Song Contest 156 (Results posted!)

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Post Post #17 (isolation #0) » Wed Sep 09, 2020 1:13 am

Post by Vi »

I've submitted something from this area before and it did better than expected, so let's see if I can be a bit more overt...

also:
fffffffff I want to make a reference to this one song from the '90s with the chorus like "don't move, need to say hey-oh (hey-ohhhhh)" and I am failing utterly to find it online
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Post Post #21 (isolation #1) » Wed Sep 09, 2020 8:05 am

Post by Vi »

Two very good answers (for different reasons). Thank you very much!
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Post Post #24 (isolation #2) » Wed Sep 09, 2020 11:22 am

Post by Vi »

(to be clear: that was it; absolutely would never have found it on my own)
(the other one was a good answer because I appreciate being reminded of its existence)
(look I am
out
of it today)
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Post Post #31 (isolation #3) » Thu Sep 10, 2020 2:44 am

Post by Vi »

In post 29, Nahdia wrote:now that ive won one i get to never care about my scores again and submit stuff i already know everyone will hate.
please don't actually do this while people are still being cut
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Post Post #33 (isolation #4) » Thu Sep 10, 2020 3:14 am

Post by Vi »

In post 32, PJ. wrote:I understand where you're coming from but I disagree. I feel like there are about a third or more entries in every contest that have a minimal chance of winning and policing entries makes nobody happy.
Likewise, I understand your point. In general policing entries is a bad idea because
*I don't think I could tell at a glance who is or isn't submitting in earnest
*My first response to novelty entries is usually to count how many points I can give them

However, I would make an exception for people who
tell everyone
that they're not submitting in earnest, and only while they have the chance to lock out someone who wants to compete. If not both of those, etc.

for more information click here
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Post Post #59 (isolation #5) » Wed Sep 16, 2020 6:25 am

Post by Vi »

I finished my first pass. Then I got ready to say as much and had to re-finish my first pass :V

This contest is strange. It's not bad, but unusually difficult to judge; right now almost all of my top 10 is not what I'd have expected.
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Post Post #72 (isolation #6) » Thu Sep 17, 2020 4:11 am

Post by Vi »

I've finished my second pass. I was a bit less sanguine the second time around, but no complaints about being pushed out of my comfort zone.

Spoiler: here they are
|
|
==TIER: POINTS

(12) MASADA -- The Airborne Toxic Event {Poor Isaac}
-- (The last time this band was submitted I rated it better than usual for its genre but not as good as Joppin'.) This song actually slaps. I think this would enter me-screaming-for-more territory with a different vocal interpretation with more range, but as is this is solid.

(10) HINAMIZAWA -- fhána {わたしのための物語 ~My Uncompleted Story~}
-- Surprisingly adventurous J-pop. This isn't a style that I normally give points to but this one has so much personality that it stands out. I need to learn more about some of these chord progressions for my own endeavors...

(8) USSR -- Erik Mjones {Lion of Love}
-- I was told this movie was on point but no one told me it was
this
much so. The screen in the back showing the gazelles getting
launched
was a high point. Is this kind of content even legal in Russia? The song itself is only kind of okay to me, but the amount of ham in this video made it required viewing.

(7) CANADA -- mouse on the keys {spectres de mouse}
-- but there's a cheetah on the drum set
I like the idea, but the implementation felt unfocused, like it spent too much time in transition between ideas.

(6) DENMARK -- Snail's House {Warp Star}
-- pls turn the vibrato down, the music doesn't need to be this synthy
I can see how this is the jam of a lot of people, but it's way, way too busy for me. Like I hate how much this misses my preferences, because I feel like this is several stylistic decisions away from being my runaway favorite in this Contest.


==TIER: POINTS?

(5) UGANDA -- Nihiloxica {Nilo Chug}
-- Oh, hello. Actually Ugandan. Nyege Nyege is affiliated with LGBT in Christian/Muslim Africa; dissonance to fight the power with. I feel like I should hate something like this that goes on for seven minutes, and yet I kind of don't. It's decent background music.

