Don't wink at me (Eyes In The Dark reviews)

[sleepysilverdoor]

The answer is "season 9 finale" , the one where there's a big storm blowing in. Dr. Yang has to perform heart surgery on a man entirely in the dark because all of the lights are off, Chief Webber gets electrocuted in the generator room, and Meredith Grey has to have a c-section in the dark because her baby is mispositioned.

[Pigfarmer Jr]

I can never figure out how you guitar players come up with 5 or 6 guitar parts (or more) that work together.

So many answers, most of which are wrong.

1) Write 10-20 parts and discard most of them.
2) Record the same part on another guitar (or different amp, or different pickup, through a different pedal, add a different effect like tremelo) and misremember the part just enough that it sounds different but not so much that it clashes.
3)Strum one, arpeggiate another, use a quarter note rhythm on one and an eighth note rhythm on another, etc.,
4) Play the part twice using a hard attack and palm muting on one and a light touch with no muting on the other.
5) Use a capo and play the same chords but in different shapes. For instance, play a G chord in open position then capo the guitar at the 5th fret and play a D chord which will sound a G, giving it a different sound
6) Pretend your guitar is a saxophone (or synth, or timpani etc.,) Try to get as close to the tone and phrasing as you can.
7) Pay someone to do it for you. This usually involves beer more often than money.

[Evermind]

Evermind - I like the acoustic guitar, and there’s some harmonic motion! (Sorry for the terse review last week.) In any case, I like the atmosphere the acoustic and the distorted guitar create, though I do think your vocals could come up in a few places.

No sweat on the review, I've had much worse! The only reviews I hate are the ones that don't actually give me any useful feedback. I tried to do something that progresses more, since I've had feedback like "nice song but it never goes anywhere" a few times in a row lately.

Thanks for the review

[Caravan Ray]

Caravan Ray - I get a little Gilligan’s Island from the first half of the verse melody,

LOL! Yeah. I can see that. How embarrassment!

[sleepysilverdoor]

Add - Well, I do enjoy that bass synth. My friend once described synth tones like that as “sounding like a piece of fruit”, and while I’m not entirely sure what he meant, I’m just going to agree and say that your synth tone sounds like a strawberry. I like your xylophone sounds. Does this necessarily stick with me? I’m not sure, but it is at least an enjoyable little ditty. I like that cool ride cymbal bell hit. It adds a nice touch!

Amby Moho - I enjoy the kind of psych-ey chord progression and vocal melody. The chord progression here kind of reminds me of a Glenn Case song. I think the vocal production is a little over-filtered, makes it sound a bit thin in the mix. On the plus side, your mix isn’t muddy at all, but it feels like I’m floating around quite a bit. I like the change up in structure around the “quintessential” part and then how it’s followed by that kind of squeaky bizarro descending something or another.

Balls To Monte - I do and will always think your voice sounds a lot like Robert Plant. I’m not sure if that’s a conscious affectation or just the way you sing but it’s definitely a good thing, especially when you sing songs like this. I greatly enjoy the lyrics here. I’m not entirely sure what this song is about in particular, but with the talk of torpedoes and a pumpkin patch vigil all I can think of is the red baron and Linus waiting for the Great Pumpkin. Pretty sure my interpretation is wrong there. I dig the folksy 6/8 vibe.

Brown Word and the Big Whine - Man, you’ve got some super lush production this go round, which is not something that I’ve said about you much in the past...maybe it’s the increased synths and the electronic drums and such, but you’re really latching onto a cool vibe and soundscape this go round. I’m very pleased with the general pacing of this, and just the vibe in general. Something about the drums before the chorus reminds me of “All Neon Like” by Bjork but nothing about the rest of the song brings that to mind. You’ve got some darn good spooky sounds and lyrical imagery and this may be one of my favorite BW+BW song.

Caravan Ray - A nice peppy beat and bassline propels this one a bit. I like the tone you’ve got on the bass. This reminds me of something that I would have heard played a lot when I worked college radio, also a complement. Vocals could maybe use a little EQ’ing on the low-end to de-muddy the mix. Big fan of the chorus and how the phrasing kind of abruptly starts. Backing vocals in the bridge after that second chorus sound great. A strong entry.

Evermind - Vocals are a bit soft, could bear to bring them up in the mix a bit. I like the guitar part a bit. Though that distorted part is also too soft. Everything about this is too soft. Make it less soft! Like if the driving parts were less buried in the mix this could be cooler but the drums and epic distorted stuff are just so quiet, they just sound non-commital. This is coming from someone who tends to OVERDO the epic intensity, but I stand by my comments.

Glenn Case - This sounds like a Glenn Case song. How did you produce your drums on this? That snare drum sounds punchy and great. Did you use some kind of cool compression trick on it? The kick drum sounds chunky and beefy...and it’s interesting how it’s always doubled up with the hi-hat. Maybe that’s something you always do with your drumming and I’ve just never noticing. Good harmonies, as per usual. How are you producing your vocals? The musical backing sounds just a *little* cluttered before the solo, but that’s be just looking for something to nit pick. The solo sounds great. Great use of stereo space here. Maybe bring up the vocals just a smidge. The chorus melody reminds me of a different song of yours but I can’t place it. Probably the one with the cool chords and good harmonies.

Hot Pink Halo - I like when the tambourine comes in. I’d have put the violin part in the chorus a little closer to center in the mix. I know you mentioned that some of the out-of-tune violin parts were designed to create a somewhat spooky vibe, but imo that doesnt’ really translate, it just sounds like its a bit off. However, at the END of the song it starts to sound a whole lot better. I like the kind of spooky sounds at the end. All in all though this one didn’t really work for me.

