add: I really like the guitar riff on this. That upward shift into that VI just sounds great and I really love when you start fading in all of the reversed guitar stuff. Mix is totally solid, and I love how it rhythmically opens up for the bridge/chorus/whatever. Personally I would probably have liked it to be a *little* bit faster but really I don’t have any gripes. Very excellent tune -- I know you’ve been around forever but please continue to linger!
Balls To Monte: This is a really good stream of tunes so far, I’m impressed by the quality of this fight. I’m trying to figure out exactly what song this reminds me of. Maybe a whole handful of them from the late 70s rock scene, which is obviously a major touchstone for you...and you pull it off well! I’m not entirely sure that I follow the lyrical metaphor throughout the whole song -- the second verse makes me thing psychedelics, but whatever it means it sounds cool.
Berkeley Social Scene: Oh I’m digging those harmonics, and the panning on those lead guitars just sounds great. Is that the same part multi-tracked with one in the left channel and one in the right channel. The bridge and those higher notes in that “yearning” vocal melody (is that what it’s called?) sound great, and those tremolo-ey wah bits just sound good. Guitar solo totally wails. And cowbell. Very fun song!
Brown Word and the Big Whine: This is definitely a fun tune, I kind of like how crisp the snare sounds, even though I’m pretty sure it’s some kind of virtual drummer. I will say that the drums are totally buried in the mix, and the guitars are just a little bit too loud. Honestly my ears are having a bit of trouble figuring out exactly what needs to be fixed in this mix. Like everything’s clear and separated but it just doesn’t sound right to me. Maybe put the bass in the center channel or something to anchor it a bit more. I don’t actively dislike this song but it isn’t sticking with me, though I like the “etc etc” bit after the horse to water.
Future Boy: I welcome your departure from the mellow Rhodes sound, and you’ve got this super crunchy digital percussion. I *love* that sustained rhythm that’s going through the “mothers and brothers and friends and our lovers”. I think I’ve written so many reviews this year for songs with sociopolitical lyrics that cover more or less the same ground that I’m kind of sick of this particular theme -- not that it’s a bad theme, but just one I’m tired of. The “die in the fall and in the spring I come alive again” is a damn good line and one of the most memorable ones I’ve heard on here in quite some time, so obviously my boredom with songs about all of the world’s problems doesn’t apply if the lyricism is good.
Giraffes for Wings: Is there a vinyl simulator periodically popping up in this? Or am I hearing things? Typically I’m not one for obviously programming/generated drums but the tom rhythm that drives this is groovy and I enjoy it. Not sure how much I like the kind of twee beep boop synth, and the bass is very not present until there’s the random slaps. But this is happy and puts me in a good mood and I like the horns. It ends right when it starts to really get going. I don’t hate it, but for some reason it doesn’t seem to have much...distinct character to it. Like it sounds like something that I’d make using like stock loops in a new DAW. Not the vocals, those are good. But … eh. Cool band name though.
Glenn Case: Are you gonna write 3 more albums this year? I’m not sure who’s more productive, you or the 2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season. Love that funky quick attack synth. The drums in this have a looseness that makes me figure you’re probably playing this live on V-Drums. And if this is programmed, you’re doing a fine job at masking that and getting it to swing. Vocal harmonies are as rich as always. What kind of microphone/vocal processing do you use? It’s so rich sounding. Another solid entry from one of our most consistent artists.
Hot Pink Halo: Quincy Jones, is that you in the intro? For some reason I hear it and I’m expecting it to turn into Thriller or something. I’m assuming you’re using more loops or samples here than usual cause you usually don’t all all of these funky elements. Anyway, vocal melody here is really good, thread thread thread thread sounds good, and this is probably the most well-realized of your entries I can think of in recent memory. Violin reverb sounds dope, I would have never guessed that’s what you did -- that’s actually a cool reverb/modulation effect! I should sing into my acoustic sometime.
JP Nickolas: The guitars here are lacking a LOT of body, did you do a hard high-pass on them to make room for the bass because if you did, you went too hard on it. Vocal harmonies are good, though they get kind of pitchy and some times the melody seems like it’s just sort of drifting along in a way that makes it sound...ill-defined? I mean you’re on key. There’s a couple bass notes that don’t quite sound in tune. While I complained about the guitar MIXING, the actual playing is good, I love that short guitar solo with the harmonies. Like the distortion on the guitar sounds very “80s shredding hair metal” and the song itself sounds very “90s alternative” it a way that I can’t describe. Lyrically this is a potent “you suck” break up song. All in all, could use more polish but not terrible.
Ken's Super Duper Band 'n Stuff: Oh that synth sounds good and those major 7th chords are great. Structure seems to be fairly well in line with how you often arrange stuff -- you’ve got a distinct style. I’m all about those major 7ths, in case my overuse of them this week didn’t make that apparent. Vocal harmonies are good, though I’d have lowered your vox in the mix (or compressed it less?). I can never tell if you just have really steady pitch in your singing or use pitch correction… there are zero audible artifacts of the latter so I just assume that you’re just always on pitch and have really good breath control! This is one of the better songs you’ve submitted and I liked it a lot. Lyrically...is this about a bipolar woman?
Lichen Throat: You’re way better read than I am cause I haven’t read anything by the Bronte sisters or Thackeray. I wound up skimming the Wikipedia article about Vanity Fair while I was listening to this and I think it gave me a decent idea of what you were talking about. As usual, great lyrical imagery. This is mixed a bit loud, there’s some audible clipping going on throughout -- maybe drop it down just a little bit to keep your peaks more out of the red. Yeah yeah, pot, kettle, that’s probably weird coming from the guy who did screaming nu metal last week. But still, it’s noticeable given the rest of the song is clean. I like the more “rock” backdrop you’ve got for this one. I know your songs are somewhat simple but I still don’t know how I’d write one, even though you told me.
Night Sky: Oh hey it’s the sax guy and he’s really kicking ass on the sax yet again. Is that a soprano sax for the back half of the solo? It sounds great! That was a generally pleasant listen -- I had no idea who the characters that you were talking about were. I googled “Ollie and Lilly” and got to Hannah Montana, which matches -- is this about a Hannah Montana episode? I mean I keep writing songs about Grey’s Anatomy. Writing songs about TV is fun. I liked it quite a bit.
Phlebia: Probably could have done a bit of pitch correction on this one at times but I was trying to keep it as simple and organic soundings as possible. “Guitar” is my bass guitar never going below the 13th fret. Reviews keep commenting on my nice tone, so I’ll say that my signal chain is Ibanez SR305 with tone knob set to treble and using the bridge pick up, run through Joyo jf15 with no drive but EQing and volume boost, then BOSS Dimension C as a general “soundgoodizer”, then into FL studio where I used the iZotope Trash 2 plugin’s built in convolver as an amp sim and a bit of delay. This song is about these two Grey’s Anatomy characters who meet and bond after being impaled by a huge metal pole. The lyrics are from the perspective of Bonnie, who later reappears in a dream sequence several episodes later after Meredith nearly drowns.
Robyn Mackenzie: I saw someone else say this vaguely reminded them of “where is my mind” and I hear it, but it reminds me of a few other things, all of which I generally like. I feel like you draw influence from all of the songs and styles that were super cool when we were growing up, but I only listened to sparingly despite liking them...and that’s a great thing cause you do it well and it makes your sound resonate really well with my ear drums. This song is good and well produced and you nailed it and I like it a lot. Lyrics are in that sort of “vague but make me want to listen to them more to figure out what you’re talking about” vibe that works well for me.
