heine--I liked this a lot! It's sweet and positive, and seems to all flow together really naturally. The dropout at the chorus is really effective. In the verses, I really liked the interplay between the guitar and vocals, for example, the first verse, where you start with the vocal and guitar mirroring each other in terms of emphasis, and then move to a more standard syncopated pattern. I do think the lyrics could have been a bit more inspired (though I'm sure it is not that easy in a second language to get a good feel for which rhymes are overused) and it did feel a tiny little bit long to me, didn't quite sustain my interest all the way through, maybe a bit of editing could take it to the next level?
wub feat tomdg--I like the evolution and structure of your lyrics--it's like a word game! Nice mood, and the synths sound really cool, but I wish there was more happening here; it didn't really feel fully developed to me. I think you could expand on this a bit and make it into a really great soundscape with a bit more variation or layers.
Vom Vorton--This is catchy and jaunty, and I like the sounds you've used--the Omnichord strums and fake brass in particular. +1 for rhyming "prison" and "cannibalism" and also for having "cannibalism" in the song at all. It's not really up there among my favorite VV songs, but I think it's memorable and solid and the contrast between the lyrical content and sound of the song is fun.
Lichen Throat--I was interested to see that we chose a similar lyrical theme for this fight, but they're different enough approaches, I suppose! I had sort of the opposite reaction to this as to your last fight entry: I liked the lyrics, but I had a very hard time figuring out what was happening musically with this tune and arrangement, it just felt very chaotic to me (5/4 is daunting!) A couple of lines stood out to me as not quite fitting with the tone of the rest of the lyrics--"compliment your tail," "these dumbass, foul-mouthed dudes"--a bit lower register or jokier? than the rest. I really liked the "Just use your heels to crush the snakes/and choke them on their lust" part of the chorus though, and the different scenes that you were able to sketch out so vividly with your words.
Paco del Stinko--Cool lyrics, they really put you up there on the wire with the protagonist. I like that growling synth bass thing that comes in partway through, although it's such a distinctive sound, it started to feel a bit oppressive by the end. The vocals are interesting, huge range from the sort of operatic ones at the beginning to the almost Tom Waits-y ones to the super-processed choppy tremolo part. It didn't really click for me personally on a musical level, but I thought it was a very interesting listen with a lot of transformations and drama in the course of four and a half minutes.
Pigfarmer Jr--This is one of my favorite songs of yours I've heard, I think. Great writing, the melody and lyrics work so well with each other, and the pace of the song moves along nicely without feeling like it rushes. The intro guitars are very pretty and the electric solo fits in very naturally where I think it could have easily stuck out like a sore thumb. I think the vocal performance could have been a bit better but that's just a minor nitpick, I think overall it's really great.
OG Lawn Darts--I also kind of have a genre bias against reggae because it all sounds so similar and it makes me really impatient, but this is well done, and I think the lyrics seemed more interesting than the standard fare. I liked the drum fill and breakdown coming out of the middle 8. The little upwards hiccup in the melody in the chorus was sort of weird and was the unique selling point of this song for me.
Berkeley Social Scene--Great stuff! I like the sort of fever-dream lyrics although I don't really know what they're about, and the change between verse and chorus is really nice. The verse melody reminds me slightly of "Devil's Haircut" by Beck. It's wonderfully performed/mixed/arranged. I really like the harmonies in the chorus at the end of the song, those are gorgeous, and those doubled guitar leads. The vocals sound sort of synthetic in places, was this an intentional effect or an autotune artifact? Anyway, really nice work, perhaps my favorite from this fight.
Glennny--I really liked the intro and some of the instrumental sections, but I felt like there were a bit too many things getting added in here and it felt like too much happening to get a good handle on it. I would have liked more of a change between verse and chorus; they didn't feel distinct enough to me, so it ended up feeling sort of like a 4-minute jam session with lyrics added on top instead of something deliberately composed. Seconding
heine that it reminds me of "Dancing in the Dark"! Oh and the lyrical concept was an original take on the theme, which I appreciated.
Third Cat--I really liked the psych-folk feel of this, although it kind of felt like it was over too soon, I couldn't really get a handle on it by the time it ended! I wish I understood the frog in the desert verse better--as is, the first couple of lines hold up for me but by the "mustard in the sewers" line it feels too ~random~ and not like something that's really intended to convey meaning or paint a picture. Or I guess maybe it does and I just don't want to see a frog sewer mustard picture... anyway, I felt like I was missing something. Vocals are good, and production-wise, I really liked the bits of trippy effects combined with the simple acoustic guitar.
miscellaneous owl--This was an extremely last-minute entry, I ended up starting to write it the night before and finishing/recording it all the day of the official deadline. I should have more carefully considered what key to put it in (capo'd up mainly to accommodate the lowest note in the bridge)--I later ended up switching what I was considering the harmony and lead melody lines because the higher line was an awkward range for my voice, and re-recording everything for the umpteenth time, so there was some sloppiness there with matching the vocals, and I just kept the first guitar take that was "good enough" despite some flubs, particularly in the bridge. I dunno what happened to cause the glitches
thirdcat mentioned, probably accidentally chopping up some takes because it was late at night, I'll have to take a closer look at my project to see if I can fix that.
I was listening to folk music playlists on Spotify all day before I wrote it and felt like I wanted to write something almost insubstantially light and pretty and flowing about something dark, I'm pleased with the end result (why yes I do like Simon and Garfunkel, why do you ask?) Coincidentally my second songfight song in a row to reference
Apollo, but it wasn't really intentional. Lyrically, along with the same gross and/or frightening personal experiences I'm sure almost every woman has had when daring to exist in public, I was specifically thinking about a friend of mine who developed early and dramatically, and told me in junior high about getting harassed by absolutely everyone, including getting asked out by her bus driver, despite her best attempts to wear giant shapeless hoodies and avoid eye contact.