Nur Ein VII Round Five "Cassettes"

[j$]

But WTF - Moldova 11th?!?! A dude in MC Hammer pants singing about his trumpet, who didn't actually have a trumpet. These people are insane.

I know. I voted for it "My trumpet makes you a girl" is one of the best lines in modern pop.

It would be if he had a frikkin' trumpet. I was hoping he had one in his trousers somewhere. But he didn't. His girly backup dancers were good though. Is 'Moldova' even a country? I reckon they are starting to make some of these up. And I do feel quite embarrassed that I disclosed my Irish ancestory last week. I hope I am not related to Jedward.

It's only brilliant because he *didn't* have a trumpet.
I think Jedward were made in a laboratory somewhere. By Fu Man Chu.
I noticed Lithuania ripped off "I Will Survive" for their (already quite camp) song, and Norway stole the squelchy keyboard riff from "My Satisfaction" (the dance song, not the Stones song) - truly Eurovision reaches right around the world

[Caravan Ray]

But WTF - Moldova 11th?!?! A dude in MC Hammer pants singing about his trumpet, who didn't actually have a trumpet. These people are insane.

I know. I voted for it "My trumpet makes you a girl" is one of the best lines in modern pop.

Hmmm - just re-watched these - you may be right.

The videos below are not the ones from the final - no MC Hammer pants and Turkey had really cool male dancers that wore big grey coats they turned into a boat (trust me - it was awesome)

But - while we are waiting for judges deliberation - let's have a mini-Eurovision. Nur Einers - you be the judge - should it have been Turkey or Moldova?

Moldova:


Turkey:

[Caravan Ray]

I've listened twice through, and my favorite non-WSA song is by far the ADD submission! Great Freaking song man!

Yep - that is pretty good Jefff.

[Caravan Ray]

OK - here are my rankings:

1: WSA
2: ADD
3: BGM
4: FBF
5: DJRD
6: RD
7: MG

good luck judges.

this could go anywhere

[Caravan Ray]

OK - here are my rankings:

1: WSA
2: ADD
3: BGM
4: FBF
5: DJRD
6: RD
7: MG

good luck judges.

this could go anywhere

Let me elaborate:

Not a bee's dick between the first two. I probably went for WSA because of the cassette sound affect at the begining
1: WSA: Funky. Great vocals. Cool guitar. Good lyrics. Great job.
2: ADD: Best use of the challenge and title. It had a real roundabouty cassettey sort of feel. Very cool song

3: BGM: Great job again. The two above really grabbed me - but this was also awesome.


Again - only a fag paper between the next two:
4: FBF: I liked your production. And great lyrics. Not a song I would re-listen to a lot - but I like what you did
5: DJRD: You could play and sing the phone book and I would like it. That is why I placed you below FBF - with his whiny fake David Bowie voice - I got to acknowledge when I like it. Another great song - but you have some great stuff above you.


And - the 2 songs that sang about boxes of old tapes:
6: RD
7: MG

They are very fine songs. But outclassed in this field.

and:

Genevieve Jones and The Chiefs:
I like this. I think I did a good job on the lyrics (I hope anyway - I await Noah's judgement). Could have had more production - but that is all of us so...

Just want to say - the fact that one, or possibly two of the judges show symptoms of Francophilia did not in any way influence my decision to (attempt) to sing in French:

1. The title is a French word
2. The challenge is a French literary device
3. It is Eurovision week, and
4. The collapse of the Eurozone has been the pre-eminent news story of the last few months

And you all know that I am far too an honourable gentleman to try to find advantage in such cheap tricks. You should be ashamed of yourselves to even consider the thought.

[frankie big face]

"FBF - with his whiny fake David Bowie voice - I got to acknowledge when I like it."

*sigh* Every compliment this year is backhanded. Thanks.

[Caravan Ray]

Hey Frankie - you are the BEST whiny fake David bowie I have ever heard...gimme a hug big guy

[Jefff]

I interpreted the challenge to be "make a song to go with a villanelle" not "write a song that incorporates villlanelle-like elements".

I think I did more than the latter and would argue I did the former. But yeah, we'll see.

[Niveous]

How is there a Eurovision subthread here...

...without discussing the Babushki????!!!

[j$]

Oh, they were *dreadful* - nowhere near the tune for a good two minutes - one of them wasn't wearing a radio mic as I suspected at first, it was a giant wart on the side of her face - and they baked live on stage. That's right, baked.

