WALRUS (congrats to the winners / go join heltris walrus)

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IN SHORT

• you send me 7 or 8 songs that fit each category i lay out below. i grade them based on how much i like them, how well they fit the category, and a couple other things.
  
• its like song contest but, for the general population of people who aren't me, it's like all submitting and no judging
  
• i will listen and grade the songs myself and then sporadically schedule listening events in discord
  
• you should submit to this!!!
  
• this concept is stolen from mafia universe

Spoiler: NAMING AND SHAMING SOME USERS THAT I WOULD LIKE IT IF THEY JOINED

tris. caled f witch. sleepy krew (youll be like "oh i dont know enough songs to do this." i dont care). hell books. mcmenno. cheetory6. chevre. shaft.ed. psyche. if zoraster is looking at this he doesn't need me to tell him that i would inevitably find his submissions very funny. any and all unmentioned monthly music thread and song game regulars. daisy buchanan. anix

plenty of people should still send me songs even if you are not listed here, especially if you feel as though you have some distant handle on the sort of music i like or just like recommending things. you should only not send me songs if you are only doing it to, like, be a problem, or propagandize opposition to the reunification of korea/ireland/carolina

Spoiler: NITTIES AND GRITTIES

your score for each category primarily gets determined by two concepts: 7 points for how much i like the song* (categories 1 and 2 are deliberately placed to help you think through this) and 3 points for Categorical Fittance (or "catfit" for short), i.e. how well i think it embodies the category i laid out. provisionally i might award further points for a particularly brilliant or obliquely effective catfit, or maybe just extra points for a song i really like.

my familiarity with the song also affects the score. in particular, if it is totally unfamiliar, i will give it 0.8 extra points, with a sliding scale down to 0 points for something i definitely know. additionally, i will place hard caps on the possible enjoyment points of something i am already Epically Familiar with - if you submit something from one of these albums or something in this thread, you will most likely not get more than 3 points worth of enjoyment. i would say i'm -very- familiar with most of those artists, so like don't expect to get more than 0 unfamiliarity points even if you are submitting a B-side or something. i dunno. oh also don't just resubmit the example songs.

your submissions should make it easy for me to anonymize who submitted each song - check the submission guidelines to see how that works. i will also be playing song game with each of the submissions - if i correctly guess that you submitted your song after listening, you'll be deducted 0.1 point. yes this is an absolutely trivial amount.

i will drop the lowest score you get, which means

you can just not submit a song for one of them if you're stumped

. otherwise, all your scores are added up, and then those are the final standings. you also get 2.0/1.5/1.0 bonus points for being 1st/2nd/3rd.

i will try to process categories on a weekly or biweekly basis, meaning that the results of the game get dished out over the course of about 3 months. wow! i'll do a big dramatic playing of each category in discord, as well as posting the results here.

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*Warning: Extreme nit and Unbridled grit appears in the following footnote. so usually i rate things out of 5, except also something like 95% of music fits in the range of 3-5 under my usual measure, so i am opting to blow that range up to 4 instead of 2. so like if i would usually give something a 3.3, that becomes a 3.6 because that .3 above the 3 gets twice as big

Spoiler: SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

you can send me things via mafiascum PM, or discord, or whatever. mafiascum is ideal bc there's no video previews. ideally it is in the form:

1. [youtube link]
2. [youtube link]
3. i am skipping this category
4. [soundcloud link]
...

i will be trying to keep it a secret from myself who submitted which song until the reveals happen. youtube links are great, because i can't see the name of the song in your dm and remember that you sent it. anything that has that characteristic and can be played by the rythm bot in discord. don't worry about region restrictions for the youtube links. i love bandcamp but those links would be a problem for this.

you can think of shorter songs as being a courtesy to me. i reserve the right to not finish excessively long songs that don't really work for me

feel free to update submisisons before the deadline

Spoiler: CATEGORY 1: SONGS I LIKE

in this category, quite simply, the catfit points just amplify the enjoyment points. so i'll try to help you figure out what songs i like!

these are my favorite albums. these are my favorite songs. (dont submit those exact ones.)

i like songs that are experimental, or artsy, or present me with something i haven't experienced before. here is a song that did that recently. heres another

i like songs that make interesting use of electronics, especially when they result in a distinctly human feeling. this song does that. (NOISE WARNING) this song does that too.

i like songs that feel like they have a lot of moving parts. this song does. this song does too.

i like songs that are emotive. here's a song that's very tense and sorrowful. here's a song that's very loving.

i like songs that are either very active or rather sparse. here's an active song. here's a more sparse song.

i like pop music

Spoiler: CAT 2: SOMETHING I NORMALLY DONT LIKE

theres a lot of different stuff i like but theres still a few sorts of music i tend to dislike. pop punk, regular punk, post-punk, pre-punk, "emo", nu metal, edm?, the great trifecta of british 70s rock music (david bowie, pink floyd, queen), annoying man singers, things that are accompanied by a video of anime girls singing the song. each of these things has exceptions though and i'm always excited when they spring up.

examples:

• beach bunny - blame game (pop punk?)
  
• sparks - this town aint big enough for the both of us (this is like queen)
  
• baths - yeoman (theoretically annoying male vocalist).

Spoiler: CAT 3: INSCRUTABLE

send something that strongly sounds like it's got something going on that you don't understand. maybe an inside joke that only exists between the band members and a small amount of their twitter followers, or some undergirding musical structure that is doomed to go over your head, some lyrics that clearly mean something but are also indecipherable, an instrumentation that seems like it's provoking an emotion that's not installed in your brain.

examps:

• cocteau twins - pitch the baby
  
• dean blunt & inga copeland - 11
  
• neurosis & jarboe - within
  
• boards of canada - telepath

Spoiler: CAT 4: PAIRED VOCALISTS

i like when theres two singers in a song. especially when they work well with each other. send me a pair of vocalists that have really good chemistry. (your song can have more than two vocalists in it, generally i will be judging based on how well two vocalists work together. the vocalists can also be the same person recording themself multiple times)

xamples:

• fleetwood mac - i dont wanna know
  
• cocts - iceblink luck
  
• 무키무키만만수 - 내가 고백을 하면 깜짝 놀랄거야

Spoiler: CAT 5: CAT IMAGES

theres these two pictures of cats from online.



i want you to send me a song that is evocative of ONE OF THESE CATS. i want to listen to your song while looking at the two cat pictures and think "ohh yes, it's that one on the left." OR "that cat on the right would like this song."

left cat examples:

• boards of canada - smokes quantity
  
• duster - i'm lost (NOT due to the album cover)

right cat examples:

• boards of canada - you could feel the sky
  
• mitski - two slow dancers

Spoiler: CAT 6: VIVID PLACE

good music usually makes my minds eye run rampant. some songs in particular do a good job of painting this picture of a place, a teeming city, a vast landscape, a gathering of people - either by describing them well, or featuring a swath of instrumentation that is coded with a broadness of feeling, or some other magic thing. send me a song like that

ex's:

• joanna newsom - sapokanikan
  
• mary lattimore - chop on the climbout
  
• jamie xx & romy - loud places

Spoiler: CAT 7: GOOD DRUMS

send me a song with some good drumming in it. oh you don't pay attention to drums in your music? tough break. you should start doing that. drum machinery is fine, but i strongly prefer something with an actual drum sort of sound rather than a general beat for this category. i really like it when they open and close the hi hat.

• big thief - strange
  
• weather report - cucumber slumber
  
• led zeppelin fool in the rain

Spoiler: CAT 8: TIRED

give me something lethargic, a song that feels like it wants to summon more energy but is unable to. something that is slower that has feelings of physical wear, like textural imperfections in the instruments.

zamples:

• duster - copernicus crater
  
• my bloody valentine - to here knows when
  
• slauson malone - the wake pt 3 & 2 (see pages 87, 58 and 48)

i will leave (expired on 2021-03-08 23:59:00) to submit some songs to me

PLAYERZ:

1. chickadee busts thru the finish line!!!!
   
2. sirius 9121
   
3. MUSHSHAGANA
   
4. hellbooks
   
5. PJ
   
6. Ariel
   
7. shaft.ed
   
8. Davsto
   
9. caledfwitch
   
10. N
    
11. SleepyKrew
    
12. tris
    
13. GeorgeBailey
    
14. Cheetory6
    
15. Chevre

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oh i dont know enough songs to do this, not that you care :(

it can be an exercise where you take the 8 songs you know and see what permutation among the categories would work best. Itll be fun i promise

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errata for the "tough luck" clause in cat 7: if you have absolutely 0 access to any good drumming and need to fill out the category, you can blindly submit something from the general jazz canon and have pretty decent odds.

also editing in bonus points for the top 3 scorers in each category

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actually its a band

as long as i start picturing the internet in the way that one would picture a place then sure itd work

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yes

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8 bangers strategy would be fine but i dont think it would be expected to score higher than category attempts

that said its something you can surely fall back on if theres certain categorios that seem unworkable

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dope !

also want to make clear that the 8x billy joel strategy is also ok

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In the paired vocalists category, what about songs where it’s hard and/or impossible to believe it’s all one vocalist? I am realizing I have more of those than paired vocalists, and my prior submission was subpar as those things go.

that would probably be fine - if you mean that there's more than one track of the same vocalist thats totally fine

a bit more than a week left for submissions !

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probably going 2 xtend the dl a little bit since it seems there are a handful of interested parties who havent been able 2 submit yet

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i will do that but i will also give a 0.0035 bonus point incentive to get people to submit after the deadline

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for accomplishing such a feat you would be awarded 0.0035 bonus points

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oh I didnt do this
I came up with a single song and then that was it
I will un-participate I'm sorry for wasting ur time

u can still submit

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going to say the epic final deadline is 48 hours from now !!!!!! (expired on 2021-03-12 22:13:45)

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the most epic deadline is me retconning the deadline as passed right before you submitted

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he looks like a kpop idol in that thumbnail

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i plan to do categories week by week so the first reveal will probably be next weekend or sooner

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we will begin with category 3 !!!!! it'll go 3->4->...->8->2->1

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wait this is in mish mash so i can just edit peoples posts thats so funny

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the first reveal for cat 3 will be on

sunday (21st) at 2:00 PM central US time.

so (expired on 2021-03-21 14:00:00).

i plan to do 5 reveals that are in the afternoons here so that epic american and epic british people can get them, 2 in the evening so that epic american and epic australian (/others around that time segment) can get them, and then one at an absurd time in the morning so that british and australian people can theoretically both listen to them

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i think that the forgetting of the submissions is like a crucial part of the fun of the reveals

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semiphotographic

money add then multiply

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revealing on discord in an hour !

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oh fuck i said sunday. WE SHALL DO SUNDAY

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i am like not able to do it at that time on sunday

SUNDAY AT 4PM INSTEAD OF 2PM

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whereabouts in discord is this occurring

i will be posting my statements about the songs in the board-game-song-game channel and we shall be listening to the songs in the listen to music voice channel

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oh well i can't get onto discord for some reason

i can try to sing along with the songs loudly enough for you to be able to hear them

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agh

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CATEGORY 3 REVEAL !!!

Spoiler: 1st place: CHICKADEE

soko - first love never die

ENJOYMENT POINTS: 6.1 [4.5 wd/5]
CATFIT POINTS: 2.1
UNFAMILIARITY POINTS: 0.8
SUSPECTED USER: ARIEL
ACTUAL USER: chickadee
1st place: 2.0

11.0

really great one. two things in particular propel the enjoyment up a lot here, which are the stylistic vocalist and the b-section with a tempo change. there's a lot of feeling induced by the subtle and pensive speech - thinking, for example, of the way that the end of the phrase "i will never love again" is carved off, and it ends up with a sort of upward inflection in the melody which feels keenly like an unsatisfying conclusion rather than an open-ended statement. that tragic feeling is backed up by the tempo changes, which add a sudden burning of energy as if to provide a new perspective, at which point the chorus just restates the song's premise. the song grapples with the category a little bit since it is laid out pretty explicitly what she means by it, and the composition of the song is generally straightforward, but at the same time there's some combination of intangible things that make this song really fascinating to me, which is kind of exactly what i'm looking for here. it's mind-invading, it makes me feel personally at fault for this woman's tragedy, in spite of its simple and innocent presentation.

Spoiler: 2nd place: DAVSTO

can - vitamin c

ENJOYMENT POINTS: 5.6 [4.3/5]
CATFIT POINTS: 2.2
UNFAMILIARITY POINTS: 0.7
SUSPECTED USER: GeorgeBailey ?
ACTUAL USER: davsto.
2nd place: 1.5

10.0

i had given can a shot more than a year ago with their other big album and not gotten much from it. this one was good. it's a really snappy and emphatic song construction that builds a strong feeling of expectation and necessity to be picking up all of it, which makes the few missing pieces of comprehension seem quite dire. i think the drums are doing a lot of that conveying. the singer has an accent (iirc can is supposed to be "krautrock" but this person sounds french???) but it also seems like i'm generally capable of hearing what they're saying, i'm just convinced that the line is "you're losing, you're losing your flebicy". this has the davsto sound and era but something in my gut tells me GB likes can. i wanna say i saw it in his last.fm or something? it's not cheating if i'm not sure

Spoiler: 3rd place: CLEATORY6

deerhoof - this is god speaking

ENJOYMENT POINTS: 5.0 [4.0/5]
CATFIT POINTS: 2.2
UNFAMILIARITY POINTS: 0.8
SUSPECTED USER: MUSHSHAGANA ?
ACTUAL USER: cleatory6
3rd place: 1.0

9.0

neat little song. the construction here nearly nails what i am feeling like with the cat - a simple little thing, gentle and playful percussion accompanying a concerned conversation consisting of bwoaa bwaa bwa. it just naturally raises questions to me, like, should i be focusing more to try to parse this out? is the playful atmosphere trying to distract me from something i should be trying to draw info from? unfortunately it got dinged a little bit of points for the title, which i read and think "oh! ok :)" & it weakens the disinformativity of it all. i appreciate a shorter song.

Spoiler: 4th place: ARIEL

william fitzsimmons - the tide pulls from the moon

ENJOYMENT POINTS: 5.2 [4.1/5]
CATFIT POINTS: 1.4
UNFAMILIARITY POINTS: 0.8
SUSPECTED USER: davsto ??
ACTUAL USER: ariel

7.4

this song gets a lot of usefulness between its conflict of a tense presentation vs. a reassuring presentation. the singer has this gentle massage of a voice, that often has a really delicate and reassuring vocal harmony backing it up, but there's also a really fundamental uneasiness in whats being said. backing up the vocalist is what sounds like a combination of easy listening pop music and the centerfold guitar, which has a tense riff pattern mirroring a bunch of epic 2000s emo music. it leaves me unsure moment to moment how to be reacting to it exactly. i do like the singer a good bit.

Spoiler: tied 5th place: TRIS

regina spektor - 20 years of snow

ENJOYMENT POINTS: 5.4 [4.2/5]
CATFIT POINTS: 1.0
UNFAMILIARITY POINTS: 0.5
SUSPECTED USER: chickadee
ACTUAL USER: tris

6.9

regina spektor is someone i respect a lot as being really creative in subtle ways that give her a really notable songwriting character in spite of a lot of conventional stylistic choices. the piano has a really elaborate but extemporaneous-feeling sound, which makes it sound a little bit uncanny when she plays the same pattern twice in a row, sort of like two perfectly identical plants right next to each other. there's also a few moments where she seems to be saying multiple different things, including this moment at 0:35 where she sort of seems to be doing a polyphonic throat-singing sort of thing. that said, there's still a pretty clearly evocative style here, it seems to be written somewhat as a stream of consciousness but i also feel like i'm in tune with what the consciousness is. she also kind of sounds like fiona apple here who i would call a powerful force in anti-inscrutability

Spoiler: tied 5th place: SHAFTY

jan wilhelm mortenson, eva nordwall, knut sonstevold - unisono

ENJOYMENT POINTS: 5.0 [4/5]
CATFIT POINTS: 1.1
UNFAMILIARITY POINTS: 0.8
SUSPECTED USER: tris ???
ACTUAL USER: shaft.ed

6.9

this tradition of academic experimental music is something i would generally struggle to find particularly inscrutable in the spirit of this cat. in particular i usually want to take them at face value - this song is called unisono, and so i imagine its about these two epic performers that are fighting about their unisonity. so they just angrily and sporadically go to town on their instruments at each other. 0.6 of the catfit points here come from the dual presence of some sort of plucked sound as well as a typical harpsichord sound. maybe i'm not familiar with all the ways you can play a harpsichord or maybe there are multiple performers but i am compelled to visualize somebody mashing on the keys and then like instantly fluttering over to the bare rear of the instrument where they trill away on the strings directly. this is a powerful deconstructive force. anyway it is quite the engaging listen

Spoiler: 7th place: PJ

shugo tokumaru - tracking elevator

ENJOYMENT POINTS: 6.0 [4.5/5]
CATFIT POINTS: 0.3
UNFAMILIARITY POINTS: 0.5
SUSPECTED USER: PJ
ACTUAL USER: PJ -0.1

6.7

what i think happened here is that PJ submitted a song from an artist whose musicianship he knows i like, and it's supposed to fit to the cat because i don't understand the language. which is classic. i do like it a lot. it sounds like he's prepared us this huge obstacle course, but is then calmly leading us through all of it with these couple of reassuring repeated melodic phrases. it's quite pretty, smile-inducing. however in spite of its grandeur it struggles with the cat - almost everything in the song feels comfortably within reach. it gets 0.3 points based on a bunch of moments where it seems like it will make some sort of change and then doesn't.

Spoiler: 8th place: GeorgeBailey

the fiery furnaces - benton harbor blues

ENJOYMENT POINTS: 4.0 [3.5/5]
CATFIT POINTS: 1.7
UNFAMILIARITY POINTS: 0.7
SUSPECTED USER: cheetory6 ?
ACTUAL USER: georgebailey !!