Jim Tyrell - I like that plucked synth that keeps going through the main part of this tune, it makes for a pretty cool beat. And that synth cello also sounds pretty nice too. “All the werewolves getting lycanthropic” rhymed with topic is super clever. Though I can never hear the word “Lycanthrope” without thinking of “Lichen Throat”. And then the bridge with that g-funk synth? Who invited Dr. Dre? From a rapping standpoint, I’d like to suggest breaking out of the straight 16th note flow a bit more just to maintain the interest. As someone who ends up rapping quite a bit myself in my entries, the actual lyrical content of raps usually completely bypasses the part of my brain responsible for lingual processing. But I like a lot of musical elements here and the rhythm is rad which means it passes my “rap test”.

JP Nickolas - The wolf howls make me happy. The way you do the guitar in the first half of the verses makes me think of some campy spooky music like the monster mash or something. Vocal performance in the chorus seems to lack a bit of commitment, sing out, man! Like it sounds like you’re afraid to really GET INTO your performance. And while this is halloween and we’re supposed to be afraid, this would be better if you really hammed it up a little bit more. And some of the distorted guitar sections seem...off key? I dunno how but they don’t quite work for me.

Ken’s Super Duper Band N’ Stuff - This sounds great and I love the sound choices you went for with your synth and guitar part. Overall spooky vibe is totally nailed. The guitar choice and rhythm choice kind of gives me a slight surfy vibe, but surf influences being used to provide spookiness is usually good. Vocal delivery is a bit flat. Not in a pitchy way, but in a dynamism range, the melody is fine but nothing about the way you sell it really grabs me. Musically though this is super solid and I dig the “eyes in the dark” ascending vocal melody in the chorus. And then you jump to that major V which is a great contrast, then that descending bass line and yeah this is pretty rad.

Lichen Throat - I’m not entirely sure what to say about this one, I can’t say it’s my favorite track of yours. As usual though, I greatly enjoy your lyrical imagery, if only because I find the scenery of New Mexico absolutely beautiful despite the climate there being far too dry for my liking. The auto-tune...I’m not entirely sure what to make of it because there are some parts where it works well and sounds pretty cool and others where it doesn’t fit at all. Are you using live pitch correction or after the fact? It sounds like it’s live pitch correction but it’s not always in key with the music. Something after-the-fact (I use Newtone in FL Studio, Melodyne is a popular but kind of pricey standalone option) might work well for playing with vocal melodies if you’re going to go the pitch correction route. “Cool and quiet…” sounds cool but then it goes way off for the rest of the stanza. Where in NM are you from anyway?

Lucky Witch and the Righteous Ghost - The bass is almost overdone right off the bat (not a halloween reference), it sounds like it’s clipping, which slightly mutes the spooky effect. I really *do* like the super flanged string synths that dominate so much of the rest of the track. The 16th note chorused out guitar chugging reminds me of “The Drowning Man” by The Cure which is an extremely spooky song in its own right. Melody doesn’t sound it’s super confident and the vocals are a bit hot in the mix. You kind of sing “in the dark” in a way that sounds like you want to really sing it out but you’re trying not to wake your neighbors. The chorus reminds me of some song I heard on the radio 20 years ago but I can’t figure out exactly which one it is. This has a lot of elements I like and a lot of elements I don’t and unfortunately I mostly don’t like it.

Miscellaneous Owl - This reminds me a lot of “Split” era Lush, which is a high compliment because I absolutely love Split-era Lush. Your enunciation of the word “wasn’t” sounds very British for a woman from California who moved to Wisconsin, which may help contribute to why I’m getting those sort of vibes, but it’s also the harmonies and general 90s-ish vibes. Anyway, this song is great and I love the melody you came up with. It’s entirely possible I just have genre bias towards this kind of song, but...you know, you do win a lot so maybe you’re just really good lol. The rhythm guitar during the solo bridge thing is a bit muddy, so maybe clean that up if you ever redo this one?

Night Sky - I dig the sax on this. I dig the rhythm of the drums. I dig the bassline. The vocals are ALMOST there but as I’ve said to several people this week they’re just not QUITE there in terms of really making the song happen. That sax solo, yum! Like your intonation is good. The lyrics are good. I think it’d work better if instead of really clipping some of your more “staccato” words like “flip” and “idiot”, you held them out or voiced them just a LITTLE bit more, cause the way you clip them while singing kind of sticks out. But the “eyes in the daaaark” bit? Sounds good. Add some more of those good sustained syllable words cause your voice rocks those. Very good rhythm on this one.

Pannacotta Army - This is giving me strong Steve Miller vibes for whatever reasons. I think it’s the general vibe of it. I really like that hammond-sounding organ you’ve got going throughout this. If I was at cool bar or something and heard this song I’d probably park myself right by the stage with my drink and chill for a bit and listen to it. As usual your production is top notch and I have nothing bad to say about it at all. Lyrically a good heartbreak tune. Doesn’t stick with me at all though other that sounding sonically good, unfortunately.

Phlebia - I keep writing songs about Grey’s Anatomy, this one is about the episode where there’s a big power outage and Yang has to do heart surgery in the dark and Chief Webber gets electrocuted in the generator room and Meredith has a c section during the power outage. Musically this pretty heavily influenced by the Black Angels and Dead Meadow, particularly the former around their “Passover” era. I used to host a psych rock college radio show and played this sort of stuff all the time. But really I just got a new amp-sim/overdrive pedal and wanted to play with it, so if you like it check out the Joyo JF15, it’s cheap and sounds awesome.

