Berkeley Social Scene: I enjoyed the main riff and the guitar solo, as usual. Something about the vocal treatment sounds a little muffled to me, which normally I wouldn’t care that much about, but I feel like in this song it’s draining the vocal of a little energy that would help it kick up in the choruses especially. Also a bunch of times in the verses, I feel like the vocal line coming in after the change to C instead of right with it makes it lose a little effectiveness as well. Is there an extra beat at like 2:22? Something sounds weird there. Similarly the transitions in the instrumental section feel a touch disjointed where I think they’d be more powerful if they were tighter together.
Brian Eno's Swimming Trunks: I’m not against this, I think it’s a good draft of ideas. Like I like all the sounds, I like the concept of imprisonment/giving up your freedom, I just think it’s a little underdeveloped and I would love to hear what you’d come up with if you were to try to extend this out to a longer song. Or, conversely, maybe it’s the perfect length if it were placed in a different context, like as a short song in between other songs in a rock opera?
Hardmonica: Good vocal performance; I especially like the backing vocals. The low end is a little unruly, maybe some EQ to tighten that up would help, on the instruments. The main vocal probably could use a little more high passing as well. It’s a pretty solid vibe, laid back Sunday afternoon, captures that feel well. For my taste, I’d like a song like this to go to like, one more place on the journey. Short and sweet is fine too, of course, but I don’t know, I really wanted a bridge or something that would shift the POV for a few bars.
Jonathan Mann: I really like the arrangement, lots of little ear candy but still lots of space. Nice variations each verse to keep interest.I think the vocals are a little hard to hear sometimes when the full band gets going (might mostly be cymbals?) My main critical comment about this song is that I never felt like the “my life of leisure” line got to having the power it deserved–perhaps it needed the whole band to cut out or come down a lot, or something else, but it sort of felt to me like the song wanted to build up to that line but then when it got there, it kind of didn’t know what to do with it. Great groove though.
Lichen Throat vs. Chumpy: Hey I like this LT vocal, the timing is pretty much right on, and the intonation is also pretty good, sounds great. Is that a bunch of autotuning I hear haha. Great energy and little bits of ear candy in the arrangement, and I mean, who doesn’t enjoy a tune about Mary Shelley, badass that she was, that highlights her badassery. My only real complaint is that I hoped the final chorus would get much bigger, maybe a double chorus, get some singalong going. I was a little let down by the abrupt ending, emotionally.
Paco del Stinko: Paco del Lounge-o, me likey. I thought the guitar solo was way too short–this song really demanded a slinky couple choruses of guitar soloing before hitting that end. The vibe is super strong. I think if you wanted to improve one thing to get a lot out of it, a drummer who’s experienced in this style would really bring the parts to life–especially things like the transition from verse to chorus and keep the energy in the right place. Right now I feel like sometimes the quiet intensity just becomes quiet and lacks intensity if you know what I mean.
Pigfarmer Jr: I like the energy, and the basic tracks sound pretty good and groovy. The lyric is in that punky angry political tradition, good choice. My main critical points are that you start too many vocal lines behind the beat (usually the first of each verse), and too far behind the beat at that. This wouldn’t be so much of a problem if you were committed to that as style and really worked it, but I get the feeling from the overall performance that you’re trying to be in time with the rest of the track as opposed to singing across the beat. Sometimes you’re right on it too, and so as a result, it just feels disjointed instead of intentional, for my taste. My second critical comment is that the chorus lines, e.g. “my life of leisure” and “my life of luxury”, again sound less than fully committed to me–like it’s not any kind of rhyme, and so I think you need to work a little more to find a way that makes these words sit right against each other via the performance. I’m thinking of the way Johnny Rotten sings Sex Pistols songs and just twists syllables and placements of them to sound good within the context of the song. I also think the drums are a little low in the mix personally.
Yaks of the Industry: man, learn how to pronounce “regret”
WreckdoM: Vocals are a little low to my taste, I can’t hear them clearly, maybe EQ would help also, but I think level first. I really like the soundscape otherwise, although I think it’s a little congested somewhere in the low midrange. It gets a little overly loose for me around 1:20, and the guitar figure that comes right before the vocal comes back doesn’t work for me at all, the “Satisfaction”-y one, which yes was a good musical pun but it sounded weird. I did dig the vibe though, and thought it worked well with the whole cat POV.