6.4

though i don't usually find their music very interesting i do have to give the FF's credit as an act committed to the art of the weird perceptual journey. i like the little electronic organ hook, and it'll do a carefree switch into a different pattern for a few moments that seems to make sense musically but also create the feeling of an unanswered question. i know about eleanor friedberger growing up somewhat close to where i did but she sounds somewhat convincingly unlike a native speaker here. there's little things in the song like the reverse-speech moment that don't work wonders but add to the vibe for sure.

Spoiler: tied 9th place: SLEAPS

tsunscreen - one-winged ogre

ENJOYMENT POINTS: 4.8 [3.9/5]
CATFIT POINTS: 0.8
UNFAMILIARITY POINTS: 0.5
SUSPECTED USER: sk
actual user: sk -0.1

6.0

this is another one of several problematic entries in this cat where there's like a self-evident fact of what the song is that prevents me from feeling like i don't get it. its a mashup of all star and some kind of epic song from final fantasy. it works pretty well as a song though. this gets pretty much all 0.8 of its catfit points from the rambling and pained character taken on by steve harwell here - i can't help but feel a bit uneasy hearing his voice brutally coerced into the orchestral rhythmic patterns of the final fantasy song.

Spoiler: tied 9th place: JUN

candy claws - night ela (mystic thing)

ENJOYMENT POINTS: 5.2 [4.1/5]
CATFIT POINTS: 0.9
UNFAMILIARITY POINTS: 0.0
SUSPECTED USER: jun -0.1
6.0

struggling with how exactly to score this. on the one hand the sheer vibe insularity here earns it at least a bit of catfit points. on the other hand i remember listening to this album and generally letting any sort of thematic content soar over my head bc i was just so distracted by how fun and good the music was. winnie told me at some point later that there's a whole concept album situation here about this girl and her seal and i was like huh????? like it didn't even register to me that the album could have been harboring such a thing. i just like the voices and the jungley production of it all. interesting track choice

POST REVEAL ANNOTATION: i had it at 4.0/5 enjoyment initially, and 0.2 unfamiliarity. i wanted to move it up to 4.1 enjoyment. davsto suggested to take points away from the unfamiliarity score to balance it out, which ended up making sense bc of this artist being listed in the OP of the thread (cat 1 example)

Spoiler: 11th place: HELLBOOKS

Роза Рымбаева - Арай

ENJOYMENT POINTS: 4.6 [3.8/5]
CATFIT POINTS: 0.2
UNFAMILIARITY POINTS: 0.8
SUSPECTED USER: hellbooks ??????????????
actual user: hellbooks -0.1

5.5

i thot this sounded like kate nv telefon and so i went to that song and the top youtube comment linked this song. guessing winnie just on that basis - sorry if i am correct. this sounds like a sunshiny pop song with a clear construction. i guess i don't understand the words of being said bc i dont speak russian, but thats not really what i had in mind - i'm not doomed to fail to understand it, if i rly wanted to i could learn russian. giving .2 points for the slightest tinge of an unreality feeling in the brief dissonant vocal harmony at the end of the choruses. the song is very pleasant.

Spoiler: 12th place: N

mashd n kutcher + dan andrews - get on the beers

ENJOYMENT POINTS: 4.4 [3.7/5]
catfit points: 0.1
UNFAMILIARITY POINTS: 0.7
SUSPECTED USER: N
actual user: N -0.1

5.3

pretty entertaining. doesn't really work for the cat for me because although it's a goofy little song it doesn't give me the impression that there's anything going on that i'm missing - presumably its a bunch of people talking about corona edited to sound like they're having fun and talking about getting crunk. the ole hippie sabotage switcheroo. moreover the way the song is repeated a couple times makes it hard to feel like anything is missed. i like the sound of the way the guy says "beers" - after a while it sounds like "bees" which is why i gave you 0.1 catfit points. but then i took it away from the unfamiliarity points bc of the trump samples. ain't that just the way.

Spoiler: 13th place: MUSHSHAGANA

ed rush, optical, ryme tyme - long stay

ENJOYMENT POINTS: 3.6 [3.3/5]
CATFIT POINTS: 0.3
UNFAMILIARITY POINTS: 0.8
SUSPECTED USER: shaft.ed ???
actual user: mushshagana

4.7

there's something to be said abt the constant tense and fast energy being confounding for this song, but it's hard to feel like things aren't clear when i spend a bunch of time listening to a sort of electronic production that just sounds a lot like stuff that i've listened to. it kind of feels like the rapper bought out 5 minutes of production time but then wasn't able to make use of all of it.

Spoiler: 14th place: SIRIUS9121

rachie ? - the disappearance of hatsune miku (english cover)

ENJOYMENT POINTS: 2.3 [2.3/5]
CATFIT POINTS: 0.7
UNFAMILIARITY POINTS: 0.8
SUSPECTED USER: sirius9121
ACTUAL USER: sirius9121 -0.1

3.7

there's something to be said about making something inscrutable to me by like repelling me away from the effort of pulling meaning from it. hatsune miku is this concept that strongly does not desire my attention and this song seems to be a flurry of presentation about how things suck for her, which is like something that i have no desire to opt into. it seems like there's an elaborate universe being constructed here which i respect however i generally did not like the song.

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hemememem.... umumumum.... if u can throw 2gether a submission of the other categories in the next few days then i can slot u in

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its ok i forgot too

it was more like i realized i liked the song more than i thot i did while it was playing for the reveal so i came up w a way to penalize it so that it wouldn't change the ordering

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hemememem.... umumumum.... if u can throw 2gether a submission of the other categories in the next few days then i can slot u in

ok! I'm in it 2 win it and I will get you those entries tomorrow night! I'm sorry for missing the deadline!

I feel like I'm going to fail -- our tastes overlap so much that it's hard to find songes and it seems like everyone else did a really good job -- I don't think I'd heard of a single artist from today's round. Whereas I'm like "have you listened to lord huron they're so trendý"

its ok !!!! excited to see what you produce

i have not listened to lord huron !!!!!!! moreover people should generally not be ashamed if they submitted epic pop songs / are chevre and looking to submit epic pop songs bc there's plenty of them that i am not familiar with and would love a reason to epically pore over them for grading purposes

That Ed Rush song was also a definite weak submission on my part egh

i looked back at your reasons for it after grading it & i think your idea made sense, its just hard for me with that cat in particular to -discover- aspects of something that are inscrutable over the week of bouncing a song around. this was also a problem with hellby's entry i believe

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yes i suppose one would expect a baroque thing from those instruments - that hadnt occurred to me though

i guess the thing about this is that the whole construction of the song immediately makes me think of it as art music and so i just naturally look for the creative artistic choices in it, which automatically creates an affirmative character for it. like i would envision the artists hearing whatever interpretation i offered and being like "oh that's interesting, i see where you're coming from!! :)" maybe i should have helped you out by picturing them as snooty french academics with mustaches that would be like "oh hon hon hon.... but the messáge is right there in front of you and you eáre missing ít!!!". i had noticed and enjoyed the thing where they're mostly in unison, or closely imitating each other, but then would desynchronize aggressively at moments - it felt like two predatory creatures stalking around each other and occasionally making lunges to attack

don't think i noticed the note bending of the bassoon though. thats definitely something that coulda made me go "i have no idea how you would do that." other than that idk if there was a way i would have given it that much more inscrutability points, but i probably undersold you for the enjoyment points, it was a rly interesting song. great sub in any case, was rly excited to look up the submitter in my spreadsheet and see

shafted ??

i think i already tenuously recommended it to you deep in the bowels of one of the monthly music posts that were hard for you to read, but i wonder if you would like the coin coin series by matana roberts

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another thing i should have done is given you provisional points for that name "knut sönstevold"

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i listened to it on spotify where knut was credited as one of the artists

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reveal tomorrow at 2pm my time !

(expired on 2021-03-28 14:00:00)

[schadd_]

going 2 start soon ! !!!! !!!!

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CATEGORY 4 REVEAL !!!

Spoiler: GRAND SLAM WARNING!!! a beloved mafiascum user takes 1st here.

elis & tom - aguas de março

enjoyment points: 6.6 [4.8/5]
catfit points: 3
unfamiliarity points: 0.7
sus user: hellbooks
act user: shafty :))
first place: 2.0

12.3

total grand slam, might be the highest score we see in this activity. i hope its not. ive been rather into MPB lately and yet there are still plenty of the greatest hits that ive never heard, so this is great

gosh, where to start. it has that feeling of all the good bossa nova where it's breezy and comfortable and yet every component feels so deliberate and impactful - piano and guitar take on an understated role as the third and fourth wheel of the vocalists, with their own cute little melodic character that nevertheless doesn't distract from the main act.

it doesn't come naturally to me to give a 3, i feel like a perfect score for music in general is a goofy thing that i don't really want to give often, or maybe at all. but for catfit points in particular i feel like there's times i should just round up. their voices together are just so wildly uplifting at every moment, twirling back and forth up and down with each other, calling and responding, all the great shit. i think it's purely their chemistry that makes it work - from what i gather the song was written originally for a single vocalist, and that reflects in the way they always either alternate or sing together in octaves. they just obviously love the act of singing together, especially apparent in the last moments where they go word by word.

i am guessing hellbooks as the user here purely on principle - though theres medium equity of this coming from her. in particular if she submitted this she's like serving herself the softest softball of all time here & would be in dire need of the -0.1 point. otherwise, no idea what brilliant individual brought this to the table. george bailey??? shafted??? davsto??? actually maybe its shafted bc cibo matto seems to have covered the song. good thing i already made my decision on principle bc i think that would be cheating. [later note after i did more grading: oh winnie submitted dobu dobu. its got tenniscoats in it. maybe there just happened to be someone else that likes tenniscoats - still not changing my answer]

Spoiler: 2nd place: tris

jad fair + tenniscoats + norman blake - dobu dobu

enjoyment points: 5.8 [4.4/5]
catfit points: 2.5
unfamiliarity points: 0.8
sus user: george bailey
act user: tris!!!!!
2nd place: 1.5

10.6

yeah this is the shit i like, the sort of outside take i'm always looking for. there's an elaborate narrative produced exclusively by the dual presence of the vocalists i think - if either of them were doing it individually it would sound interesting but maybe kind of idle, not fully providing the depth which is lacking from the lyrical Restriction which seems to be in place. but as it is it just feels much more real, like there is an event which provokes slightly different reactions - it sounds like two little animals that found a meteorite that landed and are skulking around trying to figure out what it is (the answer is that theres a alien in it) as well as monitoring the behavior and reaction of the other one. hugely into the subtle bass swell towards the end.

Spoiler: 3rd place: hellbooks

akmu - every little thing

**akmu - every little thing**
enjoyment points: 5.8 [4.4/5]
catfit points: 2.2
unfamiliarity points: 0.8
sus user: cleatory 6 ????? ?????
act user: winnie :)
3rd place: 1.0

9.8

a lot to like here. i suspect that this is two people who intend to have the lead vocalist versions of themselves, but are also separately recording a bunch of backing vocals. it's a kind of funny dynamic at times - at about 1:20 for the phrase "담율 난 일쌍을" (sorry for butchering) there's a nice backing vocal by the epic man in the equation, but then suddenly he comes into the forefront (again i am assuming that its just two people, which might be epically wrong) for the next phrase, which is like an interesting identity of the backing vocal vs. the lead vocal. i sort of imagine it as two epic friends talking about all their shit and they're backed up by separate instances of themselves which represent the nice things they do for each other. in any case the meat and potatoes of the song is an endlessly fun and playful paired vocal, so this one is a winner (also its got the good earlier-kpop style elaborate instrumentation/song construction). i am fortunately spared from having to vote for winnie here because of two good reasons which will become clear later on, but this is like exactly her style of course (actually after everything is said and done this seems to be hers, especilly since i am at a loss for whose else it would be)

Spoiler: 4th place: jun

hades soundtrack - in the blood

enjoyment points: 5.6 [4.3/5]
catfit points: 2.3
unfamiliarity points: 0.8 and also i will never play the game or listen to more of the soundtrack
sus user: jun
act user: jun -0.1

8.6

a really good contrast in voices, a full and dramatic singer coexisting with a more ethereal vocalist singing in head voice. the song kind of has the trapping of video gamey music but the vocalists are just so emotional and genuine, especially the one in head voice - both vocalists are clearly audible (most of the time in spite of a pretty wildly active backing instrumentation), and they blend very well, with one vocalist giving it a full sound and the other one doing more tenuous vibrato and adding more character. it is simply very chilling. good sub ! :)

Spoiler: 5th place: cheeto

spiral beach - kind of beast

enjoyment points: 5.4 [4.2/5]
catfit points: 2.3
unfamiliarity points: 0.8
sus user: shaft.ed
act user: cleootyr !!!!!!

8.5

really really great example of the sort of cool melodic stuff you can pull off with a crisp vocal pair. just that phrase "what kind of beast am i? well nobody knows" has this really neat thing where the two vocalists are sort of tracing out the same melody but one of them stays in a higher pitch whereas the other one traces it downward - has this neat feeling of tumbling and unfurling. also the basic dynamic of one person asks the question and the two answer together is all cool and cinematic. outside of that the vocalists just work well together, produce a really tangible atmosphere of a sort of excited nervousness. the name of the song is funny, kind of suggesting the use of the word "beast" as an adjective. i have no particular reason to believe this is shafted, he is just the last person to get attached to a song.

note here ^: i am listening to what i think is the correct version now, and the production is more intense in a good way but i think the vocals are clouded out a little bit (its harder to make out the thing i mentioned for the chorus). so im just gonna call it a wash

Spoiler: 6th place: mushshagana

loathe - aggressive evolution

enjoyment points: 6.0 [4.5/5]
catfit points: 1.6
unfamiliarity points: 0.8
sus user: mushshagana
act user: mushshagana -0.1

8.3

guitar tone and drumming are so dope here, and on top of that there's just a grab bag of wild elements of the production that make the whole 3 and a half minutes so fast and engaging. catfit is interesting here - i would call this pretty obviously mushshagana's sub & i think she described it as having one vocalist that sounds like multiple vocalists. there's moments where there is simultaneity, so probably two tracks of the same vocalist. thinking about 1:50 ish - they do the growl and hiss vocals over top each other, which is surely something i've heard before but the sound/blending is really dope here, like a growl that's backed up by sharp fangs. the dual character of the song also has to be worth points imo, and the idea of it being the same person in the verses vs. the chorus is actually really interesting - if they're like performing it live does this person have to switch on a dime from the intense growling to the epic linkin park sustained tone ? that sounds like something that would make your trachea fall out. i can't tell if there's harmony in the chorus but i can hear two tracks of vocal there as well - just an interesting effect where i can hear the dramatic ending consonants of words twice. most of the points here come from just being a really interesting take on the category idea.

Spoiler: 7th place: davsto

caravan - the dog the dog he's at it again

enjoyment points: 5.4 [4.2/5]
catfit points: 1.8
unfamiliarity points: 0.8
sus user: davsto
act user: davsto -0.1

7.9

this is another one where the instrumentation works well in support of the vocalists better than the vocalists work together - but again they are good. i can imagine the two vocalists animately singing their piece and like doing a hand gesture about it in sync with each other. i think they might be brothers or something ? in the chorus that goes like "oh, medicine gone (?) it's comin on strong" they do a good contrast in melody, where the main vocalist is doing a dramatic downward melody while the other guy just holds a note. which is backed up by a bass swell which is really good. this is also another one where the actual moments of vocal harmony are the clear minority for the song, and there's also a section at the end of more vocalists, though i think it's two separate instances of the pair of vocalists, which begs to be scored as "double catfit". also that part is just good

Spoiler: 8th place: ariel

oh wonder - technicolor beat

enjoyment points: 5.2 [4.1/5]
catfit points: 1.6
unfamiliarity points: 0.8
sus user: ariel
act user: ariel -0.1

7.5

this is a great example of a song that has all sorts of reasons i should be dogmatically giving it low points but of course all those reasons fail due to the song just being, like, good. for the entirety of the song the two vocalists are singing statically in octaves, and both of them are taking on the same breathy/moody tone. i noticed that about halfway through and thought "well maybe there is some epic ending section where it all breaks open." and there was an epic ending section, but they just did the same thing in multiple tracks. it's like there's an executive producer who wants to add some diversity to the vocals but there was a contractual obligation that the vocalists are always singing the same melody glued together and probbly holding hands. anyway, as i said, it's good anyway. the voices are really nice together, the rest of the song is kind of standard fare moody pop music but with a handful of interesting of production choices which is the key to getting me to like it. if there weren't an obvious song from them elsewhere i would pick jun for this 9 times out of 10. nice lyrics.

Spoiler: 9th place: pj

kana-boon + necry talkie - naimononedari (first take)

enjoyment points: 5.0 [4.0/5]
catfit points: 1.6
unfamiliarity points: 0.8
sus user: peg
act user: pj -0.1

7.3


guitar & drumming r good here. the moments of vocal interplay are just a little bit scant - there's a bunch of instrumental time as well as phrases where the two vocalists just sort of alternate on the same thing. but there are precious moments where they are a nice tapestry together - i think the speed of it works with their style, it feels busy in a nice way. i like when the guy is singing higher than the girl, or otherwise when the function of the harmony is different (sometimes they sing in unison/octave, sometimes they dont)

Spoiler: 10th place: n

doredos - lucky day

enjoyment points: 5.2 [4.1/5]
catfit points: 1.3
unfamiliarity points: 0.8
sus user: N
act user: N -0.1

7.2

this was an epic eurovision video that isnt available in my country so i am working from the spotify version which seems to be mostly the same ?? but maybe there are critical differences. you can file an appeal after the reveal if so and i'll try to find a way to listen to the version you wanted. the harmony is great here. it is clearly quite several people, though it has the concerted purposefulness of a smaller harmony - there's a dominating tension that cuts thru all of it. i have to dogmatically take off points though. really fun song in any case.

