OK short-ish reviews this time round as everything 'wise' I was going to suggest seems already to have been said. So prepare for repeatage.
W.A.I.L. I.A.A.C.
All good songs. Before you shout at me, SOMEONE HAD TO COME LAST.
FBF - if there is only one thing Mr Jon Eric and I will ever agree on, it's at the moment you're on a roll, sir. That's been three crackers in a row. I do agree about the over-abundance of bells, although it sits in nice contrast to the tone of the lyric. Wasn't sure until the chorus first time, but damn, that lit it up for me. I don't find the verses plodding - it just needed that cracking evolving chorus to put it into perspective. Great tune and efficient.
ATLM - I think I said 'pre-fight', one of my music mottos is "if you need to explain it in advance, you've already failed in the songwriting". I wouldn't have understood, despite having read pretty much all Joyce there is (English Degree requirement), that reference without it - it doesn't add anything to my enjoyment of the song knowing so. My reaction to the lyric was not so much 'what' as 'why'? Fortunately, the song itself is so damn lovely that I overrode my instinct and moved it up my voting order. Yes, Leonard Cohen. yes to the shuffling beat, yes to the loveliness of the way the phrasing and choice of words complimented the tune. Had you not spoiled the party in advance by talking up how it would be Joyce around the keg, I might even had followed 'wow, I'm gonna have to think/listen for a long time before I figure this one out' and scored you higher. Just sayin'.
CD - I loved the song. Maybe my favourite Cavedwellers song I've heard. I didn't think it was 'monotonal' - it was full of little delights and twists and your vocal/BV work has never sounded brighter or more engaged. But, and it's a big but, which Pete has already pointed out, the passive-aggressive lyric is so f**king whiny, bitter and unnecessary, I don't engage with it. It's like Morrissey before his first coffee of the day and he's left his thesaurus and rhyming dictionary on the bus! It really did spoil my enjoyment of the song and meant you didn't get the top spot. You still did well, so don't get your panties in a bunch (again)
BL - you are very very lucky I chose to listen to all the songs a third time before scoring cos on the first listen I just thought 'Oh Balance Lost does Balance Lost song, only this time with medway scene guitars' and almost dismissed it out of hand. There is something of that in this but each time I heard it, it grew on me and moved you further up my proto-scoring-chart. (I don't have a proto-scoring chart, in case you were wondering). It is a lovely, powerful song but with subtlety and some lovely tonal shifts just beneath the surface and I am very glad you're through to the penultimata. Just prove me wrong next time once and for all, will ya, that you're a one-trick pony with a very good trick and a better effects box? Maybe with some music hall or something
CBJ - I feel really sad to see you go. I loved the song very much - i think probably the best melody of this round - and the arrangement was cutesy and made me smile. Overall it for me it suffered as it felt rushed (which you have alluded to) and it didn't quite all add up as well as usual and as I said at the beginning someone had to score low.
Nick - I didn't mind this at all. Yes the lyric was fatuous and distracted from the enjoyment of what was a GREAT bit of punk / rock / whatever, really put together and arranged well, but not so much. For me the cardinal sin was it went on way too long for what it was and once it was finished I struggled to remember a hook beyond 'ABOMINATION" ... while that's pretty cool, the more I heard it, overall, the less I got from it. Sorry.
Ken - Again I'm sorry you're not coming with us to the next round. Overall, what I've heard from you this time around has been some of the best work *I* can remember. This was a difficult one for me to place, it could have been bottom it could have been third or fourth, I just decided that, in the end, the progression and structure was just a little too perfunctory / predictable, as well performed and recorded as it was. The lyric was not particularly impactive and it came down to me thinking (massively unfairly and hopefully a reference that will mean nothing to you), 'it's all a bit
Status Quo' ... as I said on another evening it could have gone another way ... it probably doesn't help that I am so capricious, right?
Also - NO, FUCK YOU
Anyway, now you can all go and get your revenge by ripping me a new one in the 'Jamaica' fight.