[glennny]

Cassettes

WSA- The Genius of this song comes from Furry Pedro. He pretty much had the song a couple hours the title and challenge were announced. We spent the week adding bits. Ken is on Keys. Becci on chorus vocals. Pedro has the 1st verse, drums, and rhythm guitar. Melvin has the 2nd verse. I took the bass line and the slide solos. Off the bat Pedro presented it in the hissy cassette format, which I thought was brilliant! We were on the same page with the sound of a cassette being inserted into a player. However this shakes down, I love our song dearly. I hope the judges dig it.

How I rank the rest:

1- ADD_ This is the kind of song I would hear on the radio, stop what I’m doing, find out who made it, then go buy that album on my way home. This is so super catchy! Your restraint is amazing. Every instrument is minimal and occupies its own space in the pitch, the timbre the panning, everything. Brilliant production! Your vocals are just awesome! Do I have to figure out the backwards bits? Or are you going to tell us? I can’t wait…..

2- Ross Durand- RD in NE7 is my favorite RD! I don’t think the lyrics read well, but when they are sung they really work well. The dynamics are superb. The gentle cello is really there, I’m not projecting it, and it’s beautiful. You made me cry again. I’m moving (down the street), and I was going through the boxes of cassettes when this title came up. May 27th was my Mother’s birthday. Dylan was by far her favorite artist. She’d love this song of yours. “Ghosts of yesterday” is a great lyric, it’s so true, and gives me chills to hear you sing it. Beautiful!

3- Genevieve Johnson and the Chiefs- This cracks me up. The quirky noises are very entertaining! The French is necessary; I love how funky is funky in French. The backing vocals are catchy, the drum machine is cute. It’s light hearted and fun. Well done!

4- Frankie Big Face-_This is beautiful. This is chilling. Melody is great. I love the production. This goes very Laurie Anderson. On my 1st listen I kept waiting for the intro to end and the big song to kick in. This is not that song. This is the art-rock song. I wish the low end music became louder and those bells were lower. You’re making me question my headphones.

5- DJ Ranger Den- I love the performance! Thanks for reeling in the echo on the vocal, I still think you can go with just reverb. This is begging for drums in the heavy section. The song has nice structure. The melody is among your best! The piano playing is great! Excellent job!

6- BGM- Your production is unmatched. Your vocals are awesome! I love your voice! What Beatles song is this most like? (A question for most any good pop-rock song) “Because” is what it reminds me of the most. This is like Frankie’s song in that I feel like it’s an intro to a bigger more epic song. It flies by quickly, I’m left with “That’s it?”. The guitar is gorgeous, I especially like the wicked vibrato on the guitar at 0:58. Very cool song!

7- Manhattan Glutton_I dig the 6/8! The drums and bass are tight and in the pocket! The lyrics are really the downfall of this song. It’s still good and okay to listen to. The lyrics are just so mundane. “…I am now tore” makes me cringe like you wouldn’t believe. This is the rhyming argument. A rhyme is two words that sound similar; it’s not necessarily 2 words that have the exact pattern of vowel and consonant sounds for the last 1 or 2 syllables of the words. You REALLY should have sung “torn” there. Not that the line is so precious, but to sacrifice the English for such a rigid view of rhyming is way off in my book. I also don’t like the “ ..just to make things crystal clear”- that is the filler line of all time. Your vocals are good. You’re selling the material like Alec Guinness! That 1st stop at 0:53 is really effective, but then when it kicks back in is underwhelming. I think you mentioned you had company, and not as much time as usual to work on your submission. This sounds like 8 tracks, not the 66 we’ve come to love from you. I think given your druthers you’d have a lot more going on. This is solid, but look at the competition! I’m sorry I have you at the bottom, I won’t be surprised if rank much higher, the competition is tight!

[bgm]

Can I just say that the cover art for this week's song is fucking awesome?

[frankie big face]

@Glennny - glad you like my song. May not be your headphones. I don't mix with headphones and I'm pretty well convinced my monitors must go. They tend to overstate the low end, which would explain your desire for more. I kind of wanted the bells to be slightly overboard but maybe I went too far. I dragged two sets of crotales home from work so maybe I just wanted them to count more. And yes, I started to think I was verging into Laurie Anderson territory but I didn't stop.

[Manhattan Glutton]

So Ray and Glennny don't like my song - that means I should rank pretty well this round, right?

[RangerDenni]

I haven't started my reviews yet but my 17 year old cat Vinny LOVES funkycassette.

I have to listen to it AGAIN because I was giggling a lot.

Also.

Niveous. That Babuska song.... I KNOW, RIGHT?!?!?!

(and yes I love also the cover art too )

[bgm]

Really impressive round.

