I think I might borrow Jim’s classification system from last week and apply it to these songs. Well, maybe something similar.
”HELL YEAH” votes
Third Cat:
Another artist where I almost always want to vote for you because I just really like your compositional styles. I wish that kick drum had a slightly different tone but I totally get how that can be kind of hard. I wish that wooshing sound that starts to kick in before the “try me and you’ll change your mind” was a little bit louder in the mix. And oh my god endless rising tonality. And arpeggiated synths. And echoing. So remarkably psychedelic. And then another verse. And then more bizarro pitch bends, and synths that bring to mind some of the synth choices that BMSR uses in a few of their tracks. Oh god you keep modulating upwards. And then it all drops and there’s rain on the roof. Adventurous! It is courageous in its esotericness! I’d be playing this all over my radio show if I still hosted it -- I used to host a psychedelic/space rock show back in college. So much fun.
Sockpuppet:
So peaceful. Is that a synth creating that background bell sound or echoes from the glockenspiel? Where it’s pingponging so much I can’t tell which it is! Which is find, it adds a really like sonic effect that makes this really immersive. You said this was about a hypothetical sleeping pill, but I read the lyrics and my brain immediately went to “yeah, totally about Ambien”. My wife used to be prescribed that stuff for a couple years while she was going through a rough spell. What a weird substance. I’d rather just take melatonin on a sleepless night. You know I’ve been a bit of an insomniac lately, I wouldn’t mind trying this song. Maybe I’ll listen to it again to try and get sleepy. But then I won’t review Third Cat. I loved it, vote for sure.
The Magnetic Letters:
Wooshy weirdo theremin synths, surrealistic lyrics, a slow, meandering fingerpicked guitar line, and a preponderance of 7th chords throughout the whole song, and a rhythm that holds together but extremely loosely? This ticks so many boxes for Phlebial enjoyment that I can’t help but be totally enthralled by the matter. I’ve read through these lyrics and have been trying to figure out what on earth is going in your story, but...I don’t know. I also don’t care.
And then halfway through we get a bunch of trancey synths going nuts, and a sort of dull kick drum as the story picks up the pace in its...blissful nonsense? The part where the synth comes in and pretty much everything thereafter seems te be missing a few lares from a compositional standpoint, like there’s too much empty space in the mix? Uhhhh. I’m confused. But as with so many of your songs, I like this a lot.
gizo vs. the 17,455:
This is really simple for the most part from a structural standpoint. Two chords, a simple, major key melody that doesn’t really diverge much from the same general vibe. A simple drum beat. And then it gets to the “now in your bed you lay part” after the drums drop out and it starts to move into the B section for the first time and the transition seems a bit...emptier than I expect it to? Maybe that transition would work a little bit better if the kick drum was solo’d for just a slightly shorter amount of time...or maybe if that beautifully droney guitar fuzz came in a little ealier, cause that mellotron by itself just sort of feels like it needs something else going on. Bass maybe? Hard to say. But yeah, once that fuzz comes in I’m back to love love loving this. Plus even though you didn’t mention it in the lyric thread that “so so sick of your” line is paced and delivired great in the context of the rest of the track. Love it!
”Sure, why not” votes
Jim Tyrrell:
The verses here aren’t really doing a whole lot for me, compositionally. I’m not sure if it’s the chord choices or what. But the production especially once you open it up a bit more in the chorus really opens it up a lot in a way that sounds great. I love those synth swells and those reverby guitar licks that come in every now and then, particularly in the chorus. There’s something about the guitar tone on that rhythm guitar track that doesn’t seem to sit right in the mix. Those backing “try me try me” vocals sound great, and really everything about this song other than the verses just sounds great to me! All in all I’d hardly say it’s my favorite song...and it does have those perceived weaknesses of mine that are probably entirely subjective. But well, that’s just my opinion.
Hot Pink Halo:
This is my favorite Hot Pink Halo track in weeks, if only because I love it when you move away from more typical songcraft and decide to do an entire song that uses a typewriter for the rhythm track. Or just goes with high pitched whistling for the majority of the backing track. If I had one critique it’s that I would have liked to hear more deviation from that I-IV-V pattern…I mean it works in the context of the song but all in all I’d say that it’s a little structurally...bland? I don’t know. But I’m so infatuated with your typewriter (and your somewhat meta lyrics about said typewriter) that I want to vote for this anyway. Art school Hot Pink Halo is best Hot Pink Halo.
