My reviews are really meandery. I don't do them a lot because I always feel funny about them and Quite Self Conscious. Also, I don't like to criticize people but cannot say anything that I do not mean. As well, my ears have outpaced my engineering expertise at this point. I hear things and do not know how to explain them - or even more unfortunately to make things happen themselves in my own work, although I'd like to say that I'm improving every now and again.
So thank you for your comments (both on DJRD tracks and the Psychotics ones). Here are mine.
x Den
Berkeley Social Scene
I like both the tight beginning and the open-ended, uh... ending of this. You guys are always really tight though [Edit: after a read through of remaining reviews saw that there was a performance line up change. Very nice!!! (*overlimit smily*) ] I wanted to hear more backup vocal and a different effect on the lead sing. The rhymes left me a little bit "meh," but I'm being picksy. This isn't going to be a favorite of mine from you and I won't listen to it over and over if I was having a BSS afternoon, but it's really nice to hear right now. I smiled at the "pop music gold" concept. Again, nice vocal. The chord changes in the solo bits are tasty and it doesn't get old or wanky at all. Sometimes the instrumental bits and arrangement comes across a little showboaty and "look ma, guitars!" to me ... but this one did not at all ... it was the perfect amount (uh ...
... (I almost deleted this sentence.)).
bgm
I feel like I want more texture in this, but this could be because this seems like a bit of a stylistic deviation from some of your other material. I can't explain it. It is very well produced, of course, but it just seems ... rawer... somehow? I don't want to call it One Dimensional, because it's not - but because you didn't put things all over the spectrum coming out at times that are just here and there in precisely the right places (like on some of the other tracks here) - nothing got in the way of the drive to the solo, and then the push on through the song to the end. Not in a bad way, because there are all these tasty harmonies, but there is a lot of horizontal in this song and not as much vertical. This is kind of a matter of taste and style and a very abstract thing to say. Sorry I can't be less vague. Is this even a review? I don't know. You make yourself difficult to criticize, so that's good. I'm just gonna have to say this is well done and call it a day, you see. (*overlimit smile-y*)
Billy and the Psychotics
this is probably one of my top three least favorite of our songs. I don't listen to it. it's not Chris' fault either. writing it was like pulling teeth. There's no Psychotics entry this week because I'm just hacking right now. I feel like a crazy person. Again. Chris did fine. It was actually a really cool Thing to work with. Flarg to this.
The Chocolate Chips
I've become a fan of your vocal since last Nur Ein and have thought that it is cute. Parts of this were too weird for me though, song-wise. If you didn't have THAT vocal, it wouldn't fly at all. Yes, about being "too weird," I can't believe I said that. The rhyme of fold to on hold didn't do your opening chorus hook justice. i couldnt think of a good chorus though and i really liked the opening hook. The synth was hokey, but this may have been Quite All Right. The solo was just great. The slow down at the end is inexplicable. You know I dig your synthy stuff, even when it goes off the grid.
Dani House
Ok. the hiss is bothering me and there's a lot of things I want to say. The hiss stopped bothering me though and I got over my cynicism pretty quick because your performance really grabbed me and pulled me into the mood of the song. Wow. Brave stuff.
There is some really nice and intimate layering in the latter half of the song and I can imagine this being really effective (especially that part where you sniffed and it sounded like you are the SADDEST person EVER in the world. So CONFUSING and I want to bring you a sweater!) - like in a movie on something. For a really good last love scene. Ever. I think I like this. I'll probably listen to it again, and I'm not just feeling sorry for you.
DJ Ranger Den
to DJRD....
(This title is about different parts of Me talking to myself and how that looks in the mirror. i guess that's why the pronouns get confusing in a lot of my songs. I did worry a bit about this sounding kind of Manic Pixie Dream Girl-ish ... but I guess it was so self-referential, we needn't have worried what They think of Our work about what She has to say.)
