Freddie love: This is smooth. It reminds me of Everything But the Girl but without the scary big chinned woman, and At the River by Groove Armada which I really like. I like the different vocal effects going on, and the way I can't tell if that's an electric guitar or a saxophone, it's a cool blend of sounds. Well done for adding a bit of variety in the middle, too many tracks like this just drift by without doing anything. Ah, caught a bit of the ol' reson bass fading out there; I love that patch. Easy listening done seamlessly.
Prime the Phunt!!: I love the name you chose for this, I think it's cos I saw Steamboy recently and it conjures up all this mechanical imagery in my mind. I think I prefer this to your other one this week, probably because it's more consistent musically. I like the twinklyness, and the way you've tried to make it a bit discordant. when the double vox come in it's cool. percussion starts to sound bubbly in places which adds some kind of watery etherealness. sweet. oh, and I wanna take this opportunity to give some respek for last weeks win, instead of letting the man henley take all the credit. good to have you back you freak bitches
E=: You remain a total enigma to me. You seem to have an abundance of lyrical ideas and a limited musical background. I'm not sure whether you're trying to sing super-softly or you're just a bit timid, but I think it'd be cool if you opened up those lungs because you can definitely get a bigger sound out of your voice. As for the background noises; I honestly have no idea if they're intentional or not, it's strange even for the most abstract of noisemongers. I'd like to know where you're coming from musically, and I think you should collaborate with someone who can write music, it's very rewarding. This track isn't particularly
Jordan Seavers: That guitar tone is so sweet, all the little touches are really nice down to the odd ride hits in the verse and the tiny guitar runs in between lines. I really love that line that sounds like "crooked spin is here...." I have no idea what it means but seems to have arbitrarily struck a chord with the part of my brain that is in charge of meaningless sentiments. So when's the album out?
The modern alternatives: This is very much better than most of the acoustic guitar songs that come through this site. The song is fairly solid and does the downbeat mumbly thing quite well (although the vocal melody does get a little repetitive upon repeated listens), but what I really like is some of the picked parts that add a fragility to the melody.
@elected spoons: ooh, is that a guitar. cut up guitar! sweet. that's one of my favourite tricks. Your voice drags this down a bit but I'm sorry for saying that cos there's not much you can do about it and it's got nothing to do with the meter or melody (although the meldoy could be made more interesting in the middle bit).I like those instrumental bits where it gets a bit more energetic. The verses are pretty solid, I'll definitley remember this one. Just a touch too repetitive (for me, so don't take any notice) but this was actually really good. I'd like to hear it redone with a killer singer.
Quesadilla Xplosion: This is alright but it sounds a bit too Weezer by numbers. your singer reminds me of mark everett. Nice flanging in the solo, is that an e-bow or some string samples in the background or what? I like the atmospheric bits, I wish the song had been a bit more like that. Nicely done, but not the one.
Produce ft. Macher: Once the rap settles into the verse it sounds pretty cool, but I'm really not into the backing track here. It's not nearly dirty enough (sonically), I'm not a fan of slap bass and that solo instrument whatever it is, y'know the 90's hip-hop sound which quite frankly should've died after the Spice Girls started using it. Drums are weak; this style blows, you should ditch the synth and get some northern soul samples in there or something.
KMS: ooh, a band. Those drum sounds leave too much space in the song, maybe the beat's too slow but that is the most uninspiring drum pattern I've ever heard. The guitar sound is surprisingly good though, gritty and not too distorted with quite a nice tone. oh no, just as i finished typing that the guitar solo came in; it's a touch too loud and struggles to keep in tune. It kind of fits with the song but it still needs to be better than that, I like the wobbly bit at the end of the solo. I can't listen to this for much longer, interesting vocals at the end, but whereas the main vocal fits well in the mix, the second one stands out badly.
Andreist: I'd think I'd like to hear this after you get more practise. there's some cool ideas in terms of riffing and structure in the intro but the guitar playing is a bit sloppy, and the drums sound gash but you knew that. It's not the kind of thing you can "get" on first listen which i like about it, a song with a bit of musical depth. I was expecting the song to kick in about 2/3 in, and it's a good thing that it didmwhat i didn't expect but it had better go somewhere soon for danger of losing me completely. The actual song is pretty good, but the structure after the intro just lacked any dynamic which is a shame. It had it's moments though
Thanks for the frisbee: Your superior singing sets this apart from most of the other entries. This is pretty good, nice phrasing, I like the guitar fills, and the vocal harmonising is really nice too. simple, effective, one of the best so far.
Eddie Lance: It sounds like you're reading shakespeare at the beginning, something about the delivery is slightly irritating. The music is good here, it sounds like mid-era R.E.M. I really wish you'd sung the majority of it, and actually sung, not just spoke melodically. I don't really care for the lyrics either. It's a shame because the potential for a classic vocal melody here is very high. I'd love you to go back and redo the vocals like Nightswimming or A Perfect Circle by rem, unless you write a lot of stuff like this in which case do it next time, maybe even with a guest singer (not that I don't think you could pull it off). If this had some good singing I probably would've voted for it.
Eidolon: I like the song here. The guitar playing in places is actually excellent and does just enough to maintian my interest in a sparse arrangement without getting indulgent or making any mistakes. The overall effect is more than most GnG efforts here. I wasn't sure about parts of the vocal delivery but it doesn't matter. good song, I'm gonna listen again once i'm finished reviewing.
Kenwood Ward: is that a mandolin that comes in there? sounds like it, there's actually much more to this than I was expecting. I only just noticed the bongos, there pretty cool, you're also sounding very r.e.m. this week, and it's got as much to do with the sparseness and all those minor chords as much as the mandolin. no vote, but this is okay.
Wages: I think you've got a really good voice, it's funny the way you add in all these little vocal inflections and try to jazz it up a bit but there's really no need. The guitar playing is functional, the songwriting's getting there and I'm sure in a month or so you'll be writing some great songs but I think you should try (not all the time, but maybe for at least a whole song) to be more sincere, or at least sound more sincere. I dunno what you think of luke henley but you could learn a thing or two from him in terms of making the arrangement a bit more interesting, just adding some textures to give your songs some more character. not bad, I look forward to you developing a bit, even if it means doing a couple of duffers in the meantime.
top 3: Freddie love, Jordan, Phunts
honourable mention to @eclectic spoons
I recommend E equals and Eddie Lance get it on for next week
(in the interests of playing to your strengths and everything)
