Express reviews! This set has a bit of a mean edge, I guess. Boo-hoo.
Berkeley Social Scene -- Lovely arrangement/sound. Nice (schizophrenic) duet! The solo bores me. An above average melikey coefficient for a BSS song.
Give Our Regards To The Earth's Core -- You know how to pace songs. Sounds thin. I think that's pretty much the only problem here. I like the distorted backup vocals. Great build-up.
Hostess Mostess -- This feels a bit uncoordinated, and I think it's not just because of the drums. I don't know why, but this doesn't grab me.
Internet Famous -- Whoever told you that that was singing was wrong. The drum(?) on every first beat is distracting. Arrangement is a bit sparse apart from the drums/percussion (which are actually quite nice); they stick out quite a lot. Spoken word samples suck (objectively, of course).
Jeffrey Davis -- Intro is beyond boring. Oh, that's the whole song?
Jeplexe! -- If you sang in a way that makes the words even somewhat understandable (aspirating is not singing!), I might love this. I mean, even the shaker totally dominates the vocals... oh, and would it kill you to tune the guitar, at least a little bit if you intended it to be out of tune? Apart from those gripes, this song is very interesting.
Jonathan Mann -- Ow, man! You can sing, I know that much... why aren't you doing that here? Great song and everything, but with those vocals? No way!
Lord of Oats -- Your synth sound is extremely recognisable. Slight clipping in vocals. The big problem: no chords (or way too much in the background) = no love. Main melody is not very exciting either.
PTP -- Going for this kind of singing leads to a dead end. Apart from that, no real bad points. Nothing especially interesting either.
Rycehat -- A new nose might be in order (just kidding; the nasality in the vocals can be fixed with refined vocal technique). Nice choir. Hey, interesting change when it gets all spacey-synthy. Especially in the second half performances is lacking in some places. Still, quite cool.
SomeGuyCalledNoel -- Peculiar guitar rhythm. Stretching your range, eh? The pseudo-bass parts feel a bit disjointed. I guess it would be lots better if you could achieve more consistency in your vocal sound across all pitches. The song is a bit standard fare.
Steve Durand feat. Ross on Lap Steel -- Nice backup vocals. A very characteristic Steve Durand song, I guess. Vocals are the main weakness, but they're better than in some other songs of yours. Tune your guitars?
Stucco Lobster Breadbox -- Rather on the short side, and the vocals sound like your heart wasn't really in it.
The Weakest Suit -- Great arrangement/sound. The usual comments about vocals apply. As usual, very singer-songwriter-y, in a nice way.
William Parsons Project -- Pretty strained-sounding singing (and I'm pretty sure that's due to straining
). This hops around a bit. Various parts of the vocals sound like they were recorded at different levels. Do this again once you have improved your vocal technique and we'll talk again.
yelyah -- Timbre comes and goes in the vocals... make up your mind! Not the kind of composition I enjoy, but cool realization. Vocals are flat quite a few times.
Votes are given out to:
Give Our Regards To The Earth's Core
Rycehat
Steve Durand