Also your mixing came out well this time and this may be your best recording yet.
The Dormouse Choir:
Oh, a guitar here! And the melody is
much more coherent than it was in the last song. Like your voice is still a bit pitchy, and there’s a few notes where I’m not quite sure how to follow you...but the addition of a guitar provides a tonal context that makes it a whole lot better, even if you aren’t doing anything particularly adventurous with the chord progression -- it sticks with the pretty standard set of I IV V and VI voicings. You may want to work on the strength in your fret-hand, cause I hear a LOT of fret buzz going on here...and a lot of muted notes. Then again I’m hardly an accomplished guitarist myself...just saying what I hear. Structurally? Well put together, builds well, and I love how you start to add more intensity to the song as it meanders forward. And your lyrical imagery? GOLDEN. Just like last time. I’m not entirely sure what some of this means -- have you ever watch Walk Hard and seen John C Reilly’s send-up of overly abstract Dylan lyrics? If not look up Dewey Cox - Royal Jelly for a chuckle. But those images, and the talk of the ceiling splitting and the harmonized stars? I’m a sucker for that sort of abstract, hallucinatory apocalyptic imagery, and you really have a knack for it. I think you have some work to do from an execution standpoint, but I really like this song and kind of want to vote for it.
”Almost, but can’t quite bring myself to” non-votes
Simple Syrup:
Hmmmmmmm. I like the generally downtempo nature of this. And the production is pleasing in that sort of bedroom lo-fi Mac DeMarco type stuff. The multitracking and harmonies in the chorus are a little looser that I’d prefer in a lot of cases but that’s only a semi-complaint cause the melodiesare sounding pretty good. I’m trying to figure out who your singing reminds me of. I enjoy these lyrics as simple as they are. But your name is Simple Syrup, so I can’t really say that you’re being too simple because you’re a fittingly named act. This song is well structured and charming, if not the sort of thing that I’d regularly want to listen to. Like maybe adding a *little* bit of reverb to your guitar or something would make it sound better but I like this song enough to give it a “sure why not!” vote.
Miscellaneous Jerk:
This is two people that I really, really want to love this song from, but it’s just kind of going in one ear and out the other. There’s a few couple instances in here in which you have some
really faint whispering going on in a couple places...so that’s neat? I spent most of the first couple of verses waiting for this to pick up a little bit from a dynamic/compositional standpoint, but it sort of plods along more than I’d generally like to. And while I feel like that descending melody line in unison with those descending guitars and basslines should sit with me better, it just kind of doesn’t. After the second chorus, then I really dig the first half of that instrumental break. Too much of this song is just too...empty? I don’t know. I wish there was more going on.
Mandibles:
You took the optional challenge really seriously, and I like how remarkably downbeat this entire track is. Though admittedly once it picks up a ton I’m not sure I’m quite as enthralled...if only because I’m starting to get hypnotized by the beginning of the song and then you come in all operatic and dramatic and such. But that’s fine, because once I get
used to the song being in that mode then I like it a lot better. And I’m a big sucker for vocal layering like this. The drums in the chorus when you do that roll thing sound really sloppy. Like maybe if your timing on the 32nd notes or whatever you’re doing was a little bit tighter than it’d sound better. I LOVE how it drops down to the whispering again at the end. And a whole lot of this song is me patiently waiting for it to get back to that one cool-ass part. Cause...even though I like your voice, and I like the general idea for this song, when I’m not getting whispering and soft harmonies and alice chanting I’m just sort of...meh?
Berkeley Social Scene:
Those drums sound good! I love how crisp they sound! And that skippy, jazziness is fantastic. There’s a few things in the mixing that I’d change if I had to. Something about the chorus-ey guitars (is that a 12 string?) sounds kind of messy in the mix at the first portion of the song. But then once the track simplifies a bit more to a more standard rock beat it works a bit better. Structurally this is a pretty adventurous number and I must commend you on that! That guitar solo that starts with that single vibrato’d note sounds great to me. I love the tone there! All in all after listening to this one a few times, it falls into that trap where it sounds like a bunch of musical ideas that are pretty good but don’t quite come together into a coherent whole? Which was probably the point, but it almost has a structural messiness to it that makes it hard for me to criticize...cause as soon as I single out something to praise or criticize it’s gone! Anyway, I like it more than a lot of your more recent entries.
