Listen Carefully... (The Password Is ______ Reviews)

[Pigfarmer Jr]

Never mind, I'll use my megaphone to give you my reviews.

[Pigfarmer Jr]

Please add your lyric to the thread located approximately here ----> viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11647

[Lunkhead]

Songs posted!

[Æpplês&vØdkã]

This is a STRONG fight. At least for Phlebia's taste.

Listening through these alphabetically, I just got to Berkeley Social Scene's entry after listening to post-punk and darkwave on Bandcamp all day and for a second I forgot that I was on SongFight. Yay, throbbing basslines and driving drum beats!

And that Economy Biscuits track, wow! I hope all you people alphabetically after the first 4 don't let me down haha.

Proper reviews may come in a few days.

[Economy Biscuits]

Hey all!

I haven't done one of these in a while and it was awesome checking in. I'm always blown away listening to everyone's take on the theme, the different music styles and productions. Each fight feels like a secret indie album that's cooler than anything the hip kids with big glasses are listening to.

Thanks to everyone involved and looking forward to doing more this year.

Right, then...


Megadank Vs The Bloke Explosion:
My vote for the win, hands down. The beats, samples and the flow - everything pops. Nicely done! Quadruple points for rhyming pork sword.

Hot Pink Halo:
Lovely lyrics. Love the sound of the piano. A somber tune perfect for staying under blankets when you're snowed in.

CazaroTaro:
Did Devo just submit a secret entry? (That's a compliment!) Digging the bouncing eq and rhythm. The password is most def fun.

The Economy biscuits:
I live in the DC metro area, please pardon the thinly-veiled politics...

Adnama17:
I wish I could get guitars to sound like this. "Cant read your mind" - Amen.

Levenhagen-Sommersmith:
Great melody. I hope one day to be able to sing proper like this. This was a slow walk through old memories for me. Thanks for submitting!

Berkeley Social Scene:
I. Love. That bassline. Then the guitars kick in! If there is a "buttered distortion" effects pedal, I'd swear this had it. The lead was perfect and I love how it played into the next verse and held on til the end.

Third Catgizo vs. the 17,455:
A lot of ear candy here and love what you did with the vocals. One day I'll do more than the first take for my vox, lol.


Paco del Stinko:
I hate comparing bands to other bands but I swear to gawd if They Might Be Giants had a baby with The Pixies and they weren't sure if Elvis Costello was the father, this would be it.That kick drum hits HARD! love it. Love it. LOVE IT.


miscellaneous owl:
Whoa... a whispy tapestry of textures float me from one melodic cloud to the next. I feel like I'm under a comfy blanket of sounds and disconnected from the ground - in a perfectly still way. I dont LOVE reverb but this was just perfect. Flowers for flames...


Phlebia:
This is such a terrific song. I love everything about this. I love getting lost in the drums and coming back. I love oscillations, synths and layers. I really dig a compressed set of cymbals (you'll see I overdo it in mine) Also, I literally cannot refuse vocoder. Brilliant. My only complaint is that the bassline didnt hold on for, like, another 30 minutes. Perhaps I'll loop it for focusing at work?


Glenn Case:
Hell yeah ! \m/

"I'm not letting you in!" Makes me feel ten (ok, twenty...five...ish) years younger and wishing I had my hair back and headbanging. If you were playing live, me and my metal buddies would be playing air guitar and singing along.


JB:
Top notch harmonies. I wish I could sing this well and your voice sounds wonderful. Great lyrics to boot.

Third Cat:
Love the guitars starting things off and then relinquishing to that monster synth. Big. Fat. Synth!


ShoehornTC:
Internet history... we've all been there, right? RIGHT?!

I love the production. Is that an upright? I will never pass on an upright. Well done!

[Æpplês&vØdkã]

Phlebia:
This is such a terrific song. I love everything about this. I love getting lost in the drums and coming back. I love oscillations, synths and layers. I really dig a compressed set of cymbals (you'll see I overdo it in mine) Also, I literally cannot refuse vocoder. Brilliant. My only complaint is that the bassline didnt hold on for, like, another 30 minutes. Perhaps I'll loop it for focusing at work?

If you like the compression, look into the Rough Rider 2 VST plug-in. It's free! And it sounds awesome, I think. It's a bit easy to overdo but it's my favorite compression VST for drums. Minor correction: no vocoder in this! Just me trying my damnedest to sing a melody that mostly consists of ascending fifths and applying a lot of pitch correction to a) iron out where I'm pitchy and b) get that sweet robotic sound that fits the wobbly keyboards. I didn't intend it to going into it but it came out sounding like Black Moth Super Rainbow, who you'd probably dig if you liked my entry.

[Economy Biscuits]

Phlebia:
This is such a terrific song. I love everything about this. I love getting lost in the drums and coming back. I love oscillations, synths and layers. I really dig a compressed set of cymbals (you'll see I overdo it in mine) Also, I literally cannot refuse vocoder. Brilliant. My only complaint is that the bassline didnt hold on for, like, another 30 minutes. Perhaps I'll loop it for focusing at work?

If you like the compression, look into the Rough Rider 2 VST plug-in. It's free! And it sounds awesome, I think. It's a bit easy to overdo but it's my favorite compression VST for drums. Minor correction: no vocoder in this! Just me trying my damnedest to sing a melody that mostly consists of ascending fifths and applying a lot of pitch correction to a) iron out where I'm pitchy and b) get that sweet robotic sound that fits the wobbly keyboards. I didn't intend it to going into it but it came out sounding like Black Moth Super Rainbow, who you'd probably dig if you liked my entry.

Thanks for the recommendation and yes, BMSR def delivers. I love VST stuff but limit my productions to the ipad running garageband so I'm stuck with their compression for the moment. There are some tools that integrate with garageband like plugins but they tend to be wonky and just add to a workflow that I'm already neglecting, lol.