Pigfarmer Jr - I dig the spooky dog sounds. The chorus of this one is super solid and memorable, what with the “we ride on” bit and what not. The verse doesn’t really stick with me at all, but that chorus is solid. I like the guitar work here, and the tremolo going on throughout the back of the song sounds good, as does the bass-playing. Well done and understated. And those subtly delayed guitar stabs sound good too. On second listen I like this a lot better, it’s kind of heavy content wise. Is this a story about just that general settlement era, or a specific event in Texas history? By the way Texas is overrated, I lived there 3 years and never understood why Texans love it so much. Fight me, everyone!

Robyn MacKenzie - So SweeneyToad told you to write a Bikini Kill song and you write this. Now I’ll admit that I haven’t really listened to Bikini Kill along but this has got some delightful attitude and rides that punk in-your-face attitude vibe perfectly. Now if I had to criticize any particular aspect of it I’d say you don’t quite sound pissed off enough. Like this genre says “I”M PISSED” and your lyrics say “I’M PISSED” and your vocal delivery says “I’M MILDLY ANNOYED”. No, you aren’t pissed off enough. Get back in there and give me some fuckin’ bile! I need to be afraid of you from the speakers! Haha, I’m only somewhat kidding, I do really like this song and that feeling of sincere anger is probably the only thing that’s missing from it, very good.

Sweeney Toad - God, this beat is ridiculous and I love your vocal delivery. I’d turn down the kick drum a bit, it’s blowing everything else out in the mix to the point where it strongly detracts from the rest of the song. The way you do that kind of trembly shaky thing vocal is really fun to listen to, this is completely mental. And then the kick drum comes back in and then like eats the rest of the backing track. Turn it downnnn or at least cut the sustain on it so it doesn’t push the cool synth work down in the mix so much. The delivery of the bit ending with CORONAVIRUS reminds me a lot of Kool Keith. Maybe because it’s just a slightly random turn of phrase and medical lol.

[genecawley]

Balls To Monte - I do and will always think your voice sounds a lot like Robert Plant. I’m not sure if that’s a conscious affectation or just the way you sing but it’s definitely a good thing, especially when you sing songs like this. I greatly enjoy the lyrics here. I’m not entirely sure what this song is about in particular, but with the talk of torpedoes and a pumpkin patch vigil all I can think of is the red baron and Linus waiting for the Great Pumpkin. Pretty sure my interpretation is wrong there. I dig the folksy 6/8 vibe.

Wow! That's exactly what it's about. You nailed it. Turns out, Apple TV owns the Great Pumpkin now, so I won't even get to see it this year.

For the record, I'm more of a Steve Marriott fan. It was kind of a Small Faces/Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake kind of vibe I was going for, with a little bit of an early-Traffic for good luck.

[sleepysilverdoor]

Balls To Monte - I do and will always think your voice sounds a lot like Robert Plant. I’m not sure if that’s a conscious affectation or just the way you sing but it’s definitely a good thing, especially when you sing songs like this. I greatly enjoy the lyrics here. I’m not entirely sure what this song is about in particular, but with the talk of torpedoes and a pumpkin patch vigil all I can think of is the red baron and Linus waiting for the Great Pumpkin. Pretty sure my interpretation is wrong there. I dig the folksy 6/8 vibe.

Wow! That's exactly what it's about. You nailed it. Turns out, Apple TV owns the Great Pumpkin now, so I won't even get to see it this year.

For the record, I'm more of a Steve Marriott fan. It was kind of a Small Faces/Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake kind of vibe I was going for, with a little bit of an early-Traffic for good luck.

Ha, I'm pleasantly surprised that I was right on that one. I have like 3 copies of the Great Pumpkin as well as a DVD of the animated version. I also named my first son Linus - not directly after Van Pelt, but the fact that my wife is a big Schultz fan and I openly admire Linus Torvalds led to a strong mutual agreement on the name. As a result, people buy us copies of The Great Pumpkin on a regular basis. We'll probably have 10 a few years from now. I noticed that AppleTV got it the other day when I was feeling lazy and not wanting to get out my DVDs.

[genecawley]

Ha, I'm pleasantly surprised that I was right on that one. I have like 3 copies of the Great Pumpkin as well as a DVD of the animated version. I also named my first son Linus - not directly after Van Pelt, but the fact that my wife is a big Schultz fan and I openly admire Linus Torvalds led to a strong mutual agreement on the name. As a result, people buy us copies of The Great Pumpkin on a regular basis. We'll probably have 10 a few years from now. I noticed that AppleTV got it the other day when I was feeling lazy and not wanting to get out my DVDs.

That's cool. My and wife and I are huge Charles Schulz fans too, if that's not already obvious.

[Pigfarmer Jr]

Pigfarmer Jr - Is this a story about just that general settlement era, or a specific event in Texas history?

It's based on the story of Rachel Parker Plummer and her abduction by the Comanche. I've been reading the book "Empire of the Summer Moon" and highly recommend it.

By the way Texas is overrated, I lived there 3 years and never understood why Texans love it so much. Fight me, everyone!

I used to spend summers there and loved it. To be fair, Texas is larger than most countries so if you look around long enough you're likely to find a place you'll like a lot. And you'll also find a place you hate a lot, too.

