Give us some (Love In The Time Of Reviews)

[Pigfarmer Jr]

Congratz on the win. And thanks to everyone who reviewed.

[sleepysilverdoor]

This was a super strong fight with super strong review presence. The best kind! And congratulations Phil!

[Smalltown Mike]

Huge shout-out to the podcast. It's fantastically well done.

My wife and sons think its hilarious when y'all make fun of my style, too, so there's that.

[vowlvom]

Loving the podcast. I really wish I'd gotten a song into this fight, I love hearing from Alice and Brian!

Pleased that the bird aliens are not forgotten.

[AJOwens]

I liked the podcast too, but we're reviewing it the way polite reviewers tend to review songfighters: "Good job!"

I have no problem with the two jerks, whose comments were reliably thoughtful. But if I were to review Alice and Brian the way they reviewed some of the entries, I would say that as people, they're not really my thing. I'm not the audience for it, I guess. Their style rubbed me the wrong way. Not my kind of reviewing. A lot about Covid; too Covid. Not enough about understanding what each artist cared about and was trying to do. Too much rectum.

When I review a genre that's not my thing, I just do it; I try not to make it all about me. But I liked some of the podcast, even if sometimes the banter felt like a Gross Tones synth solo.

[thehipcola]

AJOwens - this isn’t podcastFight!, though - is it?

[Chumpy]

I have no problem with the two jerks, whose comments were reliably thoughtful. But if I were to review Alice and Brian the way they reviewed some of the entries, I would say that as people, they're not really my thing. I'm not the audience for it, I guess. Their style rubbed me the wrong way. Not my kind of reviewing. A lot about Covid; too Covid. Not enough about understanding what each artist cared about and was trying to do. Too much rectum.

When I review a genre that's not my thing, I just do it; I try not to make it all about me. But I liked some of the podcast, even if sometimes the banter felt like a Gross Tones synth solo.

This is excellent feedback, thanks! Reviewing songs is hard, it's often a challenge to get at why you do or don't like something, and it's easy to make it about yourself, claim genre bias, or basically spend a sentence or two saying not much of anything. I'm trying to get better at it myself, and I think working to understand what the artist cared about and is trying to do is solid advice.

[crumpart]

I have no problem with the two jerks, whose comments were reliably thoughtful. But if I were to review Alice and Brian the way they reviewed some of the entries, I would say that as people, they're not really my thing. I'm not the audience for it, I guess. Their style rubbed me the wrong way. Not my kind of reviewing. A lot about Covid; too Covid. Not enough about understanding what each artist cared about and was trying to do. Too much rectum.

When I review a genre that's not my thing, I just do it; I try not to make it all about me. But I liked some of the podcast, even if sometimes the banter felt like a Gross Tones synth solo.

This is excellent feedback, thanks! Reviewing songs is hard, it's often a challenge to get at why you do or don't like something, and it's easy to make it about yourself, claim genre bias, or basically spend a sentence or two saying not much of anything. I'm trying to get better at it myself, and I think working to understand what the artist cared about and is trying to do is solid advice.

I find reviewing people’s songs much more difficult than writing actual songs. I even spent five years in art school, with weekly critique sessions, so I should be a lot better at reviews than I actually am.

[Smalltown Mike]

Your podcast reviews of my stuff have always been honest and helpful. You've made me think a lot about the way I do vocals. It's obvious you put a ton of effort into it, and it's appreciated.

[sleepysilverdoor]

Hmm, reviewFight would be something? But then again I guess there's no expectation that reviews actually say something useful. To me? Yeah that's what I like in reviews, so I tend to try and offer at least some valid criticism even if I don't like the song at all. And there are some artists here who are perfectly fine musicians and songwriters whose stuff usually doesn't gel with me.

For example, I often find it kind of hard to review Pigfarmer's songs. Not because they're of poor quality -- the man can definitely come up with a good melody -- but the kind of stripped down, acoustic led folksy numbers he opts for have never been a genre that I care to listen to at all. But I usually at least try to pick out *something* that could have been improved or offer some kind of useful feedback (and if I can't find anything to say, usually I can comment on the mixing). And sometimes he writes songs that I absolutely love! I mean everyone loved Phil's entry this week based on the reviews, and it left me totally cold. Clearly it's not him -- it's me! I just think if you take the time to submit a song it's only fair to give people at least a few thoughtful sentences in return.

I don't know, "genre bias" is too often a way to say "I don't know what to say about this so I'm not going to really try". Maybe I'm sensitive to it because my own entries are perpetually on the wrong side of it -- I like the " dark" genres a bit, and the darkest stuff that gets traction on here are the "artsy lyrical sad songs" (owl is great at those). It could be I'm just not that good or my stuff is just polarizing. I don't know.