[Æpplês&vØdkã]

The nice thing about a fight where almost everything is good is that it's a delight to listen through the playlist multiple times getting a feel for each track. The bad thing is I can't be as generous with my votes as I'd like lest I vote for everything, so there's quite a bit of "this is a good song!" reviews that I didn't vote for.

Adnama17 -

Spoiler

Is it pretentious to review your artist name? I mean obviously mine isn’t the best one in the world, but you should totally do something more awesome than just your username. Anyway, this is a nice, well recorded song. You managed to get a decent amount of stereo space with the guitar recording, and your voice sounds great through the track. It’s interesting, you have a distinctive enough style that despite this being a solo effort, it still sounds like an Evil Grin song...but that’s the only context I’ve heard you in. The “can’t read your mind” part is pretty memorable, but I mostly like the well-timed F-bomb about halfway through. So salty! Grr!

Berkeley Social Scene -

Spoiler

Okay, I like this song. Especially the first bit with that delicious bassline. Economy Biscuits referred to it as “buttery” distortion and I totally agree with that assessment. I wish that the melody line in the verses did something a little bit more different to make it transition into the next part. The “think for a minute” part could probably be a little bit more melodic, but the rest of the chorus doesn’t suffer from that criticism. Maybe even if it were just a higher note that deviated from the same narrow melodic range that prevails for the rest of the song it would add a bit more excitement compositionally. That’s not the first time that I’ve made that suggestion to someone, I think I said almost the exact same thing to Pete a few months ago. Probably personal preference. And probably hypocritical, given I’ve made plenty of one-note entries myself. My complaint about the end of the verses needing to change it up a bit melodically extends towards the end. The repeating refrain at the end is nice enough, but it gets kind of dull by the 5th repitition with no variation.

CazaroTaro -

Spoiler

Economy Biscuits says this sounds like Devo. I agree that this sounds like Devo, actually it’s the very first thing that went through my head when I heard the song. You put an interesting inflection on a few words, and I’m not sure if it’s your accent (which I’m unfamiliar with) shining through, or just your singing style. Regardless, I like it and it’s distinct. This is the second song in a row that has a distinctly new wavey flavor -- and that gets you style points in my book. I like how you modulate the compositional structure a bit right before the last “...the password is FUN!”. Only I wish the song stopped, there, instead it kind of noodles along for awhile before fading out which is one of my least favorite ways to end a long. What can I say, I like a proper ending. This one is pretty catchy and well performed and written otherwise.

Economy Biscuits -

Spoiler

THE NOISE. I love that heavy droning nature to this song, it kind of makes me wanna go listen to some of the other noisy, uptempo shoegazey bands out there. The double kick drum stuff doesn’t make that comparison hold. It’s like this sludgy, melodic wall of sound. The vocals could *maybe* use a little bit of reverb. Or something? As it is they’re a little bit harsher than I’d like them to be. It’s not even so much that it’s the harshness, it’s just the way they’re sitting in the mix? And another fade out! Ugh! I don’t like fade outs! But that’s okay, I really enjoyed the sound palette in this song. And I’d probably write more songs myself that sounded like this if I actually owned an electric guitar and any of the necessary equipment to produce it. But I don’t. Oh well. You said the lyrics were political, but I wasn’t paying enough attention to them as you were saying them. It’s about the NSA? And Snowden? I think? A national hero in my book. Is that a hot take? I try not to get overtly political on SongFight cause I’m just here for the groovy tunes. Vote.

Gizo vs a long-ass distance -

Spoiler

Oh man, this is bittersweet. I like it quite a bit, though I do wish that it was longer. I’m not crying, you’re crying. Just when I start to get into it and start having the feelings wash over me, it’s over! I guess I can sort of relate, but I’ll probably be able to relate a whole lot more in like a decade and a half when my kid is actually grown and I’m solidly into middle-age and wondering what on earth happened. From a compositional standpoint though, I like the melody, it’s nice and mellow, and one of your more well produced tracks. I just wish it was longer! I don’t have much criticism beyond that though.

Glenn Case -

Spoiler

What the hell, last time I did my round of reviews I said something to the effect of “you know your style and you do it extremely well”. Was that a prompt to do something completely different in your songwriting this go-round, or did you just decide to shake it up anyway? Probably the latter. I’m not that important. So crunchy, and the drum mixing on this is just fantastic. I love the sound of the snare drum. Though maybe I guess I’d want just a little bit more high-end on it? I think I’m just a sucker for that kind of resonant snare sound with more sustain. There’s a certain edge that you hit during the chorus when you start singing “I DON’T CARE WHAT THE PASSWORD IS” that I’d love to hear throughout the rest of the song, cause as it stands it’s like the whole song is just begging for this snarling attitude, but up until that part it’s just not there. I’m not sure exactly how I’d describe this song, but it’s like you moved your stylistic influences drift a bit more out of the late 70s and suddenly I’m listening to an alternative playlist from like 20 years ago and I love it cause it’s a sonic nostalgia that I was actually there for. Vote.

Hot Pink Halo -

Spoiler

Irrelevant to the music, but hot pink is the best shade of pink and if your halo was carnation pink it just wouldn’t be the same at all. I know you dig ¾ time and you’re executing it well! Your singing and compositional skills are largely getting better and better with each fight, and this is one of those songs, especially near the end, where I can tell you’re going a little bit more out of your comfort zone in terms of your vocal range...and I like it! Now I’m fairly confident that this song is about...a dog? I’m not entirely sure I follow the password analogy running through the track, but the nebulous nature of things is totally fine in my book. I guess when you enter a more stripped down track like this that gives off this almost confessional vibe ,I’m supposed to analyze the lyrics more. Or am I? I don’t really know. I guess I am anyway.