Foobar
I could have done with a breath of silence before the track launched in. It was abrupt. I like the rhythm instrument ("churg-chuga-churg-chuga") that one in that background. It does a lot for it. It's kind of romantic against the piano, epic and movie like. It makes me want a little more epic effect on your voice, or an eq decision that makes your vocal deeper and scary and more God-like or something. I do like your lyrics a lot. You're singing these heavy lyrics kind of soft and gently. You could sell this a lot harder and scarier because the ingredients are there.
glennny
Except for the weird buzzy bass after the harmonica solo and the harmonica solo itself kind of annoying me and a couple things that were over the top too much distract-y too much change-y, this was pretty close to perfect for me. I'm one of those people that wishes I could continue hearing something I like because I LIKE it and so I want it to keep going and not change into something else because it is clever or nifty. I'd like the clever thing to happen a few bars later and not have 85 songs in four measures. This is probably because despite best efforts to educate me, I am simple. This was really brilliant and I wanted to get it - so I really loved about 78% of it. The rest flew right over my head.
Gregg Boethin
You have a really interesting country vocal, the likes of which I've never heard before! It's almost like... nerdy country! You could probably do something with that in a Make New Ground-ish kind of way. I could have stood this song a little quicker, it drug on an on a little bit for me. Maybe that was the feeling you were getting at. I don't know what it's like to shovel snow though and maybe that was the intended vibe. The bridge was well written. The guitars were really twangy and didn't really move like I'm used to guitars moving when I hear country (whatever that means) It felt kind of blocky and the arrangement could have been a little more subtle as far as placement in the space goes. Of course, I'm in that place where my ear hears that but my hands don't do it yet.
The HATE Noise
This is creepy and extremely well done. The wooshy-woosh behind the snare is off-putting to me but it changes timbre with your chord progression and I get that it's part of the plot and so I feel really well taken care of. Even the high whistl-y synth bit that comes in which I have heard as a device in this genre of Thing makes an appropriate entrance and exit and so does not get to shrill and pierce-ly overstatement-like. You're not reinventing the wheel, but you aren't formulaic in the least. I hate to say anything that's not hopping up and down and clapping because it is cleverly rhymed in the right places as far as I can see. Great musicianship.
JoAnn Abbott
Your vocals are getting a lot stronger each time you make a track. It's a cleaner recording each time. It could have been shorter, given your limitation. As a dramatic reading, the emotions were well conveyed. I think that with instruments, the hook would have probably played out as a little bit less repetitive - or that maybe it would have come across as that being an asset rather than standing out there all alone like that. By itself, those particular notes are an often used motif in the recitative-y-esque bits of musical theater. In a collaboration that probably would have smoothed out for you.
Kasper
Except for the weird, weird synth (perhaps that it's a little high? it's kinda cute, even though) and the guitar being at an odd level - this is pretty frickkin awesome. your tones and the vocals and the solo were all cool. I don't know. something about this makes me really happy. I could have used a DAT-DAT-DAT-DAAAAH! (BOOM!) or something at the end instead of a fade out. Writing this while I'm in a chat room with you is a really stupid idea. Flah. Your lyrics came through though - and I wanted to say that. That's a thing for me.
The Lookouts
What an interesting voice and what a cool chord progression! Something about your cymbals is bothering me, or maybe what the effects are doing to them against the piano. Still, this is the kind of piano pattern that Chris wishes I'd do in Psychotics. Things don't really seems to be syncing up quite together (I actually looked to make sure I didn't have two of you going at once in another browser). Good chorus words. Arrangement-wise? Less is more for something like this, really. If this were taken and shaken a little bit to the right and to the left, or given a good swift slap - it would be a right fine tune! Right now it's a set of real nice ingredients and some impudent drumming that needs a support group for wayward drummers.
Mantzfield
I didn't really get it. There are parts of this though, which tell me that you DO know how to sing and that you can put music together and play your instruments and so listening to this as a performance piece I did feel disorganized, disturbed, confused, off-put, and sectional. Like it was presented to me this way. Or maybe you're just messing about. Or maybe I'm deeply insulting you. Still. Love that squishy-squashy-crushy guitar.