Spoiler: 11th place: sirius9121

poppin party / minato yukina - sosei no aquarion

enjoyment points: 5.0 [4.0/5]
catfit points: 1.3
unfamiliarity points: 0.8
sus user: sirius9121
act user: sirius9121 -0.1

7.0


kind of a funny pairing of vocalists here - one of them sounds to me like they're doing a sort of artificial voice to sound like an anime character, and one of them doesnt - i think that makes it a little hard for the two of them to have a shared vocal character, since the first person sort of dominates the timbre and drowns out the second person (especially when there's just a lot else that's going on musically). you get the baseline point for having there be 2 vocalists and then an extra bit because they do perfectly fine together and there's neat harmony moments (though it's hard to say if there's extra voices coming in?). i think the choruses are great - the impressive thing here is a little bit more so the relationship btwn the bass and the vocals than the relationship btwn the two vocalists - it starts out with this really sharp melodic motion and then the bass starts to do a counter-melody sort of thing.

Spoiler: 12th place: chickadee

said the whale - a cold night close to the end

enjoyment points: 4.8 [3.9/5]
catfit points: 1.0
unfamiliarity points: 0.8
sus user: tris ?????
act user: chickadee

6.6

i guess i have to figure out how much im gonna penalize 3 or more vocalists. it's actually kind of pernicious in this song - it feels like the song is about a relationship between two people, so it kind of, i dunno, takes some of the wind away when there's three people? the harmony is nice, but it has the unmistakable feeling of three people contributing to a whole rather than two people contributing to each other. in any case, the lyrics are very touching. there's an extent to which the two non-lead vocalists work as a single entity paired with the lead vocalist, as there's a contrast when they come in which enhances the meaning a little bit, drawing out the loving and companionate nature of it.

Spoiler: 13th place: chevvie

andy hull robert mcdowell daniel radcliffe paul dano - montage

enjoyment points: 4.8 [3.9/5]
catfit points: 0.9
unfamiliarity points: 0.8
sus user: chev ??
act user: chev sorry -0.1

6.4

there's a lot of vocal interplay here that's really pleasant, but it really sounds like a cacophany here - sounds to me like there are at least 4 vocalists and it's hard for me to make out chemistry or even recognize the character of a particular person's voice consistently. it's admirable though - a lot of different things are done melodically by all the vocalists, and on the other hand it's quite satisfying when they all converge like "are we falling in love?" at 1:30 (for example). neat song for sure. actually i get the vague impression that any of these vocalists would be annoying individually but the annoying traits get masked when there's a bunch of them together. this could have worked well in cat 2, also it makes it a foil to the ghost mice song lol. i think winnie would like this one

Spoiler: 14th place: gerogerigerige bailey

ghost mice - oh me oh me

enjoyment points: 3.8 [3.4/5]
catfit points: 1.3
unfamiliarity points: 0.8
sus user: chickadee ?????
act user: george bailey

5.9

i guess the thorn in the side of this one is that i do not like the vocalists very much. in a shocking twist of affairs, i think i'm a little bit more annoyed by the woman vocalist although that might just be because of the moments at the end alone with her & you can hear how she pronounces "ghost" with 3 syllables. there's also this way that the two of them are both crystal clear in while they are in unison and that is kind of not to their advantage unfortunately. moreover they are just singing the same melody separated by octave the whole time. that said, they're unmistakably better together - there's a feeling that they enjoy being paired with each other [ursula le guin the dispossessed voice] and their voices complement kind of nicely

Spoiler: 15th place: sleepy crew

final fantasy fourteen - garlean leader theme

enjoyment points: 2.9 [2.9/5]
catfit points: 0
unfamiliarity points: 0.8
sus user: sleapycrew
act user: selpy kreu -.1

3.6

this song proved to be not very exciting - most of the instruments are not very expressive, some seem to be crummy synth imitations of an instrument (especially the drums). tragically there does not seem to be a vocal component here. i might have provisionally given like 0.2 points if there was something intriguing that got me to wonder why you put this in. anyway. i have a guess for the theme now - you might start losing unfamiliarity points as we go on

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listened to the cibo matto version of shafteds song - was surprised that they constructed it in a mostly similar way. it would have probably still been strong in enjoyment but i think the chemistry of the vocalists would have dipped below 2, it just didnt have that same magic positive energy of the elis & tom ver. also it's just funny to hear the lower part done by what sounds like a slightly bored californian / frat boy

[schadd_]

• cat 5 will be revealed in the evening my time on saturday, so that the gmt++ people get to sit in for one of them. so that'll be (expired on 2021-04-03 22:30:00)
  
• individuals who were rumbling about doing their own walrus: you should get going with that!!! in particular, if you have a long enough signup period, then mine will be like done almost when yours is starting. ALSO theres like not really a reason not to do them simultaneously anyway, we can just like figure out how to not do the reveals at the same time or maybe come up with a fun way we can do reveals at the same time e.g. alternate our songs.
  
• once you start your own walrus you are free and also obligated to link it in this thread (so that i will see it)

[schadd_]

Spoiler: GRAND SLAM WARNING!!! a beloved mafiascum user takes 1st here.

elis & tom - aguas de março

enjoyment points: 6.6 [4.8/5]
catfit points: 3
unfamiliarity points: 0.7
sus user: hellbooks
act user: shafty :))
first place: 2.0

12.3

total grand slam, might be the highest score we see in this activity. i hope its not. ive been rather into MPB lately and yet there are still plenty of the greatest hits that ive never heard, so this is great

gosh, where to start. it has that feeling of all the good bossa nova where it's breezy and comfortable and yet every component feels so deliberate and impactful - piano and guitar take on an understated role as the third and fourth wheel of the vocalists, with their own cute little melodic character that nevertheless doesn't distract from the main act.

it doesn't come naturally to me to give a 3, i feel like a perfect score for music in general is a goofy thing that i don't really want to give often, or maybe at all. but for catfit points in particular i feel like there's times i should just round up. their voices together are just so wildly uplifting at every moment, twirling back and forth up and down with each other, calling and responding, all the great shit. i think it's purely their chemistry that makes it work - from what i gather the song was written originally for a single vocalist, and that reflects in the way they always either alternate or sing together in octaves. they just obviously love the act of singing together, especially apparent in the last moments where they go word by word.

i am guessing hellbooks as the user here purely on principle - though theres medium equity of this coming from her. in particular if she submitted this she's like serving herself the softest softball of all time here & would be in dire need of the -0.1 point. otherwise, no idea what brilliant individual brought this to the table. george bailey??? shafted??? davsto??? actually maybe its shafted bc cibo matto seems to have covered the song. good thing i already made my decision on principle bc i think that would be cheating. [later note after i did more grading: oh winnie submitted dobu dobu. its got tenniscoats in it. maybe there just happened to be someone else that likes tenniscoats - still not changing my answer]

the "pão!" at 2:10 is the batman-style sound of this sub smacking me in the face

also just watched the video (i dont watch the videos for any of them bc unfair advantage) and its like obviously so good. in particular their expressions when its over

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ooh ok, you were thinking abt changing it. yeah it wasn't clear that the choruses were two different people but i think it still generally hit the mark. again it was just a super good song, you'll notice its the highest scored for enjoyment other than #1. surely going to check out the album

maybe you should start thinking of all your vocal work as impressive then

[schadd_]

to elaborate on what is meant with my scores:

≥3.5: this was at least fine
≥4.0: you should think of this as a win. in particular, i have saved the song to my big playlist if it was on spotify
≥4.5: it won't be officially codified as a grand slam but you should still think of it as one. in particular this means that i will most likely listen to the album.
≥4.8: this will make an end-of-year list or something for me

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yeah at this point i just dont want to change my spreadsheet anymore, i'm already too worried about having mixed up cats for a song or something

[schadd_]

reminder that a reveal comes in about 9 hours !

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i dont see that

in any case the timer in 133 is correct, 3 & a half hours from now, 22:30 UTC-5

[schadd_]

HOP ON OVER 2 DISCORD!!!

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CATEGORY 5 REVEAL .

i thought the points here were gonna be a little bit arbitrary but it turns out i seem to have had the opposite idea as the submitter more than half of the time. also errata from after the reveal: jun & mushshagana should have had dual stewardship over 3rd place. so they both get 0.5 of a point.

Spoiler: 1st: chevy !!!

crazy ex-GF - trapped in a car ...

enjoy: 5.7 [4.3 wd/5]
cat: 3
unfam: 0.7
sus user: chevre
user: chevre -.1
1st place: 2.0

11.3

there are surely plenty of nitpicks i could make here to justify something less than 3 as the catfit but i'm going to forgive any of them just because of the way it nails, to me, the facial expression of the left cat in a way that i could not have ever seen coming. like that feeling of being powerlessly annoyed, having to stand tall and try desperately to keep up appearances in spite of an insurmountable vector of irritation. i can look at that weary face and imagine "see a doctor please" and "why do we even have cars at all" whizzing through its mind. i just keep finding myself making that little face when i think about someone humming or going "ooh" at minigolf courses (which i think are brilliant vignettes).

the nitpicks to be made here is the effectiveness of the right cat as an analytical tool for the song (like it has that "i'm seriously at my limit" vibe) as well as the relatively limited stuff in the rest of the music that support the cat other than the subject matter (i might offer that the cat looks like the sort of garden-variety pretty cat you'd expect to see in a commercial, which is reflected in the presentation of the latter half of the song). again i am opting to forgive this just because of the cleverness and aptness of the pick here - i dont think anyone else got close to this high via the left cat.

the song itself is funny. the show seems really charming to me for sure (the other song i know is

i'm so good at yoga

) but i don't see myself watching it just because, like, theres so many shows.

Spoiler: 2nd: chickdea

moldy peaches - nothing came out

enjoy: 5.2 [4.1/5]
cat: 2.8
unfam: 0.8
sus user: tris
user: chickadee
2nd place: 1.5

10.3

we have the crown jewel of this archetype of catfit. i really see the right cat here - it is exactly the voice of a timid/overwhelmed/vulnerable character putting themself out there. even the graininess of the image is reflected in the low-fi candor of the song. it just hits the nail on the head, showing the frame of mind of the right cat as well as the situation that gives rise to it. it loses 2 peanuts of catfit points because the phrase "i dont like you" briefly vividly channels the left cat (even though its in a negative dependent clause) and because certain moments in the song distract from the cat presence in general

the song construction is funny - i would call the writing rather unpoetic (terms like "social skills" are hard to fit into your lyrics cleanly) and it sort of feels like the musicians are apologizing for the space being taken up, offering things like the epic guitar solo as a thank you for sticking around.

i think that anybody who i guess here is going to feel a little bit seen. i am going with tris bc i think she said she thought she did well with this cat & whoever submitted this song clearly caught onto something. could be any of several people though.

Spoiler: tied 3rd: mushshagana

psychic graveyard - we think there's a chemical

enjoy: 6.0 [4.5/5]
cat: 1.8
unfam: 0.8
sus user: mushshagana
user: mushshagana -.1
3rd place: 0.5

9.0

assuming this is our mushshagana submission, in which case she's definitely setting a precedent of compelling songs. i suppose this was sent with the intention of the right cat - it has the agitated and overstimulating production that might cause one to make that face. but to me, the vocalist manages to dominate the vibe here, and they present a sort of altered and intensified version of the left cat here. they use a sort of teenager-style inflection which seems to indicate they think all these things are so stupid and annoying. the song as a whole feels like a huge scowl, which is foundationally how i read the left cat's face. i could see the cat showing up to a protest and yelling out "all we want... is just one word." that said, it is a sort of intense take on the left cat and the right cat is unavoidably a bit present as well. i will include an artist's rendition of the variant of the left cat that i think applies to this song

this may have just outright won if you submitted it to cat 3 - whatever narrative is living in this song is so compelling to me, and that snideness of the vocalist is almost deriding me for the extent to which i'm not picking up on it. each line raises so many questions - i would single out "or if he's just anxious about being born" and the title line "every time we

think

there's a chemical" as particularly thought provoking

appendix:

Spoiler: tied 3rd: jun

thundercat - funny thing

enjoy: 5.3 [4.1 wd/5]
cat: 2.6
unfam: 0.6
sus user: hellbooks
user: jun //had u guys switched!!! besties
3rd place: 0.5

9.0

its funny to think of thundercats voice as the right-cat archetypical small & timid style, but it fits the bill. i think the theme of it, being this insistence on producing a little emotional expression "i just wanna party with you"/"you make me happy" in spite of complicating factors e.g. epic drunkness, really gets at the spirit of the right cat (the drunk motif is also a way of adapting the graininess). there's also a few instances of him using the term "little" that build it up further, also i think the bweow-wow-wow bass is a sort of sound that is conditioned by epic video game music (earthbound maybe??) to represent a funny little creature. the 0.4 points of imperfection here come from the dance-y presentation and the slick flylo production, both of which struggle to be reflected by the burdened vibes of the cats.

Spoiler: tied 5th: cealy

wilco - jesus, etc.

enjoy: 5.6 [4.3/5]
cat: 2.5
unfam: 0.3
sus user: keely
user: keely -.1

8.3

i think the general presentation of wilco as like indignant-hippie-with-a-vulnerable-emotional-core music is something that generally gives them high equity of being both cats. something like

i am trying to break your heart

from that album would strongly fit that bill - the focal phrase would be something the left cat would say while deep down being like the right cat. this song in particular though (which hilariously is probably of my least listened, though i generally listened to the album a lot like 6 yrs ago) leans really hard into that emotional core. in particular i think the idea of the song is using these celestial analogies to investigate the smallness of people & build up this statement "our love is all we have", which i think gets at the vibe of the right cat really well. a small amount of points are nevertheless taken away bc of the still-present wilco vibe (on my first pass that had stuck out to me a lot - even the name of the song sort of carries this message like "dont want to sound like i'm being too sentimental here...") and because statements like "don't cry / you can rely on me honey" (which is generally a winning line btw) might be delivered

to

the right cat rather than

by

the right cat (which is like the mildest nitpick).

i think the goodness of the jeff tweedy songwriting is pretty self evident in any case

Spoiler: tied 5th: healbooks

buscabulla - eva

enjoy: 5.5 [4.2 wd/5]
cat: 2.1
unfam: 0.7
sus user: jun
user: hellbooks !!!!

8.3

there's a clear delicate longingness in the vocalist which makes me feel the right cat here. especially in the chorus there is the feeling of a whirlwind of feelings that are barely able to be contained in this vessel. it loses a medium amount of clarity of the cat though, since there is also a constant flow of intricacy and grace through pretty much the whole thing - slightly further than the scope of the cat image (the mitski song i gave as an example also has this problem). in any case the song is quite emotive, in a good way. i like that when all the other voices are taken away, we hear what seems to be a quiet turning signal noise tapping away in anticipation of the chorus at 2:20.

Spoiler: 7th: ariel

chris garneau - dirty night clowns

enjoy: 5.0 [4.0/5]
cat: 2.0
unfam: 0.8
sus user: chickadee???
user: ariel

7.8

this combines a sort of gentle uncertainty and a sort of petty indifference offered by the left cat for me. in particular i would point to the two refrains "i can't clear the leaves from here" and "let them be buried alive in their suits in their ties". i think those two aspects of the song are spot on and the song machine that props them up do a good job. it loses the point down from 3 bc of the general exuberance of the song (which btw i think works well musically for this song) and because i can picture the cat on the right struggling to rake up a bunch of leaves and singing the corresponding refrain.

i would describe the vocalist as "kind of silly" here but the rest of the construction has a lot to like. a lot of new instruments will just jump out and be present e.g. the 5 seconds of drums at like 1:35 which is super fun. 5 seconds of drummer

Spoiler: 8th: tris

mouse on the keys - double bind

enjoy: 4.8 [3.9/5]
cat: 2.0
unfam: 0.8
sus user: gb???
user: tris!

7.6

interesting construction of a song. it feels like a challenge is being presented that you are rising up to, but don't want to - i would say that is a mediumly strong evoction of the left cat. like it's standing up straight and ready to act, but isn't liking it. high school gym class vibe. right cat is

slightly

present here, the song has a faint feeling of impending doom and maybe the right cat is sort of wincing and bracing for impact. great example of a song that i'm not confident which cat was intended by the submitter, but the song produces a strong enough vibe that i was doomed to see it one way or the other. there's not a whole lot going on in the song, but i think a lot of the musical choices here are subtly interesting and the drums are good

Spoiler: 9th: shafty

krush groove (film) - all you can eat

enjoy: 4.4 [3.7/5]
cat: 2.2
unfam: 0.8
sus user: shafty
user: shafty -0.1

7.3

we have here an ancestor of the slowed-down mary kate & ashley pizza song. picturing the left cat here. hard to place why it works so well - i would point the way they're like casually bragging about how much food they can eat (and the silliness of it), as well as the fact that they ultimately dine and dash, but just the vibe of the thing as a whole just works pretty well. maybe you would argue that the right cat is making that face bc it's eating a bunch of food though. this is the first one i've been able to pretty confidently place a shafted vibe (knock on wood), this one has that really charming proto-cultural vibe of the 80s/90s that i associate with him. could maybe be n? "i aint fat man" lol

Spoiler: 10th: dav

john lennon - mother

enjoy: 4.4 [3.7/5]
cat: 2.0
unfam: 0.5
sus user: davsto
user: davsto -0.1

6.8

you're gonna like hate to hear this but if a song similar to this one were done by like anyone other than john lennon it would have probably done way better. like i am just too familiar and unsympathetic to him for it to achieve the full effect. that said you can see that there's really something there with the concept of it. especially towards the end, those sounds are something i could easily see the right cat making, wailing in agony at a clearly present loss and tragic circumstance. there's a lot of key vulnerability in that refrain "mama don't go / daddy come home", which is soured by the reality of john lennon as this weird dude who happened to invent oversharing decades before the internet did

Spoiler: 11th: george bailey

todd terje - delorean dynamite

enjoy: 5.1 [4.0 wd/5]
cat: 0.3
unfam: 0.8
sus user: ariel ??????
user: GB!