JB -

Spoiler

I see your note and it makes the vague nature of these lyrics work a little bit better. Another 6/8 guitar driven ballad, which is fine! For some reason I’m not really as drawn into this one as the other 6/8 guitar driven ballad in the fight, but it may be that the instrumentation is just a little bit more stripped down, which doesn’t really hold my interest as much. Using a lyric generator to create the lyrics is an interesting approach -- one of my favorite lyricists (Trish Keenan) had a tendency to do that all the time, to the point where one of Broadcast’s albums had almost the entire lyrics consist of writing down phrases based around a them, sticking them in a hat, and then piecing them together pretty much by drawing them at random. Which I thought was a wonderfully vague, evocative way of matching a theme and I like seeing it done here. I really like the harmonies that start to come in in the back half of the track, they add some extra character that I wish was a bit more present throughout the track. Unfortunately, I do have a style bias against this sort of super stripped down acoustic guitar based track so I probably won’t be revisiting this one.

Levenhagen-Sommersmith -

Spoiler

Inspirational lyrics, wouldn’t it just be fantastic if we could just say the the special password and everything would be fine with absolutely everything. But I guess the problem is most people don’t know that password so we can’t achieve it. Which is kind of lame, but aren’t a lot of aspects of life kind of lame? Or maybe not. I guess it’s all about perspective. I mean I guess if you always think a lot of aspects of life are lame because you don’t know the passward you’re probably depressed. And if you either have a nice life or don’t care that you don’t know the password, you’re probably going to be a little bit better off. Or maybe I’m talking out of my ass. OKAY anyway, enough about that, I like the song, wish the piano had a bit more treble, and the violin playing is absolutely lovely. It’s nice having you back, cause your Please Move has been one of my favorite entries since I broke my lengthy SF hiatus. Vote.

Megadank vs the Bloke Explosion -

Spoiler

Sellotape? Spice girls callbacks? Wobbly bass and stripped down breakbeats that make me immediately want to get off of the website and go binge on a bunch of Grime playlists? This is the most British thing ever. But you know, there’s something about mixing that general sensibility with nerdcore type lyrics that works tremendously well. I can’t really criticize this in any meaningful way, other than the fact that there’s a few couplets particularly near the beginning that don’t really flow all that well and seem kind of forced. But admittedly with a really short deadline, unless you’re like a pro at this style that’s almost inevitable. The chorus with “the password is!” and then a bunch of interesting sound effects is a really good idea and everything about it makes me extremely happy. Maybe if I had to propose something it’s that I kind of wish that the backbeat switched up just a little bit during the bars? Anyway, it sounds good enough to my ears, vote.

Miscellaneous Owl -

Spoiler

More 6/8 balladry? Sign me up! Of the 6/8 ballads this fight this one is by far my favorite, if only because I really enjoy this kind of washed out sound palette, think your voice sounds amazing on this one, and think some of your chord choices are really inspired. Maybe it’s a minor production quibble but there’s a few times where I think the bassline could be turned down in the mix JUST A BIT. When you start talking about trading out your flickering signal for noise, it kind of reminds me of my own lyrics for last week when I got to reminiscing about adjusting TV antennae. Which is funny cause you also pointed out that it was odd that we both used the word tenuous in our lyrics this time. I don’t have a single bad thing to say about this song, and as much as I’ve liked some of the other ones, this one winds up being my favorite of the whole round and would be my choice if I was only able to cast a single vote.

Paco del Stinko -

Spoiler

This ends up being meta in a really subtle way if only because you name check both secret handshake and skeleton key during the first and second verses. And then you mention JB and Spud. Which is fine! I like the shh-shh bits a bit. Yet another song of yours that I don’t have anything particularly bad to say about. But nothing particularly great either. Is it style preference? I’m not sure. The chorus is catchy. The musicianship is good, and I always appreciate your freewheeling compositions. I’m left cold and I don’t know why.

Phlebia -

Spoiler

I had a super hard time coming up with an approach for this fight, partially because most of my pondering was severely limited due to endless Christmas preparation and being stuck on an 8 day workweek during most of the submission period. But I got to daydreaming a bit at my job and came up with some lyrics that either are or aren’t meaningful depending on the verse. There’s a few things that I’d go back and change if I had the time, one of them being the heavy open hi-hats in the second verse, and I’d maybe re-record some of the vocals (it’s kind of hard to make out what I’m saying at the end of the second verse). And I can’t decide if the overlapping vocals in the chorus work better or not. Also I’m aware that the title was typed with 6 underscores and I said “blank” 5 times each line in the chorus. Close enough.

ShoehornTC -

Spoiler

A jolly tune, and I really appreciate how you worked in the tempo changes through it. This is an interesting tale about finding some odd things in your significant other’s browser history, and I would definitely like to read along with these if you could post them at some point. So she moved to Vancouver? And became a true believer? And she went into the void? Did she join a cult? I don’t know. I’ve been spending a lot of time over the past few weeks reading up about various cults and stuff (which is what led me to writing about the Xhosa cattle famine a few fights ago), so I’m just imagining the woman joining some kind of Heaven’s Gate type movement. At least you’re happy to see her go though. A clever tune, not quite my style but well executed and written.

Third Cat -

Spoiler

Sometimes I think about getting a third cat, but then I realize that I’m happy with two. Whoa, I like all those wooshy noises that come in after the first verse. And then half time drums. And a keyboard solo! Melodically, this kind of goes in one ear and out the other, as the old review cliche goes. And your chord progression and guitar tone remind me a lot of … your last couple of entries. But the keyboards! They’re so fleshed out! I have to vote for it if only because it’s so sonically rich. Don’t I always end up voting for you for exactly that reason?

[Pigfarmer Jr]

I wrote this early the 24th after being very ill for a day and a half. I couldn't really sing it until today. It's late and don't feel obligated to listen. Definitely don't feel obligated to review. But if you wanted to hear the Pigfarmer Jr take on the title here's a G&G that seems to be okay to my ears.


https://songfight.net/forums/download/file.php?mode=view&id=1218

[Adnama17]

Adnama17 -

Spoiler

Is it pretentious to review your artist name? I mean obviously mine isn’t the best one in the world, but you should totally do something more awesome than just your username. Anyway, this is a nice, well recorded song. You managed to get a decent amount of stereo space with the guitar recording, and your voice sounds great through the track. It’s interesting, you have a distinctive enough style that despite this being a solo effort, it still sounds like an Evil Grin song...but that’s the only context I’ve heard you in. The “can’t read your mind” part is pretty memorable, but I mostly like the well-timed F-bomb about halfway through. So salty! Grr!

