The Song Fight Bulletin Board

yes........

So, last night I went on a date and thus didn't read a drop of Songfight all night. I come back and everything since the last time I posted.
So much math and vitriol. So much.

Next title: Math and Vitriol

Manhattan Glutton wrote:Next title: Math and Vitriol

That's not a bad idea... well at least i goes on my list.

Reviews in arbitrary order:

Genevieve Johnson and The Chiefs
+++ dark vibe +++
--- solo just meanders and doesn't seem to had much to the song ---
+++ historic references that still make good lyrics +++
+++ chorus +++

bgm
--- awkward opening riff ---
+++ chug chug chug chug [stop!] +++
+++ Beatleseque backing vox in the bridge +++
/// maybe the chorus could be longer ///

Frankie Big Face
/// was not expecting a show tune from you ///
+++ background vox harmonies +++
+++ so much fun! +++
/// a few awkward lyrics, esp. "solitary confinement" ///

Manhattan Glutton
+++ change up +++
/// though I didn't think it was going to work at first ///
+++ dynamics +++
--- relation to the title is weak ---

DJ Ranger Den
+++ hahahahahahaha +++
--- piano is in a closet ---
+++ "I'm very particular about where i file things" +++
/// I'd like the up-tempo section in part two to begin at "The lobster looks at me" ///

Ross Durand
+++ groove +++
+++ serendipitous personal touch +++
+++ gimmicky but so cute +++
+++ bridge; what a great narrative turn! +++
/// congratulations: you've made me cry ///

The Worldly Self-Assurance
+++ reference to Elizabeth and Lord Robert Dudley +++
--- over-worked chorus vox ---

ADD
+++ just when I was thinking "this needs percussion" there it is! +++
--- break down section: awkward rhythm and needlessly long ---

The Chocolate Chips
--- wikipedia entry for lyrics ---
--- i get it: Betsy gets her hands on a TARDIS ---

Manhattan Glutton wrote:Next title: Math and Vitriol

hilarious.

Noah.
I'm a little concerned about the piano and the closet too. Am surprised you did not make a comment about little Thibault.

PS. {edit: CONGRATULATIONS! this is my level up post!

NUR EIN!!!}

Here's some more vitriol, since this is a vitriol party. I have some good and bad things to say about everyone.

add
If I were a judge, I would probably be inclined to rank this song the best.
meh: Thin, subtle
pro: Good singing
pro: Good melody hooks
meh: Vocals could use "one more take"
con: Repetitive measures with not much new
pro: Adventuresome changeup
meh: Seems like you didn't know where to go with this, takes a while to get somewhere.
pro: Reversed guitar and horn sounds
meh: History

bgm
I only wish I could phone in something this good in the time you had.
pro: Reminds me of Dr. Mario
con: Reminds me of Dr. Mario
meh: Sounds phoned in, not very adventuresome
meh: Long-ish intro doesn't have much to do with the song
pro: Nice guitar tones - feel lo-fi without being lo-fi
meh: Chorus not very hooky
meh: Slowing down is the lazy way out of the challenge

Chocolate Chips
Sad to see you go!
meh: Warm me into the song before hitting me with all this stuff
con: Nasal vocals, perhaps due to filters
con: Can hear breathing through a distortion filter
meh: Repetitive transition - get to the point
pro: Change-up is very cool and reminds me of Animal Collective
meh: History

DJ
Hey you.
pro: Nailin' those vocals!
pro: Song for immune round.
con: Timing!
meh: What are these lyrics about? zomg!

Frankie
If I had to pick my favorite song, regardless of challenge, it'd probably be this song.
meh: Lyrics should have been "Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song, and I'll try not to sound just like Queen."
pro: You are a catchy sonofabitch.
meh: Who can phone in a catchy song.
con: Can't tell if you're incompetent or malicious with your inability to be consistent with mastering.
con: Hi-hat is grating and obnoxious.
con: I can hear you breathing. Your DAW should have a feature to crop tracks, unless you're recording with MS Paint.
pro: Good lyrics.
meh: Can't rock out to these lyrics because they aren't manly.
pro: Great bass tone.
pro: Best hook I've heard in a while.
meh: This slow-down is a very safe way to handle the challenge.

