Song Contest - BOTB 5! (Results are in!)

[The Bulge]

ahhhhh bela fleck
ahhhhh snarky puppy
AHHHH

[The Bulge]

you're four hours early

we can leave you behind

[The Bulge]

I don't really understand the appeal of BOTBs except for the no cuts part

it seems like the only interesting thing about it is that I can kick someone out of the context by entering venetian snares just before the deadline

fewer suck songs

[The Bulge]

Iceland (Mew - Comforting Sounds) -

Loving the intro and it moved on right before it got boring. Nice. The rest of the song kinda follows the same formula, adding an extra layer to the loops every few phrases. I don't love the idea behind that, but at least it keeps the song pleasant and engaging the whole 9 minutes.

Mid points.

USA (Patent Pending - Let Go) -

God what a bunch of punchable faces. Video aside, I really can't stand any part of this.

No points.

Fiji (Venetian Snares - Abomination Street) -

I like the very contrasting acoustic/glitchy styles here. Overall, the song doesn't quite hit the mark, but I appreciate the production.

Low points.

Wales (San Cisco - Fred Astaire) -

The tempo change-up is nice. Melody is pretty generic, but not a bad instrumental at all. Reminds me of Neon Trees.

Low points.

Spain (Algiers - And When You Fall) -

Groovy af as fuck. But a little bit tiring to listen to.

No points*.

Italy (The National - Fake Empire) -

I really really wanted this to go somewhere but the hi-hat/snare pattern wasn't enough for me.

No points.

Uruguay (Woodkid - The Golden Age) -

The intro was a gorgeous buildup to the rest of the song. A couple issues with the balancing at certain parts, but this was alright. Definitely struck me as something people would hail as being "amazing" and "complex" without actually being either of those things (Woodkid in general?).

Mid points.

Madagascar (Tom Waits - Chocolate Jesus) -

Not my thing. And very hard on the ears at parts.

No points.

Hungary (Esti Kornél - Akkor hagylak el) -

Nice. That's all.

No points*.

Ecuador (Biffy Clyro - Know Your Quarry) -

Intro was promising but grew very disappointingly generic very fast.

No points.

Cote d'Ivoire (The Vincent Black Shadow - This Road Is Going Nowhere) -

This Song Is Going Nowhere.

No points.

Qatar (XYLØ - America) -

Boring boring boring and repetitive.

No points.

Mali (Arthur Beatrice - Who Returned) -

I can't quite place what I didn't like about this. Sorry.

No points.

Scotland (Florence and the Machine - No Light, No Light) -

Florence and the Machine is one of those bands that I have no good reason for why I haven't listened to any of their stuff. Maybe I should?

Mid points.

Burkina Faso (Aimee Mann - Save Me) -

Link wasn't working for me but managed to find another source. All that trouble... (Mostly kidding this wasn't bad it's just really not my thing)

No points.

Chad (Childish Gambino - Bonfire) -

Camp was the probably the first hip hop album I ever listened to the whole way through and... to be honest I didn't love it. But this is such a solid track damn. I can't help but rap along with the whole thing every time it comes on in the car.

High points.

Belarus (Matthew Good - 99% Of Us Is Failure) -

Love me some Matthew Good but jesus that intro/interlude/ is painful. Would give this points if not for that.

No points.

St. Lucia (Melanie Martinez - Soap) -

Had to chuckle to myself when the bubbly instrumentals came in the first time. That was pretty cheesy. But an excellent track nonetheless.

High points.

Greece (Rasputina - A Retinue of Moons/The Infidel is Me) -

Awful vocals, a disappointingly simple string section, and a middle school percussionist all lumped together by some of the worst mixing I've ever heard.

No points.

The Gambia (RX Bandits - Hope is a Butterfly, No Net its Captor) -

The changeup at about a minute and a half in was very poorly executed and entirely unnecessary. Oh there's more of those. Ok I was gonna say the rest of the song was ok, but this is driving it into the ground.

No points.

India (Estradasphere - Super Buck II) -

Oooooh Super Buck II I get it. Nice.

Mid points.

Taiwan (Hop Along - The Knock) -

Wow. Those vocals went from "this is alright" to "what the shit are you doing fucking stop" real fast. Instrumental is snore-inducing.

No points.

France (METRIC - Cascades) -

Canadian talent repping this contest! I almost submitted The Shade because I listened to it on repeat all summer. Fucking love Metric.

High points.

Gabon (Of Monsters and Men - Empire) -

Disappointing considering how much I loved Little Talks and liked Crystals.

No points*.

Singapore (Kimbra - Two Way Street) -

She's pretty good live! I really loved the last song you entered, but this one doesn't quiiite do it for me.

No points*.

Slovenia (Rishloo - The Great Rain Beatle) -

Ehhhhh it's like Muse but not as good?

No points*.

Western Sahara (Broken Social Scene - Anthems For A Seventeen-Year Old Girl) -

I always assumed from their name that Broken Social Scene was some sort of emo post-punk idk. And the song title really didn't give me any hope at all. This was surprisingly none of that. Not amazing, but not what I expected at least.

No points*.

Netherlands (Bright Eyes - Sunrise, Sunset) -

Seriously did not expect to like this as much as I did.

Low points.

Chile (Patrick Wolf - To the Lighthouse) -

This song invokes no feelings positive or negative.

No points*.

Portugal (Lana Del Rey - Born to Die) -

I do like Lana, but the overplay kinda killed this song. And there are certainly better songs from her you could have entered.

No points.

*I had originally marked a lot of these as "low points"; this was a consistently decent contest with a few seriously standout tracks.

[The Bulge]

Portugal (Lana Del Rey - Born to Die) - I like Lana, but Born to Die has been played to exhaustion and she has better (and less dated) songs.

Portugal (Lana Del Rey - Born to Die) - I do like Lana, but the overplay kinda killed this song. And there are certainly better songs from her you could have entered.

Hello friend

[The Bulge]