It is a bit pretentious, yes. Adnama17 is not the artist name I use to put my music out. That is an assumption on your part. You also don't know the significance/meaning my user name has for me. But don't worry, I still love you. <3 : )

Yeah, PFJ and I have very similar styles, so we often sound like Evil Grin when doing solo stuff, or at least I do. Hahaha! I try to make musical distinctions, but had zero time this go around to do so. Surprised I got it done at all. Thanks for the review! : )

[Æpplês&vØdkã]

Adnama17 -

Spoiler

Is it pretentious to review your artist name? I mean obviously mine isn’t the best one in the world, but you should totally do something more awesome than just your username. Anyway, this is a nice, well recorded song. You managed to get a decent amount of stereo space with the guitar recording, and your voice sounds great through the track. It’s interesting, you have a distinctive enough style that despite this being a solo effort, it still sounds like an Evil Grin song...but that’s the only context I’ve heard you in. The “can’t read your mind” part is pretty memorable, but I mostly like the well-timed F-bomb about halfway through. So salty! Grr!

It is a bit pretentious, yes. Adnama17 is not the artist name I use to put my music out. That is an assumption on your part. You also don't know the significance/meaning my user name has for me. But don't worry, I still love you. <3 : )

Yeah, PFJ and I have very similar styles, so we often sound like Evil Grin when doing solo stuff, or at least I do. Hahaha! I try to make musical distinctions, but had zero time this go around to do so. Surprised I got it done at all. Thanks for the review! : )

Like I said: I'm hardly the person to be super critical...and I'm someone with no sentimental attachment to my own user handle on here...the only reason I never changed it is cause I don't wanna reset my comment history sorry if my statement caused offense

I'd say it was a miracle any of us got anything done this go round, given the season. I've got like a 3 day recording window coming up cause of our visitor schedule.

[shoehornTC]

Lyrics posted, still getting the hang of all the to-dos in the process, reviews forthcoming...

peace

[fluffy]

I haven't listened to the fight but I want to give props to owl for making the most gosh-darned Daniel Johnston-style album art I've seen in a long heckin' time

[owl]

Haha thanks!

[furrypedro]

My pointless thoughts!
Incidentally, sometimes I say whether I'm gonna vote for someone or not, but not always. So if I didn't explicitly say that I will vote for you that doesn't necessarily mean I won't/didn't. I'm mysterious like that.


gizo: One of a few tracks that seem to be in Third Cat mode this week, which isn't a bad thing at all. This is pleasant and well executed, but it feels like it definitely has more in the tank, or somewhere else to go before it ends. As it is it just feels like a couple of verses that are in 3rd gear. I like it, but it's underdeveloped.

Glenn Case: Rockin, yeah! Characteristically full of Case-esque hooks. It's funny how you do all the verses and then all the choruses instead of verse/chorus/verse/chorus. Nothing wrong with that necessarily and when the song is as strong as this it's all good. Two tiny gripes I have are that the snare sound definitely sounds like it's in a different room from the rest of the song, or is in some way detached. Like it's a sound that suits lo-fi acousticy stuff better than taught rock tunes. The other thing is the guitar solo does nothing for me. It's a decent place to have a solo but I think you can come up with something better. Nonetheless this is still worth a vote.

Adnama17: I have a bit of a bias against countryish stuff, but taking that into account the music for this is fairly tight and pleasant enough. From the start though the vocals suffer from a slightly sloppy meter. The syllables don't always land in the most natural or satisfying place. That coupled with a few pitchy moments make this occasionally uncomfortable to listen to, but for the most part it's inoffensive.

Levenhagen Sommersmith: I can't really fault this, it's well played and written but this kind of earnest traditional folk generally isn't my kind of thing. The only thing I would like to change about it is that it doesn't really do anything dynamically. It'd be cool to have it either build or break down in some way, just to get a sense of the song developing as it goes along.

Economy Biscuits: Balls to the wall. Amps to 11 (or at least 10 at any rate). Cool sounding guitars, and I like the kind of machine gun effect you do halfway through. This is pretty good. There is enough of a change-up to provide a bit of relief from the wall of guitar. I think I would have liked a bit of a rhymic switch from the stuttery drum rhythm, but apart from that I like it.

Phlebia: The second of the Third Cat-mode entries. I like this, and it's way smoother than a lot of your stuff. The panned drums is an interesting effect, but because they sound so detached from the rest of the song I feel like it would have been better to use them as an effect for a short section of the song rather than a steady backbeat. This way it makes it sound a bit weird. They need to feel closer and less reverby to sit in the mix better. Apart from that minor distraction I enjoyed this. The synths and vocoder were spacey and warm and the melodies and rhythms were cool.

Paco: A happy and bouncey little tune. I'm a fan. Your tunes always benefit from the inherent Paco-ness of them. I like how whatever you do your music is richly infused with your distinctive character, it's unmistakeably you. I love the cheerful jangliness of this one, it's catchy while at the same time has a slightly leftfield angle.

JB: I was a little worried at the outset that this would be a bit boring, but the chorus has left enough of a mark on my brain to stop the song from passing me by. I spent the afternoon listening to Taylor Swift so I've had enough of break-up songs right now, but I do like the lyrics to this. ++points for whistling solos!

CazaroTaro: The intro is a lot more fun with headphones. This is a tight and upbeat little tune, I dig it. It almost seems to revel in it's MIDI-ness, the sounds are quite cheesy but it's fun and actually sounds pretty decent in an 80s kind of way. The fade-out is somewhat unsatisfying. Part of me wants to vote for this but I'm gonna have to think on it for a bit.

