Ah, the British invasion! (and some Americans and an Antipodean too, of course)
Bell Green – pretty. Nice voice as always. Doesn’t ring true for me. The lyric seems a bit empty? Could do with more variation around the third minute. Not screaming ‘half a stone’ at me.
Likely Lads – I don’t like the name, personally. Reminds me of crap sitcom or Libertines too much
Anyway … ‘betwitched by her ear’? This reminds me of a slightly folkier Sabbath or something. There’s an unneccessary American twang to this. I like ‘Bigger / Gorilla’. Negative points for Size-ism.
Ken – Strokes-esque with some nice Cheap Trick touches and cute Weezer-esque harmonies. I like it. Not sure I am following the lyric on first listen but I imagine I will be listening several times more so there’s plenty of time to figure it out. Yea, I like it a lot. Poss vote.
Kapitano – I voted for this in the live fight and it has translated well to a 'recorded' version. I like your electro-poppyness, something which I hadn’t really noticed before hearing you play. This would fit lovely on a Felix Da Housecat / Adult. Album. So another possible vote. (Although voting for the same song twice is frowned upon, no?
Pigpen – So when did you become a player? I must have been out of the forum when that motion was passed. I must admit that in a community of 100-150 people, the idea that someone thinks in terms of players strikes me as a little ludicrous. Anyway that’s by-the-by – your song - Pleasant enough groove. I like your rap-voice although the stream-of-consciousness / cut-up lyric doesn’t really fit the style of its aggressive content. OK - I have no genre bias here - I’ve just heard better and worse rap elsewhere on Songfight.
Masters of Grip - featuring me. I like this song a lot (or I wouldn't be playing on it, natch) and would probably have voted for it if I wasn't on it, if only for pleasing anti-sizeism content. Starts off Breeder-ish then goes cool garage. So some observations - I think I can only fairly comment on the production as I was not involved in it in any way.
I think I agree with Leaf there's too much squished in the mid. Everything the guitar is playing is very very cool, but there's possibly too-much-of-a-good-thing going on there. The bass could be louder (and not just because I played it!) You really can't make it out in the verses (it may be that it's not there, even). It's OK in the choruses but it could stand to be a smidgen louder. I really like the guitar part for the chorus (that's changed from the live version). A smidgen less reverb on the lead voc? The end, while really cool for the build, is probably one loop too long. Overall this is a brilliant 3 minute song that goes on for 3.30 if you see what I mean?
Ron Anagram that I can’t Figure Out – Nice guitar playing. That’s almost Dylan-esque in overall impression. Only with a bit of Paul Simon World Music thrown in. Too long for what it is, I guess, but pleasing on the ear.
Caravan Ray – oh, ‘dull’ means something on more than two continents, obviously
Nah, only joking. Actually the garagey vibe leaves me a bit cold and in my book, this
is cheating. If the challenge is ‘write a song to a title’ writing it to a different title however close, is no better/worse than writing an instrumental. Just my opinion, mind, but it would not have materially affected the overall result even if it had been on-topic.
Frankie Big-Face - this really sounds like pared-down acoustic John Lennon to me. This lyric is pretty fantastic. I love the child-like pursual of the concept to its logical conclusion and 'She was home' works very well for me. One minor minor quibble, 'assumed' doesn't fit very comfortably in that line. Especially as the image of the ampersand is a good one. I can't think of what to take its place, but it makes the line a bit trip-over-the-tongue. Yeah very good. And therefore poss.vote.
Ryan Rickenbach - suffers from coming right after mr Big Face. On cheap speakers there's very little audible difference on the surface but it doesn't resonate for me in the same way. Don't why that is. Not bad by any stretch of the imagination, but my mp3 player stuttered at the start of the song, which gave the promise of something avant-garde that it never became.
Pookah - Beatlesy, obviously. The guitar in the verse needs a bit more reverb on it, imo. Way way too long. Well-performed and (bar the reverby thing) good production. Just seems, a little, aaaahh,
relaxed, to me. Like there's all this frenetic energy in the rhythm being expanded on a mid-tempo song. Maybe that's how you like it.
15 Years - not for me. Pretty, professional, lovely female voice, slightly spectral feeling which I like, but maybe it's just my prejudice (or speakers) but there is not enough bass-end here for me. Or if you want ethereal maybe you should dampen down that strict drum machine tempo. It's caught between dance music and piano ballad at the moment. Needs to be more fluid. imo.
AA Stone - jaunty piano. Good voice. The ragged production on the vocal track against the piano works well. This sounds like an American Kamakura to me. But another sizeist one gettin' negative points from me.
Stubby Phillips - oh that's sloppy bass action! Nice inconsequential groove. Not a fan of 'wacky' lyrics. I kept coming back to that stuttering bass and very occasional rhythymless guitar. Serving no purpose is a purpose in itself, I guess.
Well, checking my list it's
FBF,
Kapitano and
Ken. Having voted for Kap once, it's down to
FBF or
Ken. It's tricky as I like both songs very much.
Ken.
You know, it's not a bad bunch of songfighters over here in the UK. Maybe we should cecede from the land of Bush-voters or something
