The Song Fight Bulletin Board

I did have some ideas to go for the dirty joke angle... "i'm coming now"... when I accidentally looped that bit. particularly with the whole virgin thing.

These are all really good songs. You are all quite scary. Yay. I liked. every. single. song.


ADD
SUCH fun percussion. So busy my ear got confused...but synths at least gave it enough continuity to hold on to - I can grok your compositional direction. A vocal that searches for things ... and finds them! Nice slippy-around timbre. I wish you'd ended it differently, but don't know with what and it did go with the strumming pattern. Nice.

BGM
Stops are professional. I. REALLY. like your voice. Good production as usual earns you the right to showboat that exquisite introduction. A bit jarred by fill into tempo change, but transition back into original tempo is fantastic. High hat pattern switch up is choice and all vocals handled with precision. I am not certain about your ending, but this makes me want to listen a lot more so you are probably just as good with albums I bet.

TCC
A time machine song makes the robot-boy perspective of Queen-Elizabeth POV sweetly palatable. Like hearing her get sucked down the wormhole with the interesting choice of accelerando for the tempo change. Pushes my Yoshimi-Pink-Robot buttons. Sonority got a bit samey, but if that's how you get across a sing-song bit that will stick then you go right ahead. Adorable and beepy.
ps. totally did NOT get the innuendo being discussed now which made my reaction to getting pulled into this wormhole rather ... eeeky-freaky. heh.

Dear DJRD:
I hope you enjoyed your get-out-of-jail-free-card that you got with your guest round. It's popcorn time, missy.

FBF
adorably horrible little character and amusing parent names. wanted vocal to pop more out-at-me but chorus back-ups taste nice. such a cool over the top squirmy-wormy solo-y instrument! WHAT IS IT?!? good presentation of form - snuggly Brahms-drop in at the end was sweet. Awwww. You know that kid ain't going to sleep, right?

GJ&tC
this is very dramatic, I want a soaring high ripping vocal to come in over this or something as it develops for some reason. dark and cool and sets a neat scene. cool tempo change. that's some cold, cold shit to sing in that low ass voice man, in that exposed section. THIS is the way to learn. well done and chilling.
{sorry if you're reading this in bits. my thingy kept eating your review!}

MG
WOW! surprises everywhere and completely epic. took me for a real spin. i had a lot of stuff to say that was this and that at the beginning about vocals buried in the mix and then you exploded around me like a cloud of insistence! Perhaps the first guitar solo could have been by itself and a little ... clearer? but when you 'sploded, I got the point and was horribly wrong about it all.

ps. i liked the xylophone.

RD
classy mix
oh GEEZ... that is so cute. You've produced another Durand it seems.
one of the cymbals on the "not seeing daddy anymore" was distracting a bit. The end of the beginning could have been a little bit stronger, but it made the entrance of the Real Star that much more AWWWWH - you do manage to hold your own with those chorused vocals though and a tight mix such as you make when you're at your tip-top. Yay.

WSA
Here you are totally in-control of your dissonance. when I feel lost you pull a blanket over my head and spin me right to an arrival point. this is SO original. can't pinpoint the hook but catchiness is relentless-seems like it's really more about resolution of planned chaos to assigned arrival points to me. Every well structured decision really shoots the listener in the heart. Beautiful!


ps. Oystercatcher, Merisan, Chris Cogott. You were missed.

Thanks for the reviews, Denise. Should I be worried you don't mention the song content (rhetorical question)?

What do you mean by "chorused vocals?"

Nur Ein!!!!

Ross wrote:Thanks for the reviews, Denise. Should I be worried you don't mention the song content (rhetorical question)?

What do you mean by "chorused vocals?"

Nur Ein!!!!

Nur Ein, yourself!

The word I was looking for there is "harmonized" but all I could think of was choir right then. Sometimes my brain does not like to give me words when I need them. It was the line about her gun I think because it's sticking there.
Oh. As far as content...
I am just a little family-sad right now for a few reasons. On this matter, you chose a clever angle but I am a sketchy avoider of songs that pull the strings so I'd skip this one...only for now. I am just tired of talking about how emo I am on the boards, I think, as far as a content mention.

I will go ahead and say since there has been a spirit of openness around here lately; that I was that little girl in the song, except there were only 3 plates and a high chair - and now I'm watching my little brother (the one in the chair) go through it. Just like back then, there's nothing I can do to fix anything or help anyone feel any better. I s'poze I was being detached.

You did good tho. It's such a good song (I do know the question was rhetorical. but I did feel bad about not saying a thing)

RangerDenni wrote: TCC

A time machine song makes the robot-boy perspective of Queen-Elizabeth POV sweetly palatable. Like hearing her get sucked down the wormhole with the interesting choice of accelerando for the tempo change. Pushes my Yoshimi-Pink-Robot buttons. Sonority got a bit samey, but if that's how you get across a sing-song bit that will stick then you go right ahead. Adorable and beepy.
ps. totally did NOT get the innuendo being discussed now which made my reaction to getting pulled into this wormhole rather ... eeeky-freaky. heh.

There was no on purpose innuendo... but I did notice it later... heh

I'm pleased to have reminded you of Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots even in a very small way --- as it's one of my favorite albums of the past 10 years (disturbingly enough it came out 10 years ago this July... time flies? ... in my time machine.)

j$ wrote:

chocolatechips wrote:soon you'll say, you've seen the queen, i'm coming now in a time machine"

If you came in *my* time machine, I probably wouldn't offer you a return trip.