Shoehorn TC: What does the TC stand for anyway? Sorry if you answered this before and I missed it. This has a country vibe which I complained about earlier in Adnama17's review, but there's a jaunty whimsy to this that I enjoy. It's catchy and tight, and I the arrangement is cool. The closer I listen the more impressed I am with the mix, it sounds great actually. Nice job. Great dynamics. This might actually be the best one I've heard so far. Possible winner?

Misc owl: I wasn't looking forward to sitting through 4 minutes of sea shanty but there's various things that won me over here. Time for a list! 1) Your vocals are top, really sweet sounding and from the moment they come in they add an otherworldly, spacey kind of vibe. Also, I like that they have space and I can still hear the quiet moments clearly. 2) The way the guitar and synth occasionally couples to make it extra twinkly. 3) Nice melodies! The intervals add to the spacey feel, not sure how, but they're distinctive and cool. 4) I've forgotten...err, general spaciness? Probably milked that angle too much this review. But well done for making me enjoy something I didn't think I'd like.

Third Cat: The real deal, not one of these lame-o Third Cat imitators. I didn't expect to hear such a rock n roll angle from you, but I like how you've taken that backbeat and made the style completely your own. I very much enjoy your more fully developed songs (although it still probably ends a bit too soon). The change into the half-time second section is awesome, and that synth riff might be my favourite piece of music in the fight. I'm a sucker for synthy indie (as you may already know) so this ticks many boxes for me. That warping effect around 45 seconds is totally awesome too, I'd love to know how you did that. So, lots of great stuff, but I just want to hear it repeat some of the motifs another time. A vote, regardless.

BSS: I was all ready to complain about how your songs are always too long, but I chose to do some research and discovered that this is the first time in about 5 fights that you've gone over the 4 minute mark, so my criticism would be unfounded. I dig this tune though. As you know I'm a fan of your more upbeat numbers and this fits into that category. All the instruments sound good (as usual), I particularly like the lead guitar and the freakout guitar melange at the end. I'm glad it goes down that route instead of repeating the chorus again.

Hot Pink Halo: I must apologise as you're my last review and I've got review fatigue so I'm struggling for things to say. This is a bit too slow and long to get me excited, but overall it's quite a sweet tune. I like how you rhyme "run" with "sun-shine". This song sounds like it would fit pretty well on The Blue Trees by Gorky's Zygotic Mynci and that album makes me happy.

Megadank Vs TBE: Me and Mikey are back on it. He decided he wanted to rap so wrote his verse and sent it over for me to build the track around. The chorus is one of those dumb choruses that sort of wrote itself and it seemed silly to ignore my impulse, even if that meant stealing from the Spice Girls, not something I ever thought I'd do but then this is definitely a project for indulging my worst impulses, hence the second song in a row with a penis synonym in the lyrics. If I had more time I would've added a beefier bass in the verse and switched up the beat, but hey-ho.

[vowlvom]

Alright it's Christmas, we've all had a few drinks.

Adnama17: a simple arrangement, but I like that you've given it a distinct rhythm with the acoustic strumming pattern. I wish the drums clicked into that rhythm a bit more as well, they're kind of back in the mix in that slightly irritating way where I'm always aware that they're there but they don't really give any drive to the music. Another constructive (hopefully) criticism: It sounds like there are some lines where you've swapped in from another take and it goes from one energy level to another in awkward places. But this is a solid song on the whole but doesn't quite ever win me over - I like it but I definitely don't love it.

Berkeley Social Scene: this grew on me quite a bit over several listens - to begin with I kinda hated it a bit but there's definitely some good stuff in here that I picked up on after a few revisits. It starts with the same bassline as Deceptacon by Le Tigre which probably isn't deliberate but immediately puts me on the back foot as it's a clear comparison to a song I like a LOT more. The lead vocal never quite seems to fit into the song, it feels like it needs about 40% more attitude to fit the post-punky energy of the music. And also this feels like a genre where the music needs to be super-tight and this is uncharacteristically sloppy for BSS. I do love the backing vocals, something you always do well. But on the whole this isn't for me.

CazaroTaro: this is great fun, definitely leans into the cheesy MIDI vibes but it really works. Like BSS I think I'd like to hear a bit more energy in the vocals, and the instrumental break in the middle tests my patience a little - the melody is a little... wandering, and combined with the super robotic timing that loses my interest. But I liked this quite a bit and will be VOTING for it.

The Economy Biscuits: I'm no great fan of heavy rock but there's a small subsection of it that I do enjoy and this mostly reminds me of things I like - after complaining about the vocal energy levels in the last two songs, this VERY MUCH restores the balance - the rawk howl here reminds me a little of And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead's early stuff and that gets a thumbs up from me. Probable VOTE for reminding me that massive guitars can be fun.

gizo vs. the 17,455: dammit furrypedro, I was going to compare this to Third Cat as well! It also reminds me of Mercury Rev a bit. I don't love it like I did a couple of your other songs a fight or two back. but this is very enjoyable. I think the drum loop could use a little variation and it could definitely be expanded a bit, but you left me wanting more so I'm not going to complain too much.

Glenn Case: the big guitars sound great at the start of this song but later on I feel like it kinda just turns into white noise a bit and I wish there was some more definition to the guitar sound. There's plenty of good melodies in here but it didn't capture my attention as much as your last couple of songs, probably. I kinda liked the guitar solo though, it's a bold choice to go for that odd scale that doesn't technically fit the key of the song but it mostly works for me? I think?

Hot Pink Halo: as the proud owner of a fairly-recently departed pet named Henry this had a substantial emotional hit for me, and I think you've done a much improved job on the mix - everything sounds good together and going drumless was a good call for the song. I kinda feel like the link between the main emotional hit of the song and the password stuff is a little tenuous, though? Maybe that's unfair but it kept popping into my head and leaving me with questions. I don't know really, it's a sweet song.

JB: not crazy about the mix for this one, the guitar sounds overcompressed to me and I'd like to hear a more spacious airy mix for something built around a single guitar and a load of vocals. But I liked the song a lot, and the chorus is super-catchy with superb harmonies. So I think I'll be VOTING for this one.

