Rica- Soul Coughing - Super Bon Bon
Macedonia- The Oh Hellos - Biter Watter
Liechtenstein- William Shatner - Bohemian Rhapsody
Bolivia- Lucius - Eventually
Hungary- Letu Štuke - Minimalizam
Norway- Spectralizers - Let Go

Not my cup of Tea:
Japan- Stray Kids - MIROH
Macau- The Marías - Cariño
Egypt- Car Seat Headrest - Sober to Death / Powderfinger
Switzerland- Kate Higgins - Jump Up, Super Star!
Brazil- Os Mutantes - A Minha Menina

Parama · Post Post #60 (ISO) » Sun Jul 21, 2019 4:33 pm

Costa Rica – Oh no, this is the gross 90’s. This is just like a bargain bin ripoff of RHCP. I don’t know why I wouldn’t just listen to RHCP if I ever wanted to listen to this sound, which I don’t. (MEDIOCRE)

Sweden – Oh, yeah, this is definitely a pretty solid power ballad right here. Doesn’t really mean anything to me since I don’t understand the lyrics but there’s also a chance knowing what the lyrics mean could make it worse too. We’ll settle at “I didn’t find it especially noteworthy but I did enjoy it.” (DECENT)

Hungary – With how many little things and samples going on in this song that there are, it’s amazing how completely generic it ends up coming out sounding. Like it’s vaguely pleasant. A lot of the samples are actually kind of intrusive and annoying which pushes this slightly more to the negative side of average than positive, but it remains average all the same. (AVERAGE)

Libya – Honestly I like the backing vocals on the chorus more than I like the actual singer here. I think he’s the real letdown of this one, that and the fact that the music is really pretty standard for the genre, but it’s… y’know, s’alright. (DECENT)

Bolivia – Covers are a risky entry at any point in time because if you tell me it’s a cover then it’s got to both be good on its own and feel like it deserves to exist in comparison to the original. I can tell you for certain this is incredibly bland and safe on its own, would work better if it dropped the percussion and only had one voice, make it more of a singer-songwriter thing, but then I listened to the original and it’s just way more striking and unique than this generic indie folk song they turned it into here. So I don’t really see any reason this needs to exist, thus I don’t feel like it’s worth rating.

Latvia – NF’s entire career is like doing the reverse of that “take a song and make it a slow dramatic movie trailer” thing, he takes movie trailer songs and raps over them about how woke he is or how emotional he’s feeling. There’s this veneer of fakeness to all this stuff that I can’t really get on board with but at the same time I have to admit I prefer what he’s doing with rap to the two hundredth generic trap rapper. Genre still isn’t really my thing in general though, so. (AVERAGE)

Japan – I think this has the same chords as Kesha’s Die Young, which I’m only thinking about because I heard it again yesterday. I’m actually pretty sure the whole K-pop phenomenon is generated by nostalgia for the late 00’s/early 10’s style of dance-pop that these bands have basically brought through the entire generation and there’s probably some research paper out there about this. Anyways I just have never been partial to this specific sound and while they do it well enough I don’t get much out of it. (AVERAGE)

Norway – I just don’t understand people who listen to dance music like this outside of, like, clubs or dance floors. I don’t understand what value it has on its own or what musical enjoyment you get out of it. It’s not like it particularly sounds awful, it’s less egregious and obnoxious than plenty of other similar tracks I’ve heard, but it isn’t particularly distinct or meaningful in any way either. (MEDIOCRE)

Macedonia – Welcome back hito! Turns out I’m still not a huge fan of most of your music :V I dunno, songs with this level of twang are rarely gonna do a lot for me, and while I dig some of the swell this gets towards the end, I don’t really find it gripping enough to outweigh the stuff I’m not really much a fan of. It’s probably the best thing in the average tier so far though, at least. (AVERAGE)

Bhutan – They’re all pretty decent performers but I don’t find the melodies that sticky and I’m never really a fan of percussion-heavy beats like this one either. It mostly just ends up sounding a bit meandering and repetitive, I don’t really get any sense of movement from this track between the disjointed melodies and lack of any notable beat change. (MEDIOCRE)

this is the only reason you want me here right

itlepip · Post Post #61 (ISO) » Sun Jul 21, 2019 4:57 pm

Spoiler:

NF - generally pretty generic rapping over a beat which is sort of overdramatic. I didn't dislike anything here but nothing great 5/10
Os Mutantes - The sound quality wasn't really that great. Sounds like music I would here in the background of a restaurant, with some really heavy guitar noises which don't really fit for me. The singing/harmonies were quite nice. 5.5/10
William Shatner - :| 2/10
Mario - Really nice song for the game, doesn't work as well by itself, still a nice song 7/10
Suvi Teräsniska - super nice, I wish the backing was a bit subtler but amazing vocals, wish I understood the lyrics. 8/10
Emery - Opposite problem to the above songs, really nice instrumental, but mediocre vocals. I kinda hate screaming so 4/10
Wired for Havoc - Why did the song explode like it did halfway through, it was decent before that 3.5/10, would've been much higher before the middle.
Spectralizers - really generic EDM stuff, feels like someone is hitting me with the beat 4/10
Lucius - Nothing really stuck with me, but nice tune, 6.5/10
Ylvis - Really nice until the drop 6/10
Letu Štuke - kinda too long for a stripped down song in a language I don't understand. Ending was kinda cool 5.5/10
Car Seat Headress - I feel like I recognize this band, anyway my favorite track so far, nice indie song 8.5/10
The Marias - Super nice song, one of the songs that totally loses you in the song. 8.5/10
Olympia - this might get stuck in my head at some point and go wayy up, but right now a solid 7/10. I might listen to it again, but I'm not sure I want to.
The Oh Hellos - The start of song was interesting with the banjo and the female vocalist. It definitely needed to do something to elevate it over a standard folk song, but the choir was not the right choice. Really unclear what this song wants to be, but is generally fine 7.5/10
Soul Coughing - Feels really close to a really classic track but the things that it is missing take a lot away from it. 5/10
La Dispute - Starts off really good, I have a soft spot for talking songs. The screaming is much worse than the talking, really don't want to listen to it again due to that, 5.5/10
KAYTRANADA - has a very nice groove, again seems really close to a song I would like but not quite there, everything in it seems to fit generally okay with the other pieces 7/10
Stray Kids - Decent dancing song I guess? There are way better songs that hit this exact groove though, 6/10.

vizIIsto · Post Post #62 (ISO) » Sun Jul 21, 2019 8:19 pm

Sealand not available in my country because Sony owns the song and doesn't allow me to watch it.
At least, that's what I found 'content by SME' meant.

Here's an alternative link

vizIIsto · Post Post #63 (ISO) » Sun Jul 21, 2019 8:24 pm

Also same thing for Bhutan's entry. It's Spotify, and I don't have Spotify, so here's another alternative link

Parama · Post Post #64 (ISO) » Sun Jul 21, 2019 8:57 pm

it's free to make a spotify account

xyzzy · Post Post #65 (ISO) » Sun Jul 21, 2019 9:30 pm

it's only free if you don't mind giving more of your personal information to Mark Zuckerberg. I've specifically avoided creating a Spotify account to limit how much of my personal information Facebook has. (they still have tons of my personal information, of course, but why intentionally add to what they collect on me?)

PJ. · Post Post #66 (ISO) » Sun Jul 21, 2019 9:47 pm

You can just sign in through Facebook, problem solved, 0 more info to the Zuck

PJ. · Post Post #67 (ISO) » Sun Jul 21, 2019 9:48 pm

Also, limiting your online footprint is a fool's errand

vizIIsto · Post Post #68 (ISO) » Sun Jul 21, 2019 10:29 pm

In post 66, PJ. wrote:You can just sign in through Facebook, problem solved, 0 more info to the Zuck

But then I need to make a Facebook account...

vizIIsto · Post Post #69 (ISO) » Sun Jul 21, 2019 10:29 pm

Also, if I found an alternative link which is on YouTube and I prefer YouTube, then I can watch that, right?

PJ. · Post Post #70 (ISO) » Sun Jul 21, 2019 10:53 pm

Don't care, honestly but I'm probably going to be only linking from spotify cause it's mega easy for me, especially if it's a foreign language song.

Formerfish · Post Post #71 (ISO) » Mon Jul 22, 2019 6:17 am

In post 70, PJ. wrote:Don't care, honestly but I'm probably going to be only linking from spotify cause it's mega easy for me, especially if it's a foreign language song.

I found a YouTube version myself. Might not look on YouTube in the future...

