In my opinion there is not enough reviewing going on - I will now do my part to help with that.
Round 3
The Blitz
Use of Choral Voices
Again a pretty strong group of songs - with high and low points. Here are some comments. Good - Bad - Challenge. Ranked roughly in order of preference - purely for the fun of the game.
BK - Good: Word structure framing each verse and relating the themes of each verse. Tune. Guitar texture. Arrangement. Sentiment. Bad: If I had to pick - your voice is not as strong in some parts as it can be. Challenge: (B+) very nicely done - I wish it hadn’t only come in at the end - but nice to hear you do some harmony.
FBF - Sounds straight off of London Town or Venus and Mars. Good: Nice chords and tune. Arrangement is great, but does sound a little referential or derivative - but heck it list at references good stuff. Bad: Not a big fan of the way the rhythm/words come out the backside of the chorus. Also the words/theme don’t quite stand up to the musical grandeur. Challenge: (A) nicely done and incorporated into the overall arrangement.
KEN - Good: Guitars/Tune/Arrangement. Keys (is that a keyboard or a softsynth?) Bad: the words don’t do that much for me - but they’re not really bad either. Challenge: (B+) Nicely done, but not as strongly incorporated as some others.
BLT - Good: The way you play them geetars. Groove! Bad: some vocal moments. Acoustic guitar sound. Some of the lyrics are a bit round about. Challenge: (C-)I’m not sure this is much different than your usual vocal stuff with a few extra voices - but I hear that you tried it in that context.
ADD - Good: Tuneful craziness, or is it crazy tunefulness. Groove changes. Singing. Bad: not sure about the music/word pairing. Challenge: (C-) I guess it’s the keys - sounds cool, I guess I wish it had been a bit more prominant.
JBB - Good: Vocal stuff is awesome. (I wish I had a cool voice). Spirit of the song. Theme of the song. Reminds me a bit of La Valse, high society dancing itself against a background of decay. Bad: Clipping. Spirit of the song - it drifted from jubilant to in-my-face - deliberate? Challenge: (A) JBB featuring the swingle singers.
WSA - side note: Pete’s voice, british accent and all get this started out great as a story of british kids sent to the country during the war. Then Melvin’s voice couldn;t sound less british - funny, but I can’t fault you for it. Good: Title take. Arrangement/performance. Rockin’ break. eBow solo (is that really a different instrument though? Seriously
) Bad: doesn’t live up to it’s own ambition. A bit repetitive of the key motif for me both lyrically and tune-wise. Challenge: (A) unfair.
JT - Good: I’m glad you sent for the a cappella. Story approach. Thanks for giving me a break from WWI. Singing. Bad: I wanted a break from the same 8 bars over and over, Tune wise (I know it had two different phrase endings, but still, a change would have been nice). Challenge: (A) - you went for it!
GnR - Good: Nice take - I almost wish you had gone straight for writing a jingle for a drink called “The Blitz” - almost there, but not quite. Tuneful chorus. Bad: I seem to be the only one who thinks this, but Rachel sounds a bit out of tune in spots to me. Goes on a little too long. Challenge: (A) I like the counter melody approach.
TB$TDH - Good: I get what you were going for here, and it’s almost Tom Waites-ish. Pretty well pulled off. Bad: I’m not sure I get the german bit paired with the gospel bit - in fact, Im sure I don’t get it. Arrangement - at some point I really wanted the choral piece to bust out and for it to kick up a notch, although I don’t doubt that this is just how you wanted - it’s jsut my preference. Challenge: (A-)
PDS - Good: Guitar playing. Groove change. Bad: the words seem a little heavy handed - I didn’t get sucked into this one. Challenge (B+)
SF - Good: arrangement - nive chorus pad. I like the delay. Groove change. Bad: Hard to describe, but despite everything going on, the song felt sort of static to me. Challenge: (C+)
# - Good: Sillyness. Choral/coral pun. Your commitment. Bad: I don’t get Octothorpe - honestly, I enjoyed Spud solo more. Choral/coral pun. The Title seems weekly tied in unless I’m missing something. The final rhyme. Challenge: (B)
AAA - Good: Build in arrangement. Bad: clipping and the drums got to me a little bit. Challenge: (C-) hmm - I guess it goes to what “Choral means” I felt that your vocal doubling was your attempt at choral, but it didn’t really get very choral for me till near the end.
Good stuff. Given how Songfighters tend to want to find a creative take on a title - I was surprised how many songs were about “The” Blitz. Not a bad thing, just surprised.
It will be interesting to say what the judges say, and I’m anxious to be back in the fray with so many great musicians.
Like most of us, that's one item on a list of things I'd like to fix if I ever remix the song.
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