The Song Fight Bulletin Board

Reist wrote: Nur Ein drained me this year, which is weird since it invigorated me in the past. Maybe the competitor in me has died, I dunno.

Funny. I felt that way the year after I came in second too. It comes back, so maybe you will feel better next year. Of course, this year was your best chance of winning since a certain someone is not competing. ;)

Well I'll tell you I'm only sort of satisfied with the results this week, 'cause here are my rankings:

8 Billy's Little Trip
7 Berkeley Social Scene (harmonies were just for me I assume)
6 Minty Handy
5 Milo Dunderville
4 Boop Boop (not a fan like Frank)
3 Therman (meh. wanky.)
2 Chris Cogott
1 Jon Eric (lalas got to me.)

Generic, I think you brought your A-game this year but you had a less-than-stellar week and it cost you. Therman, I think I could just hear the fatigue in your songs recently.

Billy, I thought your song this week was great.

JB

Wow, I hit the top of your list with 2 songs this year, JB? I don't know why, but I've always considered you more of a refined acoustic folk lover, more along the lines of Ross. Although he has never dogged me, he makes it clear that I'm too loose and wily for his tastes, lol.
Maybe it's my southern love you're picking up on.
Thanks, JB.

frankie big face wrote: BLT – Like Milo, your verses leave me scratching my head, but your chorus is excellent and the instrumental break that follows is pretty cool. Then you repeat the whole song, but are clever enough to quicken the rhythm and push the verse lines closer together and add the “oh”s. It’s smart arranging dude. This is a fun song, a little hard for me to rank.

Thanks, Frank. And those weren't "oh"s, they were "oiy"s in honor of Song Fights own, Caravan Ray.

Did the verses leave you scratching your head in a "not making sense to you" way? If so, I'm just finding creative ways to spin new metaphors, really.
High as a kite sets the story up. (pick your vice, drugs, alcohol, life, Jesus)
Everything ascending to the sky is me falling to the ground explained in the following lines.
Nothing on my mind but this old straw hat is just a funny (imo) set up for the next line.
Except the thought that maybe Newton lied, is my drunken denial at that moment of falling on my ass thinking everything around me is going up. But, in fact, Newton's theory is in full effect.

There, is it still stretching too far outside of the box? I'm guessing it is if you have to question it and I have to explain it.

Billy's Little Trip wrote:Wow, I hit the top of your list with 2 songs this year, JB? I don't know why, but I've always considered you more of a refined acoustic folk lover, more along the lines of Ross. Although he has never dogged me, he makes it clear that I'm too loose and wily for his tastes, lol.
Maybe it's my southern love you're picking up on.
Thanks, JB.

I liked your song this week too. (I had you 5th, which is not high, but not eliminated!) I think the lyrics probably contributed somewhat to your elimination and a relatively unimaginative acrostic. But it's a good song, so that's the bright side.

Well, that's good to hear, thanks. It is all about the rock, after all. I just need to find me a Bernie Taupin.....or actually start spending more time and caring, lol.

And I knew that dropping the F bomb in the chorus was going be a deal breaker for a certain someone. But I'm not going to give up my musical integrity for a select few. *holds out pinky as I sip my tea*

....oh, and if anyone believes my integrity speech, I have a bridge for sale you might be interested in.

Okay, I'm going to be honest from the get-go. I felt this was a very lackluster round. I think the acrostic challenge gave a lot of the bands trouble. Suddenly there was a struggle to create catchy choruses because they were confined to creating sentences. I'm a firm believer that giving limitations and boundaries can often help the creative process as you try to figure out how to work within the box you are given. But this round, I feel it was clearly to the detriment of the konkurrenz.

Minty Handy: Minty Handy picked up the win. Congrats. It's a solid song. How was the acrostic. Well, it wasn't a very creative choice of message to create across the lines. Listening to the song, you can't follow the acrostic because it doesn't play out the way it was written. It's a cute little ditty. It's got some charm. I kinda feel like it won because it was the least offensive of the songs this time around. Played it safe, played it well.