ISO · Post Post #72 (ISO) » Mon Jul 22, 2019 11:40 am

Spoiler: reviews

Parama · Post Post #73 (ISO) » Mon Jul 22, 2019 1:00 pm

Portugal – It’s like if an indie rock song forgot to have any flavor or personality to it. I’m sitting here trying to think of things to say about this featureless nothing and I just don’t have any. It’s absolutely “fine” in the sense that it doesn’t offend in any way but that’s the closest to a compliment I can scrounge up for it. (AVERAGE)

Macau – I dig the jazz touches around the edges of this and the generally chill vibe. I dig a bit less the incredibly washed-out sound of her voice, it sounds too distant from the sound of the instruments and mutes her performance. It’s like her voice is coming from an old gramophone while the rest of the song plays on modern speakers. I also think sometimes there’s a bit too much going, like dropping a guitar line would enhance the overall atmosphere. Despite the gripes I still did enjoy this a fair bit, but I suspect it won’t hold up as well on relisten. (DECENT)

Poland – Oh god this dead meme. Or apparently there are several brothers and this is the one not in Ylvis. Anyways this is a comedy song that can’t be listened to in a serious context, so. It -sounds- fine enough I guess, if not a bit generic, but I don’t see any reason to listen to this as, well, a song. I didn’t really watch more than scattered moments of the video either, if that’s supposed to help give it context. (MEDIOCRE)

Brazil – Like I understand that this song is over 50 years old but that electric guitar sound is friggin’ disgusting. And besides that, well, this just isn’t a style I care for. I’m not going to subject myself to the entirety of this when less than 2 minutes can tell me it won’t be anywhere close to getting points.

Switzerland – Mario Odyssey was a pretty great game and in context this song works really well! I wouldn’t listen to it on its own, for any reason. Like, it’s a video game theme song, and one crafted specifically for the game. Sure, it’s a fine enough song on its own but how referential the lyrics are is pretty distracting and it’s intentionally going for a very standard interpretation of big band music (w/ the donkey kong theme in there to make it more Mario-esque) but like. I just get frustrated with submissions like this and worry y’all don’t listen to enough music outside of games. (AVERAGE)

Sealand – This is very 90’s too but not, like, the lame 90’s that aged about as well as roadkill. Nothing about this is especially noteworthy, but it’s all just solid. Solid vocal performance and kinda sticky melodies to accompany it, decent guitar work, especially in some of the melodic lines. The sound quality is garbage but I think that’s the fault of whoever decided to pick out a 480p video for this. But yeah, wasn’t thrilled by this but it’s better than a lot of stuff in this contest. (DECENT)

Iceland – I dunno, there’s something about the chill guitar line mixed with the loose yet somehow still tense drums. I’m generally not too into the rambling, spoken-word style of vocals here either but he mixes it up on this one with some more melodic lines and something approaching a hook. The horns that come in towards the middle and the buildup at the end, too, for a relatively short song it moves well within its runtime and has the kind of emotional pathos I really like. This isn’t even the best song on the album, IMO, but the louder ones I figure would do even worse in song contests than this one. Honestly I totally forgot there were even harsher vocals in this one lol because they’re such a small part of this and totally justified by the rising intensity.

Liechtenstein – Nice meme. Take a wild guess as to how much of this I listened to.

USA – I think the general sound of the cleaner parts of this is a maybe a touch too sterile (or that I’m just not that keen on his voice) and it feels a bit lacking in dynamics too. It does get louder towards the end and I dig that part a fair bit even if I’m not sold on the harsh vox either, nor the djenty riff. But there’s some power there regardless I can’t really explain. I can do way better in the genre, though, I feel, but this is likely to get decent points regardless. (DECENT)

Egypt – Oh dear, it’s a live performance. Oh god, it’s 8 minutes long. I tried listening to this album last year (the rerelease) but the super low-fi sound of it was a pretty big dealbreaker for me so I’m honestly surprised this sounds as clean as it does. Granted, I don’t think I made it past the 13-minute opener (what the heck) so. I’m not really sure where the song split here is or if there is one at all though it just seems like one (definitely overlong) song. But I mean, it’s decently pleasant enough and there’s at least minor changes going on throughout. I think it’s maybe lacking the level of emotional intensity I’d like it to have, but, it’s nice. (DECENT)

i guess there's enough stuff here for me to put together a top 10

Errantparabola · Post Post #74 (ISO) » Mon Jul 22, 2019 1:06 pm

In post 73, Parama wrote:Granted, I don’t think I made it past the 13-minute opener

oh pleaaaase let me join your cult~