Levenhagen-Sommersmith: full of admiration for this one but also full of genre bias against it. It's very well done, well written and performed and the fiddle and piano complement each other well. But I don't particularly respond to it musically, and I admit that I have a further bias against songs leaning towards "the password is love" because I've been so full of rage recently - my draft lyric for this song that I was too lazy and miserable to finish was titled "the password is hate" - this might have clicked with me more under better circumstances.

Megadank Vs The Bloke Explosion: some great lyrics in here and I like the switches between your two vocals. Some great musical flourishes too, I'm especially fond of the little chiptuney bits. I think hearing it more than three times might start to annoy me a bit, but I think probably a VOTE for making me laugh.

miscellaneous owl: I have one criticism of this, the bass is a little boomy and distracting at times. Otherwise it's lovely, dreamy and atmospheric and - as usual - full of memorable melodies and lyrics. I really like the way the crunchy guitar sneaks in there and blends surprisingly well with the acoustic and synth pads. Obviously a VOTE.

Paco del Stinko: I love it when you go full-jangle. I don't really have anything else to say, I just really like this a lot. VOOOOOOOOOOTE.

Phlebia: this is a pleasure to listen to, but doesn't stick in my head at all. Continued praise for your drum sound (and panning!), and always in admiration of the way you push into different sonic territories while always sounding like you. This one entertained me but I can't include it in my top / voting tier of songs.

ShoehornTC: my only slight criticism of this one is that the story doesn't quite hook me in as much as maybe it could do? But I'm willing to forgive that because I love everything else about it, your melodies are so immediately welcome and inviting and I love the tempo / energy changes. Great mix of instrumentation, superb vocal performance, I am a fan.

Third Cat: as I said in the Levenhagen-Sommersmith review, "The Password is Love" is an angle I found slightly offputting for this title, but your lyrics are ambiguous enough for me to give them more of a pass. I also really like the shift into that cool synth riff in your middle-8. Pretty great stuff. VOTE.

[thirdcatmusic]

Adnama17: I like the acoustic guitar playing and it sounds pretty good - but the overall mix of vocals/guitar/drums seems a bit off rhythm wise. the drums aren't adding much as they kind of get lost in the background, I'm wondering if the song might actually sound tighter without them? vocals are OK for the most part.

Berkeley Social Scene: this is one of the better BSS entries for my taste, I like guitars on this one a lot. great sounds. vocals work well. I'll be voting for this one.

CazaroTaro: kind of a programmed/robotic vibe which is something I can quite like but for me there's something a bit off putting about how "cute" the song is with the very stiff delivery. that said there's some cool little bits in here. I think it could be a grower. gonna go with maybe vote for now.

The Economy Biscuits: instrumentally this sounds pretty great, love the intensity. some really great sounding guitars. love that machine gun rhythm. the vocals are a bit too wild/screechy for my taste but I can see how they fit the style pretty well. a maybe vote for me.

gizo vs. the 17,455: I like the vocal on this one quite a bit, I think maybe the best vocal I've heard on a gizo song (from memory, not doing an A/B comparison here). reminds me a bit of Beck who I'm a big fan of. I saw some people were comparing this to my own stuff in the other reviews so I'll take that as a compliment because I like this one. Probable vote although maybe a bit too short to feel like a complete song? (I know, that's rich coming from me... although I don't think I ever submitted one quite this short.)

Glenn Case: Much heavier than I'm used to hearing from your stuff, this is probably a bit less up my alley than most GC songs but still well done as always. I like how the vocals cut through so clearly. Interesting guitar solo. Probably vote.

Hot Pink Halo: I liked this one but it did feel like it went on a bit long maybe. I think maybe the best hot pink halo vocal performance I've heard? I always find your songs interesting even when they aren't entirely my thing, I think this one is in that category, but it might grow on me enough to get a vote.

JB: I like this but not as much as I feel like I should? maybe it's a grower for me. I like the layers of vocals and guitars. nice whistle solo.

Levenhagen-Sommersmith: This is nice but there may be a bit too much genre bias for me to really get into it. It reminds me of Christmas music and ... well I'm looking forward to not hearing Christmas music for a good long while.

Megadank Vs The Bloke Explosion: I like some hip hop but I've never been a fan of the nerdcore thing so I'm a bit put off by the verse but I do quite like the chorus which is pretty catchy and has some great sounds. the Spice Girls reference made me smile. so yeah... yay to the chorus, nay to the verse I guess.

miscellaneous owl: lovely dreamy reverb. the whole thing feels like it's about to fall apart at times but it makes its way forward in an enjoyable way. your vocals work very well on this type of song. feels like a cloud of sound. good to fall into. this mostly really works for me, maybe not entirely but definitely getting a vote anyway.

Paco del Stinko: fun song. your stuff always sounds so fully realized. vote.

Phlebia: first ~50 seconds was giving me big Boards of Canada vibes and I was really digging that, around one minute the live sounding loose drums kind of take it in a different direction that I'm not sure quite works as well but it is interesting. love the synths. maybe vote.

ShoehornTC: this is a super fun song. great energy and cool performance. I like how it changes from section to section. feels very "live" but also has a lot of interesting layers which fit together well, the segues between the different sections with different tempos/feels are pretty great. very good. vote.

Third Cat: the breakdown bit around 45 seconds was mostly done with a plugin called glitch 2 ... tape speed slowdowns and whatnot. not sure if this is obvious but the laughing is from a sitcom laugh track. I wanted to take the (lack of an) edge off of the overly earnest cute lyrics or something. made sense to me at the time.

[MicahSommer]

Let’s make 2020 the year that no one uses the phrase “genre bias” in their reviews.

Adnama17 - You’ve pulled off a neat trick here: telling a story with a distinct beginning and end, within a traditional cyclical (verse-chorus) song format. Your choruses have largely the same lyrics (“what the password is”) but the different pre-choruses set them up to mean different things. So we get an emotional progression throughout the song, AND we get a familiar sing-along chorus that comes back around. The best of both worlds! Your vocal delivery and guitar playing suit the tone of the song, although I’d love to hear a little fuller arrangement, with more involved drumming and a tasty lead instrument.