Billy's Little Trip: BLT's song did not thrill me in the least. I compare the lyrics to a bag full of broken glass. There are parts that just jut out and ruin the consistantly. There's also that kiss me kiss me line which like the aforementioned bag of glass, hits you over the head leaving a bloody mess. And then the whole song is repeated faster. So if you have something you dislike, you get a second round of it. It feels like the acrostic just left BLT at a loss. Sorry to see him go from the competition, seeing as he is a very good musician capable of much better things than what he brought in this round.

Milo Dunderville: Milo's song like BLT's had some lyrics that made you wonder about the choices. Everytime I listen I reach up to the newfound poker face or the raisin bran and I find myself staggered out of the groove. It's performed well but I just didn't find myself getting into it. I felt like this was pretty bland. The song just stays at the middle of the road, never diverges, nothing sonicly tasty. No peaks, no valleys. I can skip around in the song, back and forth, and it's all kind of the same.

Boop Boop: Boop Boop chose to acrostic about Dio. I can appreciate that (being probably the most metal of the 5 judges). I also appreciate that he brought the rock including some nice guitar licks all over the place. Then there are the lyrics. Another song with exploding hearts. Odd that that image appears twice in this round. Now I know that this is prog rock and lyrically prog can be Tom Sawyer drives a Red Barchetta through the Trees sometimes. So, I totally missed the point of this song the first few listens but once I grasped it, I enjoyed it. Other than that howl at about 3:07, this was well performed with some good delivery. Not the best song in the Boop Boop catalog but enough to earn him safe passage into the top 5.

Chris Cogott: That opening made me worry that Cogott had decided to go with some New Jack Swing. Then he went with some Indian flavor. The vocal delivery is so dry on the verses. It speaks volumes to how much he struggled with this song. That and the fact the acronym told me so. I like the lyrics take on being in the Nur Ein and struggling through. The only problem is that the "We Need To Talk" feels completely tacked on. Interesting musical choice, lackluster delivery, nice lyric idea, bad lyric execution. I'm doing these reviews in hindsight after putting in my votes. In my votes, I ranked this fairly high. I'd still give Cogott a place in the top 5 but in hindsight I would've probably placed him in the middle of the pack, instead of at the top.

BSS: The beginning of the song is the weakest part of this song. There seems to be a huge disconnect between the lyrics and the way they are being delivered. The lyrics talk about "so alive" but they aren't sung lively. It just needed to be punched up some. Then the turn in the story came so quickly in the second verse, and with no change in the vocal style, it didn't resound with me. The couple in the song are having problem but the feelings come off the same way as they did in the happy times first verse. The song is saved by a killer guitar solo and some great harmonies. Erin may be the star player on BSS's Nur Ein run but Ken has definitely been the MVP. I gave this the top score the other day. Today, I'm not brimming with love for the song but it's solid enough to warrant be in the top of the pack. I just hope that BSS shows me some real emotional punch on their next song. All the pieces for something really special are there but it's not getting to that level.

Therman: Therman deserved elimination. This was not his best work. Hopefully he will not be discouraged by this. In fact, I think that he needs to call up Maggie & Fraser and become a band. I don't think I need to beat a dead horse about the acrostic. I think he gets that making an acrostic of "Smurfs" isn't going to go over unless your song is about Gargamel, so the challenge was poorly handled and I think it hurt the lyrics of the song from top to bottom as the lyrics are very weak. The choice to bury the song under a layer of fuzz didn't help it any either. Nothing came together in this, except the punch delivered in that last verse. Too bad, it was much too little and far too late.

Jon Eric: la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la. Overkill. Killed the song dead. Now that that's out of the way. Jon handled the acrostic challenge best. I just wish there was a greater connection between the lyrics and the hidden acrostic message. Solid pianos as usual. Vocals are all over the place. Even some of the la la la's were off-key. I think perhaps if Jon Eric were to hook up with a vocalist with a higher register (and better delivery) and cut out a bunch of the la's, this could be something. But as is, this is an elimination.