6.2

another one where there is a clear dominating vibe of excitement that makes it hard for me to get any cat out of it. i could maybe see the left cat getting down with the melody here? i also noticed the whole thing moving slightly upward in pitch around 2 & a half minutes, which is maybe a bit tense in the sort of way of the left cat. hard to say, would be interested to know what was intended. the song is pretty fun, has the same appeal as other disco revival stuff where it just produces a constant unabashed party vibe. i think it does enough to earn the 7 minute runtime, offering a lot of changes in texture and new outlooks on the pattern. also came pretty early to the punch for the modern disco revival thing - u have to give props when it sounds like the stuff people are trying to make 6-7 years later

Spoiler: tied 12th: pj

yaeji - waking up down

enjoy: 4.8 [3.8/5]
cat: 0.8
unfam: 0.6
sus user: pj
user: pj -0.1

6.1

i would call the song playfully earnest in the way that i am sort of looking looking for with the cats, but if i am taking her at her word regarding her self care list (which i am !) then she seems to be pretty untroubled here, which makes it hard for either cat to work particularly well. if she gets into it more in the korean verses i am unfortunately not adept enough to pick it up. there's a little bit of a cool exterior put up, which maybe vibes with the left cat a little bit.
...
looked at the translation in the video, kind of by accident. the korean verses build up this idea of maintaining the self care regimen against pressures from other people, which works a little bit better for the left cat i think. im only giving half credit for this part of the score since i usually dont like looking up lyrics

Spoiler: tied 12th: N

presumably a group of nerds who go to harvard - darude sandstorm boomwhackers

enjoy: 4.2 [3.6/5]
cat: 1.7
unfam: 0.3
sus user: aristophanes / N
user: N -0.1

6.1

this feels like the right cat to me exclusively because it channels the feeling of being swarmed by bugs or bonked by small and stupid objects. like it feels specifically like something a cat would find annoying and overwhelmed which feels like the right cat to me. like i can imagine the picture itself being taken when someone was bonking the cat with a boomwhacker. the original song carries the vibe of an irritable 2000s internet user, which strongly evokes the left cat, but i imagine this cover was chosen on purpose. this take on the song is kind of interesting in the "deconstructed club" sort of way where a dance-y and exciting type of thing is recontextualized and made kind of moody.

Spoiler: 14th: sleapy

grimes - final fantasy fourteen titania theme

enjoy: 5.0 [4.0/5]
cat: 0.3
unfam: 0.7
sus user: sleepington krew
user:

5.9

catfit looks like it might be a little hard given your means, which is ok. this squeaks out a little bit of cat points due to having a vocalist who has a sound that other subs have caused me to associate with the right cat. otherwise, the vibe is much too comfortable here to work much for either cat. i like the bouncy back-and-forthness of all of it and the "falalalalala". probably the sub that i would least be able to identify as final fantasy music so far if not for the title.

Spoiler: 15th: sirius

nomico ? - bad apple

enjoy: 4.6 [3.8/5]
cat: 0.4
unfam: 0.8
sus user: sirius9121
user: sirius9121 -.1

5.7

struggling with the cat for this one. a problem that comes up with a lot of these is a generally high-energy/exuberant vibe: to me, both of the cats look like they're struggling in some way, and so songs like this with a sort of elaborate and effortless composition have a hard time fitting with either of the cats really clearly. for this song, there was this quiet layer of harsh noise that would occasionally be present & idk what the authorial intent of it would be but i thot it was interesting & it was the one thing i could point out that made me think of the right cat. otherwise it was tough to parse out a relevant piece of character from the vocalist.

chickadee sweeps back into first on the back of a 2.8 catfit that i had backwards from her

[schadd_]

serving cat 6 in (expired on 2021-04-11 14:00:00) - same time of day as cat 4

[schadd_]

I'm legitimately surprised you caught me for Psychic Graveyard. Not nearly as aggressive or vicious as my normal fare, and unafraid to sound ridiculous (most of my music is relentlessly self-serious).

I think you'll probably catch me on two others, but I don't know about the remainder. If you manage to catch me three more times, I will have to know what stood out (so that I can recognize my own music tastes better for the future).

its simply that it was like louder and had a prominent nasty-distorted-guitar sound compared 2 the rest of the playing field.

listened to the loathe album btw. missed some of the brilliant intricacies that you had laid out (which is to be expected surely) but admired the largeness in scope & the consistently compelling presentation. it ended up being a 4.5. thanks!

Also my right cat choice was because I couldn't pinpoint the moods of said cats since cats are so aloof. I went with carnal states by mixing the idea of looking up at a cat from its food bowl and how silly people look when they are beat boxing no matter how cool it may sound.

Spoiler: theyre basically the same picture

ya i definitely see the resemblance there. i think my younger generation internet experience lets me see the right cat as not aloof but in fact quite emotionally open

i just noticed a discrepancy in the ambiguous man's score for last round between the chart and the discription

fixt it

the math is also wrong on the description

fixt it

wait, the math on mine is wrong too XD

fixt it

can we trust anything now?

what if the points themselves are arbitrary?

yes / theyre not

[schadd_]

I could go on, but eh. I agree with that score more or less, because it really takes repeated listens to wring the most out of it all, and I’m that obsessive but most people are decidedly not. The most impressive part to me is that there’s that much depth without the surface level listening experience being anything less than great.

Two of my later submissions come off of albums that, for me, are 5 of 5s, but I think you’ll only agree with one of those.

mm i usually prioritize quantity of albs listened to over poring over particular ones, though there are a few favorites where i've leaned in and untangled the web of connections. i will surely listen to the loathe album again at some point, in any case

having fun and imagining you brazenly asserting that i'll call one of the albums a 5 out of 5. excited to hear it

[schadd_]

i think what would be interesting is like after all cats have been revealed except for the last one (or last two) the contestants without any top 3 placements get some sort of like turnaround boost like in mario party when the last place player gets a random bonus

sleepykrew spins a wheel and shafted has to give him the grand slam

[schadd_]

i do think the top three bonus points create a positive feedback loop that just makes the top entrants have an even more impossible lead

idk if a positive feedback loop is something that makes sense since all the subs are already in, but i agree its not a brilliant mechanic as far as the playing of the game goes. it serves one purpose which is making individual reveals exciting

[schadd_]

[schadd_]

cat reveal will have to be slightly delayed while i quickly finish some writeups but otherwise we're ready to reveal in about a half hour

[schadd_]

this is starting!!!! head on over 2 discord !!!!!!

[schadd_]

cat 6

Spoiler: 1st place: hb. (this is our 2nd grand slam)

senyawa - kabau

good?: 6.3 [4.6 wd/5]
apt?: 3.0
new?: 0.9
who?: hellbooks????????
who: hellbooks -0.1
1st place: 2.0

12.1

from the first moment of the wickedly resonant bass sound at the beginning, there is an overwhelming feeling of texture just pouring through absolutely everything here. i almost want to take catfit points away because my mind is running too wild for it - it makes me think of the efforts of people, the foreboding of an event, the colors black and maroon. but its got all of the stuff i'd want for this cat, combining the feeling of a wide and hostile expanse with the specific and clear characters of people and the animate natures of objects that inhabit the space. auditory locationality is immensely present, as well as musical elements which cooperate or don't cooperate with the whole, as well as an endlessly engaging set of instrumental choices.

this is good as fuck and i probably havent even given enough time (i think i've just listened to it 4 or 5 times bc its not on spotify). it gets the extra 0.1 unfamiliarity point bc i'm not sure what language it is (sounded like arabic to me initially, but the group is indonesian).

Spoiler: 2nd place: tris

tricot - おちゃんせんすぅす

good?: 6.0 [4.5/5]
apt?: 2.5
new?: 0.8
who?: pj?
who: tris?_????
2nd place: 1.5

10.8

really fast with an elaborate musical shape, giving the feeling of being taken a lot of different places quickly. feels like being on a subway that keeps starting and stopping and suddenly popping out into a whole different environment with new scenery. guitar/bass will establish a riff, then retrace it adding extra notes, adding to that feeling of a space with different levels of detail to behold (maybe like the skeleton of the riff is a view at a distance, then you see it more busy and up close). the vocalists rly feel like they are at location & part of the action rather than in a recording studio, being mixed in a way that either blends in or is starkly close at different moments. do i need to say the drums are good? there's great use of cymbals as something as a background element which is still active and has character, a vibrant piece of the atmosphere.


POST REVEAL NOTE: turns out this one was supposed to go to cat 7, the drums one. i will give that song catfit points for that cat as if it were submitted to this cat - without thinking very hard i would say that this song would get approximately 2.5 points for drum quality so i'll just leave it where it is. she will be penalized by 0.1 point in that next cat bc i'll have to look up which song is hers to score it properly

Spoiler: 3rd place: cheeto

tim hecker - live room

good?: 6.1 [4.5 wd/5]
apt?: 2.8
new?: 0.3
who?: tris????
who: cheetory6
3rd place: 1.0

10.2

most of the song has a reproduction of the melody from piano phase and lemme tell ya, i'll tell ya one place that reminds me of which is music schools, HA! i think everything in this song does great work, emphatically including the title - just feels like this evil little room full of horrible objects. that central music box sound has so much clicking and crackling (as do many other noises going on here) that makes the physicality of the space so unavoidable in spite of all the wild stuff going on - though unfortunately the song does have to lose out in catfit ever so slightly due to some of those moments of intense indulgence in that abstract electronic stuff. in any case whoever submitted this probably knows that this is the shit i like & was looking for here.

unfortunately for you i listened to this album several times and liked it a lot - though that was close to 2 years ago and this track isn't really familiar. in isolation i would pin this to cheeto before i would pin it to tris, but chuckie was needed elsewhere.

Spoiler: 4th place: george bailey!

clipping + la chat - run for your life

good?: 6.0 [4.5/5]
apt?: 2.6
new?: 0.5
who?: jun????????
who: george bailey

9.1

do i have to give all these points to a clipping song ugggghhhhhhh. whats worse is that the thing holding this song back slightly is that i've listened to it and liked it before. i think the beats briefly emerging from passing cars is really brilliant. the one at 2:00 sounds like the doppler effect is digitally enhanced (although it would probably be easy enough to just record it from a car). in la chat's verse in particular the arrangement of the voices feels really positional - like a bunch of people placed in a way where they're covering each other. lin manuel miranda's vocals are also sort of like that. the continuous white noise as a backing track also does a lot of good work here. obviously there's plenty of vivid details to go around in the content itself.

there's a little bit of sleight of hand for me in the race traitor's verses which is that the intonation he uses sounds like the jay rock verse in money trees, which is like 3.5/3 catfit level evocative

Spoiler: 5th place: mushshagana

cuneiform - conciliator

good?: 5.8 (4.4/5)
apt?: 1.9
new?: 0.8
who?: mushshagana?
who: -0.1

8.4

the reverberant massiveness of the song is what's doing most of the work here (which i imagine was what the submitter intended) but it does a good job. moments like 2:00 feel like an entrance of some huge and busy atrium that the vocalist is just shouting into. ughh this song is literally just a bunch of long echoes but its so good. there's this really good cinematic feeling that comes from the interaction btwn the vocalist and the space, like a dude holding a sword standing up against a huge dragon. metallic texture.

Spoiler: tied 6th: chevre

jens lekman + tracey thorn - hotwire the ferris wheel

good?: 5.0 [4.0/5]
apt?: 2.4
new?: 0.8
who?: chevre??
who: chevre -.1

8.1

this does a pretty good job here, by setting out a locale and then telling a grander story about it - lines like "we climbed over the wired fences / you dropped one of your contact lenses" do a lot of good work. some of the establishing qualities of the song are kitschy and even confusing - like the piano (and later, string) motive which is in the background for the choruses, which is a pattern that i associate with, like, a cliché tropical island setting (same goes for what sounds like a ukulele) - but neither of those things really work to the song's detriment, rather it forces me to think thoroughly about what's being communicated, as though the song's trying to sneak something past me. really like the secondary vocalist here, like way more than the guy. lol. "when he was younger, he had other ambitions" is spoken with such a delicious timbre that squeezes so much intrigue out of the moment.

Spoiler: tied 6th: sleapy sue

final fantasy 600,000,000 - amaurot overworld

good?: 5.4 (4.2/5)
apt?: 2.1
new?: 0.7
who?: sleapy
who: sleapy -0.1

8.1

sleapykrew's obvious time to shine here - jrpgs are quite famous for having locations. initially i had reservations about the sort of kitschy video game setting-establishment; in the context of the game, this song cheats at this cat by virtue of, like, showing you a place on the screen that you're thinking about. and i on the other hand am refusing to look at that footage. you can think of this song as getting most of its points from two sources: the quartal ?? chord which sort of forms the harmonic center, which is bizarrely colorful in spite of only having 4 notes that i can pick out (E A B D) - it feels like one of those stacks of signs thats like <:arrow_left: fuckerburg> / <pisserville :arrow_right:>; and then the tk-tk-tk sound which does soo much work by virtue of sounding like footsteps, raindrops, turning signals, so many epic establishing features. it works up a little bit more as well via the cello swells and key change-y thing that give the feeling of a painted landscape.

Spoiler: 8th: dave stew

the zombies - beechwood park

good?: 5.0 [4.0/5]
apt?: 2.2
new?: 0.8
who?: davsto? ...
who: davsto -.1

7.9

pretty straightforward & solid catfit. "and the breeze would touch your hair / kiss your face and make you care about your world" is the sort of line that does well here, being sensory and comprehensive as to the experience of being in this place. the version i'm listening to on spotify has a little bit of stereophonicity which also does the song favors (even though it's like marked as the mono version ???). the droning organ kind of feels like it's emerging from the ground. also plenty of good moments of vocal harmony (as is coming to be the expectation for davsto subs) which feel like they're coming from a wide choir.

Spoiler: 9th: chickdee

the weakerthans - one great city!

good?: 5.0 [4.0/5]
apt?: 2.0
new?: 0.8
who?: is georgebailey canadian???
who: well it is chickadee in any case

7.8

really funny idea here. it actually loses out a little bit on lucidity just because i can imagine people just about anywhere having a similar laundry list of complaints about their city - was funny to hear the same phenomenon exists up north. mostly the appeal here is the interesting and even kind of refreshing take, both as a sub to the cat and as the song among the pool of songs explicitly about places. singer definitely feels like a member of a place - his voice sounds faintly like he's got somewhere to go after the song. the "golden business boy" comment alone gives this like 0.5 points.

look and despair!

Spoiler: 10th: shaftie

seven mary three - punch in punch out

good?: 4.8 [3.9/5]
apt?: 1.8
new?: 0.8
who?: shafty???
who: shafty -0.1

7.3

just so blindsided by this one. literally what do i do with this song? it's got like nothing at all that would traditionally work well for this cat - there's like nothing in the lyrics that evokes the idea of a place other than in the abstract (e.g. referring to "home" or "work") and there's precisely two musical components, the drum and the vocal, which are like directly in front of the microphone. BUT IT LIKE WORKS. i'm like grasping for straws as to what i'm getting here and i like keep ending up with straws in my hand - there's this strong epic american heartland vibe here that i will just keep picturing to try to figure out what's going on here (and like i'm struggling even to continuosly pick out what the vocalist is communicate). i end up with shafted as a POE here and the intractability of this song for me makes that feel like a good guess.

//post reveal note: i listened to a version with a drum track that was a little more scant. i gave more ponits for the actual version

Spoiler: 11th: ariel

the postal service - this place is a prison

good?: 4.6 [3.8/5]
apt?: 1.7
new?: 0.5
who?: cheetory6?
who: ariel !!

7.0

bit of a sprawling feeling. the chime instrument does a lot for it - sounds like a windchime, and hearing windchime is always a telltale sign of being at a place. i wanna say the accordion (?) which appears gently in the background and comes to fade out, has the feeling of a landmark passed by and departed. at which point you go to drums town. the lyrics themselves are pretty explicitly about places but they don't actually do very much for me here unfortunately. interesting sound of a distant but less whispery track of the vocalist during choruses. wanna say i listened to this album several times 7 ish years ago but don't really remember this track

Spoiler: 12th: sirius

fripside? - only my railgun

good?: 4.6 [3.8/5]
apt?: 1.3
new?: 0.8
who?: sirius9121?
who: sirius9121 -0.1

6.6

this struggles a little bit because of the limitations of a mostly digital + dancey production as something which is evocative of some physical thing, but it's so animate and busy that i can't help but get the feeling of a auditorium/dance hall/roaring crowd of people from it. i think the guitar solo is like hilarious in this song, definitely another one of those things which gives the vibe of some important thing going on.