That said: I found the comments on my track hilarious. I'm still surprised so many people on here dislike stoner rock and grunge.

[Chumpy]

Jerkatorium:
Whoa, this is uncharacteristically quiet for y'all. Maybe it's going to bust into a modern loud mastered sound at some point, and this more dynamic sound is to fit the retro topic. I like the drum stick clicking part. Real fun song though. LOL at rhyming "embarrasing" with "George Harrison". I really want to know, that vocal vibrato, is that real or is that from the autotune...? It seems like it's very fast and has a very wide pitch swing. If it's artificial, it might sound less artificial if the speed and range were dialed down. If it's real, I guess it would take some vocal control to tone it down. Anyway, fun stuff, vote.

We were in a hurry to submit before deadline, and I forgot to run the final bounce through Ozone. This means it was submitted at pre-mastered volume which has a lot of headroom. That's my real vocal vibrato, which sometimes comes out spastic and pitchy. Sometimes I'll obsessively edit every pitch and tame the range swings, but this time I was careless.

Jerkatorium- Love in the Time of Beatlemania- This recording is oddly quiet for you guys. Super catchy song! 50’s song at the Hop is a little confusing for a Beatlemania song. I love all the instrumentation. Especially the drums. Sounds like the drums are a different direction than usual Jerkatorium. Guitar licks are hot! Totally enjoyable! Vote!

I think the idea is that the protagonist is a 50s rock dude who resents the mop-tops, this is his song. This was an excuse for me to use some oldies Rock & Roll drum patterns I had kicking around, which I'm stoked you liked!

Jerkatorium: ... Oh, and I'm not a huge fan of the falsetto but it's part of the fun.

Me either, I cringe every time I hear them. I bet we would have picked up another couple of votes if we had just axed this section entirely, but hey, it's fun to try silly things.

Thanks for the reviews everyone!

[Caravan Ray]

I have no problem with the two jerks, whose comments were reliably thoughtful. But if I were to review Alice and Brian the way they reviewed some of the entries, I would say that as people, they're not really my thing. I'm not the audience for it, I guess. Their style rubbed me the wrong way. Not my kind of reviewing. A lot about Covid; too Covid. Not enough about understanding what each artist cared about and was trying to do. Too much rectum.

When I review a genre that's not my thing, I just do it; I try not to make it all about me. But I liked some of the podcast, even if sometimes the banter felt like a Gross Tones synth solo.

This is excellent feedback, thanks! Reviewing songs is hard, it's often a challenge to get at why you do or don't like something, and it's easy to make it about yourself, claim genre bias, or basically spend a sentence or two saying not much of anything. I'm trying to get better at it myself, and I think working to understand what the artist cared about and is trying to do is solid advice.

I find reviewing people’s songs much more difficult than writing actual songs. I even spent five years in art school, with weekly critique sessions, so I should be a lot better at reviews than I actually am.

Reviewing is easy*. If you like a song - say so. If the song is shit - say so.

It is up to person who made it to work out why. Not the listeners job.


* and yes - I realise there is a certain irony in that coming from the lazy bastard who couldn’t be arsed writing reviews.

[Chumpy]

Reviewing is easy*. If you like a song - say so. If the song is shit - say so.

OK Ill have a crack at reviews:

Jocko Homomorphism
The Quantifiers
Jesus fucking christ - these two are both fucking awful.. Just stop it

Ominous Ride - OK this is OK.

I think I need to re-address this reviewing thing and initially sort out the absolute crap.

fuck

how does this work?

Maaaaaybe it's harder than you think?

[Caravan Ray]

Reviewing is easy*. If you like a song - say so. If the song is shit - say so.

OK Ill have a crack at reviews:

Jocko Homomorphism
The Quantifiers
Jesus fucking christ - these two are both fucking awful.. Just stop it

Ominous Ride - OK this is OK.

I think I need to re-address this reviewing thing and initially sort out the absolute crap.

fuck

how does this work?

Maaaaaybe it's harder than you think?

I Nailed it!! That’s all proper loud mouthed opinion. None of this “constructive criticism” crap.

The musicians job is to please people. If they don’t. They failed. They should never ever whine about “criticism”.

[Pigfarmer Jr]

I Nailed it!! That’s all proper loud mouthed opinion. None of this “constructive criticism” crap.

The musicians job is to please people. If they don’t. They failed. They should never ever whine about “criticism”.

The only difference is wanting to help or wanting to be a complete jerk. Explaining WHY you think it's crap or giving suggestions that would have made the song work better for you is appreciated. Giving an opinion, through the written word, with no context can be less than useless. Ain't no song gonna please everyone. (And if it comes close then it's usually decried for being too "commercial".)

All that being said, it's completely within your right to do it however you want.

[sleepysilverdoor]

Went morel hunting again. Still can't find shit.