Nur Ein VII Round Zero "Breaking The Ice"

[roymond]

I've spent the last eighteen months becoming super-proficient at the jews' harp.

Damn you! Secret sauce now severely compromised.

[RangerDenni]

Chris, I'm putting that in my bio - that I cause weather disturbances and that this is a Known and Documented Fact.

[Billy's Little Trip]

Chris, I'm putting that in my bio - that I cause weather disturbances and that this is a Known and Documented Fact.

Here's your proof. I'm in Misiion Viejo, about 8 miles from the epicenter. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/ ... ml#details

[Ross]

Chris, I'm putting that in my bio - that I cause weather disturbances and that this is a Known and Documented Fact.

Umm, not to get too technical, but earthquakes aren't weather.

[Billy's Little Trip]

Chris, I'm putting that in my bio - that I cause weather disturbances and that this is a Known and Documented Fact.

Umm, not to get too technical, but earthquakes aren't weather.

Way to rain on her parade.


....see that? What I did there?

[JonPorobil]

My reviews. The usual disclaimer applies: I'm not a judge, and my opinions are not always significant. I've tried to supply concrete examples, but it's not always possible, and I may occasionally observe something incorrectly, because my ears aren't perfect. I did notice some people playing fast and loose with the non-optional challenge, so those people should just consider themselves lucky I'm not a judge. By my definitions, singing loudly doesn't count as shouting, and if your shouting was buried in the background, it doesn't count as "significant." A lot of good songs would have been bumped down a few spaces on my list for those reasons. Anyway. On with the reviews.


Adam Adamant - This is one of the neatest recordings I've heard from you. The uke is real, but not out of tune. Much appreciated. There's a bass instrument here (I think it's a synth, but I'm not sure), and it sounds like the string is slack, which gives the track a cool groove. I wasn't expecting a tempo shift for the chorus, but it's not hard to roll with, and a pretty clever way to incorporate the challenge. I would have liked to have heard the melodic synth over the chorus taken down a peg, and the shouting made a little bit clearer. I'd also have removed that last verse.

ADD - Opening on an old-school drum machine driven loop, this is already a promising ADD track. These vocals have a quality I don't think I've ever heard in one of your songs before - they feel very immediate, right in my face, but also crisp and clear. The analog synths build up with a promising pace. I'm not a big fan of the repetitive one that keeps making the same octave jump, but everything else is pretty amazing. At 2:07, you introduce what I believe is the first guitar in the track. It works quite well. The bridge shakes things up like a good bridge ought to. After the bridge there's an insrumental interlude that probably could have been made a bit shorter, though I like the minimalism of taking it down to just the drums for a measure, and a fake ending. Still, it feels like after the bridge, this song has done all it needs to, and the wind-down period is a bit too long.

BGM - Holy crap, is that Flansy? I dig the frenetic groove of that guitar line, and how it contrasts with the simplistic, sing-song-y verse melody. The cheerleader chorus is an approach that I would not have thought of for this challenge. Still, a solid groove, well executed, well mixed. You're going to be a formidable challenger, I can tell.

Boffo Yux Dudes - I wind up saying this about just every BYD song I hear, but it keeps being true, so here goes: The delivery of the lyrics is just too hammy, like you know you're telling jokes... but it's not funny. Part of it is that the hacky rhymes in the shouting sections feel very forced, and making something feel stilted and artificial is a great way to kill comedy. Instead of laughing at the situation of the character, or the "unexpected" turnarounds, I'm wondering why these phrases are put together so awkwardly. I'd love to hear you two try something totally deadpan for once - I bet that style would be much more effective.

Chocolate Chips - Is that a really thick vocoder effect on the voice, or is it completely synthesized? Juxtaposing the heavily processed vocals against a classic 12-bar progression creates an interesting mood, which just gets more interesting when the surf-style guitar kicks in for the bridge. But I'm not sure what this is all meant to add up to. I didn't hear any shouting - it sounded really even throughout. And to be honest, I'm not sure your lyrics make sense to me. For what it is, this is well-executed, but I'm not sure how successful you were at addressing the prompts.