Spoiler: 13th: Pj

wavves - post acid

good?: 4.6 [3.8/5]
apt?: 0.5
new?: 0.8
who?: chickdee????
who: pj

5.9

i think the way this song is constructed doesn't work well for me in this cat - the lo-fi feel (specifically the electronically distortd instruments) takes it into the realm of showmanship, putting the focus on the musicians and on the act of performance. which is a value neutral thing to do in general, but it makes it hard for my mind to wander and picture a locale that gives rise to what i'm hearing. the vocalist is also pretty focused on their own affairs. there's a couple interesting moments like the sort-of-reverb effect of the vocalist in some of the choruses

Spoiler: 14th: N

odette - watch me read you

good?: 4.6 (3.8/5)
apt?: 0.5
new?: 0.8
who?: N??
who: N -0.1

5.8

1:50 lifted your shirt to find nothing there BOOBS????? a lot of the vividity in this song is focused on people's details and relationships which makes it kind of hard to get a location out of it. the modulation for the chorus is neat. the production is a little bit cookie cutter-y. this person sounds british (and seems to have been born in britain) but somehow i recognized this as australian & was gonna guess N before looking this person up

Spoiler: 15th: jun

phum vipruit - hello anxiety

good?: 3.6 [3.3/5]
apt?: 0.7
new?: 0.8
who?: ariel???
who: jun

5.1

"hello anxiety" me at the beginning when it sounds like my earbud is broken. its kind of a romantic/sterile account of the anxiety narrative which doesnt do a lot for me. each of the instruments is like gentle or muted in a way that i find funny. like there's a guitar solo which is mixed at such a wickedly medium volume. i think the only thing that rly works for the catfit is the spaciousness of the vocals at some moments - everything else feels like it clearly emerges from several musicians and their thoughts

[schadd_]

cat 7 reveal: 10PM saturday central US time / 3am sunday UTC.

(expired on 2021-04-17 22:00:00)

[schadd_]

i seem to have screwn this up in the previous one too, i started using a script thingy for th posts

[schadd_]

think i affixed all of them

[schadd_]

Okay, now that one surprised me. There's gotta be something to my submissions that they have in common now and I can't draw a throughline from Ed Rush to Loathe to Psychic Graveyard to Cuneiform. You'll need to explain this to me.

Also, I think you might have missed that that song had a lot of digitized instruments intended to sound vaguely ethnic (gong or temple bell or unusual trumpet?) but not belonging to any culture, a Middle-Eastern flavor to the songwriting, and that the lyrics, while admittedly mostly indecipherable, do mention things about place in the majority of the parts in which they're audible. The massive reverb drowning everything was actually only a small part. The place I personally get out of it is actually the ashlands of Vvardenfell in TES3:Morrowind -- somewhere between Molag Amur and the Dwemer ruins of Dagoth Ur. It's vaguely desert-feeling, but choking, dark, desolate and strangely beautiful.

if i had to like blindly throw out a term for your songs it would be post-industrial (probably minus the ed rush one). or just generally, like, "core". it's mostly a contrast with the rest of the group.

yea i didnt notice the things you're detailing here but dwemer ruins seems apt for it

EDIT: also I think a couple scores are wrong. tris and cheeto math don't work out at least.
didn't check all

oh jit. so it seems that i messed up 2nd vs 3rd. Lol. thatll have to be fixed. thanks

[schadd_]

cat 7 reveal: 10PM saturday central US time / 3am sunday UTC.

(expired on 2021-04-17 22:00:00)

extending this by a half hour to match the deadline from the last evening session. Also to give myself a half hour to check the math here. Lol

[schadd_]

said WOW out loud at the empty chickadee bar

[schadd_]

Spoiler: how good is schadd at guessing who submitted the song?

also this was the cat where i felt strongest about my guesses. like i thought hmm what if this is the time i got everyone right. Anyway. thanks for makin this :)!

[schadd_]

cat 7 reveal

Spoiler: 1st: pj (this is a grand slam and also a score record)

casiopea - time limit

eeby: 6.8 [4.9/5]
deeby: 3.3
ooba: 0.8
scuba: hb
cuba: pj
1st place: 2.0

12.9

ok so like not to be too much of a drum liker on main but ughuguhhh hghghgh hhgod holy shittttt. fuuuuck

this is one of those ones where i almost want to take points away from the catfit because every aspect of this is also so good, but this really really is a drum song. not only are the drums the only instrument that's there the whole time, they're sort of grounded positionally - a lot of the brass and stuff will sort of be left-panned or right panned, but the drums feel like they're in the bottom and the middle, like you're there in the cockpit.

there's like, no tricks or shortcuts with it at all, the drummer just has endless shit up their sleeve that just makes it so that each moment has an exciting and novel rhythmic identity, building up the sort of characteristic jazzy song identity where each moment pounces on you & you end up in this confounded and excited stupor. i feel like pointing out any particular moment would be a mistake here, but i'll at least draw attention to the very first moments where the kick / snare hits are placed ambiguously with respect to the rhythm, adding to the construction where each new note of the brass (synchronized with the snare hit) feels like it's coming out of left field.

there's also just a razor-thinness of the whole performance, especially with regards to the trimming-off of open hi-hat tones (one of the things i specifically called for in the OP of the thread) that makes everything feel really deliberate and densely-packed

i will minjaephobically award 0.3 provisional catfit bonus points to anyone else who might have submitted this just because it's just spot on with, like, pretty much every possible thing that i've been liking about drums lately. hb in particular just, like, already knows the sort of drum things i like with too much specifics for it to be fair. i dont know who else would have came up with this though. evil fleetwood mac - i hope i'm wrong

Spoiler: 2nd: hb

和楽器バンド 天樂

eeby: 6.0 [4.5/5]
deeby: 2.4
ooba: 0.8
scuba: sirius
cuba: hell books
2nd place: 1.5

10.7

the very beginning sounds like matana roberts rise. this like bangs so hard. it's hard to find a moment where the drums aren't overshadowed by something, but they are generally quite good - oftentimes they are cooperating with guitar/bass to keep up the constant buckwild metal-y energy. also quite wide-ranging - can hear a lot of different segments of drum (or the conga? drum sound) getting used moment to moment to dramatically build up different moods. also a few great moments where there's like several moments of the guitarist jamming which are punctuated by silence except for the kick drum, which is such an exciting effect. awarding an additional 0.1 catfit point for the "swah!!" at the end which i have to assume is the voice of the drummer. going with sirius here just because the video said vocaloid (i have no idea what would merit that descriptor here), even though this doesnt really sound like the sound profile of his other subs

Spoiler: 3rd: sirius

歌ってみた - 千本桜

eeby: 5.8 [4.4/5]
deeby: 2.4
ooba: 0.8
scuba: PJ
cuba: sirius
3rd place: 1.0

10.0

this is a sort of drum machinery that i really respect, where it's actually thoroughly composed at each moment rather than just repeated a constructed pattern, as well as making use of the sorts of insane speed/energy which is really only able to be produced digitally (i would single out the rapid-fire kick drums as a super dope adrenaline injection in so many instances). plus it sounds like there was a physical taiko used later on which was a pretty dope moment. entertaining song throughout. One has to appreciate a good key change even if its just for like 10 seconds (though i'd say that time frame has like 15 or more seconds worth of song in it). sifting PJ out of the pool here bc the vocalist sounds like vocalists he likes

Spoiler: 4th: mushshagana

xploding plastix - more powah to yah

eeby: 5.6 [4.3/5]
deeby: 2.6
ooba: 0.8
scuba: mushshagana
cuba: MSGN -0.1

8.9

great example of a song where a lot of the rhythmic character comes from the drums, which is like exactly what they're good at. the moments that are just steady low-string (and/or bassoon???) melodies feel so active and tense just because the drum launders in so much energy. huge fan of the expression of the drum itself, evocative of old american big band jazz/swing where a lot of value comes from just a pap-pap-pap rhythm. the song just keeps your feet moving the whole time and doesn't get stale. the "more powah to yah" interlude is really great - seeing the phrase in the title of the song makes me think of a gruff wrestler-catchphrase sort of voice, which gets tossed up in the air. going with mushshagana purely for the name of the song here.

Spoiler: 5th: jun

still woozy - lava

eeby: 5.8 [4.4/5]
deeby: 1.8
ooba: 0.8
scuba: jun
cuba: jun. -0.1

8.3

definitely sounds like a drum machine here, has the feel of the one video of the european looking guy nodding at his screen and clicking the drum buttons on his synth. But its good! its a subtle & thin supporting sort of drum which works well a lot of the time that it's there. there's like sharp moments of rhythmic redirection, that sort of add to the huge and perplexing shape of the song at large. moreover the drum machine nature of it isn't so bothersome - i think the choices of patches (or whatever youd call them) are good, there's a very slight sound of open hi-hat which is a little bit uncanny when its the same every time But its a good sound. the sshpap thing at 2:00 is quite surprising and good. the "you never leave my mind" vocal harmony is probably the single strongest thing going on here.

Spoiler: tied 6th: ariel

phil collins - two worlds

eeby: 5.6 [4.3/5]
deeby: 1.7
ooba: 0.7
scuba: davsto
cuba: ariel !

8.0

just quite pleased by the fact of this submission - there's a fairy tale quality of (presumably) davsto seeing this category and deciding to submit phil collins.... But Not What Youd Expect! that said i'm slightly torn on the drums themselves - at the level of arrangement, they are a pretty brilliant way of infusing a bunch of raw energy into the grand-orchestra style of disney music, and it's really something to hear. but i think the execution is a little bit shallow - to me it sounds like there are expressive musicians playing the drums, who are sort of relegated into the background of the rhythmic structure, so that you mostly just hear a basic thump... thump... from that section. there are a couple of great moments where they're more in focus, like the sort of polyrhythm thing going on around 2:20. again, there's just an undeniable radiant energy of the song at large, its good.

Spoiler: tied 6th: chickdee

warpaint - so good

eeby: 5.6 [4.3/5]
deeby: 1.6
ooba: 0.8
scuba: ariel
cuba: chickdee

8.0

the drums are enjoyable here, like the beat is really thick in a good way, but it's synthetic and mostly stagnant, which are two sticking points i'll have in this cat (most of what matters is the 2nd one. synthetic is generally fine). that said there are plenty of little moments of articulation that help it a lot. certain moments hear the sound of the hi-hat sort of proliferating, like a pot boiling over from the heat of the moment. plus the moments where it reorients into this weird lo-fi conga drum, or even just the thump.. thump.. thump.. section are great, engaging. vocal harmony is great, especially with "i'll tell you all mine", a neat wobbly shape. if i'm right about this being ariel i'm happy to see them breach the 8.0 mark even in spite of the -.1 point

Spoiler: tied 8th: skrewba

final fanty - garudas theme

eeby: 5.4 [4.2/5]
deeby: 1.7
ooba: 0.7
scuba: skrewba
cuba: skrewba -0.1

7.7

ok, there's actually drums in this. it seemed like you were indicating that there wasn't gonna be drums. this is pretty dope actually. the drums are often quite quiet compared to the whole but they do a lot of the stuff i like - the tense hi hat which is sort of its baseline behavior is really good (opening and closing hi hat is like a named and shamed good drum trait for me). i guess it just spends a lot of time struggling to play a big part in the whole (and the complete product has some of the epic video game kitsch that most of the final fantasies have)

Spoiler: tied 8th: chevy

the sheepdogs - take a trip

eeby: 5.2 [4.1/5]
deeby: 1.7
ooba: 0.8
scuba: shafty
cuba: chevy

7.7

i found me a hopeless case...

its like so funny to me how much of a nothing burger the lyrics are with this one. it sounds like it was recorded in a phone, which i will take as an indicator that this is just the first draft / placeholder for the lyrics that the vocalist made while out for a walk. i would say the drums are perfectly functional in service of an epic blues rock whole - often working in tandem with the epic blues rock guitar riff to produce a constant moderately-banging energy. its also got that led zeppelin cavernously-resonant snare drum sound that i simply have no choice but to like. not super inspired, ultimately. (or maybe, like, too inspired. lol)

Spoiler: tied 8th: cheeto

badbadnotgood - triangle

eeby: 5.2 [4.1/5]
deeby: 1.9
ooba: 0.7
scuba: cheetory SEVEN!!!!!!
cuba: cleato -0.1

7.7


the drumming checks a lot of my boxes - it takes a really active stance in shaping the feel & energy, and i like its tone (the cymbals feel really chilly) and things like the gradual hi-hat opening around 1:20. but further than that it's not all that engaging to me - would be hard to place why that is exactly. i wanna say it has a slight lo-fi filter, which doesn't do a great service. there's this faint blandness in the melodies as well. really into the big chorus-like moment at e.g. 2:40, where there's 2 kick drum hits and the rest of the instruments just thwack in like a ton of bricks.

Spoiler: tied 11th: tris

serial experiments lain OST - hitori bocchi 2

eeby: 5.2 [4.2/5]
deeby: 1.6
ooba: 0.8
scuba: tris
cuba: tris -.1

7.5

this was tris's intended entry for cat 6 and will be graded as such. this is another one like the sleepykrew entry which gets most of its strength from a thematic establishment of a place. i would say that this one is kiind of lacking the immediate vividity though which is the thing that i came to expect from a strong entry in that cat. its really just the 'tshh....' effect and the quiet little synth pad which feels like it's winding around a hallway or the curvature of the room. it is evocative though - i get a clear feeling from it that there's some sort of something going on, and that sort of baseline mind activity is strong at getting me to try to visually parse it out. neat little submission.

Spoiler: tied 11th: shafto

dci - blue devils

eeby: 4.6 [3.8/5]
deeby: 2.1
ooba: 0.8
scuba: N
cuba: shafty

7.5

feel like this should end up in the vicinity of 2/3 catfit just by virtue of only being drums (and being at least pretty interesting), but i'm not inspired to go all that much higher than that. i think the most interesting thing here is the trills, and the sort of voice that emerges from the coordination of the slightly different drum tunings - really engaging effect. and otherwise the musicianship is impressive, squeezing all the intrigue you can get out of the form. but also, like, this drumming style has a bit of a stench for me, like its the sort of thing that only happens at football games and in the army and whatever. appreciate the submission though.

Spoiler: tied 11th: gbails

siekiera - na zewnątrz

eeby: 5.0 [4.0/5]
deeby: 1.7
ooba: 0.9
scuba: georgebailey
cuba: gb -0.1

7.5

it's funny every time where there's like a big snare drum buildup which culminates in the drums just evaporating. this song doesn't do anything!!!!! lol!!!!! its good tho!!!! the basic pattern is really catchy, thumpathumpa tap-tap thumpathumpathumpathumpathumpa. but like it just doesn't give me a lot to work with. they carved out so much time for this little thing.

Spoiler: 14th: N

hayley mary - chemtrails over the country club (cover)

eeby: 5.4 [4.2/5]
deeby: 1.1
ooba: 0.7
scuba: chevy
cuba: N

7.2

i guess the drums are just not big enough of a component of the character for this to be a big win. they're a good bit meatier than i would expect for anything directly under the lana del rey byline (and a lot of pop in general) which is great, but it's mostly the same sort of pattern for the whole thing & not very focal. i'm quite into the singing here - the lead vocalist is wickedly flavorful (particularly apparent at moments where she has most of the spotlight e.g. around 1:15) and the backing vocalists are on point. putting chev here because a cover of lana del rey by someone who isn't lana del rey just makes me think of him. also, while the video went live before the original submission deadline, chevy had more of an opportunity to find it

Spoiler: 15th: davy

blondie - union city blue

eeby: 4.0 [3.5/5]
deeby: 1.2
ooba: 0.7
scuba: cdee
cuba: davsto

5.9

the drums are mixed pretty low which is kind of a killer here. like i think the drummer is perfectly competent here but they're done so dirty by the construction of the song, it's sort of a vocal-focused pop song and so the drums in particular have to be mixed pretty low and have little space to set the tone. though, in the mick fleetwood style, they're doing as much as they can with the space they have - there's several moments where the energy gets ramped up by some key tom tom hits and the like. if this is chickadee's, shes on the path towards getting the gold medal for standard deviation

podium town welcomes two more citizens!

[schadd_]

if i had to like blindly throw out a term for your songs it would be post-industrial (probably minus the ed rush one). or just generally, like, "core". it's mostly a contrast with the rest of the group.

so like you'll probably get pissed at me for getting this last one right. in particular it was pretty much a wild guess - i just saw the name xploding plastix and thought it was gonna be, like, metal, and then it wasn't, but i just like didnt move past my first impression. also poe here: i could have just as easily picked cheeto for this - you described it as jazz idm played by humans, which is apt, and also strongly describes something he would like (and did like). but i knew he likes badbadnotgood

[schadd_]

whoever submitted this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdcO67G34Yw

the link went down and i don't have a way of finding out what it's supposed to be. so send a PM to hellbooks with a new link (if you don't remember what the song was, thats fine, you can just cough up a new submission) and she will send it to me. if the song is hellbooks' then she can just simply send it to me directly and i will be none the wiser

[schadd_]

whoever submitted this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdcO67G34Yw

the link went down and i don't have a way of finding out what it's supposed to be. so send a PM to hellbooks with a new link (if you don't remember what the song was, thats fine, you can just cough up a new submission) and she will send it to me. if the song is hellbooks' then she can just simply send it to me directly and i will be none the wiser

thanks for getting back to me promptly. if you send me something else tomorrow i will probably still be able to judge it as well

it definitely wasn't me

Spoiler: or was it?

laffed

[schadd_]

think i forgot to put it down anywhere: reveal tmrw in (expired on 2021-04-25 14:00:00)

[schadd_]

40 minutes !

[schadd_]

WELCOME TO CATEGORY 8 !!!