Genevieve
con: Vocals monotone, off key, ver-y eight-ies e-nun-ci-ate each syl-a-bol on a beat.
meh: What is this chorus?
pro: The lead guitar is a nice touch.
con: Where are the hooks?
pro: Your ahhs are nice, too.
con: These words don't mean anything to me. Is this english?

Manhattan Glutton
pro: Lots of changes! Something for everyone!
con: Not much of a song. More of a technical exercise in excellence.
con: Lyrics.
meh: Pulling the wobble bass out will only impress all the judges once.
pro: Trying to sound like Timbaland at the change made me laugh.

Ross Durand
Not so much my thing, but I can see its appeal and values.
pro: Ross Durand bringing the A game
meh: Phoned in A game, very much your comfort zone.
con: I hate kids.
meh: Well, I guess it's kind of cute.

WSA
Glenny, you are either hilariously egotistical in an ironic way, or you are delusional. I suppose you fit right in in California... and here.
pro: Frisbee singing.
meh: Not his best performance.
pro: Pedro singing.
meh: Pitchy Pedro.
pro: Good instrumentation without being noodly.
meh: Change-up is kind of boring.
pro: Nice bass tone; could be louder.

Manhattan Glutton wrote: Frankie
If I had to pick my favorite song, regardless of challenge, it'd probably be this song.
pro: You are a catchy sonofabitch.

Thank you and thank you.

Manhattan Glutton wrote: con: Can't tell if you're incompetent or malicious with your inability to be consistent with mastering.

The former.

Manhattan Glutton wrote: con: I can hear you breathing. Your DAW should have a feature to crop tracks, unless you're recording with MS Paint.

I am a human. I breath. I don't subscribe to your Fascist attempts to curtail my air intake.

Manhattan Glutton wrote: pro: Great bass tone.

Thank you! I was so proud of how I got the bass to sound and you were the only one who noticed. I pulled my 1960s Guild hollow-body off the wall for this one.

Manhattan Glutton wrote: meh: This slow-down is a very safe way to handle the challenge.

Agreed.

Any chance we could get the new title, judges?

frankie big face wrote:Any chance we could get the new title, judges?

Working on it. There is a lot of debate happening...

One more piece of vitriol I forgot, frankie: I hope you choke on that obnoxious instrument that comes in at 1:20.

And yes, I have visitors this weekend so I won't be able to work on this, so title please.

I don't know if anyone saw my Round 2 reviews because they took me a while, so I tried to do these in a more timely manner.
Great round.

ADD
Always a fan of your voice. Just effortless and natural. I like the acoustic verses better than the middle freakout section. Production sounds great.

bgm
Wish I had more time, but it is what it is. We were headed out of town for the long weekend on Friday; the kids were literally in the car going "Come on!" when I was bouncing the master of this.
I like the harmonies at the end but I'd have liked to work on the middle tempo change way more. The intro is sort of an interpretation of the chorus, I had big plans in my head of how it would go but time ran out and it's just sort of slapped on there, one shitty take. I'm amazed I don't sound worse, there was so much snot coming out of me after an ass of a cold.

The Chocolate Chips
I know the kooky vocal treatment is your thing so I won't dwell on it. It works way better in this song than in the previous ones. I like the harpsichord stuff a lot. And the synths are nice and crisp when they kick in. Great sounding track.

DJ Ranger Den
I like the song. Production-wise the keys and the vocals sound like they are from two different places, spacially and sound-quality wise. One thing I mentioned in another review somewhere, I find it really cleans up a mix when you chop out all of the silences in your tracks. There's a lot of points in your vox where I can hear a computer fan or bg noise. I find it helps tighten everything up if the tracks are a bit cleaner. The talking part was a bit jarring at first but it was sort of cute.

Frankie Big Face
Kind of Harry Nilsson-ish. I can see Davy Jones doing his signature dance to this. The song's a bit cute, but I like the production. Great harmonies. That lullaby at the end is just over the top corny, but it sounds very pretty.

Genevieve Johnson and the Chiefs
I like your singing on this one. The low register, double-tracked parts in particular. A little bit Ray Davies or something.
I read your lyrics first on this one and I was a bit worried about a dry history lesson but the song really works. Great job with the tempo change part, flows nicely.