[sleepysilverdoor]

Pigfarmer Jr - Is this a story about just that general settlement era, or a specific event in Texas history?

It's based on the story of Rachel Parker Plummer and her abduction by the Comanche. I've been reading the book "Empire of the Summer Moon" and highly recommend it.

By the way Texas is overrated, I lived there 3 years and never understood why Texans love it so much. Fight me, everyone!

I used to spend summers there and loved it. To be fair, Texas is larger than most countries so if you look around long enough you're likely to find a place you'll like a lot. And you'll also find a place you hate a lot, too.

Ahh, I was living in Corpus Christi. I had high expectations for the place and found it disappointing, though I did really enjoy the cuisine (taquerias for days). I visited Austin a couple times and found it too trafficky and too self-consciously hip, but it that last bit may have been who I was with. I thought the landscape of the panhandle was extremely unappealing when I drove through it. I didn't hate Ft Worth when I visited, but I was there on a work trip helping with Harvey from afar so I didn't really get a taste of the place.

I did kind of like Brownsville so you're right, it must just be the parts of Texas I've been to.

[sleepysilverdoor]

Ha, I'm pleasantly surprised that I was right on that one. I have like 3 copies of the Great Pumpkin as well as a DVD of the animated version. I also named my first son Linus - not directly after Van Pelt, but the fact that my wife is a big Schultz fan and I openly admire Linus Torvalds led to a strong mutual agreement on the name. As a result, people buy us copies of The Great Pumpkin on a regular basis. We'll probably have 10 a few years from now. I noticed that AppleTV got it the other day when I was feeling lazy and not wanting to get out my DVDs.

That's cool. My and wife and I are huge Charles Schulz fans too, if that's not already obvious.

Heh, my second ever songfight entry featured a Peanuts sample very prominently throughout the whole track. (Rhymes with Lucia). And my wife has Woodstock tattooed on her shoulder. It's rad. The worst birthday present I ever got was waking up to the news that Charles Schulz died. Such a great figure in pop culture history...

[genecawley]

Heh, my second ever songfight entry featured a Peanuts sample very prominently throughout the whole track. (Rhymes with Lucia). And my wife has Woodstock tattooed on her shoulder. It's rad. The worst birthday present I ever got was waking up to the news that Charles Schulz died. Such a great figure in pop culture history...

The Woodstock tattoo is cool. And, yeah, that must have been an extremely terrible birthday present. He was amazing. I've been reading this book. It's a series of essays pertaining to Peanuts and its influence. So far, it's pretty great:
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/book ... er-editor/

Now I gotta go back and listen to your second entry.

[owl]

add: Fun arrangement, I like the instrumentation--the combo of that bouncy bass with the fuzzy guitar accents and lo-fi synth is very appealing. I like the melody a lot as well. I wish there was a bit more of a dynamic pickup in the energy as the song goes on, the song seems to wash over me without every feeling like it quite arrived. P.S. My husband walked in (not knowing what I was listening to) and said "this guy sounds like a nerd". GAUNTLET THROWN?!

Amby Moho: It's funny, this made me think of Glenn Case in the intro--similar chord choices to his typical style, I guess? Like I literally thought as I was streaming all the songs in alphabetical order, "oh this is early in the alphabet for Glenn's song" and then it proceeded a little more and I realized it was not Glenn at all. Anyway, it's a cool chord progression and I like the kind of lo-fi psychedelic feel to the production, Ken's Elephant 6 comparison nailed it. I'm a sucker for stylophone, so that part instantly won me over! More buzzing bees in a can for everyone! I have a similar critique for this as for add's song, I guess... it seems to hover at an awkward chill energy level throughout where it's not quite languid and relaxed, but also doesn't quite pick up. So it kind of feels like a mid-album track rather than a single. I LOVED the outro, that tumbling chromatic whatever that is sounds so dang cool, was hoping it would get even bigger and weirder but then it ended.

Balls To Monte: Next up in the "comparisons to Songfighters you may or may not know" category, this seemed very Tim Hinkle to me. It definitely has some Renaissance Faire vibes that made me wish you took it over the top as far as instrumentation. Get the children dancing to the pipes of Pan and so on. The guitars sound nice, particularly the acoustic, which comes through nice and clear and sweet. The melody got a bit repetitive for me, would have liked it mixed up a bit (same dynamics critique as for the last two songs, in fact), and there were a few things in the vocal that bugged me--the high notes seem like they are in an awkward range for you and were a bit strained, and the weird stresses on the word "INspiraTION" jumped out at me as well. Nice evocative imagery in the lyrics ("carved faces and hollow eyes float over the flaming field" is so vivid!) and I appreciate the seasonal spookiness in the first verse. (I wrote this review before seeing the discussion about what the lyrics are about, and I’m delighted to know it’s about Charlie Brown…)

Brown Word and the Big Whine: The production sounds awesome, very atmospheric, I was taken with the floaty guitar in particular, but all the instrumentation sounds fantastic. Probably my favorite Brown Word production so far. The only thing is the vocal recording quality sounds a little less crisp than the rest of the instrumentation to me so it feels like it sits in the mix a little oddly. I love the scrapy synth in the interlude/transition parts. Nice creepy lyrics. The outro/bridge at the end is a great changeup without losing the moodiness of the song. Another one where the energy doesn't really change much throughout, but I think it works for this song because it's more about mood and atmosphere and there's a lot of cool texture to keep the listener's interest.