Berkeley Social Scene - This song feels like it might be fun to hear live in concert, but the energy doesn’t really translate onto the recording. Both the lead and backing vocals feel especially low energy, and the lead guitar never REALLY takes off like I wish it would - when we get more involved guitar lines in the ending section it just ends up feeling cluttered. The lyrics are pretty solid - I enjoy the opening “eenie meenie minie mo” reference.

CazaroTaro - Fun indeed! The stilted vocal style was a bit off-putting at first, but I can’t imagine this melody delivered otherwise against this backing track. I love a good fake-out ending, especially when the coda doesn’t overstay its welcome, although in this case you could have started the fade-out later. Give us a little more time to enjoy that instrumental!

The Economy Biscuits - Nice lyrics, political but vague enough not to come off as preachy. I like your guitar tone, especially in the instrumental solo-ish section near the end, but a pitchy vocal delivery and fatiguing drums make it difficult to give this repeated listens.

gizo vs. the 17,455 - Nice little tune! Great lyrics, both in subject matter and in construction - I love the neat internal rhymes like “lines”/”signs” and the extended phrase at the end of each verse. I wouldn’t have said no to an instrumental postlude - the song doesn’t quite feel done when it’s over. My only other complaint is the over-exaggerated vibrato at the end of the guitar solo.

Glenn Case - Really tasty guitar playing, tone, and overall production. I love the punchy snare. The vocals don’t seem to rise to the intensity level of the guitar playing, though, at least until getting to the “I don’t care what the password is” hook. The guitar solo toward the end sounds like it’s maybe in a different key/mode than the instruments underneath it, which is a bit unsettling.

Hot Pink Halo - This is a very sweet song, with some great specific details in the verses, and a simple, memorable chorus. The introductory verse is a clever way to make the “password” connection, and the password idea does come back at the end, but the connection still feels tenuous - this particular song has not earned this particular title, for me.

JB - Top-notch chorus - the “I figured you out” hook is an instant earworm. The whistling solo is an effective way to change things up and maintain interest while also keeping the minimalist feel. The verses don’t do much for me, both lyrically and melodically. (You’re probably aware that the verses are weaker, as you made the wise choice to spend most of the song’s brief runtime on repeats of the chorus.)

Levenhagen-Sommersmith - I wrote the melody and lyrics very quickly, and was hesitant to record it since the melody is so unremarkable, but then decided to invite my friend Jennifer who is a brilliant improviser on the violin and she definitely elevated the song. We played it together and recorded two takes - most of her violin playing is from the first take and most of my singing is from the second. Since we recorded without a click track it was surprisingly annoying lining up the separate tracks to cut from one to the other. Another limitation was that I only have two mic inputs to record with, so one mic was on her violin and the other was positioned as best as I could to get both my singing and piano playing - hence the mix is not great, but I think it was worth it to capture the spontaneous feeling of us playing together.

Megadank Vs The Bloke Explosion - Fun bloopy backing track. As is often the case with extended rap verses, there are some great lines and some that made me roll my eyes. The delivery was mostly good but a few awkward lines could have benefited from an extra vocal take. Some of my favorite bits included rhyming “number” with “thumb” and “fall on your pork sword”, which made me laugh out loud.

miscellaneous owl - What are the rest of us even doing here? Beautiful lyrics, melodies and harmonies and, as usual. I must complain about the non-synchronized placement of the “s” sounds at the end of “doors” and “fours”. It’s so obvious to me that I wonder if it’s intentional - that doesn’t mean I like it though. The spacey atmosphere created by the vocals, synth pads, and electric guitar is undercut by the acoustic guitar and bass - it needs some kind of rhythmic element but I’d rather it be a fingerstyle guitar or some harpsichord-like synth arpeggios or something. The flaws in production still don’t hide the fact that this is a beautiful song!

Paco del Stinko - I love the instrumentation here - the guitars and bass interlock so well and create a fun country-rock feel. I’m much less fond of the lyrics - aside from the clever meta Songfight references, they seem to me to be about absolutely nothing, and the metrical stress in some lines is downright wrong, like “apPEARS in THE full MOON” and “to UNlock A back DOOR”. The vocal hook in the chorus is catchy, and I have found it stuck in my head a few times in the past few days, which is a point in your favor.

Phlebia - Excellent drums that fill the whole stereo space in a very cool way. There are some great synth sounds throughout as well. I’m less fond of the vocals, especially the “stay on one note for a couple measures, jump to a new note and repeat” approach to melody. Lyrically, I’m not sure what any of it means - I don’t get the repeated references to the weather, I don’t know if it’s a metaphor for interpersonal relationships or is actually about computers.

ShoehornTC - Great classic country sound. Some great vocal hooks like on the word “remembe-e-er” and the climbing repetitions of “as though her whole life had been destroyed.” The slow-to-fast and fast-to-slow tempo changes are both well done. I’m not such a fan of the lyrics - Vancouver and Pink Floyd are the only specific details we get, and it’s not enough for me to get a sense of what’s going on with this girl, why she left, what she discovered online, and why the narrator is so happy to see her go.

Third Cat - Trademark Third Cat spacey guitars, minimalistic lyrics, and hooky vocal lines, all of which I enjoy. The short runtime is also a Third Cat trademark, and in this case I feel like you could have drawn things out longer. The sitar-ish sound is a nice touch, some of the other weird effects, not so much. As is obvious from my entry, I don’t have a problem with earnest lyrics and don’t see the need to deliberately undercut them with unnecessary weirdness.

[vowlvom]

Let’s make 2020 the year that no one uses the phrase “genre bias” in their reviews.

Yeah, alright. I found it useful shorthand when trying to get something written about every fight, but I've been reconsidering that personal challenge recently anyway (it doesn't seem to have made me get any better, or feel any less uncomfortable about critiquing other people's music) so I think I'll take a break from writing reviews in 2020 and see if I can get back to actually submitting songs instead.

