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

[shaft.ed]

ok
i blame you entirely

[MTD]

yo why did noone notify me of this

[Sirius9121]

something kinda sad is that im probably going to get -0.7 points because of the 'guess who submitted this'

[Sirius9121]

my song styles are 99.9% predictable

[schadd_]

reveal tomorrow at 2pm my time !

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

[schadd_]

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

[schadd_]

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

[schadd_]

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

[MUSHSHAGANA]

Regarding that Loathe track -- it's two vocalists on the cleans only, and one dude does all the harsh vocals IIRC. I just was like ... crap, these guys sound VERY MUCH ALIKE, this is not as good as it could be. I was going to change the submission to some A Million Dead Birds Laughing (Yeti maybe? Or Quantum), but that isn't really multitracked -- just one dude rapidly changing his voice with little to no attempt to make it sound like multiple voices.

I can confirm that the Loathe vocalists (and a LOT of my favorite nu metalcore vocalists in fact) do the rapid switches from screamed vox to cleans live. I've been working on that in my own vocal practice -- didn't even occur to me that that might be impressive, since it's not remotely the most surprising instance of that in my experience, and I can easily match the vocal shifts myself.

[schadd_]

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

[MUSHSHAGANA]

You'll have a blast with that album. It has some of the scariest, darkest tracks I've heard in my life (especially the title track), some out-and-out alt-rock bangers, two incredibly emotional tracks that I think stop just short of being ballads, and a nice heaping helping of fun, artsy nu-metalcore drawing from Deftones-style shoegazey nu metal and Converge-esque chaotic metalcore, but conceptualizing itself to a higher level than those bands ever have. The musical interplay across tracks is more in line with mid-late period Swans, which is a wild outlier in metalcore or nu-metal alone, let alone put together.

[shaft.ed]

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

I don't know if you remember, but this is actually the submission I changed.
Believe it or not, I was going to submit Tanacious D's "Tribute" as a laugh because I really enjoy the fugue section too much.

But then I remembered the Cibo Matto cover of Aquas de Marco, and went back to listen. It's obviously not as good the submitted version. I think a part of it is that neither of them speak Portuguese (or at least aren't native speakers), so this probably makes it a lot harder to be playful with the song. Finding the Elis and Tom version was awesome. They are so playful with eachother singing it, she's audibly laughing while she singing parts of it. Still brings me joy listening to it. Anyway, really glad the Walrus got me to discover it.

Also overall, this was a fun batch. I really enjoyed quite a few of the submissions.

I'll cherish my week at the top. It's mostly downhill from here. Maybe one more chance in the top 3. But I have three or so songs that could all be near the bottom.

[Sirius9121]

would this have gotten better catfit in cat2

[tris]

the first thing i considered for this category was Call Them Brothers (feat. Only Son) by regina spektor

[shaft.ed]

chevre's not in last because we can drop our lowest score

[Chevre]

shhh yes I am i am an unbelievable underdog story

[shaft.ed]

shhh yes I am i am an unbelievable underdog story

i mean you're still in second to last
that works for an underdog story

[Sirius9121]

we're not allowed to edit now right

[schadd_]

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 !

[shaft.ed]

but post 133 says two hours before that

[schadd_]

i dont see that

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