Caravan Ray: This hits a sweet spot for me as far as genre, I love the interweaving vocal lines, and the melody and exuberant guitars are lovely. The shifts from quickfire bursts of words to those long held notes in the vocal are really effective. I was thinking "this reminds me of the Smiths" at first, but I think that might just be because you sing "I will go out tonight" and that influenced my brain. It still feels a bit like a first draft as far as performance and production--the mix feels quite loose and muffled to me, but the bones of the song are there. As a man named Caravan Ray once said to me, "Give this to someone who knows what they are doing - this could be really cool."

Evermind: The acoustic guitar sounds beautiful, and I love your minimalistic arrangement, such a simple song, but it feels complete. The electric guitar doesn't quite feel like it's in the same room as everything else, would be nice to give that a bit more space so you could imagine everything being played live together. Really enjoyed it, but I kind of wanted this to go on longer and explode into a soaring bombastic postrock type chorus at the end!

The Garages: Yay Rain, nice to see another project of yours! Awesome energy and fuzzy guitars. Love the vocals, they are really strong where they go up into the higher/louder sections, although the first few lines seem a little wobbly and not quite settled in. The solo is really satisfying, the whispered doubles coming out of that create some nice drama. I think this might have been my favorite of the fight if it had gotten in in time.

Glenn Case: This sounds grungier than one of your typical mixes, kind of like we're listening through an old radio, but I really like the drum sound here in particular. Great harmonies and your trademark interesting chord choices. I like the space in the lyrics around "no emotion, blank expression" and was really taken with the line "maybe you would be more fearsome if I were concerned about dying." Cool solo. I kind of wish the drums and/or chord changes in the chorus were more straightforward... in the current arrangement, the song feels like it's moving from tension to constant tension without ever quite getting to a moment of real satisfying resolution.

Hot Pink Halo: I love the way you use different techniques on the violin to vary the feel throughout, in the outro in particular, but I think it might be more effective dropped back in the mix a bit in the verses--as is it's very very present almost all the way through the song and draws the listener's attention to its tone more than what it's doing in the arrangement. The vocals seem too quiet and the recording sounds kind of muffled, would like them as clear and present as the violin currently is. Your vocal sounds really nice in the higher, softer ranges of the melody. I do think some of the backing vocals are off key (e.g. around a minute in) and could maybe use another take, though. I love the chorus, it is so good where you're singing the "I see you" over the movement of the violin line. What are the lyrics intended to be about? I feel like I'm missing something interesting conceptually, because you always seem to have a deeper meaning behind seemingly simple words.

Jim Tyrrell: Really impressive production and performance, this was wonderfully put together. I was very taken with those West coast synth solos, and you used the samples really well. I think the flow of the lyrics was great (if not super adventurous, as sleepysilverdoor pointed out), but most of them didn't really pack a punch, it felt like a lot of padding as far as the actual content of the song--"All the werewolves getting lycanthropic" and "that's not paranoia, that's just mathematics" made me laugh but I wanted the lyrics to be more dense with wordplay and punchlines or at least more plot. Like the whole "looked into the void" verse rhymes and flows perfectly, but doesn't really mean anything to me and doesn't have any really memorable turns of phrase.

JP Nickolas: This is really fun, I like how you leaned into the Halloween novelty song thing. Strong instrumental performances! I like the howling and the funk rhythm guitar, and the baroque lead guitar stuff that comes in towards the end is great and fits really nicely with the feel of the song. The vocals aren't as strong as the guitar work, I think you could have used a few more takes to get the pitch and timing tight. As a few people have noted, the levels are kind of off... drums and bass are too quiet, vocals and guitar are too loud.

Ken's Super Duper Band 'n Stuff: I know you mentioned you had some struggles with writing this, but I wouldn't have been able to tell--it all flows really nicely and is catchy and appealing. I like the synths but I would let them come in and out a bit more; I got tired of hearing those steady held pads throughout the whole song. Fantastic harmonies. Love the synth solo. The mis-accented word "warNINGS" really bugged me every time it came up.

Lichen Throat: I love the instrumental and the lyrics, I think this is one of the best Lichen Throat songs I've heard so far. The main musical motif is spacious and moving. The lyrics are beautiful, nostalgic and poetic. I have a kind of allergic reaction to autotune, so I really wasn't a fan of that aspect, it always grates on me. It sounds like it's been applied pretty heavily and even so the vocals still sound off pitch-wise in various places--did you have the autotune settings set to the specific key you're in? Could you set the melody manually? Can you ease off on the attack for the effect? I think in parts where your pitch is wobbly it's kind of warbling around chromatically and landing in places you probably didn't intend.

Lucky Witch and the Righteous Ghost: That start tho <3 So perfectly creepy. I love the spooky feel of this song. Pigfarmer Jr. made mention of how Jerkatorium's not here reviewing this fight, but hey, I'm here, so I'm going to complain about the accent on the word "MIS-take"... The slightly detuned-sounding Omnichord strums are great. Although I like the general atmosphere of the song, I don't find the melody of the sung parts really memorable, and the clipping vocal didn’t really work for me, sounded like a mistake more than deliberate distortion. The spoken word stuff is awesome, though, love it.

miscellaneous owl: Heyyyy, can you tell I grew up in the 90’s?! After all the G&G stuff that I did for Song Fight! Live (for practical reasons) I was itching to make some noise, so I had fun recording a wall of loud guitars. (And I rolled off the bass and heavily scooped the mids when EQ’ing the guitars, but I guess it wasn’t enough to keep it un-muddy…) I started with the rhythm guitar in the verse and started adding and subtracting stuff from there--the harmonies and call and response guitars in the chorus weren’t in the original draft, but those are my favorite bits of the song now. Lyrically, it might be about sexual violence and gaslighting, or it might be about paranoia and psychosis, depending on how reliable you think the narrator and main character are.