Spoiler: 1st place PLUS grand slam PLUS being tris: tris

marika hackman - undone, undress

Cathe Friedrich: 6.6 [4.8/5]
Sigourney Weaver: 0.7
Toni Morrison: tris -0.1
Laura Agustin: tris
Naomi Watts: 3
1st place: 2.0

12.2

hoo boy what a song. first of all our girl marika was doomed to success here just because of how wildly physically evocative her music was. like she could make a song about enjoying the taste of citrus and i'd find myself feverishly scanning my pantry for oranges. the song is comprised of sluggish and shallow movements - the droning organ & mysterious gaseous instrument, as well as the melodies which are frequently just half step motions (something you usually hear in a fast and elaborate jazzy melody, which makes the context here interesting). the atmosphere is so suffocating that even when a thick snare drum cuts through it, a sound which should be a jostle to wakeness, it feels more like a last-ditch effort towards movement, or the rip of a headache and the crack of a bone. this is all to dance around, of course, the bone-dry fact of this woman's lyrics. she has quite simply been alive for a hundred million years. the stuff that desirelessly drips out of her mouth is plainly beyond weariness - "load me heavy i can't bend / break me better so i won't mend" makes my head weigh 50 pounds.

the whole thing is just so gorgeous. the little pieces of extra shape that are sometimes added to the focal melody have the feeling of a perfect and delicate brushstroke that singularly gives way to the spitting image of the terrain. im glad that she got to sleep at last after the whole deal is over

i did already listen to this album, and i liked it a lot. this happened about a week before the epic submission deadline, so i shall declare this to be a 0.7 unfamiliarity points.

Spoiler: 2nd place: mushshagana

gnaw - rat

Cathe Friedrich: 1.9
how much am i in love with the name + artist combo: a lot +0.1
Sigourney Weaver: musha -0.1
Toni Morrison: 6.6 [4.8/5]
Laura Agustin: 0.8
Naomi Watts: musha
2nd place: 1.5

10.8

i suspect that this isnt one of the ones that was supposed to sneak past me. i wondered what sort of thing we were gonna get from her, and as usual the song has an interesting (and kind of oblique) catfit but is mostly just really good and cool. this one has to be the highlight as far as good and coolness, i'm in love with so many of the choices made in it. everything is so tense, the instrumental choices really give a strong and direct feeling of a hostile environment - the bass riff that induces a loud beating sound, which feels like rusty slabs of metal deteriorating as they grind against each other; and of course the jarring guitar which feels like the near-miss of a speeding car. and of course multiple other production pieces that constantly feel on edge. and of course the vocalist is soooooo good, you can hear the bulging neck tendons in their voice at each moment.

while it's hard to describe this as lacking in energy at, really, any moment, the landscape of the song shows off a condition that gives rise to a sort of extreme wear and tear and insomnia. even just listening to it one feels their muscles tense & their spine try to keep everything moving and wiggling.

strong equity for being one of the many mushshagana songs that minjae saves instantly.

additional note: the 0.1 points for gnaw rat wasn't supposed to be a tiebreaker but it ended up doing that job

Spoiler: 3rd place: chevo

bill calahan - the mackenzies

Cathe Friedrich: chevy!
Sigourney Weaver: 5.7 [4.3 wd/5]
Toni Morrison: 2.8
Laura Agustin: 0.8
Naomi Watts: chevy -.1
3rd place: 1.0

10.2

this dude sounds like a combination of sun kil moon and the san fermin baritone guy. also he's on joanna newsom's label - my submitter guess is made on principle. i find the storytelling super engaging here, and tiredness seems to be something of a motif in it. the players in the story are all, like, in late stages of wear and tear - the vocalist has grown anxious around people and subtly seems pretty desperate for connection, as well as beset by family obligation, and the other couple has an ||indefinitely empty nest||. the construction of the song reflects a feeling of difficulty in seeing anything change, a lot of inertia - the vocalist drags through the verses slowly (great tool for getting me to be able to follow and understand your song) and the guitar feels just the slightest bit chipper in a way that communicates a sort of resignation. obviously the moment where he falls asleep is something that seals the deal. great sub, and great example of a song where this, like, vector of analysis which is given to me by the category, is something that helps me get into it more clearly

Spoiler: 4th place: jun

daniel caesar - complexities

Cathe Friedrich: 5.6 [4.3/5]
Sigourney Weaver: 0.7
Toni Morrison: 2.6
Laura Agustin: jun
Naomi Watts: jun -.1

8.8

this is pretty obviously a great song for the cat, i think it's really really helped by how spacious it is. two massive weariness vectors are the extent to which you can hear the low synth-bass thingy slowly grind out into decay with each note, and the fact that daniel caesar is kind of doing his usual sorta romantic voice, which at so many moments fails to command a whole lot of energy, rather just crackling out like the wick of a starved candle. there's also just a lot of interesting developmence in this song, quiet synths & guitar, some really breathy and low wind instruments sounding like a gentle breeze which is felt keenly. wait jacob collier and brandy are on this album thats so funny. i think jun might know their way around being tired.

Spoiler: 5th place: JJ

speedy ortiz - no below

Cathe Friedrich: 0.7
Sigourney Weaver: 2.4
Toni Morrison: georgebailey ??
Laura Agustin: PJ
Naomi Watts: 5.4 [4.2/5]

8.5

a primogenitor of Indie Girl Voice! like with "everybody tea-ysed" at 0:20. whoever submitted this might like soccer mommy, i thot color theory from her in 2020 was really good. a lot of lifelike choices in this song - i like the guitar that imitates the vocalist in the choruses, adding an extra layer to a sort of drooling despondent feeling at the moment where the last note just hangs until the next iteration of the phrase. the drums feel like they're barely plodding out their pattern in spite of physical exertion. the story is of two people hanging onto each other for dear life, making clear the extensive weight of the world that they are pushing up against. its good !

Spoiler: 6th place: chickadee !

múm - we have a map of the piano

Cathe Friedrich: chickadee!!!!!
Sigourney Weaver: 5.4 [4.2/5]
Toni Morrison: cheebory
Laura Agustin: 2.1
Naomi Watts: 0.7

8.2

hilariously cheeto told me to listen to this shortly before the onset of the walrus, which makes me wonder if this is tris and the ****** ******* song is somebody else. i'll give it 0.7 points as a sort of compromise since i'm perfectly happy to have a reason to take a closer reading of it. at that, the idea of the cat is making me hear this differently - initially i had interpreted the vocalist to have a wide-eyed understated wonder, but this time it sounds equally interpretable as more of a droopy-eyed rumination. there's a pretty constant feeling of forward propulsion, but the melodies are pretty wistful, giving the feeling of just watching a bunch of things pass one by - backed up by the "please don't go so fast" refrain.

Spoiler: 7th place: cleabto

disco elysium - burn baby burn

Cathe Friedrich: 1.7
Sigourney Weaver: 5.4 [4.2/5]
Toni Morrison: PJ ???
Laura Agustin: cleabory
Naomi Watts: 0.8

7.9

there's a lot that interests me about this game and i will surely never play it because i understand that it's like 69 gigglebytes and i need all that space on my computer for pictures of fka twigs. at some moments this falls into the snag that a couple other subs did, which is that it feels like a deliberate lowness of energy rather than a lack of it, but there's also this atmosphere of withering away and rumination on things people are unable to have. vocal harmony is good quite often.

Spoiler: 8th place: healbooks

tenniscoats - sappolondon

Cathe Friedrich: 5.6 [4.3/5]
Sigourney Weaver: hellbooks -0.1
Toni Morrison: hellbooks
Laura Agustin: 0.7
Naomi Watts: 1.6

7.8

i have come to know that this is minjaes entry. i listened to this album in response to her liking it. normally it would occur to give this a 0.4 or 0.5 unfamiliarity due to having listened to this once, but i'm relaxing that since i became familiar after the walrus started (i wonder if i've been like perfectly consistent with that standard. lol). however, i will evilly dock 0.1 points since tenniscoats has already been submitted (i do not plan to be consistent with this standard). i will also evilly not make any other comments on this song since i have, by the end of this sentence, written the 4 lines of notepad text which is my touchstone for being close enough to done. this was also written before listening and considering it

Spoiler: 9th place: ariel

tanita tikram - twist in my sobriety

Cathe Friedrich: 1.4
Sigourney Weaver: 0.7
Toni Morrison: chickdee
Laura Agustin: 5.2 [4.1/5]
Naomi Watts: ariel

7.3

interesting thing going on here. so first of all theres this fun thing where the title of the song doesnt really make sense out of context. and like the vocalist just kind of states it at one point and doesnt elaborate. but it makes sense then. the language in this is rly interesting (especially in the context of this being some kind of epic pop song) and it's where most of the points come from - it seems like the singer is going through their disillusionment with all sorts of things, and detailing how they are drained by their relationship with the addressed person, in a pretty evocative way. but the rest of the construction of the song sort of has a consistent foreboding feeling, and other than being pretty low-to-the-ground i wouldn't really say that its very low energy. neat submission.

Spoiler: 10th place: georgie B

low - la la song

Cathe Friedrich: 0.5
Sigourney Weaver: 4.8 [3.9/5]
Toni Morrison: 1.5
Laura Agustin: shafty
Naomi Watts: george bailey !!

6.8

this is the first of several songs which will make me think really hard about how many unfamiliarity points i give it. i would credit low as one of my very favorite bands, but 90% of that boils down to one album they released in 2018, and there's a lot of ways that their stripped-down earlier act is more foreign to me - i havent listened to this album for instance (though i listened to 3 or 4 of the other ones from around that time and they're quite good). this is an interesting pick from there - it has their characteristic low energy level, but the feeling evoked to me is more of a deliberate and comfortable low energy rather than a tiredness. the bass drum thump in particular has the feeling of a sturdy stance with a low center of mass. but, the lyrics bridge the gap a fair amount.

Spoiler: 11th: shafty

stereolab - how to play your internal organs overnight

Cathe Friedrich: ariel ???
Sigourney Weaver: 5.2 [4.1/5]
Toni Morrison: 0.7
Laura Agustin: 0.8
Naomi Watts: shafty!

6.7

neat song. i would struggle to name anything that makes a feeling of tiredness exist in this, though i would say that it's there distantly - maybe it's sort of evocative of the feeling of just existing half-awake in bed for a while. the strings are what's doing most of the work for me here, they're very good. also the old casio-sounding drum machine is funny as it usually is.

Spoiler: 12th: davsto

flaming L's - slow nerve action

Cathe Friedrich: 4.8 [3.9/5]
Sigourney Weaver: 0.7
Toni Morrison: davsto -0.1
Laura Agustin: davsto?
Naomi Watts: 1.2

6.6

the story being told by the vocalist is weary and lamentative, and oftentimes delivered in a noticeably quiet and desireless sort of way. other than that i kind of struggle to see it - maybe there's an extent to which the guitar riffs are droopy and lazy, and they're only as loud as they are because of the machinery. similarly torn about the drums - they're laying it on thick, which could either be read as an intentional hard hit of the instrument, or maybe just somebody letting gravity help them out too much. it's just usually too well put-together for the feelings of clumsiness to win over, especially with things like a little chime sound that backs up the vocalist. guitar tone is rly interesting.

Spoiler: 13th place: sirius

morfonica - 深海少女

Cathe Friedrich: 5.2 [4.1/5]
Sigourney Weaver: 0.8
Toni Morrison: 0.2
provisional points for producing the extra link on short notice: 0.4
Laura Agustin: sirius 9121 1221 22921 -0.121
Naomi Watts: sirius9121

6.5

this is the song that had to be resubmitted, and i think it might have had to be a new song on the spot, so i'm giving a bit of extra points of padding in case that made it difficult to cough up a fitting song. in any case, finding it hard to pick out the tiredness here - sounds like a standard fare exciting sirius song, with maybe a couple quiter moments. the fiddle in particular does great work for building up energy and adding depth. this song is just fun, lol. a lot of quick interesting patterns in the drums too.

post note: it seems that tris is the one that sleuthed up the extra link - i'm leaving the 0.4 points here, i guess as insurance in case we ended up with the wrong link

Spoiler: 14th place: sleapy

final f - ishgard night theme

Cathe Friedrich: sleapy krew
Sigourney Weaver: 0.7
Toni Morrison: 4.4 [3.7/5]
Laura Agustin: 0.7
Naomi Watts:

5.8

catfit in that i'm TIRED of the final fancy songs lol lol I joke. i'm kidding. something that kind of holds the enjoyment points back is the way that it sometimes leans on a sort of sterile internet-era straight-to-spotify style of pop piano which i'm kind of TIRED of ahahaha. the song has a bit of a sleepy time feel at moments, but also has no trouble conjuring up big swirling segments of strings if it feels like it, which kind of puts a damper on things. well, like a reverse-damper on things. it doesnt feel all that physically tired is what i'm saying.

Spoiler: 15th place: N

jay foreman - pretend you're happy

Cathe Friedrich: 1.0
Sigourney Weaver: N -0.1
Toni Morrison: 0.8
Laura Agustin: N
Naomi Watts: 1.5 [1.5/5]

3.2

kind of a bummer. dont rly agree with the message here. very british. this has the world weariness pretty much locked down, though that was only part of what i was looking for and i dont think that the rest of the presentation gets at it very well either (in fact thats surely by design).

[schadd_]

Spoiler: how well can schadd guess who submitted the song?, pt. 2

there was no way i was getting on the board with regards to chickadee in that round bc the song which raised the eternal question of "is this tris or cheeto" (from a band that i know both of them like) was secretly hers

[schadd_]

horrible new game mechanic

until the reveal for CAT 2 (which will take place at the horrible hour of 8:30am my time on saturday, in (expired on 2021-05-01 08:30:00)), any player may choose to pay 0.3 of their own points to remove 0.2 points from another player of their choice. this will be carried out by saying: "

brigade: [name of player]

" in bold in this thread. each player may do this up to once.

[schadd_]

Spoiler: brigade schadd

fixt it also fixt the internal rankdown that i have in my spreadsheet.

so if me and dav had submitted the same song, but with different links, would you have to get the links correct?

yes

Spoiler: how well can schadd guess who submitted the song?, pt. 2

there was no way i was getting on the board with regards to chickadee in that round bc the song which raised the eternal question of "is this tris or cheeto" (from a band that i know both of them like) was secretly hers

i must have forgotten that i know that band

ummm hmm. maybe i'm thinking of some kind of other person

[schadd_]

reveal starting shortly !!

[schadd_]

:cat2:

Spoiler: 1st bace pj

100 gecs + fallout boy + craig owens + nicole dollanganger - hand crushed by a mallet remix

goodfit: 5.6 [4.3 wd/5]
catfit: 2.7
newfit: 0.7
whofit: chevy
beefedit: P !!
1st place: 2.0

11.1

tragically i was forced to talk myself down from an initial catfit 3 judgement here. in particular a lot of the first minutes form, like, this perfectly refined take on the annoyingness of the pop punk sound, just thrusting the annoying vocalist to the forefront. and it sort of floated between that and a classic radio pop thingy. like i was just impressed at its ability to cram a bunch of key cat 2 traits into a short timespan. also after the first couple minutes of my pivotal first listening, i got out of the shower and sort of walked away from my speaker so i didn't catch the last minute so well. but it starts to get really epic noisy at that moment and i am forced to recognize the extent to which anything that has "noise" as a descriptor has an incredibly reliable track record for me. so i have to bring you down from 3 there.

i got so excited realizing that this was the 100 gecs one. i listened to the un-remixed album and found it a little bit interesting, and the hyperpop sound in general has a lot of highs for me. but this one wasn't really like that, to my surprise, rather enlisting some rando vocalists (fallout boy???? i thought they would have all died of radiation poisoning or whatever) and really honing in on an edgy and abrasive (and rather unedited) sound. the fun energy is what triumphs here. also that last minute is really good.

Spoiler: 2nd bace sirius9121

kradness - 無頼ック自己ライザ

goodfit: 5.2 [4.1/5]
catfit: 3
newfit: 0.8
whofit: sirius
beefedit: sirius -0.1
is this one on spotify: yes!!!! https://open.spotify.com/track/0HODyPjr ... kvNHInQXqw
2nd place: 1.5

10.4

ignoring the fact that it would be a war crime to give anything other than a 3 to the sirius entry in this one, between the sound of the vocalist and the general epic sound profile i think it easily gets there. but as i determined with the other song by this artist, the vocalist actually goes off and the energy is fun as fuck. in fact this one actually doesn't perform as well as the other one bc it doesn't go hard enough, like i feel like that one spoiled me as far as the sheer amount of stuff that happens moment to moment and this one feels kind of scant in spite of how busy it actually is. but it's still fun. i wonder what would be the motivating factor for this song in particular going to this cat - maybe the video has the anime guy singing along with the song whereas the other ones didnt

Spoiler: 3rd bace muschaghagan

tallah - red light (one take vocal)

goodfit: 5.0 [4/5]
catfit: 2.6
newfit: 0.8
whofit: musha
beefedit: musha -0.1
3rd place: 1.0

9.7

out of the three metal thingys this has to be the mushshagana one. like i can totally imagine her gleefully touting this as an annoying man vocalist, and being totally correct (and also the one take thing sounds like something she would value. its neat !!!). but he's also so funnnnnnn. i'm imagining this person being not british and occasionally just saying things in a british voice to sound all weird and snooty. lol. this person floats on the edge of being intolerable like sooo often but then there's something incredibly charming about the horrible warping and wefting of the voice to go like "this is heresoie heresoie" and whatever, its so theatrical. somebody is wailing on the drums for sure.

Spoiler: 4th bace chatory

the unicorns - sea ghost

goodfit: 5.0 [4.0/5]
catfit: 2.4
newfit: 0.8
whofit: binjae?????
beefedit: BLEATORY!

8.2

i'm aware of a considerable mafiascum unicorns-liking contingent, in particular i remember cheetory6 and xyzzy both citing it as a favorite. i will not be guessing either of those users here although i'm totally ready to be bitten for that choice. there's a clear resemblance to carsie and the headrests for me here, and otherwise it has the epic mannish indie rock stench, some stuff that would normally signal a kind of boring project for me. i am finding a bit to chew on here, though. a handful of things pepper up the experience enough that it activates the imagination, the odd but confident pronunciations of stuff like "i'd hope the salt belouwwwe" and the extra audible noise of the vocalist breathing and whatever, and the really quiet cymbals, among other things. feels like they are committed to being meaningfully idiosyncratic in a way thats interesting.