[crumpart]

Hot Pink HaloNow I’m fairly confident that this song is about...a dog? I’m not entirely sure I follow the password analogy running through the track, but the nebulous nature of things is totally fine in my book. I guess when you enter a more stripped down track like this that gives off this almost confessional vibe ,I’m supposed to analyze the lyrics more. Or am I? I don’t really know. I guess I am anyway.

I kinda feel like the link between the main emotional hit of the song and the password stuff is a little tenuous, though? Maybe that’s unfair but it kept popping into my head and leaving me with questions. I don’t know really, it’s a sweet song.

Hot Pink Halo - This is a very sweet song, with some great specific details in the verses, and a simple, memorable chorus. The introductory verse is a clever way to make the “password” connection, and the password idea does come back at the end, but the connection still feels tenuous - this particular song has not earned this particular title, for me.

So I check my spam folder pretty regularly because I get some legit important emails sent there pretty often (more recently since an employer was talking to me about MSDS files and his autocorrect made it “meds” and now google thinks we’re both players in the online pharmeceutical trade), and I came across one about a week before this prompt telling me they had this password from 15 years ago and would only give me my online accounts back if I paid them a bunch of cryptocurrency. The usual password hacker / sold list story, complete with 5 or so emails from Facebook saying that someone was trying to reset my password. You’ll all be pleased to know I haven’t used my dogs’ names for passwords for about 15 years now, and everything is cold hard randomly generated strings of characters from a password thingy app. Back then though, beloved dogs’ names all the way down, and getting that junk email was a bittersweet kick in the guts.

I was going to write a song about Superb Fairy Wrens, and how they teach their offspring a password song while they’re still in the egg, so that they can spot any cuckoo chicks pretending to be fairy wrens, but then this chorus melody popped into my head fully formed and I had to do it. I realised part way through that “Run Henry Run”, while close, was not the actual password in question, and rather the name of our WiFi. I decided to keep it because even though the actual password is well and truly past its prime, I probably still shouldn’t say exactly what it was out loud in a song.

Anyway, back to tenuous connections, I’m pretty fond of shifting the prompt away from the spotlight in a song. I don’t think it necessarily has to be the hook or the chorus or whatever. Sometimes it does end up being that, but if the prompt leads me somewhere that I think is better, I think it’s worthwhile making it secondary. I also wonder if songs based on real, true life stories maybe feel more tenuous to others because real life is a bit more random than fiction? It’s something I started thinking about more a few weeks ago with one of the Magnetic Letters songs, which had some details in it that were so randomly specific and I just couldn’t tie them all together neatly until Merle mentioned that he was retelling a true story that had happened a few years earlier, and suddenly those inconsistencies made sense.

So, yeah, true story about my lovely little dog Henry, who had perfect pitch for ambulance sirens.

[shoehornTC]

PI reviews in order of listening, this is a talented team of writers, performers, producers!!! I must admit I am having trouble reviewing these in as detailed manner as many of you. To me songs have an emotional impact (either quickly or over time) and I do not tend to dig into the details very far. Here’s my likes!!

BSS - nice guitars, call and response, lead guitar toward end.

Megadank - love this, the chorus is great! Ha that’s a winner in my book!! V

ShoehornTC - I have to mix my songs louder. The protagonist is not sure but me thinks it was a cult. I think he’s happy to have dodged a bullet.

Hot Pink Halo - sad, from ransom wear to finding a pet, pets make good passwords.

Gizo - love the guitar lead in there and the vocals.

Phlebia - I’m old, so I love all the 80’s influenced productions, nice drum mix.

Leven - simple and elegant, great vocal performance, feels live. V

Third Cat - inventive mix of instruments, love the melody at beginning and end.

Adnama17 - well done, I like the simple drums for this tune, kind of up my ally.

JB - acoustic recorded nicely, like the harmonies, nice song, if I could whistle like that I’d do it all the time!! And ahhhh… the fade. V

Paco - love this. Bridge rocks, guitar solo is wonderful, cool song very well put together. V

Cazarotaro - fun!! Yep.

Economy - The wall of sound is impressive and I am able to clearly hear the vox nicely as the cut through that mix perfectly.

Miscellaneous Owl - great production, nice vocal performance.

Glen Case - it that grunge? cool vocal performance, well done.

[CazaroTaro]

Here are my comments on The Password is ___.

First, a short note on my methodology for generating comments on songs.

1. I listen to each song, all the way through, at least twice.
2. I do read the lyrics.
3. I do not read comments of other reviewers prior to posting. Therefore, I may repeat what others have said.
4. I don’t offer advice. I don’t know your constraints or capabilities, and I don’t have deep musical experience. Thus, any advice I might give will probably be off-target.
5. I tend to be concise.


COMMENTS

JB. Nice guitar. Pleasant vocal melodies. Whistling!


Levanhagen-Sommersmith. The recording accurately replicates the feel of a live performance. Well done performances.


Adnama17. Good guitar. Drum pattern never changes.


Phlebia. Floaty psychedelic music and vocals. Putting percussion left and right was nice.


Shoehorn TC. Nice harmonized vocals. Structure and tempo changes keep the song interesting.


Berkeley Social Scene. Excellent drum groove. Tasty guitar playing. One background vocal singer sounds like he didn’t know to quit singing when the others did.


Glenn Case. Vocals well sung and clear in the mix over a compressed wall of guitars.


The Economy Biscuits. Very nice organized cacophony as a backing track. Don’t care for the vocal treatment.


Miscellaneous Owl. Acoustic guitar in intro sounds boxy. Excellent vocals as always. Production was satisfyingly complex.


Gizo. Simple, but engaging.


Paco del Stinko. Entertaining song. Good background vocals.


Third Cat. A pleasant open and spacious mix. Nice use of FX.


Megadank vs The Bloke Explosion. I don’t care much for rap. But this was really good. Thank you.


Hot Pink Halo. This is the saddest song I’ve heard in a while.