Night Sky: Ooh these are nice strong vocals, turn them up! I like your vibrato. A few pitchy moments in there though. I like the chorus lyrics, particularly that line “reason to an idiot” with its sharp stop (opposite opinion from sleepysilverdoor!), but I found the verse lyrics really clunky and wordy. They sound divorced from the music, like you found some random book and started improvising a melody from the prose. I’m not a fan of cookie-cutter meter and rhyme in songs, but I think there’s a good middle ground where you could put a bit more work into making them flow naturally and at least half rhyme. It’s hard to do with two people involved and limited time, but I think a feedback loop where you see what sticks once you try performing the lyrics, and then edit the lyrics and melody accordingly, would probably smooth out some of the rough edges. In this situation, I kind of think spoken word (more like the “feed the trees” line) would have worked better. The imagery is cool, and I like the “staircase wisdom of remorseful ghosts” as a concept, but I think that there are a lot of words in this song that sound good on the written page as poetry or prose, but really excessive in song lyrics. (Like, Nick Cave might sing the five-dollar word “interventionist” but the rest of the language in that song is really simple...) The saxophones sound great, and I like the general groove and rhythm of the track.

The Pannacotta Army: Beautiful production, your recordings are always a treat for the ears. Nice warm vocals and guitars, great solo, and I like the way the organ comes and goes. The falsetto harmonies in the bridge are delicious. At moments, the melody reminds me of “End of the Season” by the Kinks. The first couple of verses are somewhat forgettable to me, but I love the lyrics in the last verse--the specificity of “Harold Wood,” the cynicism wrapped up in a pretty bow, the way the phrasing works with the music.

Phlebia: Really enjoyed the insistent main riff and beat and I dig all the psychedelic synth noodling on this one, too. Your new pedal sounds cool. What’s going on in the break at 3 minutes in? Is that your kid making a cameo? Something is weird to me about the way the vocal sits in the mix, it feels too present, I think, so I have trouble hearing the music and vocals as a cohesive whole (in headphones, anyway. Is the vocal panned more to the right?) and it also puts focus on any imperfections. Also, there’s a mouth smacking noise or something at the end of a bunch of lines that I found really distracting, might just be the overcompressed/distorted sound of you taking a breath between lines.

Pigfarmer Jr: Cool sound effects, great guitar work as usual. I like the verse melody, love the chorus melody. Since Jerkatorium isn’t here, I’ll step in to complain about how “frontier” is emphasized. I like the story you’re telling in the lyrics. All in all this works really well for me. One minor thing that bothered me was that I felt like the tone of the fuzzy guitars was a bit too harsh for the rest of the song, for my tastes anyway… I liked the noisy guitars coming in in theory but I got distracted by that in practice.

Robyn Mackenzie: This doesn’t sound too much like Bikini Kill to me, too poppy and not abrasive enough for that, but it’s good. Really catchy, nice distinct sections, love the backing vocals. I like the distortion on the vocals. The cymbals sound super odd to me in the verses. This is not a super long song but somehow feels longer to me than it is… I know you’re building up tension to the first chorus, but I don’t know if you need all three verses/prechoruses?

Sweeney Toad: I love the bleeping and blooping and the synth breakdown later on, it’s a cool production. The plot is certainly thrilling. The delivery isn’t always great, I think if you’re going for this kind of Dalek-style monotone vocal you really need to be tight with the beat. “Sharp fangs on my anus” seems pretty off rhythmically (there's a sentence I never thought I'd say). There are various points in the lyric where I could complain about the finer points of meter and stress but I’m not sure a song about vampire bats sucking your butthole really merits that much close analysis and editing, maybe it just needs to be what it is. I like big bats and I cannot lie!

[crumpart]

Hot Pink Halo: I love the way you use different techniques on the violin to vary the feel throughout, in the outro in particular, but I think it might be more effective dropped back in the mix a bit in the verses--as is it's very very present almost all the way through the song and draws the listener's attention to its tone more than what it's doing in the arrangement. The vocals seem too quiet and the recording sounds kind of muffled, would like them as clear and present as the violin currently is. Your vocal sounds really nice in the higher, softer ranges of the melody. I do think some of the backing vocals are off key (e.g. around a minute in) and could maybe use another take, though. I love the chorus, it is so good where you're singing the "I see you" over the movement of the violin line. What are the lyrics intended to be about? I feel like I'm missing something interesting conceptually, because you always seem to have a deeper meaning behind seemingly simple words.

I think, listening in retrospect, that I don't like the note I started on in the verses, and if I were to redo any part of this, it would be just to change the verse melody entirely. It sounded right at the time, but I just don't like the processing choices I made in combination with the verse melody.