Spoiler: 5th place chrevve

PUP - Sleap in the Heap

goodfit: 4.6 [3.8/5]
catfit: 2.8
newfit: 0.7
whofit: cheetory6 ??
beefedit: chevy !!

8.1

it seems like multiple people have managed to telepathically and accurately determine a chorus of "wha-a-a-a-ohhhh, wha-a-a-a-ohhh" as a symptom of music i generally do not like. also yes this vocalist is really something to behold - him belting out "you were looking so stoned" makes me wanna go beughalgh. it kind of made me wonder if i was being too indulgent, like i'm looking for annoying characteristics of the vocalist so that i can assign it points, and also conflating a theoretically annoying vocalist with an actually annoying vocaist. but also the vocalist is like, annoying. i gave their 2019 album a shot and just quickly put it down on that basis. what really helps this song out is a contagious fun and mobile feeling that mostly kicks in when it starts to feel more like a group effort, especially when the messy guitar tone is put to good use. it definitely punishes me whenever i pay too much attention to the lead vocalist.

Spoiler: 6th place clackadee

mallrat - groceries

goodfit: 6.0 [4.5/5]
catfit: 0.9
provisional mystery catfit points: 0.3
newfit: 0.8
whofit: ariel????????
beefedit: chickadoe !

8.0

this song is goooooood though. on the verge of tears for 3 reasons:

• the song is just like that. its like really good. like a pop distillation of the modern loving-honesty thing, and it just works really well for me. the way it repeats, it sort of focuses in on the simple sound of the spoken phrase. also there's little descending fluttery pieces of vocal harmony which feels like mist
  
• the catfit is like crushing here. it's a radioey sort of pop music, which is a conundrum for me because, like, sometimes i like radio pop and sometimes i don't and its obviously going to be down to my own arbitrary taste but i always come up with ways to make it sound like there's some grand artistic narrative which dictates how Good the music is to me. which is all to say, it would occur to me to give this low catfit points because i like it, which isn't good enough. but also like, it kind of has the sort of indie-girl-pop sound a la clairo or whatever, which is a sort of thing that i definitely do like frequently. but then somebody submitted this to me thinking that i don't..... crying face emogies broken heart emogies.... but then they also thought that i would like this song which i do.... bestie emogies....
  
• this song has high equity for coming from either ariel or georgebailey and it also has high equity for barely missing the podium which would be HEARTBEAKING....... although i also feel like this might be pj in which case hahaha boiiieeee
  
• ok like my overwhelming judgement is that the catfit isn't really there but i cant shake this feeling that there's like something faintly alien about this to me. idk. something about the way the vocalist slurs through a bunch of the words. hence the 0.3. just feels like something about that ought to earn points

Spoiler: 7th bace ariel

astrid s [matoma remix] - 2am

goodfit: 4.2 [3.6/5]
catfit: 2
provisional catfit points based on the nature of the remix: 0.5
newfit: 0.8
whofit: jun ??
beefedit: ariel

7.7

on principle i'm peeved at pop songs getting sent into this cat however this sounds like the chainsmokers to me which paves the way for a solid 2. i wanna say that i felt like i was enjoying it at a >4/5 level when i listened to it in the shower a few days ago. but, well, i'm not in the shower right now unfortunately. there's a fair bit to like (i think there's a tambourine sound ? that keeps signalling beat 4 which is good) but its also a little bit shallow - the melody for the cello segment feels like it's subsisting on the power of persuasion and isn't actually all that entertaining

Spoiler: 8th bace hellbo

xtc - fly on the wall

goodfit: 4.6 [3.8/5]
catfit: 2.4
newfit: 0.6
whofit: dovstie
beefedit: hellbook!!

7.6

xtc is in fact a band that i know and don't mind, which has been true for quite a while actually (my dad likes them a lot). i'd say they're a little bit too artsy and insular to fit in the typical disliked-british-rock cohort that would normally do well for this cat, although as i listened to this song i found that it unrelatedly ends up with a sort of modern pop punk kind of thing? like it kind of sounds like the strokes which are a richly disliked group for me. there's a lot of neat production decisions with this one, i like the code switching with the vocal distortion.

Spoiler: 9th bace davbo

the jam - down in the tube station at midnight

goodfit: 4.2 [3.6/5]
catfit: 2.5
newfit: 0.8
whofit: tris ??????????
beefedit: davsto??????

7.5

at moments, the vocalist in particular sounds pretty faithfully like the clash, which is probably the most canonical punk outfit that i usually like. but there's plenty of stuff that's not usually my thing, as well as boatloads of unapologetic britishness ("they shmewt of pubs" at 2:20 demanded that i lock in something high). the construction of the song is solid and the fast hi-hat hits help it move along, but the detail-orientation of the lyrics goes kinda too far as to make it a bit of a slog. kind of feels like it's supposed to feel anthemic in the classic punk sort of way but just doesn't have the snappiness to back it up. i like the section of train sounds. i wouldnt expect this to be tris, i'm just struggling to come up with guesses here in general

post-reveal note: oh wig this is from the 70s. i discounted the idea of it being davsto bc i thought it was from 2018 (and it kind of had the sound of like, modern revival of punk) & because theres just other things that wanted to be davsto

Spoiler: 10th bace trisp

peter gabriel - i have the touch

goodfit: 4.6 [3.8/5]
catfit: 1.7
newfit: 0.6
whofit: chickadee ???
beefedit: tris !!

6.9

struggled with this one a fair bit. first of all its just gonna be awkward in this cat if i, like, know the artist. i know about this guy. i listened to a couple of the epic self titled albums, i can play solsbury hill on guitar, what have you. i would say i sort of like him, but also i do sort of recognize him as someone that's rather within the annoying-old-british-rock space. painfully, though, i felt that the production of this song felt a lot like kate bush, who i like a lot, and otherwise it's sort of arty in the way that characterizes a lot of my familiar bullshit. it has a good bit of the early-synth pop charm, a lot of fun is being had with all the machinery.

Spoiler: 11th bace n

parkway drive - prey

goodfit: 3.6 [3.3/5]
catfit: 2.5
newfit: 0.8
whofit: is this like N????? who is this????
beefedit: -0.1

6.8

this is a type of edgy song contesty metal that i usually wouldnt be that interested in. um, i'm not all that interested in it here. they're saying all this stuff about praying for the sorrow and like, no, i'll pray for the happy thank you very much. oh it's probably prey isn't it. i don't think that makes it better. i'll prey for the happy thank you very much. some of the guitar tone is interesting.

Spoiler: 12th bace jun

neon trees - animal

goodfit: 2.9 [2.9/5]
catfit: 3
newfit: 0.8
whofit: PJ
beefedit: jun

6.7

you got me

Spoiler: 13th bace gorger barlie

alcest - eclosion

goodfit: 4.4 [3.7/5]
catfit: 1.2
newfit: 0.8
whofit: george bailey
beefedit: george bailey aghhh -0.1

6.3

there isn't really anything in this that i could see as abrasive to me, just kind of something that i wouldn't really expect to listen to. maybe it would be a sort of gentle metal music, lol. indie metal. it feels expansive in an interesting way, there's a lot of pretty good drums, i think the vocalists are good for the most part, but it's also not really inspiring or attention grabbing to me for much of it. i would call it somewhat pleasant though.

Spoiler: 14th bace sleapton

final fantass - who brings shadow

goodfit: 3.2 [3.1/5]
catfit: 2.1
newfit: 0.7
whofit: sleapykrew
beefedit: slapty k -0.1

5.9

sound quality is a killer here. cat fit is kinda goofy since it sort of feels like it's lacking in distinct character in general, also the vocalist sounds like the nine inch nails guy who i definitely like. lol. but its definitely got a resemblance to the sort of video game musicky symphonic metal thing which i usually don't give much mind to. for sure hard to give it a lot of mind here, feels really cheesy.

Spoiler: 15th bace SHAFETEDY!!!!!!!!

radiohead - exit music for a fart

goodfit: 3.2 [3.1/5]
catfit: 1.5
newfit: 0.5
whofit: shafty
beefedit: shafty -0.1

5.1

the thing about these dudes is that they don't sound like anything to me. it's just like regular music. even the annoying vocalist that they have to offer just kind of sounds like a loaf of damp bread. this is even less of a thing than i remember it being, the song is just waiting to be over. the buzzy guitar that comes in is kind of cool.

i did a lot of the writeups and score choosings kind of late last night. i fixed a lot of errors while revealing this morning (either math errors or like, enjoyment grading errors) and you are welcome to double check your math and also litigate my enjoyment of your song if you wish


added in the lowest-score drop. handful of people are in rather close contention for the top spot here. we'll do the final reveal at 22:30 central time next saturday, in (expired on 2021-05-08 22:30:00)

[schadd_]

mario party

as the current last placer, N has the opportunity to steal a grand slam from one of the four players by rolling a d4 in this thread. he has (expired on 2021-05-03 11:00:00) to do so before the ability passes on to sleepy krew

[schadd_]

whom have a grand slam

[schadd_]

ohhhhh theres a really fun thing where it looks like cheeto has 6 grand slams

[schadd_]

mario party

as the current last placer, N has the opportunity to steal a grand slam from one of the five players by rolling a d5 in this thread. he has (expired on 2021-05-03 11:00:00) to do so before the ability passes on to sleepy krew

change of plans: its a d5 and if you get a 4 then you steal a grand slam from cheatory's number

[schadd_]

is the cat 1 reveal saturday (as the post says) or sunday (as the title says) asking for friend

saturday as the post says thank you.

[schadd_]

hi

everybody should send songs 2 this

[schadd_]

there was a secret tariff placed on grand slam exchanges which was allocated to the 2nd to last place player

[schadd_]

also voicing support for a forum only walrus

[schadd_]

unfortunately made a mistake in my epic data entry for this cat - i fixed it but i had to sift thru the original submissions to find what i had missing, which means that i won't be doing submitter guesses for this last one. for the record, chickadee gets the honorary perfect sweep since i would have certainly guessed an incorrect song for her (i.e. i had already locked it in before i had even finished cleaning the songs)

[schadd_]

tragically i believe yours would be the only one that contains scream vocals (though relatively trace amts) which narrows things down a little bit. good luck with the vinegar!

[schadd_]

mm checking back on it it's not actually clear to me whether its a scream or just a clean that has an odd filter on it that makes it sound like a scream. the thing i'm thinking about is at 2:00

[schadd_]

i'll come up with what my best guess would have probably been for each song

[schadd_]

rebealing in 45 minutes !!!

(expired on 2021-05-08 22:30:00)

[schadd_]

the final cat 1

Spoiler: 1st place (G.S.): the dee

the leanover - life without buildings

How Much Did I Enjoy This Song: 6.8 [4.9/5]
The First Begotten Sun Of How Much Did I Enjoy This Song: 3
How Much Did I Hadn't Listened To This Song: 0.8
How Much Did Chickadee Submit The Song: She Did
How Much Would I Have Expected It From Them: i would have probably put this as davsto. lol. even forgetting that there is a tori amos track elsewhere i don't see myself getting this one.

12.6

definitely a track which primarily strikes a chord of interestingness for me. it's a sort of thing that prompts a lot of thought as to what . . . sort of thing the song is, what are its affordances. when the vocalist is just kind of lyrically bounding and dancing around, it comes naturally to just give her room to do that - the substance resembles an unfiltered consciousness, a collage of vignettes, whatever, but they are also easily parsed as an anthem or a refrain. it has you ruminate on things like "don't go vacant on me" and "contact" (with the latter there's temporarily a question as to what word is being said, it sort of sounds like "can't touch" or "come time" but then enunciates the trailing "t" more towards the end) as they are presented in a constant playful inflection, almost in a sort of epic minimalist style. but, it also wields its own musical flair - at 3:50 there's a brief feeling of the guitar digging its feet into the ground, signalling you to notice the mounting energy and height of emotion in the song. all of this is to say, it's very arty in a way that you knew that i would like.

more later comments: looked at the lyrics of it - "in the time it takes to slide it back" is another one of those key repeated phrases, which i would have highlighted if there was any way i would have been able to parse language out of the speech. also i didn't even notice her saying "MBV MBV" which is hilarious (i posted abt them in my epic top songs thread the other day). i added this to my spotify playlists of "songs that would score highly in the drum cat even though the drums are clearly not the best part of it" as well as "songs that are like this giff" (will be included as an appendix). this song is really emotional, and i don't really have a point of comparison as to how it gets there - seems pretty obvious to me that i should be rounding up to 3. the "bounce! twirl!" around the middle is like in the musical moments hall of fame.

APPENDIX GIF:

Spoiler: 2nd place: spreato

tanya taqaq - uja

How Much Did I Enjoy This Song: 6.2 [4.6 wd/5]
The First Begotten Sun Of How Much Did I Enjoy This Song: 2.5
How Much Did I Hadn't Listened To This Song: 0.8
How Much Did Spreadsheatory Submit The Song: They Did
How Much Would I Have Expected It From Them: after getting a closer look at it and hearing the electricosity of it i may have come around to him.
2nd place: 1.5

11.1

yeah i mean like, the vocal is just literally good. a total onslaught. just total animal hype mode for the whole duration of the song, grips your attention tight for 2 and a half minutes. the rest of the song almost feels too generous and traditional to be a frame for the song, i want to feel the full coarse friction of it scraping against me. quite addicting to listen to in any case, was one of the first considerations as something which would land in the top spot. check out medúlla by bjork.

more later comments: this ended up being way better of a listening experience while like going around and doing something compared to just sitting in bed. like if i'm out a walkin then it just naturally gets more overwhelming, like i have no choice but to ride the song all the way to hleuellgh-town, whereas the whole thing is more digestible when i'm sitting there & it feels shorter and even kind of scant. naturally i'm allowing the better experience to dominate the score a little bit here.

Spoiler: 3rd place: helbo

yu su - gleam

How Much Did I Enjoy This Song: 6.0 (4.5/5)
The First Begotten Sun Of How Much Did I Enjoy This Song: 2.3
How Much Did I Hadn't Listened To This Song: 0.8
How Much Did Minjae Submit The Song: They Did
How Much Would I Have Expected It From Them: i probably would have gotten this correct, as i told her, bc i was distantly familiar with the name yu su in a way that was a potential sign that i saw her listening to it on spotify or something
3rd place: 1.0

10.1

i appreciate the amount of fun this has with sine waves or near-sine-waves; pretty much all of the melody is that, whereas the rhythmic and textural character comes primarily from this lush and shapely unyielding percussion array (its like if morse code were a bop). the low-bass in particular is such a simple tone, which sometimes does a slow glissando, and it almost feels like it calls attention to its colorlessness, like it's pitch black. there's a rly catchy pattern which fully fades in around 2:00 which is like "dumdumdum---dum-dum-dum, dumdumdumdummm--", which exists comfortably in a sort of pitch-dissonant space (mostly the first note) and has a rhythmic pattern which is so hard to count as four-quarter time. i love the little echoey bubbly sounds. yeah i could listen to this song for like an hour, its a sort of thing that just makes you start thinkin about stuff. electronic music made by women is always good as fuck.

Spoiler: 4th place: the peej

the weather station - robber

How Much Did I Enjoy This Song: 5.9 [4.4 wd/5]
The First Begotten Sun Of How Much Did I Enjoy This Song: 2.2
How Much Did I Hadn't Listened To This Song: 0.8
How Much Did PJ Submit The Song: They Did
How Much Would I Have Expected It From Them: i would probably guess chickadee here if not for the song that i would have guessed chickadee for. or maybe ariel. quite unlikely to have been correct in any case.

8.9

long floaty bassless segments make this really interesting - they force out a long brooding thought as to what is meant by that title refrain, "i never believed in the robber" and suggest that it's something more interesting than my first guess which went something like "i never thought i would get robbed but then i did (incidentally i guess that means i have to be a right winger now)." the whole of the vocal is really engaging and dramatic, some moments like "i learned to make love to the robber" are quite shocking and thought provoking. absolute menagerie of instruments, its really something. a gasping piano and sax are recurring characters but there are a lot of moments where some kind of jazz organ or any number of other slightly different things will briefly chime in, sort of like an audience member or support group member briefly vocalizing in agreement. the big swirling updraft at 3:00 is really great. they should collab with wendy williams & do a song about the killer

Spoiler: tied 5th: bails

freescha - the sun is still

How Much Did I Enjoy This Song: 5.8 [4.4/5]
The First Begotten Sun Of How Much Did I Enjoy This Song: 2.1
How Much Did I Hadn't Listened To This Song: 0.8
How Much Did GeorgeBailey Submit The Song: They Did
How Much Would I Have Expected It From Them: my first guess was surely cheetory6 and i don't know if i would have been able to peel away from it. but also not vry surpring.

8.7

really interesting thing. i think its best moments are towards the beginning, the "whots going on here" phase of the game. the viscous and pitch-uncertain synth which makes the focal melody makes good use of attention. the moment about 20 seconds in, where the rhythmically- and texturally-uncertain drum beat scratches out a modulation-uncertain change in the chords, tosses you off balance in an entertaining way. id imagine GB is aiming at the "interesting use of electronics" idea, as it sounds like we're witnessing some kind of creature hobbling around and trying to figure things out. towards the end of the song it starts to perceptually solidify, building a feeling of a whirlpool, a spinning globe, a glimmering star system. i think that having it be just 2 minutes is a great move, the usual temptation to draw things out would sort of be immersion breaking. i would have gone fully apeshit abt this song 6 or 7 years ago

Spoiler: tied 5th: the gana

tayne - haunted

How Much Did I Enjoy This Song: 5.8 [4.4/5]
The First Begotten Sun Of How Much Did I Enjoy This Song: 2.1
How Much Did I Hadn't Listened To This Song: 0.8
How Much Did MUSHSHAGANA Submit The Song: They Did
How Much Would I Have Expected It From Them: even aside from the scream vocal question i think i would have gotten this from the vibe of the group + the fact that it has barely more than a thousand spotify listens

8.7

kind of a funny thing where it sets up a little bit of an epic gritty hardcore sound then starts to resemble a synthpop gig. most of the appeal comes from the general hugeness and spectacle here, the meaty sizzling bass, big reverberant snare hits, synth arpeggios, the works. pretty reliable "oh fuckkkkk" moment whenever the choruses hit. the vocalist sounds like the erosion which is carving a huge valley. while the sound is satisfying here i would say it slightly lacks in a sort of compellingness, it feels like a lot of the voices are doing close to the same thing. but it works well as a particularly thrashy and angsty pop song. the vocal confoundingness at 2:00 that i mentioned in thread is a cool effect.