Chris Cogott - Ooh, I guess it's time to turn the brain off for a little bit. Headstrong rocker! I see that our choruses are driven by the same wordplay/metaphor. I'm always impressed by the wide variety of styles you can pull off. The interplay of the guitars and vocal harmonies is really nice, as is the transition from the heavier riff-based sections of the song to the more melodic sections. I'm at three minutes and I don't hear any shouting yet, though, so that's concerning. Or was it your intention that the loud singing in the chorus counts as the shouting? If I were a judge, I'd consider that highly tenuous.

DJ Ranger Den - I'm hearing some heavily processed harmonies, and they give the vocal performance this kind of otherworldly feel. Contrasted with the earthy blues of the piano and arrangement, it creates a piece unlike anything I've heard from you or anyone else. Your vocals have gotten much much stronger since your first Nur Ein two years ago, but now you've got a problem where your voice no longer has the space it needs in the mix, especially when you get to the shouty part. You're clearly hitting some powerful notes and doing it well, but your voice is getting lost among your instruments. At this point, you ought to have the confidence to make your voice the centerpiece it's trying to be in this song.

Frankie Big Face - Low fi guitars in the opening, leading up to a sudden burst of energy. Everything here is really overdriven and hot, threatening to overpower your voice. I love your lyrics as usual, even if it takes a little effort to make them out. "Pins to needles, needles to pins / I'll need an axe if I wanna get in." Oh man, great. I think I hear some shouting in the bridge, but it could get easily confused for a particularly distorted guitar. Not sure how to advise on that. I like this quite a bit, but you have done better in the past, and probably will again in the future.

Genevive Jones et al. - You have a bad habit of starting songs with cheesey sound effects. The crowd noise is okay, but the footsteps are so corny. This is a cute little acoustic song so far, though the lyrics don't always hit. "I've just been struck by an inexplica BULL-urge" in particular doesn't work at all. I like how the groove builds as it goes, and the handclaps that enter at about 2:05 are particularly fun. I'm a little on the fence about whether the pacing is right for this one. On the one hand, I like that you let it build up so that the joke, when it hits, is even funnier, but there was definitely thirty seconds or so when I thought this was just going to be a corny little "Hello" ballad with nothing to set it apart. Still, it was quite a bit funnier and more pleasant to listen to than the Boffo Yux Dudes entry. Maybe you could give them some pointers. Oh, and you end your song with about fifteen seconds of dead air (and some mouse clicks... oops). On an unrelated note, what'd you do with Sid?

Gooey Caramel Centaur - Beatboxing to start off a track... could still break either way. I like the piano and guitar interaction. The beatboxing belies a sweet sincerety. Did you consider other forms of percussion? Stomping/handclaps, beating on random objects in and around your studio, drum loops? It might have resulted in a track that has more thematic coherence. Also, your vocals come across a little naked as the arrangement fills out - when there's the beatbox, piano, guitar, and bass, your voice needs some reverb over it. Also, you missed some of those high notes. Consider re-recording and/or using a spot pitch correction utility.

JoAnn Abbott - There are a number of problems with this track that might not have been an issue if you'd had access to even a rudimentary melodic instrument. First of all, the structure is all over the place, so when a line ends, I don't have a frame of reference for how the next line is meant to interact with it. Will it rhyme? Will it complete the phrase set up in the previous line? Will it start a whole different train of thought? Maybe you were going for a more prosaic feel, but it comes across here as unplanned, as though you were making it up as you went along. I feel like it would have been easier to catch yourself doing that if you'd had to compose music to go along with these lyrics. You're also floating in and out of key, which also would have easier to avoid if you'd had an instrument to sing along to. Finally, there's the lyrics, which start off with the conceit of being your dating site profile, but quickly veer off-course as you "react" to things that we're not able to see. Or maybe she's just being proactively prudish? It's a little confusing. So for a point of view, you need to figure out whether this is a monologue or a series of interactions. Also, maybe talk to some people who are into (for want of a better term) "alternative" sexual practices, because the details you made up (bringing a bag of ice? a gun?) don't really mesh with anything plausibly sexual. I know some freaky freaky people, and I've never heard of anyone attempting sexual gunplay, especially not on the first date. I'd also maybe consider cutting a verse or two. After that long rant about all the things you <i>don't</i> want, it feels like the song has made it's point, and needs to get out pretty quickly from there.