Anyway, this idea is something I've wanted to make *something* about for a long time. I used to live in Preston (we were calling it DePreston long before Courtney Barnett wrote that song) and I worked and studied in the city. I had a choice of two tramlines; one was nearer to the house, but was on a much slower route, so even though the other stop was about a 1.8km walk, I often caught that tram instead. It was right near what I want to call the Shady Pines Cemetery, but it's actually Pine Ridge Cemetery, I think. Anyway, I'd cross Bell St onto Elizabeth St, with the cemetery across the road on my right. Every time I walked past this one point, without fail, I'd see something out of the corner of my eye on my left that would give me a jump scare. Someone had cut down one of the trees in a front yard not far from the footpath, but hadn't removed the stump, and every day my lizard brain would catch a hint of the stump in my peripheral vision and go into panic because it looked like someone was there. I called him Hooded Boy. Now, I don't remotely believe in ghosts, so I'd do little scientific tests every time I went past, where I was either staring straight ahead, or I'd turn to look straight at it, and there was always a point in my vision where I'd involuntarily panic. It probably didn't help that I was across the road from a cemetery. Anyway, after a few years Hooded Boy sent out a shoot and grew new leaves, and that small change meant I never saw him again, but now he lives in song.

[crumpart]

(Hooded Boy is watching you. Always watching...)

[Pigfarmer Jr]

Pigfarmer Jr:One minor thing that bothered me was that I felt like the tone of the fuzzy guitars was a bit too harsh for the rest of the song, for my tastes anyway… I liked the noisy guitars coming in in theory but I got distracted by that in practice.

Was it all of them or mainly the right channel with the bright (harsh) guitar? If you remember or have time to listen again. If not, I understand.

Thanks for the review.

[owl]

Pigfarmer Jr:One minor thing that bothered me was that I felt like the tone of the fuzzy guitars was a bit too harsh for the rest of the song, for my tastes anyway… I liked the noisy guitars coming in in theory but I got distracted by that in practice.

Was it all of them or mainly the right channel with the bright (harsh) guitar? If you remember or have time to listen again. If not, I understand.

Thanks for the review.

I’m just on my phone right now and can’t tell what’s in what channel at the moment, but for instance, it starts strumming at around 1:30.

[Pigfarmer Jr]

Yeah, that sounds like the part. I agree with you completely.

Thanks

[Jefff]

Some short ones:

Night Sky - Fun arrangement. Some really good chord changes and transitions in there. I'm torn on the vocals. In some spots, the muttering quality is nice, but I feel the urge to hear some real belting.

Owl - Cool chorus. Your singing is real nice there. The vocal is eq'd a little harshly. I like the way these guitars crunch.

Sweeney Toad - You're great at atmospheres. Love the that retro synth. Maybe too much butthole talk. Or maybe so much butthole talk that it works in a way that only a medium amount of butthole talk wouldn't?

Glenn Case - Love the thick beat. The "what's the point in..." melody line is great. "You should be running from me" is a nice line.

Ken - Nice use of bell-sounding pads. That guitar sound is perfect, and the whole mix is great. I might need to use this as a reference track.

Balls to Monte - Well-recorded acoustic and nice chord changes. The bass really enhances those changes. "I'll be your eyes in the dark" is a good take on the title.

Jim Tyrrell - Cool production. I like that synth line. The bass and the drums sound so good they more than hold their own when everything else drops.

Robyn Mackenzie - I like the fuzz on that guitar. Good chorus too. The mix is well-balanced, but I wonder if the vocal could sit a little lower.

Evermind - The acoustic guitar part is very nice. The drums are a little wimpy. I like the distortion that comes in.

BW+BW - Nice big atmosphere. A lot of nice details. Your voice fits nicely in among all the horror.

LW+RG - I want more drums and less vox in the mix. That's a good, creepy bass sound. The high synths are a good compliment.

Phlebia - I like the riff and the rhythm. The mix is boxy and needs more low-end. The organ-y synths coming in is a nice touch.

Hot Pink Halo - Cool drum part. The intro sounds like something, but I can't put my finger on it. Whatever it is has louder bass. The violin part is good for the arrangement and the mood.

JP Nickolas - Oh, a Vincent-style monologue. Awesome guitar parts. The vocal rhythm gets loose here and there. Could use more drum in the mix. The call and response with the dog is a nice touch.

PF Jr. - Very nice interaction between the guitar parts. Good song, I like the melody of "we ride on..."

Amby Moho - I like this vibe. The rhythm of "possibility" doesn't quite work the way you sing it. I dig the chorus. Fun outro.

Lichen Throat - Love the post-punk arrangement. Great sounds all around. The vocal slides around the notes without sitting on them too much for me.

Pannacotta Army - Nice descending hook. The production is great and nails this sort of thing. Maybe there should be a little more space around the vocal.

Caravan Ray - I like the shimmery sound on the vocals. The acoustic and drums work together really well for this rhythm.

[owl]

Owl - Cool chorus. Your singing is real nice there. The vocal is eq'd a little harshly. I like the way these guitars crunch.

thanks for the review! Can you clarify what you meant as far as the harsh vocal EQ—too much high end? (I think I just put on some preset like “Mud Free” in Reaper)

[WreckdoMelle]

Eyes in the Dark reviews

I was looking forward to and listening for the spooky sounds and wasn't disappointed. This is also the fight of awesome synth tones and execution - coincidence? I think not.

Phlebia - Good start with Melvins-y bass sound. Good juxtaposition of vocals that sound hot and a touch distorted and distinct from the mix, the sound reminds me of "Hey Man Nice Shot". My only critique is it seems dominant on the right side. Cool riff when the bass changes up. This gives me a 90's feel which is cool because my Nanowrimo novel is set in 1992. Is that Seaweed Delete making a cameo? BTW, followed by 20 seconds of silence.

Pannacotta Army - Great synth, wonderful mood at the outset. Dig that mellow guitar tone and country-not-country feel. Superb solo, totally impeccable which is a must with such a clean tone. Beautiful!

miscellaneous owl - Nice tone on that distortion. Vox could be up a little. I am personally a fan of vocal doubling and I do it a lot myself because it is more menacing when there are two of them. This song is very subtly creepy! That high voice is just splendid. Good theremin sounds in there.