Lollypops and the Sour Straps:
Well, Gizo told us this was your first song and you came up with this on your iPad? That’s cool! You know I wrote my first songs around the time I was your age. Your singing is a lot more confident that mine was when I first started. And I like your chorus, it kind of reminds me of Lovefool by the Cardigans but with a whole lot more edge and defiance to it! I’ll echo what everyone else said what I say that you should probably stay a little bit farther away from the mic when you sing, cause your vocals are super breathy. And maybe next time it would be a little bit better to have the backing track line up a bit more strongly with your verse-chorus transitions...it’s not as big of an issue with the second chorus, but the first one starts while the music from the first verse is still doing, and it’s not until the second “try me try me” that it calms down to the chorus part. But hey, this is your first song? Keep at it! Can we get any more members of the Gizo clan submitting?
”Sorry, can’t do it” non-votes
Evil Grin:
This is transcending my usual style bias towards straight-forward, simply mostly acoustic songs that mostly stick to a fairly standard chorus progression, if only for two main reasons. I
really like the song sustained notes and the chorus melody, it sounds SO great to me. And that organ. The faint sex sounds going in the background though are not AMSR’ing me at all. While the AMSR response by definition is supposed to be vaguely orgasmic to a lot of people, the actual sound of somethng more straightforwardly orgasmic is a major turn off to me. I have never heard a song where it doesn’t make we want to change the track, and this is no exception. But I was liking this so much before the end, and then...god, it ruins it for me. Even though I KNOW this is a song about a casual bar hookup -- like I was enjoying how pleasant and harmonious and non in-your-face the lyrical content was in comparison to the music, making it explicit like that ruined the immersion. Like it moved to from a “sure why not?” vote to a hard no.
Lichen Throat:
Well, It’s a little bit hard to critique this song in a lot of ways cause I sort of have a love-hate relationship. Lyrically? I love all the civil-war imagery and well, just all of your word choices! They’re so striking! And I was hoping that I’d like this song a little bit better than I do, but really I’m having trouble finding the tonal center in this. It’s like a mess of notes. Something about it reminds me a little bit of the Residents in terms of its overall cacaphonous MIDI effects. Admittedly that’s something that I can say about a lot of your tracks. Like when it drops to the WHOAAA parts, your whoas aren’t in the same key as your guitar. And your lower vocal track and upper vocal track aren’t really harmonizing, they’re just kind of coexisting. So A+ for lyrics, but for musical execution and composition I really can’t give you a whole lot of a glowing review, unfortunately.
James Owens:
Well, the sort of cheeky meta aspect of this is entertaining, and the piano playing sounds kind of nice. And I kind of like that keyboard sound in its slightly cheesiness. But I’ll admit. It’s hard to criticize a song like this, and you know exactly what this song is and what it does well and what it doesn’t. I did get a chuckle a time or two, but all in all this is a pass.
CazaroTaro:
Well there’s an interval I don’t hear a lot in the intro, I love those sorts of bold melodic choices, though I wish there were more of those throughout the track me. Like lets add more big 7th jumps in the melody! Cause I go in expecting a lot more cool “all over the scale” melodies and you mostly play it safe with a relatively narrow lines...so I wish there was more of that. There are a few lines in here that are delivered kind of clunkily like “fresh start”...sounds kind of uncertain from a delivery standpoint! Some with “broken heart blues”. Musically I dig the time signature change towards the end, and the jazzy chords and the dinky MIDI horns. All that being said, this is mostly competent but I don’t find it very captivating.
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Liner notes
Phlebia:
Well, I got a kick out of writing this song -- I was reading up on various millenarian movements and such like the ghost dance and whatnot and came across the story of Nongkawuse, the 15 year old Xhosa girl who received a bizarre prophecy where her tribe were to slaughter all of their cattle and destroy all of their crops so that all of the English colonialists would be swept away and a new era of Xhosa prosperity began. It piqued my interest enough to the point where I naturally had to shoehorn the title into the story. Vocally I tried to stretch out more than usual, I think I covered 2.5 octaves here? And I did the whole “bomb string” tuning with my bass. And I added violin. But y’know...I’ve got songs that I think are pretty darn good and songs that are just kind of in “meh” territory, and this one is kind of sloppily put together. Oh well. Maybe Skeleton Key will inspire me more coherently.