(4) RUSSIA -- Tori Amos {Precious Things}
-- More or less as usual, I can't relate to this song, but this sounds good enough to get points anyway.

(3) CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC -- Renaissance {Let It Grow}
-- It sounds nice. Those octave jumps are tough and she pulls them off. Ballads that use "love" in over 50% of its lines are a hard sell to me, so I welcomed the lengthy outro.

(2) TANZANIA -- Manaka Kataoka, Yasuaki Iwata, Soshi Abe and Hajime Wakai {Talus Battle}
-- I've never played this game, and I'm only aware of what goes on in the first part. Divorced of context... it's definitely strange but it has character.

(1) NORWAY -- Paul McCartney {Temporary Secretary}
-- I have been informed on multiple occasions that this man's love does it good. Solid YouTube comments I agree with: "This feels dangerous to listen to. Like how flashing lights could potentially send you into an epileptic seizure. I feel like I’m risking something health-wise listening to this song" "This song is what I imagine a neural network designed to compose whole-ass songs would create as its very first, wholly unpolished mistake" "This is both an absolute disaster and a marvel to experience. It's a song that shouldn't exist and the mere fact it does is an insult to life itself, it's a monument of human arrogance. A visceral punch to good taste and i can't stop listening to it." This may objectively be the worst entry I have voluntarily rated above at least 15 others in a long time, and I'm not sure if I should thank you for submitting this (it'll depend on whether my mind audiates it tomorrow at 02:00).

ANGUILLA -- Deltron 3030 {Battlesong}
-- I can very easily tell this is someone's jam. I don't think it's mine. Still, I'm rating it high for novelty.

BELGIUM -- UGK (Underground Kingz) {Int'l Players Anthem (I Choose You)}
-- I can appreciate a song where everyone involved knows it's made of cheese. The verse at 2:04 takes me back to HIS WORLD in a way that is unintentionally enjoyable. sex song is w/e


==TIER: NO POINTS

AUSTRALIA -- Le☆S☆Ca {ミツバチ}
-- anime song / 10
I'm honestly as astonished that unassisted human vocal cords can make these pitches as I am the sounds from Flavortown entries.

CYPRUS -- Cloudier {Heartbeat}
-- I respect the soft pink-blue aesthetic. This style - vocaloidesque dancepop with innosexy lyrics - was always going to be a tough sell to me and while it did a good job in the softer sections I don't think I want to listen to this again.

RUNETERRA -- WaqWaq Kingdom {Mum Tells Me}
-- This is a bit "out there" for me, but I wouldn't be surprised if not giving this points tanks my sheeple score.

CHINA -- Molly Tuttle {Olympia, WA}
-- There's something punchable about the male vocalist's performance - the two vocalists don't agree on the interpretation of the vocals, and hers are much better than his - and it's distracting at best. The song's okay. I think I'm reaching a point where I can conclude that I'm immune to whichever magic dazzles people when they hear male and female voices singing the same thing simultaneously.

SWITZERLAND -- Grey Daze {Sometimes}
-- I dig the powerful style, but it's not supported by the lyrics, which feel like they're supposed to hit hard but don't register.

ARMENIA -- Anna Calvi {Desire}
-- Whoever in the comments compared this to Springsteen is right on. There are people who are into that but I'm not one of them.

BURKINA FASO -- Antti Paalanen {Elä (Gotta Live)}
-- I'm not sure what I experienced, but I think I responded positively to it, at least for the first 150 seconds or so. After that it became actively unpleasant.


==TIER: NO POINTS.

COLOMBIA -- Hoodie Allen {Surprise Party (feat. Blackbear)}
-- Sweet stage name. The consensus seems to be that the chorus is better than the verse, and I'm willing to agree based on the quantity of autotune used. sex song is w/e

FLAVORTOWN -- Maya Hawke {Generous Heart}
-- acoustic ballad / 10

POLAND -- Younger Hunger {Dead Inside}
-- This song feels like something that thinks it's more hip than it is. This doesn't do anything for me.