Spoiler: tied 5th: bperps

the marías - basta ya

How Much Did I Enjoy This Song: 6.1 [4.5 wd/5]
The First Begotten Sun Of How Much Did I Enjoy This Song: 2.3
How Much Did I Hadn't Listened To This Song: 0.3
How Much Did Jun Submit The Song: They Did
How Much Would I Have Expected It From Them: i think i could not have voted someone else if someone told me to at gunpoint

8.7

i listened to the ep here & there would have surely been a time or three that i just kept noticing jun listen to this on spotify and decided to check out what the fuss was about. definitely something that gives you a wiggle and a weft when you're out walking - the sort of alternating-staccato pattern in the bass is soooo groovy and satisfying. the emotional character of the song is really cool since the vocalist is sort of telling this sly and drippy story, but there's an atmosphere of a sort of joy that comes from how brilliantly coordinated the whole thing is. just sounds like a bunch of instrumentalists are gathered together and grinning about the network of quiet horns & percussion that builds up the thing. really fun to listen to.

Spoiler: 8th place: the ris

tori amos - precious things

How Much Did I Enjoy This Song: 5.7 [4.3 wd/5]
The First Begotten Sun Of How Much Did I Enjoy This Song: 2.0
How Much Did I Hadn't Listened To This Song: 0.8
How Much Did Trism Submit The Song: They Did
How Much Would I Have Expected It From Them: i would have written chickadee. tris probably would not have been a first or second guess otherwise.

8.5

just a really loaded song. lyrically it is something which would still be very engaging if she were just, like, talking to you - i think this person is often grouped with fiona apple by that sort of idea. like i would keep going "tell me more" and she would keep saying all sorts of stuff. like hey why don't you come out of your little box and have a seat. i'll grab you ice water in spite of the fact that you can just clearly say so many things without needing it. i like her wolf howl thing as well. otherwise i think the low end of the instrumentation does well here, like the backing vocalists giving a haunting edge to the "these precious things" refrain and building this feeling of some kind of Destruction being impending and necessary. there's a big ol bag of tricks / twists & turns in the rest of the instrumentation which are engaging but also make the character of the song a little bit too complex to swallow fully

Spoiler: 9th place: chevs

james blake - lullaby for my insomniac

How Much Did I Enjoy This Song: 5.7 [4.3 wd/5]
The First Begotten Sun Of How Much Did I Enjoy This Song: 2.0
How Much Did I Hadn't Listened To This Song: 0.7
How Much Did Chevvie Submit The Song: They Did
How Much Would I Have Expected It From Them: probably would have guessed corectly

8.4

i listened to his james blake-titled album a little while ago and just did not get much out of it because i thot his voice was annoying as fuck. and this song, which is just his voice in large part, is, as you might expect, pretty good! i like an a capella song which aims to produce a feeling of largeness and depthfulness in a person's feelings, which is really the thing that's in focus here (the single synth backing component has a slow attack which makes it seem like a response to the vocals). it's really touching, sort of showing off a long and concerted effort and smooth performance among the backing vocal array, as well as a pained immediate moment for the lead vocal component, which is evocative to me of the nature of living with a condition. i'd highlight "i'd rather see everything" as a particularly great moment of harmony

Spoiler: 9th place: shaff shafferty

pizzicato five - i wanna be like you

How Much Did I Enjoy This Song: 5.6 (4.3/5)
The First Begotten Sun Of How Much Did I Enjoy This Song: 2.0
How Much Did I Hadn't Listened To This Song: 0.8
How Much Did Shafty Submit The Song: They Did
How Much Would I Have Expected It From Them: i think that just the fact of the old song which isn't on spotify would make me quite unsurprised. however i did have to find another video for it in order to get a workable sound quality & the other video has a picture of anime girls on it which would be hard to avoid influencing my choice

8.4

the song feels like a comfortable and reassuring inhabitation of a space - sort of like a sort of music that would play in the background at a cafe, though this feels much more careful and deliberate. the delivery of the vocals makes it feel like every word is chosen, thoughtfully traversing through some ideas and finding a few sticking points. i like the quiet activity in the song, some noises in the background like personal noise and radio buzz. it keeps asking me to take stock of it and to be aware of all the little pieces building it up. paired vocalist effect is good, however obviously your submission for that one was perfectly fine

Spoiler: 11th place: air

imogen heap - the walk

How Much Did I Enjoy This Song: 5.8 [4.4/5]
The First Begotten Sun Of How Much Did I Enjoy This Song: 2.1
How Much Did I Hadn't Listened To This Song: 0.4
How Much Did Ariel Submit The Song: They Did
How Much Would I Have Expected It From Them: it's hard to say. i think i would have put georgebailey.

8.3

i listened to this album! was pretty interested in miss jennifer heap around supp season last yr & listened to the album - pretty sure i had thought of this song as a secondary highlight to hide & seek, though i'm happy to be reminded of it since i don't think i revisited it. it has her characteristic ability to fit a lot of emotional shape into a phrase - just that harmony for "it's not meant to be like this" has a lot of determination as well as anguish and exhaustion. she also floats between head voice and chest voice really compellingly. the rest of the song construction works as a competently creative and compelling pop situation. i think i will name one of my children imogen heap.

Spoiler: 12th place: sto-sto

k's choice - virgin state of mind

How Much Did I Enjoy This Song: 5.5 [4.2 wd/5]
The First Begotten Sun Of How Much Did I Enjoy This Song: 1.9
How Much Did I Hadn't Listened To This Song: 0.8
How Much Did Davsto Submit The Song: They Did
How Much Would I Have Expected It From Them: probably not very much at all!!

8.2

quite moody & quite haunting. half-expected to get a 12 minute long prog rock thing, like, "you'll listen to this and LIKE IT". but the route is different here, i think its emotionality is very present and direct in the way that i normally purport to like. some interesting moments in the vocals that have a distant high-school-drama feeling, like the sort of stutter in the word "think" in "do you think i'm sexy" (1:25). there's also just a large amount of effective backing vocals / harmonies / etc., there's a particularly great effect with the "virgin state of miiiind" refrain where the vocal portion just feels very full and wide while the rest of the stuff (bass in particular) gives it the veneer of a melodic shape / movement. it's good

Spoiler: 13th place: kreepy

final fancy / masayoshi soken - beauty's wicked wiles

How Much Did I Enjoy This Song: 5.3 [4.1 wd/5]
The First Begotten Sun Of How Much Did I Enjoy This Song: 1.7
How Much Did I Hadn't Listened To This Song: 0.7
How Much Did Sleapykrew Submit The Song: They Did
How Much Would I Have Expected It From Them: idk
How Much Did This Song Get Put On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/5OwNhyOl ... 6MxoxwFLpQ (extended version)

7.7

a great portion of the appeal here comes from the out-of-left-field key change to the parallel major (!!??) that forms this huge distracting and interesting portion of the texture. like it feels like a switch gets flipped and a new idea gets built on the foundations of the rest of the song. otherwise, the full and meaty orchestration is pretty entertaining but it is kind of perilously unspecific (a bunch of different voices that aren't doing anything uproariously interesting) and video gamey. the same sort of goes for the lyrics, she'll be like "give into the hunger" and i'll be like no thanks i just ate dinner actually.

Spoiler: 14th place: enne

bill wurtz - and the day goes on

How Much Did I Enjoy This Song: 5.6 [4.3/5]
The First Begotten Sun Of How Much Did I Enjoy This Song: 2.0
How Much Did I Hadn't Listened To This Song: 0.0
How Much Did N Submit The Song: They Did
How Much Would I Have Expected It From Them: i'd probably guess postie first but yeah not very surprising

7.6

unfortunately zero unfamiliarity points here. i would have listened to the song and liked it a few times when it came out, then it got song gamed like 69 times. at one point i was following his music pretty closely & looking at his big ole questions and answers page on his website, then i guess i must have gotten tired of his bitch ass. this song is good though. he's a trailblazer in the genre of music-theory-conscious internet music, for most of which i have nothing but apathy. you can tell he's a bassist on this one, it's like endlessly and uproariously committed to making something with an engaging melodic shape. i would describe his lyrics as "slightly misanthropic" (and refuse to elaborate)

Spoiler: 15th place: doc 9121

will stetson - i'm glad you're evil too

How Much Did I Enjoy This Song: 2.9
The First Begotten Sun Of How Much Did I Enjoy This Song: 0.5
How Much Did I Hadn't Listened To This Song: 0.8
How Much Did Sirius9121 Submit The Song: They Did
How Much Would I Have Expected It From Them: i would probably have guessed correctly

4.2

sorryyyyyyyyy i just dont like this vocalist at all and there's not much else to engage with. unfortunately the title kind of loses me right away - like sorry mr. stetson but i am good and cool actually. i appreciate the earnesty and optimism of it but it's just kind of suffocatingly theatrical for me

post reveal notes: provisional 0.5 catfit bc everyone else liked it

clarifying the catfit here: its just (enjoyment - 3) * 1.5. i took that region between 3 and 5 out of 5 and blew it up to be worth an extra 3 points - usually the extent to which a song scores greater than 3 is the extent to which i "liked" it in particular. i thought about refining the range further since everyone was so close but i think it's fine when the scores correctly reflect everyone doing a good job.

final standings:

N:

winner of sending songs that i liked guessing & that were fun to think thru for catfit & recruiting a brother to show up to several reveals & being australian

sleepykrew:

winner among contestants imposing a final fantasy restriction upon themselves or who maybe just happend to do it by accident (and setting what will likely be a permanent record for performance under that constraint) & clarifying followups

sirius9121:

winner of songs that i generally liked and were fun and good in spite of a pretty phenomenal gap btwn the music we generally listen to & songs that aren't english language (this is a good thing)

georgebailey:

winner of a bunch of interesting / thought provoking songs from left field & making me always excited to see which the fuck song was the george bailey song

ariel:

winner of buckwild consistency of the enjoyableness of the songs & somehow sifting through my oceans of disinformation to create the submitter-guess score thingy which i really appreciated

davsto:

winner of a bunch well-thought-out catfits & songs that i pretty consistently liked in spite of you being like right in my epic old british music blind spot & good vocal harmony in a bunch of them

jun:

winner of being like such a fun member of the game, like it would be so unbelievably good and relaxing to be like oh this is the jun song. like i would always enjoy doing the writeup for the ones i knew were yours

shafted:

winner of being so baffling with the submissions and keeping me on my toes (& keeping me on my toes in other ways) & getting the first grand slam & having the 2nd most grand slams & bringing an Old and Wise energy to the table

chevre:

winner of being a fun and active and iconic participant at many of the reveals & bringing the fun little backup options spreadsheet images & being spiritually present and supportive in all my spreadsheating work

pj:

winner of sending the best song of the walrus & theoretically having had a better thing to submit to that cat (which i will not listen to, so that it might stay on a pedestal) & standard deviation king (2.491)

cheetory6:

winner of the highest minimum score & just a bunch of cool and good and interesting songs that were the sort of oblique and artsy takes on the categories that i obviously love to have

mushshagana:

winner of enjoyment points (i'm not going to bother checking this and i don't care if its wrong because its spiritually correct. however i suspect its not close) & fun and cool and loud and good and interesting songs regardless that were fun to grade & songs that minjae liked which is like more important than me liking them & epic followup discussion

tris:

being the first person to bail out shafted with your grand slam & songs that made me go "ohhhhh this is cool" & reveal attendance & administrative assistance & supporting other contestants & being the first person to start another walrus thread & songs that everybody liked and thought were cool & being a key motivating factor for the creation of the walrus (i.e. i was like "i know that tris will submit cool and good songs for this which means i have to do it")

chickadee:

winner of the first cat & the last cat & BIZARRELY never getting sniped & submitting first (which was actually like dope as fuck because the several days where everyone was posting but i didnt have any submissions were really awkward) & seeming to like fire from the hip and effortlessly hit the bullseye so many times which was so fun & the thing where i had gotten your cat wrong in cat 5 but you still got second place due to bestie vibrations & best top 3 portfolio

hellbooks:

winner of being my friend

[schadd_]

obviously there is the epic participation trophy idea at play here, however i do want everyone to feel like they did a good job just bc i was so shocked at every turn how comprehensively good and compelling each cat was

[schadd_]

reposting heltris walrus: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=86488

also heard an idea floating around abt jun + spready doing a walrus in the future, also shafted said so too. i'll reiterate that it's literally fine and the norm for more than one to be happening at a time, and also fine and the norm to not do reveals every single week. oh yeah that reminds me:

me:

winner of churning these dang things out every week & making only a medium amount of math/clerical mistakes & receiving good songs

i think the only real courtesy thing is that it's kind of hard but probably still fine if there's multiple walruses in the submission phase at the same time.

thanks everybody for your submissions.

[schadd_]

7. TRIS

JAD FAIR + TENNISCOATS + NORMAN BLAKE - dobu dobu
(

cat 4 - 2nd place

)
i thought this was the most brilliantly creative entry catfit wise for a song in the whole game

i'll agree with you here, though without thinking about it too hard

i think that it wouldn't be so brilliantly interesting for me to do a top 10 since you all saw my scores already, however i would add the three highest scoring songs (aguas de marco; time travel; the leanover) would all very probably be able to surface as in my top 110. i would very roughly approximate aguas to be in the 80s, time travel to be in the 60s, the leanover to be in the 90s or 100s or so. its hard to say, especially with the leanover which i think i didn't get around to listening to until a couple days ago

[schadd_]

imagine that! setting an all time world record on accident

[schadd_]

Spoiler: 8th place: GeorgeBailey

the fiery furnaces - benton harbor blues

ENJOYMENT POINTS: 4.0 [3.5/5]
CATFIT POINTS: 1.7
UNFAMILIARITY POINTS: 0.7
SUSPECTED USER: cheetory6 ?
ACTUAL USER: georgebailey !!

6.4

though i don't usually find their music very interesting i do have to give the FF's credit as an act committed to the art of the weird perceptual journey. i like the little electronic organ hook, and it'll do a carefree switch into a different pattern for a few moments that seems to make sense musically but also create the feeling of an unanswered question. i know about eleanor friedberger growing up somewhat close to where i did but she sounds somewhat convincingly unlike a native speaker here. there's little things in the song like the reverse-speech moment that don't work wonders but add to the vibe for sure.

they like played thjs at ptichfork and it was good

[schadd_]

Spoiler: 4th place: the peej

the weather station - robber

How Much Did I Enjoy This Song: 5.9 [4.4 wd/5]
The First Begotten Sun Of How Much Did I Enjoy This Song: 2.2
How Much Did I Hadn't Listened To This Song: 0.8
How Much Did PJ Submit The Song: They Did
How Much Would I Have Expected It From Them: i would probably guess chickadee here if not for the song that i would have guessed chickadee for. or maybe ariel. quite unlikely to have been correct in any case.

8.9

long floaty bassless segments make this really interesting - they force out a long brooding thought as to what is meant by that title refrain, "i never believed in the robber" and suggest that it's something more interesting than my first guess which went something like "i never thought i would get robbed but then i did (incidentally i guess that means i have to be a right winger now)." the whole of the vocal is really engaging and dramatic, some moments like "i learned to make love to the robber" are quite shocking and thought provoking. absolute menagerie of instruments, its really something. a gasping piano and sax are recurring characters but there are a lot of moments where some kind of jazz organ or any number of other slightly different things will briefly chime in, sort of like an audience member or support group member briefly vocalizing in agreement. the big swirling updraft at 3:00 is really great. they should collab with wendy williams & do a song about the killer

ibid. also there was like a nasty sax solo that bridged the gap to a certain other pj walrus situation

[schadd_]

Spoiler: tied 3rd: jun

thundercat - funny thing

enjoy: 5.3 [4.1 wd/5]
cat: 2.6
unfam: 0.6
sus user: hellbooks
user: jun //had u guys switched!!! besties
3rd place: 0.5

9.0

its funny to think of thundercats voice as the right-cat archetypical small & timid style, but it fits the bill. i think the theme of it, being this insistence on producing a little emotional expression "i just wanna party with you"/"you make me happy" in spite of complicating factors e.g. epic drunkness, really gets at the spirit of the right cat (the drunk motif is also a way of adapting the graininess). there's also a few instances of him using the term "little" that build it up further, also i think the bweow-wow-wow bass is a sort of sound that is conditioned by epic video game music (earthbound maybe??) to represent a funny little creature. the 0.4 points of imperfection here come from the dance-y presentation and the slick flylo production, both of which struggle to be reflected by the burdened vibes of the cats.

brilliantly thundercat was continuing to play for several minutes after yves tumor & i left the latter right when they finished and caught exactly this song which was the last thing in thundercats set

[schadd_]

been listening to a bunch of these songs in the last few days. its an extremely pleasant time capsule. just like remembering me sitting in my room in spring 21 and listening to them and being like wowww omg :). they ended up being a lot of my favorite songs from that year and also just particularly memorable bc i was sitting there and listening to them over and over in order to write an incomprehensible paragraph and spit out numbers