Pigfarmer Jr. - Yes! Very spooky intro! Emotionally powerful mood matches the bleak lyrics. All guitar tones on this are very disparate but all sound good apeice and together.

Balls to Monte - Great medieval/ren fair sound. There is plenty of space in this song, it really breathes. Your voice sounds powerful and you have no trouble with the melody, which for me would need some autotune or something. I get some of the Robert Plant comparisons but don't hear it so much (I used to know every little Robert Plant sound on Zepellin 1 - 4 and Houses of the Holy) - I hear... you!

Amby Moho - Mix might be tad thin or treble, fills out a little more as we go. I am a fan of vocal effects. Love those creepy/robotic synths that pop up here and there and the left-right harmony vox are excellent. I've tried doing similar sounding harmony effects and gotten a radically different result. That strange panning effect in the coda sounds nothing like it but reminds me oddly of certain scenes of Evil Dead.

Ken's Super Duper Band 'n' Stuff - 80's all the way here - which is a good thing. We have the beautiful synth, the jangly guitars, your voice - which is very good by the way and down there the bass is moving in interesting ways. There's another synth now and it's equally awesome. Are there three? Vocal harmonies sound cool in the bridge. Creepy and good!

add - Another song with great synths. This song has tons of space and a very definitely playful/creepy feel. This chorus is fantastic. This is my favorite of the fight so far.

Jim Tyrell - Directly into the spookiness! Fun old-school stuff. Great injection of samples. Cool synth!

Caravan Ray - I'm a fan of these vocal harmonies and minor key. The guitar is almost percussive, which is has an interesting overall effect. I surprise myself by saying this because I tend toward prominent bass myself but it might be just a tad overpowering in spots.

JP Nickolas - Great Vincent Price! Love the wolf howls. Killer guitars once again. This is very enjoyable.

Lucky Witch and the Righteous Ghost - I like that bass. Great synths. The chord progressions in the chorus are unexpected and suitably creepy. Overall spooky feel. While a bit loud in the mix, I like how the vox start to morph to more distorted toward the end.

Glenn Case - Big sound. I'm not sure of the technique, stereo widening? I like the two different voices in my left and right ears, like angel on one shoulder devil on the other. That chorus is super catchy.

Evermind - Is this using that Hydrogen drum machine you mentioned on Discord? Because the drums are cool. I'm a huge fan of acoustic paired with distorted guitar and I like how the distorted guitar is quieter than the acoustic so you can still hear the details of the (spooky acoustic).

Hot Pink Halo - I always enjoy a tambourine. The violin is perhaps a bit loud in the mix but I like it as a choice of instrumentation. It has an airy quality and gives the song the mpression of lots of space though there are several layers going on. The breakdown is definitely spooky - here the violin sounds awesome.

Sweeney Toad - That opening synth is just psycho. So are the drums that come in. I have some logistical questions about this bat bite.

Robyn Mackenzie - I like this right away! Sort of like the Donnas. I like that guitar tone. You always have such great vocal harmonies. If I had any suggestions I'd say just a touch more sass and this will be perfecto! Love that ending.

Night Sky - Go bari! I do enjoy a song that tells a story and your delivery is splendid. Okay now this might be my favorite song of the fight. OH man, I would've liked to hear so much more sax solo-ing at the end there.

Lichen Throat - The heavy bass gives this a dark feel and pairs great with the synth. The dark feel suits your voice perfectly. I feel like I'm experiencing these things you describe.

Brown Word and the Big Whine - I mentioned in the prefight I was hoping to channel something like WreckdoM's Looking Glass - I wanted a spooky, ethereal feel, and a song that evoked a story that would be unsettling. This is the first time I tried programming my own drums and I'm using the Martinic Kee Bass VST which sort of gives varying resonance throughout the song - I'd have liked it to be a bit more consistent but it's probably phasing with some other sounds in the mix or something (still learning all these sort of terms and phenomena). It was interesting wrangling all the many sounds and the 12-string offered a real physical challenge which was a lot of fun.

[mholland]

Thanks for the thoughtful reviews! This actually started with the concept of something like Shore Leave by Tom Waits, with a spoken verse and sung chorus, but I didn't end up feeling like I could pull off the spoken word thing. My wife went down a YouTube hole and came out with some Nick Cave inspiration, and what I think of as a sleazy rhumba feel. I dug the hell out of the story she came up with, and ran out of time to iterate on the words and melody, hence the somewhat awkward delivery at times.

... The imagery is cool, and I like the “staircase wisdom of remorseful ghosts” as a concept, but I think that there are a lot of words in this song that sound good on the written page as poetry or prose, but really excessive in song lyrics.

This line was non-negotiable, as it was the whole point... generations of grievously wronged women who learned too late, "don't water plastic flowers, feed the trees!" But yeah, we probably could have trimmed some of the excess here and there given more time.

Night Sky - Fun arrangement. Some really good chord changes and transitions in there. I'm torn on the vocals. In some spots, the muttering quality is nice, but I feel the urge to hear some real belting.

I'm glad someone noticed the chord changes! I made a little project of including as many of diatonic chords as I could (6 for 7), while trying to make it all actually make sense harmonically. There are actually some really nice (or at least I thought so) guitar voicings in there, but they kind of got lost in the mix. Lots of things that I would (and hopefully will) work on to refine this song.