(EDIT -- votes declared. Lots of good songs this fight, I just voted for the ones that appealed to me personally.)
Adam Adamant -- Charming lilt, good down-to-earth lyrics. The naked simplicity of the arrangement is appropriate. I'm not sure if the distortion on the keyboard is intentional -- it sounds like you've just connected the headphone out to a mic jack without turning the keyboard down.
Bars and Tone -- In the last fight, I admired your approach to the percussion. This time, with the same style of spoken vocals, it's beginning to look like either a new genre (for all I know) or a novelty. A new genre will need hooks. You have one here, and it's not bad, but its production is a bit muffled; the catchy part needs to stand out more. The lyrics are clever, revealing their meaning only at the end (no pun intended), but they are delivered too slowly -- my brain is left hungering for the next thought.
Berkeley Social Scene -- A good rocker with a crisp sound, approaching commercial quality. Sometimes it needs just a little more edge on the rhythmic elements -- to jump the metronome, if you know what I mean -- and sometimes there are too many things going on in the arrangement, embellishing rather than adding to the effect. The lyrics aren't grabbing me. Still, very good musically. The intro and its refrains, in particular, have an impressively solid, tight, pulled-together sound. VOTE
Cain's Regret/Abel's Curse -- This achieves an overall effect quite well. The Number-9ish break provides a refreshing pause and adds interest. The singing -- not to put too fine a point on it -- is sometimes a little flat (one remedy that works for me is to aim a bit sharp). The song and its arrangement are very atmospheric and evocative, and match such lyrics as I can make out.
Don't Tell Betsy -- Good musical performances all round. Wry lyrics, although I can't always hear them. The singing is slightly off, which works for the general mood, which I would characterize as musical horsing around. The composition and arrangement are deliberately generic, but well-executed.
DuToVa -- Good groove. The synth decoration is well placed, adding a light contrast to the insistent bass. Your voice has a dry, alert quality that works very well for the verses -- less so for the dreamy chorus, where someone else's harmonies might help. The use of a running metaphor makes for coherent and interesting lyrics.
EAandM f. Mad Willie -- With their clear characterization and development, the lyrics hold my interest, and the dark, moody music and hard-bitten singing help to deliver them. The ending is a bit abrupt. I wish I could hear the words better, but the recording is muddy and the level is low. For what it's worth, a low-impedance mic plugged into a high-impedance input would sound like this.
Frank Bertsch -- You have basically a good voice -- on pitch, clear, from the chest, pretty good enunciation most of the time -- but it's distracting to break a syllable with a breath ("ba-had") or too much of an attack ("bli-I-Ind"). Also, the guitar is a little out of tune. Don't take this amiss, I'm just trying to help! The song has thoughtful lyrics, and a good melody especially at the break (1:27 or so). Changing the aggressiveness and speed of the singing in the first part helps add variety. More traditional song structures would intersperse the melody of one part (pre 1:27) with the other, say in a verse-verse-chorus-verse arrangement, to accomplish the same. I appreciate your idea of overtracking the vocal parts at the end. It works if this is a sketch for a larger realization, not a G&G song.
The Ghost Within -- Sharp, energetic, tight rhythm playing. The drums are intense; I find they draw too much attention in the main part, but I like their syncopation around 1:40. Good guitar duet. The different treatments keep the sound fresh. The lyrics are abstract; to connect with the audience, they need concrete images or specific situations. "Cold to the bone" is good.
godvssatan -- Lou Reed did pretty much the same thing for four consecutive half-hours on the double-album Metal Machine Music. Most people hated it. A good friend bought a copy and gave me half -- said he didn't need all four sides.
Gooey Caramel Centaur -- This sounds authentic in the newer tradition of hymns. It can be played simply on a guitar, and the melody is clear and easy to carry (athough your pitch is a little off). The lyrics are also quite authentic. A well-written song, with an appropriately gentle musical treatment. VOTE
The Hinsdale Patient -- A sophisticated, appealing sound. All the instruments are handled very capably. The bass and rhythm arrangements work well together. Good textural changes in the right places. Sweet crash cymbal!
The ending doesn't quite work for me -- the energy dissipates just before the lead, and the lead, though good, doesn't fit the jazzy major-seventh mood you've established. VOTE
James Owens -- From the early comments, I see should have added vocals rather than the reedy vox humana. I was careful to match the music to supremeedible's lyrics -- the stumble, the troubled moods, the emergence of hope -- but if
no one gets it, that's my fault. The music was designed for the first verse, but worked surprisingly well with the second -- a credit to the flow of the lyrics. VOTE -- for myself, you say? I forgot to vote for myself last week, and look what happened!