Jon Eric - Man, I never did figure out the sweet spot for those harmonies over the chorus. I do like the vocal runs I pulled off in the fifth and sixth line of each verse. If I'd had more time, I would have tried to get cleaner takes of the piano, guitar and organ, but as it is I don't think anything is distractingly off. I'm happy to stand behind this entry. Oh, and just for the record, that piano part was much more difficult to play than it sounds.

Ligers with Attitude - We had a possible They Might Be Giants in the disguise earlier, and now we have a possible Ween in disguise? It must be Christmas here in Nur Ein-land! That's a really nice bass riff, and accentuating it with syncopated guitars was a canny move. Cannier still is that "Yeah!" that pops up and cements the groove. Your vocals are a little too front-and-center - in addition to taking the vocals down in the mix, you might consider recording at a lower volume, too. I'm hearing some bassy resonance that typically means you were very close to the microphone and recorded it too loud. I'm also hearing a couple of troublesome plosives. Not too awful, but noticeable. What isn't noticeable, however, is the shouting. Where was it?

Manhattan Glutton - This sounds more minimalist and drier than what I'm used to hearing from you. Were you rushed or something? In particular, the vocals need a little more reverb than they've got. You're normally a production wizard, so it's a little strange to hear a song from you that sounds like karaoke. I do like the 6/4 groove you set up, and the guitar playing is clean and effective as usual. You probably want to drink some tea and honey after that vocal performance. Sorry, Mike, but this one's a rare Manhattan Glutton misstep. If this round were competitive, I'd be worried for you, but I bet you can bring your A-game next week.

Merisan - I noticed a few people (myself included) did songs about approaching a woman in a bar. Really cool to hear a song from the opposite perspective. I like the chorus; got kind of a southern rock vibe going on here. The electric piano kicking in over the second chorus keeps it interesting. I'm hearing a lot more oomph in Erin's vocals than usual. That's a very pleasant surprise. This might be my favorite entry of this round. I definitely can't think of anything I'd change. Great job.

Oyster Catcher - A song by "Oyster Catcher" starts with ocean/beach ambient noise. Suspiciously on-the-nose, but oh well. Nice mandolin. Okay, the ambient noise is really getting distracting here. I like that you're trying to channel the raw passion in lieu of technique here, resulting in something that sounds a bit like early Mountain Goats. But the water sound effects really kill your replay index. Without those sounds intruding on the mix literally the whole time this would be one of the better entries. Better luck next time.

Rabid Garfunkel - Ah yes, that signature Rabid Garf sound - They Might Be Giants by way of Charles Bukowski. I like how the chorus forces the song's rhythm into sea-shanty territory, but gosh those transitions are rough. You sure did keep it short, though. Thanks!

Ross Durand - Ross, you've gotten this folk-rock/alt-country vibe down to a science. I'd like to see more memorable lyrics, either with better wordplay or more evocative images. The mood is conveyed here beautifully, but the words are strewn with clichés. The shouting section also doesn't do this song any favors, probably because you've never had to mix shouted vocals before. It gets a little overwhelming, and you lose the melodic momentum too.

Sausage - Nice clean acoustic-electric strumming. Is that an ovation? The lead vocals feel a little strained. There's a suspended chord at the end of the first chorus that feels more discordant than intended. It might be the backing vocals. They sound like there's a flanger or some other sutdio effect on them, which is wise because it cuts out some "space" for them in the mix without interfering with your lead vocals, but they're still a little bit too loud. Overall, my complaints with this song are nitpicks. It's well-executed and inoffensive, but it doesn't inspire passion in me, either. If I were a judge, this would probably be my #11. Right in the middle.

Snappy + Floyd - At first I thought my computer was crashing. Is that a sample from "Under Pressure?" Your flow is pretty good, but the rhymes are kind of awkward. I keep waiting for a chorus that never comes. The rapping here is not so great that it merits running for five minutes with so little breaks in the flow, and the instrumental breaks are so screwy that they're really unpleasant to listen to. I haven't liked "Under Pressure" this little since Vanilla Ice. Fake endings are nice when the listener wants the song to keep going, but when you're waiting for the end of the song like this, a fake ending just seems cruel.