IRELAND -- Jazz Party {Drowning}
-- Take standard jazz ballad and add frenetic drumming? This feels like something that someone with my music background should be all over, but I've always been very cold on jazz vocals. Vocals are a valid instrument, but unlike other instruments it has an additional component of
information
. Jazz music usually thinks it's okay to ignore that entirely, and they assume that it's fine when it's not fine and I don't know how to say it because they'll never understand. The drumming is great but I do
not
want to listen to this vocalist moan for longer than I have to.

GREECE -- Noname {Blaxploitation (Room 25)}
-- The things about this that I don't get - and judging from the other comments I don't know if this is specific to the genre or the artist - are the ready willingness to throw clarity aside for chances to drop oblique lines that the artist thinks sounds cool, and the tendency to provide little inflection to suggest the emotionally or contextually important bits. The entire second verse feels like the artist reluctantly reading their report in front of the class at 1.5x speed with backing instruments, what with there being a message in there that's getting buried by everything sounding the same at high speed. The intro, bridge, and outro samples were better than everything else IMO.

GLOOMHAVEN -- The Pound Shop Boys {The Tra-La-La Song (Banana Splits Theme)}
-- I'll admit the first thing I read was the title of the song and I was worried that it was the
other
tra-la-la song. The Banana Splits barely, and I mean barely, overlapped with my childhood; and I suspect I've been spared years of nightmares as a result of the limited exposure. The song itself is the kind of electronic remix I've never really been a fan of, and adding that to the above, etc. Pls less hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo.



TUVALU -- MercyMe {Even If}
-- I did warn y'all that Christpop was coming back after a well-advised adventure into it a while ago. This song is actually near the top of its class; certified Platinum, #2 for its genre for 2017 and #9 for the decade.

I don't expect overtly religious songs to do well - especially overtly Christian songs in English - but I'm sure someone would appreciate the window into a community that everyone sees but no one actually looks into.


Reference:
TIER: POINTS! -- Entries that I really enjoyed; standouts; blatant favoritism
TIER: POINTS -- Entries that I'm confident I would give points to in any Contest
TIER: POINTS? -- Entries that I had to make a decision about whether to give points to
TIER: NO POINTS -- Entries that were not in contention for points, but that I hold no prejudice against
TIER: NO POINTS. -- Entries that I'm confident I would not give points to in any Contest
TIER: NO -- Entries that I disliked enough to warrant singling them out
TIER: N/A -- For one reason or another I am emotionally unable to parse or compare this, and won't try
Last edited by Vi on Tue Sep 22, 2020 12:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post Post #79 (isolation #7) » Thu Sep 17, 2020 7:26 am

Post by Vi »

I'm really, really,

really


tired of shitty people being shitty to people rn

and knowing that I can be like that, I decided not to show relative ranks for entries that weren't in contention and only kept the interesting comments for them
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Post Post #85 (isolation #8) » Fri Sep 18, 2020 12:03 am

Post by Vi »

In post 72, Vi wrote:
Spoiler: earlier review
(1) NORWAY -- Paul McCartney {Temporary Secretary}
-- This may objectively be the worst entry I have voluntarily rated above at least 15 others in a long time, and I'm not sure if I should thank you for submitting this (it'll depend on whether my mind audiates it tomorrow at 02:00).
update: this happened
but it was also the
least
distressing thing to keep me awake overnight, so no change to my vote
het 83 wrote:I really do not think you understand this song
That may as well be the tagline for the Contest as a whole, let alone my reactions to the entries. I'd be surprised if I understood half of what gets submitted.
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Post Post #97 (isolation #9) » Tue Sep 22, 2020 12:15 pm

Post by Vi »

in re: your review, my entry - My condolences. I was spared all of that by virtue of living under a rock, but that entry came from looking into the abyss a while ago, and... yeah.

I'm feeling a little less despondent now, so I've added the rest of my comments in.
To respond to het again, honestly most of my exposure to music that humans listen to has been through these Contests. With that in mind, I appreciate reading others' comments so I can better understand the material presented and how people respond to it.
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Post Post #100 (isolation #10) » Tue Sep 22, 2020 1:15 pm

Post by Vi »

In post 98, AGar wrote:Also, uh, never look up the original of that song because boy will you hate those vocals!
I've been told it sounds rancid.