Jeff Robertson and the neo-Candylanders -- Good sustained energy. I like the instrumentation and arrangement. Everything fits very well together. The organ complements the sound perfectly. THe chorus harmonies bring in some contrast when it's needed. Impressive drumming and an interesting bass line. The words hold my attention -- the repeated "I thought you said" is a nice device -- but I don't really get them; probably my fault.
Kapitano -- Cool, analytic synth-pop. The emotionless quality suits the lyric, and the beat is danceable. The rhythmic variation in the vocals at the end of each verse adds unexpectedness and human interest to the steady electronic pattern. The silences between the sung passages drop the excitement a little; the extra drum beats help, but it feels like it needs more. The length of the song is perfect.
Kasper -- Sweet 12-string recording. The song develops a wistful mood, helped by the quiet, rather still mandolin solo. Your voice is not perfectly in tune, but it can work in a Dylanesque way - except at 2:14. Maybe one too many "too highs" at the end. The lyrics are simple and effective: a few short words and phrases make a clear point.
Lord of Oats -- Effective rhythmic contrast between verse and chorus -- the speed-up in the vocal delivery adds urgency. Good groove and nice electronic texturing, especially the syncopation that develops in the opening bars. The song has a tragic air suitable to the lyrics, helped by the deliberate pace of the singing, the intensity of feeling, and the falling melodic lines.
Paco del Stinko -- Complex yet clear arrangement, with the two guitars working very well together in the verse, the harmonies nicely planned, the drums fully participating in the orchestration, and interesting melodic patterns developing in the bass. A lot of musical intelligence goes into your recordings. The song takes an abrupt change of direction at about 1:52, making for an unusual back-to-back structure, but I liked the opening parts so much I wanted to hear them again before the end of the song.
Pathetic Wannabees -- The grungy live recording of amplified instruments works pretty well for this one. Clever lyrics, short and sweet, with appropriately styled vocals, half-spoken, nicely paced. I enjoyed it.
Rone Rivendale -- This is somewhere in the Pere Ubu/Beefheart/Lou Reed space of seeemingly anarchic expression. There is organization, it's just extremely unconventional. As such, this is not bad, but I think it needs more careful recording. The levels on the mic are going way into the red from time to time, which is not good. Also possibly you have a cold or allergies? Thoughtful lyrics.
Seagulls Took My Sister -- More of a poem or a prose study than a song, but a very good one. The swirling, echoing music suspends the emotionally flat narrative in a dreamlike mist. The events are disturbingly archetypal. The pitch-shifted voice lends further unreality, somehow abstracting away the emotion, which has an uncontrollable persistence nevertheless. VOTE
Sheail -- Crisp playing and recording, good layering, cool riffs, sweet and strong major harmonies, tight arrangements, interesting textures. All the elements are there, but in the end, the song doesn't speak to me. It's like a passing train, shining and beautiful, but unaware and unchanging as it streams by. The fadeout adds to that impression. It's startlingly good work from a technical standpoint, but I'm left wanting an emotional connection.
Standard Format -- The song communicates disconnectedness or estrangedness, helped along greatly by the broken passages of the noise gating -- an ingenious choice. It becomes a collage of thoughts looking for a unifying meaning. The spare simplicity of the aimless, arhythmical guitar adds to the effect. The sung chorus and the synthesizer at the end don't fully fit the concept, except in the sense that they feel isolated and random. VOTE
Torrentz -- Rich, expressive lyrics; among the best takes on the title. "There's too much month at the end of the money" is just one of many good lines. The music is effective: simple and unobtrusive, but with an interesting rhythmic crossplay. Appropriately, the bass reminds me of an almost-empty mustard squirter. Nice mixing and vocal overtracking. VOTE
Tyler Heath -- A remarkable use of a short repeating pattern. THe pattern itself has harmonic tension and interest, and a strong, confident rhythm, but played over and over it could have become boring, Instead, it's sustained by an arrangement that gradually draws out more and more, building to a dramatic crescendo. Even the droning overlay makes a virtue of the unchanging nature of the song. The instrumentation, vocals, and mix are all very well done. VOTE
Wages -- This kind of music will definitely benefit from more instruments. Basically it's a solid song, with some good themes and a bit of dynamic contrast, though it does drift a little at around 1:55. With just the electric guitar behind it, the singing sounds kind of isolated, but with more of a band it will work better.
The Weakest Suit -- A very slow beginning; with all the instruments carrying the rhythm in the low register, there's little for the attention to focus on, and it threatens to be dull. A few high percussive notes from a piano or glockenspeil or whatever might add interest. When the vocals come in, the song begins to take shape. Again, at the chorus (around 1:30), I'm looking for more brightness; it arrives with the guitar around 1:50, but quickly falls back. The song is pretty and has a pensive mood, but the arrangement needs salt, if I can put it that way. The piano arpeggios near the end are exactly what I mean by a high percussive element, but here they are subdued; I think they need to be more brilliant.