The Idiot Kings - I'm glad to see you're every bit as crazy as I am. I like the mood you set up in the first few seconds here. It's reminding me of some of the music from Thom Yorke's solo record. Your vocals are mixed low and given a nice big dose of reverb, which gives the impression of a great distance between you and the listener. I've heard you use this trick before, but I'm not sure it's the right move here - some more immediacy might have served the song better, or at least the impression of changing distance (for instance, by starting far away and getting closer, or the other way around). As the song nears the end, I'm hearing some audio glitches. They sound a little like mp3 encoding artifacts, but I think you're using them intentionally. It's disorienting, like when you hear a siren in a song while you're driving.

WreckdoM - Your bonkers version of blues has gotten better and better the longer you participate in this competition. Whoever's doing that nebbishy-carnival-barker spoken word bits between the lines of the lyrics has a lot of gumption but he might have had a better effect if used more sparingly.

Worldly Self-Assurance - I forget who the singers are in this song (Melvin and Pedro?), but they've got two very different and equally noticeable vocal effects applied. That's not a problem until they start to sing at the same time, and then it sort of destorys the illusion of performance for me. Nice jazzy guitar work, which I assume is Glennny's doing. I really like the drums throughout, but especially when they speed up for the long interlude at the end. As with so many entries, I totally missed the shouting, but no matter; this is a good song.

[chocolatechips]

Chocolate Chips - Is that a really thick vocoder effect on the voice, or is it completely synthesized? Juxtaposing the heavily processed vocals against a classic 12-bar progression creates an interesting mood, which just gets more interesting when the surf-style guitar kicks in for the bridge. But I'm not sure what this is all meant to add up to. I didn't hear any shouting - it sounded really even throughout. And to be honest, I'm not sure your lyrics make sense to me. For what it is, this is well-executed, but I'm not sure how successful you were at addressing the prompts.

I appreciate your thoughtful review. It's cool to hear someone else's unbiased opinion because it can be very hard to keep perspective on your own stuff.

The vocal effect is a formant shift up. The vocals were also doubled for this one. I recorded two takes and effected each of them separately and then mixed them together to try to create a thicker sound. I was very much rushing this process though... I was recording my last vocals at about 11 PM last night. The mix was very rushed, although I think it worked out OK considering that.

This is the first song I've submitted to Song Fight/Side Fight that hasn't included any synthesizers or samplers (other than drum samples of course) so that was a nice challenge (that I made for myself) but you're right that I didn't really nail the "shouting" thing ... the beginning was sort of an attempt at shouting but I guess it doesn't really come across that way (and it's also not at all integral to the song, just an attempt to shoehorn shouting into it.) And there's also some background shouting going on throughout the song in a loop (this shouter is supposed to be another person yelling insults at the singer) but this is pretty low in the mix, probably not noticeable unless you are listening for it.

The lyrics are nonsense (the singer wants to meet a new girl - "break the ice" - while surfing... ridiculous!) but that seems in sync with the sort of surf style thing I was going for (my first time attempting anything influenced by surf rock.)

[BoffoYux]

Oh goody! Here comes the BYD Brain Wall!

You coined that gem. It does sound like us again. Actually, part of it oddly feels like our Gift of Music tune.

[BoffoYux]

BYD is in with a song. Paternal fellatio included with no extra charge.

I haven't received it.

Do you have proof of paternity?

I am a son of a bitch. Dogged me for my whole life.

Who's your Daddy?

[BoffoYux]

Short thoughts:

Boffyux Dudes - Not a fan. Kind of awkward singing, your timing is not very good, and your rhymes often come in weird spots, the lines don't flow smoothly. Although your pitch is good. The main thing though, I didn't really find it funny

Thanks for the constructive comments. The awkward singing and timing is intentional. It's a part of the goof that this guy doesn't realize that screaming is not getting him anywhere. I can see how that can be off putting for the causal listener, but it's a central point of the song that the singer is clueless to social cues from the people around him.

That and we really wanted to put in 'Go Blow Your Dad' in there somewheres.