I hope we can agree on tastes at some point :(
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Post Post #125 (isolation #11) » Thu Sep 24, 2020 3:00 am

Post by Vi »

In post 124, Tammy wrote:Growing up in a strict fundamentalist home meant music options were very limited.
Oh. Oh no.
I've heard stories about communities that believe music
itself
is sinful, but...

I didn't realize when I submitted the entry that I would be dredging traumas in multiple people.

--

het - Understood. It may be more descriptive to say that I don't relate to the subject matter at all, and find going on about sex in particular to be tedious.
While I think you're way ahead of me on this one, I'd like to make clear that this is a position specific to basically just me, and you shouldn't treat it as anything other than me being unreasonable.

also to be clear
Colombia - Hoodie Allen - Every time I see this guy brought up I just don't understand why you would choose a rap name that's a pun on a child molester's name? Was Flowin Polanski taken? Like I get it, he probably picked it before #metoo or whatever but jesus christ just change your name, fuck.
as someone who isn't into movies I forgot that Woody Allen was #metooed; please do not take my previous snicker at this person's performance name as approval of pedophilia
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Post Post #148 (isolation #12) » Thu Sep 24, 2020 10:17 am

Post by Vi »

In post 136, Song Contest wrote:Nobody failed to vote! We shall hold a grand feast in celebration.
and this makes it an excellent contest

SHEEPLE

toolenduso (the organizer and the last person to vote? H4X)
het
|
shiki (who was never off by more than 9 places on any entry)
Panzerjager
|
| -
[3/4 sheep]

Knightmare491
|
|
ceejayvinoya
Davsto = Nahdia = Elbirn (who all submitted consecutively? H4X) -
[midpoint AKA Keke]

The Bulge = SnowStorm (who submitted consecutively as well)
|
Eps
Vi = drench
Natirasha
AGar = PranaDevil = VashtaNeurotic
Raya36 -
[3/4 snow]

Tammy
Dr Easy Bake
D3f3nd3r = Scigatt (who submitted consecutively)
|
Hiraki = tris (...who also submitted consecutively)
|
Tatsuya Kaname
CaptainMeme
SNOWFLAKE


Someone named CaptainMeme submitted the fake Eurovision song. Well played.

----

Reciprocation...

TEAM ÁNIME☆CORNER: Natirasha <-> Tatsuya Kaname
TEAM THE AIRBORNE TOXIC DOGMA OF LOVE: Scigatt <-> Vi <-> CaptainMeme (how in the hell though; y'all had me thinking my entry was universally disliked)
TEAM TEMPORARILY DROWNING A MOUSE UNTIL DEAD INSIDE: D3f3nd3r <-> drench <-> VashtaNeurotic <-> Hiraki
TEAM ENORMOUS CHAIN WITH NONAME: Dr Easy Bake <-> Tammy <-> tris AND Tammy <-> shiki <-> AGar
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Post Post #155 (isolation #13) » Thu Sep 24, 2020 10:49 am

Post by Vi »

I mean you already know this but you can assign your points however you want without justification.

I don't agree with "it's popular so I will downrate it to compensate". It's not like Carry On Wayward Son has gotten worse because people have heard of it. (That said, I've heard of virtually nothing so this rarely applies in my world.)

I also don't agree with "I already know I like this so I will downrate it to compensate"; I already know I vote for novelty over styles I'm already familiar with so there's no need to deliberately push that effect further.

When comparing entries, when in doubt I ask which one I'd rather listen to again.
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Post Post #164 (isolation #14) » Thu Sep 24, 2020 2:37 pm

Post by Vi »

In post 163, Tatsuya Kaname wrote:
In post 148, Vi wrote:Someone named CaptainMeme submitted the fake Eurovision song. Well played.
WHAT?
It's from a recent movie spoofing Eurovision. If I remember the reviews correctly, the Europeans really liked that part in particular.

a true meme submitted by a true captain of the subject
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