Manhatton Glutton
The slow-fast-slow, two different styles! thing was a bold attempt. I liked the faster middle part better, harmonies in particular. You sounded more comfortable in this part. The beginning and ending left me a bit flat. I find it's really hard to integrate software instruments convincingly into songs. Amp emulation is one thing, but fake instruments are very tricky. Great if it works, cheesy as hell if it doesn't. This is particularly the case with things like violins cellos, and in this case, a trumpet blown by a man with the world's largest lung capacity, and some sort of faux-clarinet.

Ross Durand
Shakey egg! Acoustic sounds great. There's a bit of timing issues with guitar/drums at a few points. The kid is very cute. That was a risky move. Sounds really nice, overall. Good job.

The Worldly Self Assurance
Really like the vocals at the beginning. I was just loving the harmonies until there was a few off notes which broke the spell a bit. I like the vibe of this song.
You've probably never heard of the 90's Canadian band the Gandharvas, but they do a great song called First Day of Spring, which this reminds me of a lot.
The tempo changes work great and there's a really nice mood to the whole thing. I think this is my favourite of the songs of yours I've heard.

bgm wrote:I
Genevieve Johnson and the Chiefs
I like your singing on this one. The low register, double-tracked parts in particular. A little bit Ray Davies or something.

Ray Davies! Cool. Yeah - I'll take that comparison anyday!

partial review of Den's song from someone I don't remember who and I am too lazy to quote his/her entire post and delete the other parts even though I am going out of my way to do this dumb quote joke wrote: The talking part was a bit jarring at first but it was sort of cute.

That, my friend, is calling RONEING. And I knew it would catch on eventually.

Rone Rivendale wrote:

partial review of Den's song from someone I don't remember who and I am too lazy to quote his/her entire post and delete the other parts even though I am going out of my way to do this dumb quote joke wrote: The talking part was a bit jarring at first but it was sort of cute.

That, my friend, is calling RONEING. And I knew it would catch on eventually.

I RONED ??? nice

ps. It was bgm. he's right about the recording stuff. I'd say I was rushed but I could generally improve there as well. Still, time is often our friend.

Man Glut wrote:

Glenny, you are either hilariously egotistical in an ironic way, or you are delusional. I suppose you fit right in in California... and here.

1st off, 1 or 3 Ns, never 2 (not important, but might as well bring it up)

You are sort of right. I think I always mention somewhere in my reviews that I am too close to it and not objective about the song in question. So yeah there is some kind of delusion going on. I always think it's the greatest thing ever, friends and family always tell you how great you are. That's why I come to Song Fight, for the criticism! I've got about 180 songs and 20 wins in the Song Fight world, and for most of those wins (and runners up) I will get the feeling of "we nailed it, this is a winner". I felt that way about this song, the competition was awesome, (I mean Ross actually made me cry) but I thought we nailed it.

We got early very positive review by Caravan Ray, that is a rare thing from him, I thought if he loved it also we must have really done it right.
BTW Thanks CRay for all your kind words, it mean a lot!

I thought Frisbee delivered some of his best work ever as well as Pete, their melodies and harmonies were haunting and passionate, and I thought just awesome. It was strange to hear Frankie call them "weird", and for you to call pitchy. You guys are not wrong, but you're not exactly right either.
Now that we've cured you of myopic root 8th note syndrome (still use tastefully), we should get you to lay off the auto-tune and check out vibrato and lilt in your vocals, and guitar lines for that matter.
The way I work is, I not only turn off my inner critic, I beat him to death, this allows me to improvise and write and be creative.

I hope you know I have crazy respect for you and your talents, and yes I am most at home in California (cue the phantom planet, or Randy Newman: I Love LA)

(Actually the Mr Bungle album "California" is more like my kind of soundtrack.)

NUR EIN !!!!!

Here’s how I liked them

1-WSA- So Frisbee initially wrote a song about Liz Taylor. I convinced everyone (or argued at least) that the judges really wanted to hear a song about the Queen Elizabeth the Great. Since the 4 songs that sang about the Queen were the bottom 4 and top 4 were about chicks and kids (humans not birds and goats Ross) I was apparently dead wrong. So in reading up on Elizabeth the Virgin Queen I was hoping to find more material on her relationship with Shakespeare, and maybe some theory that she was a lesbian. That produced about a stanza and a half. Then I came across the story of Robert Dudley. He was a childhood friend and the love of her life. He was married to another woman, she suspiciously fell down the stairs and broke her neck. They wanted to be together, but the death of his wife didn’t look good, and her advisors thought she would lose the crown if she married him. Anyway, with the Furry Pedro music we had brewing that story seemed to fit perfectly, full of longing. We worked really hard on that one, when I heard the final mix, I was blown away. So no mention of the 15/4 time sig in the middle section, nor the e-bow solo, so I guess they didn’t impress.