[Manhattan Glutton]

You probably want to drink some tea and honey after that vocal performance. Sorry, Mike, but this one's a rare Manhattan Glutton misstep. If this round were competitive, I'd be worried for you, but I bet you can bring your A-game next week.

Thanks for understanding... both how off my game I was, and how much my throat hurt last night.

[JoAnn Abbott]

Jon Eric said-
JoAnn Abbott - There are a number of problems with this track that might not have been an issue if you'd had access to even a rudimentary melodic instrument. First of all, the structure is all over the place, so when a line ends, I don't have a frame of reference for how the next line is meant to interact with it. Will it rhyme? Will it complete the phrase set up in the previous line? Will it start a whole different train of thought? Maybe you were going for a more prosaic feel, but it comes across here as unplanned, as though you were making it up as you went along. I feel like it would have been easier to catch yourself doing that if you'd had to compose music to go along with these lyrics. You're also floating in and out of key, which also would have easier to avoid if you'd had an instrument to sing along to. Finally, there's the lyrics, which start off with the conceit of being your dating site profile, but quickly veer off-course as you "react" to things that we're not able to see. Or maybe she's just being proactively prudish? It's a little confusing. So for a point of view, you need to figure out whether this is a monologue or a series of interactions. Also, maybe talk to some people who are into (for want of a better term) "alternative" sexual practices, because the details you made up (bringing a bag of ice? a gun?) don't really mesh with anything plausibly sexual. I know some freaky freaky people, and I've never heard of anyone attempting sexual gunplay, especially not on the first date. I'd also maybe consider cutting a verse or two. After that long rant about all the things you <i>don't</i> want, it feels like the song has made it's point, and needs to get out pretty quickly from there.

I can't disagree with you for the most part. I know I do a lot better when I have someone to accompany me and a tune to follow in real life and not just in my head. I wasn't able to get one for this- my last pianist doesn't like deadlines and the guy who said he would help just got custody of his kids and found out how much time they take up. *Shrugs* Kids are more important than a song contest, so I can't fault him for having the right priorities. Me, I can barely play "Chopsticks" 9 times out of ten.
I intended to have this be a series of retakes for a dating video, but the girl keeps thinking about failed dates of the past and going off the deep end. Being Snow White? I had a friend who went with a guy who wanted to ice her down and have her pretend to be dead during sex. Indiana Jones carries a gun and whip, which is why I mentioned them; the rest of that part alludes to S&M of course. The third part, and the long rant is taken with very few changes from a REAL relationship advertisement by a woman. I did a lot of research on "Bad personal ads" for this song. She was...inspiring. And has apparently had a lot of bad experiences. She also included easily twice as much material as I used...yay for editing.
The final bit is the woman finally calming down and telling who she is and what she wants. Nothing unreasonable, and it was to leave the listener hoping she would finally find someone nice.

If you know any musicians who would like to partner with me, please let me know. I can even pay in home made chocolate chip cookies if they want!

[supremeedible]

It's always the same freakin' deal -- I convince myself my songs is at least passable, then hear all the entries and start to shrivel. However, I think there are at least three entries that are worse than mine (I may point the finger when I get to write up reviews), so I might at least last another round .

Gooey Caramel Centaur - Beatboxing to start off a track... could still break either way. I like the piano and guitar interaction. The beatboxing belies a sweet sincerety. Did you consider other forms of percussion? Stomping/handclaps, beating on random objects in and around your studio, drum loops? It might have resulted in a track that has more thematic coherence. Also, your vocals come across a little naked as the arrangement fills out - when there's the beatbox, piano, guitar, and bass, your voice needs some reverb over it. Also, you missed some of those high notes. Consider re-recording and/or using a spot pitch correction utility.

Ha. We sold the drums a few years ago (probably not long after Down For a While), so I am going to have to get creative and fast! I thought beatboxing worked with the rhythmic feel of the song, if not the lyrical one -- then again it constitutes something that only kind of passes for the real thing, which is thematic in a slightly meta way. I thought I got the reverb right, but good to know I have more to learn.