That is the thing about time machines. As soon as you go forward in one, then you can always see yourself coming. I expect that is why the tardis had to be so big.

You mean for all the semen?

RangerDenni wrote:stuff

Thanks for your candor. It was really rhetorical, but I also appreciate your reponse. While I wish it hadn't push a negative button, it is also gratifying to know I was able depict an authentic emotional landscape.

Hoping to be in the fight against you next round.

Nur Ein!!!!

Elizabeth the Great Reviews

So many minor key songs this week! Weird. My reviews make it sound like I hate everything. I'm sorry for that. It's mostly genre bias, I guess. Anyway, I know you guys put a lot of time into these songs and I feel like a dick for not saying super-nice things, but these are my thoughts and who cares what I think anyway?

ADD - This is kind of monumental. Deserving of multiple listens to be sure, perhaps even mandatory for full enjoyment. I hate history lessons in song and I think that's kind of the obvious direction with this title, but fuck it---it's good. Reminds me of Neutral Milk Hotel. Middle section is wack. Wish I could make recordings that sound this good. You must teach me.

bgm - Great recording. I'm not digging all the stops and starts (that was last week's challenge! or maybe the week before?) Ooh, ending on a half-cadence. Daring. I'm not a fan of this song. You have made better. But if someone said it was their favorite, I would totally understand why.

Chocolate Chips - Noisy! I think I could have had better things to say about this if it carried on and became something more significant. On its own, I'm not too enthusiastic. Listened a second time based on Caravan Ray's review and I think there's probably more here than I'm getting.

DJ Ranger Den - Vocal and accompaniment seem to be occupying very different places. I assume this is on purpose. This reminds me of the Ani DiFranco songs I skip over on her records. Too much talky-talk. But I'm glad your immunity allowed you to feel free to do something experimental.

Frankie Big Face - I don't review my own songs but I'm really happy with this considering I had next-to-nothing on Saturday morning and nine hours of symphony auditions across Saturday and Sunday.

Genevieve Johnson - If I (or anyone else) posted lyrics with that many links and explanations, you would (rightfully) give me SO much shit for it. I love the chorus. In general, I think your songs for this Nur Ein are some of your strongest.

Manhattan Glutton - More lyric explanations. I think you did a very effective job of meeting the challenge. The song is not for me, but as with bgm's, I'd understand if it ranked high on some lists. I didn't hear the title once in the song—guess that's why you wrote the explanation.

Ross Durand - Haha. We both use the "clean my plate" line. But I didn't do anything as brazen as using an ACTUAL CHILD. I'm sure plenty of people will fine this soooooo adorable, but I'm not one of them unfortunately. It's cute and your daughter did a nice job.

Worldly Self-Assurance - I feel pretentious just typing your band name. I'm having trouble enjoying this because of the lead vocal track. It's not pleasing to my ear. I don't know if it's the voice itself or whatever the effect is on it. I would have liked to have seen the lyrics in the lyric thread. Ambitious but outside my comfort zone.

I miss Merisan. My fav of the bunch was ADD.

Don't miss Niv's reviews of Rounds 1-3 over in the Nur Ein VII thread.

I can't believe you read the lyrics. Anyway, Betsy is short for Elizabeth. I did the best I could without turning the song into a gag about kids or history.

Manhattan Glutton wrote:I can't believe you read the lyrics. Anyway, Betsy is short for Elizabeth. I did the best I could without turning the song into a gag about kids or history.

Yes, I know that Betsy is short for Elizabeth, but the title is "Elizabeth the Great." Just using the name Betsy once is a little....thin? I don't know. Hey man, I'm not a judge. I'm not the ones you have to convince.

The narrator is calling her Elizabeth the Great ironically, because she's demanding. I also have the word "great" in the lyrics, if that helps you imagine it.

I know subtly and ironic tone don't do well around here, but jeesh, I explained all this already.

Oh it works just fine for the title.

Manhattan Glutton wrote:The narrator is calling her Elizabeth the Great ironically, because she's demanding. I also have the word "great" in the lyrics, if that helps you imagine it.

I know subtly and ironic tone don't do well around here, but jeesh, I explained all this already.

I'm just giving you a hard time.

BTW - I hope you all are not thinking I just got my kid to sing as a gimick, i really do think it supports the whole song concept, and the concept came first.

That is all,

Nur Ein!!!!

It's too quiet! I have nothing to keep me from my work.

Get a real job!

frankie big face wrote:It's too quiet! I have nothing to keep me from my work.

IS THIS BETTER!?

Ross wrote:

frankie big face wrote:It's too quiet! I have nothing to keep me from my work.

IS THIS BETTER!?

Congrats to the survivors of Round 4! I had a good time doing this and will likely check back next year to take part again. I am also happy that one of the five judges seemed to appreciate my song despite its flaws (or maybe because of them?)

I am planning on taking a break from Song Fight! itself for quite awhile as I have so many other things I want to work on and it takes too much of my time. But I plan on coming back for occasional fights when the title really excites me and I have time to do it.

This was fun (and a good challenge.)

chips......
I liked your music a lot. A Very Good Show.