Odilon Green
This started really abrubtly. This is going to be one of those songs that people either like or hate. Maybe. I feel iffy about it. The claps almost almost sunk you, and the weird mode you used and the clash of the chord and the constant hang on the "off" notes. Not sure about the voice over - it's sort of funny. Reminds me of the Napoleon Dynamite soundtrack in a good way. Just that kind of "I'm gonna play this keyboard with these funny notes because it's hilarious." But I think I get it. The bari sax (?) sample sinks it on the Pro side for you, for me. The other synth that comes in also at :59 helps a lot because that dissonance helps makes that sonority more complex and varying your rhythm (quickening the melody up) ties the bow up for you. I like it. You're cool.
R. Mosquito
Oh my. That was the most annoying sound... It sounds like a video game from hell. The voice effects are not much better. I was thinking that if it didn't stop I was going to put an icepick through my skull. I am not being very friendly. So then I thought ... oo ... cool. video games! and turned it down, started it over and did some jumping jacks while I listened again. It didn't help me pay ANY attention to the lyrics ... but some things are good for one thing and some for others. It was very energetic and thumpy and sprightly and all that. So, part of me feels that if I DON'T love this, that I'm going to fail some test of being rad that they have in some Synthesizer Secret Society that I wasn't invited to. We can't have that. It was challenging. I do not know if I passed.
Ross Durand
Your guitar makes me happy and there isn't anyone in the universe who knows how to pause .... like you. Why do you write a perfect song every time!?
Shelby Garrett
This is nice. You have one of those maple syrup sophisticated smoothy voices that is feminine and grown up and you make it sound easy. It's actually not easy for everyone. I'm not normally a shaky egg devotee; but it would have done well for this tune I think, or any slow buildup of percussive texture, to give variety. This song lulled me into "cute-party-dress" feelings (this is not a bad thing for me, even though saying this sounds cheesy and perhaps, patronizing) - but it did make me give the lyrics a bit of a skip and just sway back & forth goofily smiling. That doesn't sound very nice, but you do you have a lush and inviting vocal - and either the song was good enough to showcase the vocal or the vocal is so good it lifts up the song so you have a nice track on your hands either way
Snoop Sloop Troop
You have begun with my favorite types of synth sounds ever in all of time. Your lyrics are asinine and ridiculous but not in a bad way, quite. It's like you don't care about songwriting, which is against everything I believe. I'll be singing this all evening. Meanie.
I'll most likely vote if I can in time.
Troy Jones
I am not sure who you are so I am not sure what to say. Your mic is too high and you have a nice voice. your guitar playing is strong and rich and it's a nice melody. Far hookier than anything I can manage to write week after week after week, so good-o there. I'm pretty sure that you could think of some things to say for some of your lines that have not been said before because some of these things are said in love songs all the time. Sometimes that's a good thing. Sometimes it's not. Only you can make that decision; we all decide when to use a device and when it's okay for old love to grow cold. Look at REO Speedwagon. I'm not going to stand up and give them the finger. Actually, I totally would. Because they were wrong. So it's not like you are in bad company here. Anyway, I suggest next time you go off the beaten path a bit more. But what do I know?
Tuners Union
This song is different and weird and really interesting. It's ALMOST a bit too clever for its own good, with the banjo riding high and the constant playing of tonality in the cadences and the combinations of "Ay" rhyme lots in the beginning. My brain doesn't know which bright shiny device to grab onto and it's almost like many songs all strung together. To be quite honest, I want to do a song like this because it is ridiculously creative and doesn't seem to be a slave to anything but its own uniqueness, and I wonder if I could get away with it. There's really just no way to tell because except for a few minor things, this is hitting all the right production checklist spots. So it's hard to find anything to hone in on to showcase. This kind of washed over me. It did sound like you weren't just showing up to do a session, so I don't really have a lot of complaints.
"Really interesting how the point you’re making slowly emerges like Martin Sheen from the mud in Apocalypse Now..." ~j$