[Rabid Garfunkel]

@JonEric: Just blowing the carbon out of the exhaust pipes, as always for Round Zero. As to the transition issues you'd mentioned, had the verse music written, but not the chorus music, and had the singers for the chorus on hand. So we winged (wung?) it to a click that we ignored, heh.

To quote myself from facebook... "Never change from 3/4 to 4/4 at the last minute, and then up the tempo 40 klicks."

Buke, nice! Thanks. I'll settle back into Waits-space in Round One. There's only so many ways one can write about a fictional dead lover/life-partner/bosom friend and the aftermath without getting mawkish. At least in that, I think I succeeded. Or competented, anyway.

(Highly entertained that there were so many f-bombs dropped this round, yours included )

@supremeedible: I know you're pointing at me, hombre. Let's rock

[BenKrieger]

I really didn't have the time to write/record this week and didn't feel comfortable shouting at home for some reason. So yesterday, on the way to Sidewalk (my job) when the storm was really heavy, I wrote a couple verses in my head, got off the train at Marcy Ave, walked to the Williamsburg Bridge and halfway across, found a place where my iPhone wouldn't get wet, pulled out my mandolin, and recorded the song. It had to be done in three parts because first the iphone was getting wet and then some joggers came by and I was self-concious, had to wait until they'd passed out of view. I recorded one extra scream and loop/delayed it low in the mix, but the rest of the ambient noise is all from the bridge and storm, can't be separated.

Oystercatcher
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oystercatcher

[the idiot king]

The Idiot Kings - I'm glad to see you're every bit as crazy as I am.

thank you?

As the song nears the end, I'm hearing some audio glitches. They sound a little like mp3 encoding artifacts, but I think you're using them intentionally. It's disorienting, like when you hear a siren in a song while you're driving.

they're intentional. they're in the first chorus, too.

[frankie big face]

Haven't listened to the song yet, but thanks to everyone who said they liked my song. Not exactly what I was expecting this song to sound like (early drafts were more electronic) but sometimes the song just goes where it goes. I know the recording is loud and noisy. I will be working on this over the next several weeks.

@Jon Eric - you really think the screams/shouts aren't audible as screams/shouts? That may be a headphone thing. I'm hoping that the line "I want to shout" will be a clue as to what they are.

[the idiot king]

Awesome! Thanks

no problem! if you want, i have a short dialog of her screaming at me (unprovoked; i generally had the recorder going after i had the good chance of getting that initial scream). she said something about me trying to kill her (my girlfriend and i were waiting for the light to change so we could get lunch across the street) and i wished her luck. it was pretty insane and utterly sample-ready.

[chocolatechips]

These are my reviews - I started ranking my song fight! reviews last time around and that makes it a bit more fun (for me... and I think for people reading the reviews) so I'll be doing these in order of my preference (how I'd rank them for this Nur Ein deal if I were a judge.)

1. Merisan - This is pretty great. I love the call & response vocals. The production is tight (vocals could be up a tad during the verse.) I like this song quite a bit.

2. BGM - Reminds me of Cake. The main riff and vocals are nice (if a bit repetitive.) The shouting chorus is pretty cool (sounds like cheerleaders.) The bridge at about 1:30 is quite a surprise and probably my favorite part of the song (reminds me of Granddaddy, a band I like more than Cake.)

3. Sausage - I always really like your songs & voice but usually your production ruins it a bit. This time the production is a bit better (although that acoustic guitar tone is a bit irritating ... and it's too high in the mix.) I think as far as the song itself, this is in the running as my very favorite --- if I was judging just that and not the mix/production as well - it'd be higher up.

4. The Worldly Self Assurance - "And the colored girls go..". At first I was put off by the reference to "Walk on the Wild Side" but the rest of it doesn't sound like it so it's all good. I'm not a big fan of the instrumental outro.

5. Oystercatcher - Reminds me of Neutral Milk Hotel & Akron/Family (the production sounds a lot like something from their 2005 debut self titled album - which is one of my favorites.) I do find this song quite appealing and I like the use of the ambient sound in a rhythmic sort of way but it is also a trying thing for a song competition (which favors "single" type songs rather than album tracks.)