2-Ross Durand- You can bet that if the title were Dulcinea you’d be hearing my daughter on the track. How could you not. Like I mentioned to MG, when I 1st heard the “only 2 plates” tears rushed to my eyes. I love the riffs, I love the story. Great performance all around, though as someone mentioned there’s some small timing issues in there. I loved this song!

3-The Chiefs- Your voice is perfect for this historical epic tale. I think you did an excellent job writing a song about Elizabeth the Great, and I think it was far more difficult to do such than the other approaches. The 4 on the floor beat works really well for a song about a battle. I love the chorus, and the female vocals on them too. This sets a great scene, and delivers a gem of a song. I do miss the bass, as mentioned.

4-ADD- Man I love your voice! The middle section is epic! It’s a very cool riff. This song has great dynamics. You can get away with the thinnest of orchestrations for longer than anyone I know. I love singing along to this. I think its genius how the middle sounds like it falls apart but then reveals how it makes sense and is awesome. The “Fire!” sounds weird to me, but it’s still interesting. The only thing I don’t like is the thing that comes in around 2:02 that sounds like a car horn. I keep listening to this on my commute, and wondering “WhoTF is honking at me?”. Anyway, I thoroughly enjoy this! Well done!

5-MG- This has awesome production as to be expected. Vocals are great. I see the rock riff coming a mile away. You do it well, it’s a go to weapon of yours. Your lead guitars are so stiff, (mine are maybe too loose, you’re Yngwie and I’m EVH ). These lyrics shirk the title. They are typical throw away rock lyrics. They avoid all obvious clichés so they pass, but man what a cop out. This is a song I like more if I never knew the lyrics.

6-BGM- The intro is not very interesting. I realize you were ill, and not on you’re A game. Your vocals are fantastic. The lyrics drive me a bit crazy with the 8 8 8 8 rhymes. I also think the lyrics don’t have much depth. The riffs and drums are so simple. I’m glad you pulled something together, but it’s nowhere near as brilliant as some of your other entries thus far. I wonder if that intro would be in the song were it not for the challenge. Let me reiterate that I like this, and it’s good quality stuff, I’m just nitpicking.

7-FBF- Nice song crafting, but I find it to be so cheesy musically. The story is cute, the lyrics are done well, I do think it was weak to avoid the Queen lyrically. I really don’t like the “Doo dee doot doots” just way too cheesy for me. I however LOVE the “more, door” hook with those 3 notes. I like the out of nowhere Beatles-esque lead instrument borage that also appear from nowhere. The recording is flawless, the performance is excellent. I do like the song, but I don’t love it. I was in a very different headspace than this. I don’t like the “Go to sleep” allusion. It hurts to be so soundly beat by this, well played sir.

8-Chocolate Chips- I think you lost because of the lyrics. You have one of the catchiest melodies of the fight. We hear that same phrase a lot, but I don’t get tired of it. You mentioned this was a rush job. A little more time on the lyrics, I bet you’d still be around.

9-DJRD- Basking in your immunity. This sounds like an early draft of an idea. Great singing, but it’s a 12-bar for the most part so I’m unimpressed with the melodies. This treads near the Sweeny Sisters. This is fun, but it is clear you weren’t competing.

glennny wrote:Man Glut wrote:

Heh! That's gonna stick. Almost as good as calling Hostess Mostess "HoMo"

Ross wrote: And it looks like C Ray is winning the math challenge

No - the judges won the mathS challenge with this Round 5 "Vienetta" stuff.


It really does play into an engineer songwriters' hands. (science teachers less so, because.....you know, you're not really proper scientists or anything....duck......)

I love a rigid job description Matron.

oh crap, my reviews are here

Lyrics played a big part in my scoring. But as important was how playable each song was. I listened a lot of times.

edit: eh, whatever