ADD
Great song. No doubt about it. I don't know how strict the judges will be about form, 'cause yeah, choruses. Really great song, though. Nothing bad to say about it.

bgm
I was a bit rigid about sticking to the villanelle form, which was hard. This required writing the lyrics first, which I never do. In case anyone cares, the song's about some huge drama that went down a few weeks ago on another website I frequent; a long-time user's wife posted a lengthy, emotional obituary saying the guy had killed himself and the tributes poured in. Turns out it was a great big lie.

DJ Ranger Den
Your production sounds really clean and polished. Love the belting it out with harmonies parts and the spooky embellishments. Well done.

Frankie Big Face
Interesting and ambitious. I find the vocal a bit grating but completely appropriate for the genre: I was instantly transported to 1984, sneaking into clubs and stealing my mom's eyeliner. Has a dramatic build and really nice production; sounds great.

Genevieve Johnson and the Chiefs
Heh. Trashy Europop. I love this. 'Funky cassette' is awesome. I wouldn't change a thing, this song rocks in all of its Serge Gainsbourg-esque splendour.

Manhatton Glutton
The lyrics are a bit painful but I like the song. In particular, I like how the bass is driving everything, there's nothing fancy about the bassline but it's gelling everything together and selling the song.
It's short, but like me you stuck to the form. Hopefully it doesn't bite us in the ass.

Ross Durand
Hard to tell if the spare arrangement is a stylistic choice or a lack-of-time issue, I guess it doesn't matter. This song works really well when the harmonies, harmonica and other stuff come in. I almost always have a problem with fakey software instruments, particularly strings. It's really tricky to use them well. When they first come in you have them a bit low and it was sort of working, but in the big flourish they started to sound over-the-top-fake, which is emphasized when juxtaposed with the slightly boomy-sounding acoustic (with a few fingering slip-ups.) I love the vocals though, and like I said the harmonies are really pretty.

The Worldly Self Assurance
Is that guy really British?
Fun song. The sound effect is cute and the "sounds like a radio" filter is a bit of an oft-used gimmick (guilty of it myself) but if you're going to use it on a song this is for sure the one.
Some of the rhymes are a bit dodgy (hey I talk like the guy in your song!) but who cares. Creative use of the form for sure.
Everything sounds great, you guys really worked hard on this one. The sort of group singalong choruses are my favourite and you really captured that sort of Stone Roses/Happy Mondays/Charlatans 90's vibe.

[glennny]

@BGM- Furry Pedro is VERY British as well as Becci. Melvin is Canadian. Frisbee Ken and Glen are West Coast Yanks.

[glennny]

New World Encyclopedia says:

Many contemporary poets have made slight adjustments to the form, such as dropping the restriction of 19 lines per poem, or rephrasing the repeated lines slightly with each repetition; all of these changes have only increased the villanelle's accessibility to modern audiences, and it continues to be one of the most interesting verse-forms in the history of English poetry.

[bgm]

@BGM- Furry Pedro is VERY British as well as Becci. Melvin is Canadian. Frisbee Ken and Glen are West Coast Yanks.

Cool. Wasn't doubting, by the way, just curious if it was the real thing (or a reasonable facsimile.)
Seems like you are outnumbered by Commonwealthers!

[Billy's Little Trip]

Niv, you have the cassette songs post title as Elizabeth the great.

[Ross]

Ross Durand
Hard to tell if the spare arrangement is a stylistic choice or a lack-of-time issue, I guess it doesn't matter. This song works really well when the harmonies, harmonica and other stuff come in. I almost always have a problem with fakey software instruments, particularly strings. It's really tricky to use them well. When they first come in you have them a bit low and it was sort of working, but in the big flourish they started to sound over-the-top... I love the vocals though, and like I said the harmonies are really pretty.

I tend to prefer sparse. I almost wanted to do this one solo-acoustic, but am glad I chose not to. As for the strings, i feel the same as you, but, I am limited by the tools I've got. I almost never use them, defaulting to organ or something that doesn't sound as fake, but I needed strings here. i tried for amsort of quartet feel, but they were just too fake sounding, so I backed off and went for the more unison approach, which I think sounded less so. I hope you are able to hear past it to the artistic intent.

Thanks for the reviews, everyone! i'm afraid to listen.

@ glennny - your comment on read v. hear is one reason I don't like posting my lyrics much, but lately people seem to sort of require it. Also, in this case, given the challenge, it sure makes sense to post one's villanelle.

Nur Ein!!!!!

[bgm]

Ross Durand
I hope you are able to hear past it to the artistic intent.

Oh yeah, I totally could. That was just a bit of production nit-picking. The strings were actually pretty subtle and worked well when they first came in, and I completely got what you were going for.
Too bad we don't all have access to string quartets, eh?