6. Jon Eric - Lots of fun stuff here. The lyrics are cool (I particularly enjoyed the line where you rhymed Lolita with Margarita.) The organ sound is a very nice touch and I'm a big fan of the backing vocals.

7. Snappy + Floyd - This is pretty damn tight. I love the rhythm and the lyrics are cool (whenever I notice them I'm loving the references.) The 2nd bit of rapping (that comes in at around 2 minutes) isn't as smooth as the first bit. This song kind of reminds me of what Animal Collective would sound like if they were doing hip hop. It is a bit long and I need to be in the right mood to really enjoy it. But I do think you are on to something with this whole approach.

8. The Idiot Kings - I like this but it's a bit hard to hear clearly as the drums & bass are all up front in the mix and everything else sounds like it's floating off on a cloud ... I appreciate this is on purpose but ... I'm still wanting to hear the vocals more clearly, they could be up in the mix a bit more I think. There are some sounds in here that sounds like a badly encoded mp3 (but used on purpose.. maybe?)

9. Chris Cogott - Pretty sweet 70s/80s rock sound. Goes on a bit too long for me (although about the right length for this genre.) The guitar solos are cool, I like when they come together to play in unison after each doing their own thing on the sides.

10. Ligers with Attitude - I really dig the main groove (and the "yeah.") The reggae style rhythm guitar is nice. The whole thing is a bit messy but that kind of works considering the feel of the song.

11. Frankie Big Face - Song is pretty good (vaguely sounds like something that could be on the Donnie Darko soundtrack) but the mix is a bit off-putting (had to turn it down because it's so over compressed sounding.)

12. Ross Durand - This is good, but I think I have a bit of a genre bias against this style that's making me appreciate less than I should. The guitar leads are a nice touch. My favorite part is "you can't carry the weight of the world... you can barely carry yourself."

13. DJ Danger Den - Nice vocals and atmosphere. The problem for me with this song is that the melody seems very meandering, I can't really get a hold of where it's going. The song sounds nice while it's happening but I don't find it very memorable.

14. Genevieve Jones - At its best it reminds me of Flight of the Conchords, at its worst it's a bit boring. It does get pretty interesting past 2 minutes with all of the drums and backing vocals, I think it should have ended with that feeling rather than going back to the guy & guitar thing.

15. Gooey Caramel Centaur - I like some elements of this song but they seem to be put together in a way that makes the whole less than the sum of the parts. The vocals are too low in the mix (and they're too dry.) The beat-boxing doesn't seem to really fit with the rest of the song, it makes what otherwise sounds like a sincere song sound a bit like a joke.

16. Manhattan Glutton - Has a 90s alterna-rock feel to it (which I guess is classic rock now, eh?) Not my favorite genre of music so this probably biases me against this somewhat. Musically it's pretty good (if not exciting) but the vocals let it down a bit. I like the intensity of them but they just seem a bit too off in places.

17. ADD - I think the intro is too long (vocals come in at 37 seconds) ... at 1:45 the song gets much more interesting. I like that section quite a bit (musically, vocally, & lyrically.) The guitar is a nice touch too (and really stands out in contrast to all of the synth sounds.) Basically I quite like the 30 seconds from 1:45 to 2:15 but the rest of it doesn't really interest me too much.

18. WreckdoM - I'm not sure I believe this line "I don't do drugs but I drink socially."

19. Rabid Garfunkel - This is insane. The accordion is a good touch. I like that its short.

20. Adam Adamant - I thought this was kind of working until the shouting bit comes in as that just seems too sloppy. I think my favorite thing about this recording is the synth stabs (that first come in around 40 seconds.) I think the vocals should be up a bit more in the mix. I'm not sure what the heavy staticy distortion that comes at around 2 minutes is pretty irritating.

21. Jo Ann Abbott - Your voice is pretty good (and the lyrics are interesting, if not put together in a musical way) but it's very hard to follow a song that doesn't seem to have much of a structure.

22. Boffo Yux Dudes - I like the circus sounding organ... the rest of it doesn't work for me. Rather than amusing it comes across as annoying.

[Caravan Ray]

Are you just listing your top 3, or have you only listened to three songs so far?