Wow, that took a lot out of me. I'm going to go listen to some Ume.

Niveous wrote: Jon Eric: I just wish there was a greater connection between the lyrics and the hidden acrostic message.

I could be wrong, but since both you and Spud mentioned the disconnect between the acrostic and the lyric (something I initially thought), I'm going to say it: I thought the connection between them was meant to be ironic, i.e. the lyrics are kind of hopeful, but the hidden message bleak. I saw this acrostic as one you would see in a horror movie where there's a really lovely note from son to mother, but the first letter of each line says "I WANT TO KILL YOU" and that's the real feeling. Jon?

frankie big face wrote:

Niveous wrote: Jon Eric: I just wish there was a greater connection between the lyrics and the hidden acrostic message.

I could be wrong, but since both you and Spud mentioned the disconnect between the acrostic and the lyric (something I initially thought), I'm going to say it: I thought the connection between them was meant to be ironic, i.e. the lyrics are kind of hopeful, but the hidden message bleak. I saw this acrostic as one you would see in a horror movie where there's a really lovely note from son to mother, but the first letter of each line says "I WANT TO KILL YOU" and that's the real feeling. Jon?

Nailed it, although I wasn't going for "threatening" so much as "cry for help."

I'm also thinking a little bit of that joke, which featured prominently in Watchmen:

Rorschach wrote:Heard joke once: Man goes to doctor. Says he's depressed. Says life seems harsh and cruel. Says he feels all alone in a threatening world where what lies ahead is vague and uncertain. Doctor says "Treatment is simple. Great clown Pagliacci is in town tonight. Go and see him. That should pick you up." Man bursts into tears. Says "But Doctor... I am Pagliacci."

For the record, excepting that one aside, I agree completely with Niv's review of my song. JB, thanks for the vote of confidence.

I thought the connection between them was meant to be ironic, i.e. the lyrics are kind of hopeful, but the hidden message bleak.

Yeah, that's what I took from it, too -- but on my first read of the lyrics, I didn't catch the connection, and thought he was referring to his struggle to complete the song against the acrostic. Which did make me laugh out loud. On my second read, it clicked, though. People who have, or are going to, commit suicide are often spoken of as reaching out and sending signals that everybody misses -- that's the way I ended up taking this, that he was being all cheery and hopeful and "we need to talk" was a call to a positive conversation -- but really he's reaching out for help. From that perspective, I think it's the strongest lyrics of the round.

Generic wrote: Nailed it, although I wasn't going for "threatening" so much as "cry for help."

Well yeah, I was just using the movie reference as an example of the dichotomy between the lyric and the acrostic. I figure you were going for "cry for help" as you said. I thought it was clever.

MintyHandy wrote:From that perspective, I think it's the strongest lyrics of the round.

That's what I was saying!

Well, yeah. There's a reason I handed out an arbitrary and meaningless award for Jon's song without even listening to it... even though I usually don't care much for the lyrics I see on Song Fight.

frankie big face wrote:

MintyHandy wrote:From that perspective, I think it's the strongest lyrics of the round.

That's what I was saying!

Certainly. As you know, I've been harshing on my own vocals this week as much as anyone, and I don't deny that I deserved to be eliminated. Like I said, I'm surprised I even came ahead of one other competitor.

So I hope it doesn't come across as too haughty when I say that (with as much objectivity as I can muster) I agree with those who've said my lyrics were the best this round. Minty and Frankie both seem to get it completely, and that's a wonderful feeling - putting something out there, and having it understood on its own terms.

Thanks, guys!

frankie big face wrote:

MintyHandy wrote:From that perspective, I think it's the strongest lyrics of the round.

That's what I was saying!

I know! I was agreeing with you!

Next round's non-optional challenge: exclamation points!

EDIT: !!!!!