Song Contest 123 (Results posted!)

[Parama]

This reminds me that I need to send Zeal & Ardor next contest though.

[Parama]

goddammit y'all

[Parama]

how many entries do we have

[Parama]

Egypt –Ahh, one of these kind of rock bands that were more interested in being “weird” than writing songs with actual hooks or riffs with any power to them. Like this just all sounds… off. I’ve never liked this kind of rock and doubt I ever will. (MEDIOCRE)

Hong Kong – I don’t really have anything to say about this. It’s the same symphonic metal song I’ve heard a billion times over, by an artist who’s probably trying to rip off Ayreon somewhat with a name like that (at the very least the female vocalist sounds kinda like Anneke so it’s halfway there). It’s fine. That’s all I can really say. (AVERAGE)

Macedonia – I mean, it’s nice enough, I can’t complain about it, but it’s more an interlude than a full song. I can’t really get invested in something lacking any depth whatsoever, but I don’t mind it. (AVERAGE)

Iceland – This album as a whole is kind of a disaster of a complete, disjointed mess, but there’s a few killer tunes on here & the concept itself definitely really works when it does work. I really doubt another album of this kind of stuff would work or stay fresh though.

Burkina Faso – I listened all the way through this but I don’t really know why. There’s not a single thing about that appeals to me, it’s cluttered and noisy, it lacks any coherent melody, it’s just a dance song that doesn’t have any intention of being anything deeper and thus it holds no value to me.

Central African Republic – Can’t believe Davsto has finally discovered music that came out this millennium. This is kind of in the same vein as the Toadies song but pretty much better in every way, there’s actually a hook and some solid groove to this one. It doesn’t really connect with me though, it’s just, a totally fine song. Probably the best in this set so far, unfortunately. (AVERAGE)

Lebanon – Yyeeeah this is the kind of 80’s synth stuff that does absolutely nothing for me. Nothing else to say about it. Don’t mind listening to it but that’s about the nicest thing I can say. (MEDIOCRE)

Lithuania – Better than Toadies, not as good as Franz Ferdinand. All of these songs are cut from the exact same cloth though. (AVERAGE)


not off to a great start here
can't believe i got post 22 talking about the exact same Lebanon song two threads in a row

[Parama]

the point is that i don't have anything to say about it that I didn't say about your entry last contest

[Parama]

Macau – A bit slow to start but once it got going I enjoyed this a decent bit. Something about the vocal melodies, especially. (DECENT)

Hungary – I always get this band confused with the Black Crowes for some reason. Anyways uuhh I liked this one too, actually. Quite a bit. It’s just pleasant but lyrically has enough emotional weight to it to be pretty compelling. I dunno, I was kinda surprised I liked this as much as I did really. (GOOD)

Latvia – I’m sure I’ve said before that I don’t like low-pitched vocals like this. Or this style of music in general. This one felt especially repetitive, just repeating the same vibe and the same piano melodies ad infinitum until the song ended. It’s not unpleasant but it is aggressively boring. (MEDIOCRE)

Belarus – I think this could’ve potentially worked & honestly there’s moments of this here I dig a lot but the vocalist is just… not very good. Sounds kinda like the simple plan dude, which, yeah, try not to do that. I feel like with a better hook this could’ve been really cool but I think I still like it well enough regardless, if only due to some of the guitar work (DECENT)

Slovenia – It bothers me how “off” so many of the melodies in this song feel, it’s like they keep changing the key in the middle of their melodic phrases. It just makes the song have this herky jerky feel to it that flies in the face of any sort of flow. I could see myself being more into this, it’s basically a movie soundtrack but with added guitars & mediocre vocals, but the aforementioned melodic issue dampers my enjoyment of this overall. (AVERAGE)

Norway – I have absolutely nothing to say about this. It’s pleasant enough but it’s about as generic as generic rock gets. (AVERAGE)

Ukraine – Seems to be better than the average rap song but at the same time I got bored of it by the halfway point because, as ever, it’s stagnant and repetitive and I don’t care about lyrics so.

[Parama]

Sudan – Bill Wurtz is a talented enough musician and video producer but all his music literally just sounds like commercial music to me, I can’t take it seriously. It works totally fine in the “history of the X” videos though especially in just snippets but ehh. I can’t even really rate this because I can barely parse this as actually a song. Maybe it’ll get low points if there isn’t enough other stuff to give points to.

Ireland – Not super bothered by this, he’s a solid enough singer, but it’s kind of… empty, at least for my tastes. The most he can do to add any kind of swell is that echo-effect and it just doesn’t make for a satisfying build-up. I could see a shorter rendition of this working as an interlude track on an album or something but on its own it’s just… fine enough. (AVERAGE)

Bhutan – I listened to about half of this and absolutely nothing about it is for me.

Liechtenstein – Pleasant enough I guess but I really have absolutely no thoughts on this. I sat here and listened through the whole thing and it sounds like lounge music to me. You put it on in the background and it’s pleasant enough but you don’t really notice or care about it. Yes, I know who Art Garfunkel is. (MEDIOCRE)

USA – Dunno, I’ve just always been more for post-hardcore than pop-punk when it comes to stuff in this vein. The singer here isn’t really convincing me is the biggest issue though. It’s fine enough but pretty forgettable. (AVERAGE)

Tanzania – I’ve probably reiterated my stance on mashups a billion times but they’re the kind of thing I can appreciate when they can make songs work together like this, but. I would never have any interest in listening to them on their own. Anyways this is a mashup of one really good song, two fine songs, and one kinda cruddy song, only picked based on their names, so it kind of works and kind of doesn’t. Oh well.

Philippines – K-pop is the most confusing genre to me because it just sounds like… early 2010’s American pop. All of it. And I mean this is. It’s fine. Kind of bland. I don’t really have much to say about this either. (AVERAGE)

mmm not a great contest either, save for that very brief streak of solid stuff in the middle

[Parama]

i post all my comments with a straight face

[Parama]

it's the 90's boy band formula absolutely but it sounds way too modern in production style to be from any time earlier than this decade. tho the only big boy band this decade primarily stuck to rock instrumentation so

anyways there's been like, okay k-pop stuff sent in these contests before but mostly when they stray away from the really generic sounds. i recall liking at least one or two of them at some point

[Parama]

except they don't beat women

as far as we know

[Parama]

voted, pretty dull contest. relistening wasn't much fun at all

i'm gonna enter something with like, energy to it so y'all don't fall asleep in the middle of listening to the obligatory 4-5 soft rock songs the next contest is gonna have

[Parama]

rabble 2

[Parama]

did tool die

[Parama]

tik tok on the clock but the rabble don't stop

[Parama]

you can vote until results go up

[Parama]

Got beat only by my top 2 lol
Works for me