My rankings are as follows:

(I will listen to these and rate as I go - rankings will change)


1. Frankie Big Face - cool vox FBF! I have a grumpy curmudgeon surrounding me in my headphones! I like this. Nice crappy guitar sound too. I approve.
2. DJ Ranger Den - excellent Den. This is reminding me of the Triffids for some reason - one of my favourite bands of all time - but they had a deep voiced Perthling singer, not a girlie - whatever accent you have is - but, I like this a lot
3. Adamadamant - Welcome back Mr Ant. You can do a lot better than this. Is that a ukulele? WTF is it with ukuleles? Are you Polynesian? If not - put the Uke down. (I'm looking at you too Cashpoint)

I am a very busy man. I will only listen to 3 songs. Frankie, Den and Adam are a representative sample. I will extrapolate from there. You're a scientist - you understand.

[Geoff WreckdoM]

I'm intensely curious to see if the entries that do not have shouting in them are going to get disqualified. I hope not, because some of them are really good, but at the same time, what's the point of having a non optional challenge if contestants don't go along with it?

[supremeedible]

This is the first half of my reviews. It may be a few days before I get to the rest. But you're probably not holding your breath for my reviews anyway...

Adam Adamant
My first experience of Songfight! was when I decided to listen through the fight 501 when it was current. Yours was the first bearable song I heard, and the line "the Levenshtein distance from you to me is more than the length of our DNA" will be forever with me. Ah, memories.

As for Breaking the Ice, I like the plodding feel of the song, and the distinctive sound of your voice. I barely noticed the instrument was a ukulele, but I am all about ukulele, so I'm glad you're not heeding that party pooper with the silly accent. Great integration of the shouting challenge, although I can't make out a thing you're shouting.

Add
Again, memories... Add music was the first songfighter I found to be an actually top quality musician. My copy of Divider occupies a special place in my box of CDs ripped-probably-never-to-be-spun-again.

I tend to skip over more unashamedly electronic Add songs, but this one does well to capture me. Not surprisingly I am most drawn to the piano motif. I'm not super convinced by the integration of shouting, nor by the false end.

BGM
This song is just brimming with style, and probably my favourite of the bunch. This is one of the only songs that really nailed the challenge.

Boffo Yux Dudes
Timing is a bit lax in places. I'm pretty sure the piratesque harmonies don't work musically at all, or are just way out of tune, but somehow they work in practice. Any toilet humour loses infinity points with me. Where's the shouting?

The Chocolate Chips
Ok, the chorus is pretty catchy. Not a fan of the lyric at all.

Chris Cogott
This is one of my favourites. Good classic feel. The lyrics in the verses are a bit weak. The use of shouting could be more "significant", I suppose, but sometimes you just have to write a kick ass song.

DJ Ranger Den
I keep thinking your name is "DJ Ranger Danger". I'm not really a fan of this style. I think sometimes the piano is a bit too rubato, or maybe just its interplay with the vocals and other things is too unstable dynamically. Tag your mp3!

Frankie Big Face
I have nothing critical to say about this. Ok, that's a lie. You kinda shirked the challenge imo.

Genevieve Something Something
The most direct interpretation of the title. A heads up: "I'm not some creepy stalker" really loses any salt with an Australian accent. I like the superconducting magnet line, but most of the lyrics feel like they're just the first thing you thought of.

Gooey Caramel Centaur
Ok, so people really don't like the beatboxing. I'm really happy with the lyrics of this, although I say "heart" a bit much. Actually I'm happy with most of it, but admit that the challenge integration is a bit contrived. Jon is right that the chorus is super pitchy, but I kind of wanted it to be, to make it clear that I was shouting it.

Jon Eric
I think you need to work on making your bass sound more like a bass. The fantastic vocals on the line "even if I try to start a conversation..." make a promise that the rest of the song doesn't really deliver on. I love the lyric of the chorus, but musically it feels a bit weak. I think the challenge integration is a bit of a cop out as well.

Ligers With Attitude
Ha! Brilliant band name! This has a really nice feel but the performance falters a bit in the first "all hail the mighty king" stanza. The track is a bit homogeneous and repetitive, but doesn't altogether overstay its welcome.

Manhattan Glutton
Don't think I can add to what's already been said -- this just isn't engaging.