Gonna drop you like the U.S. dropped the (Gold Standard reviews)

[Pigfarmer Jr]

Like a fucking watch, Creflo, tic toc
My Lincoln right down your block
It ain't never gon' stop
I'll be that gold standard

Lyrics go here: viewtopic.php?t=12852

[Lunkhead]

Songs posted!

[V4nnim3l]

Berkeley Social Scene: Liking the Guitar sound and the vocal harmonies in the background, and the main riff is nice and punchy.

Brown Word and the Big Whine: Different, in a great way. I love the feel of this one! The vocal bits all fit together to form an enjoyable net of confusion.

Everybody Hurts: The background vocals add a nice layer, and I really like the simple but relentless drum beat, working well with the equally simple bass line in that section to create unrest and drive.

IXTXI: Immediately headbanging with this one, nice and low distorted guitar! The vocal style is great too.

James Owens: The vocal effects are great, and the overall feel of this is really enjoyable (for me at least). Also the keyboard/piano coming in later is a nice touch.

Johnny Cashpoint: Starting with vocals! I like how things slowly start coming in, I also really like the rhythm of the vocal melody (probably the enjambment), and I don't know what it is, but the thing near the end is a nice touch too.

The Pannacotta Army: Song of the summer sort of sound, in a good way of course! I really like the guitar sound, loving the slides too.

V4nnim3l: That's me! not sure what to say here, other than when I came up with 'V4nnim3l' as my artist name, I wasn't thinking about my song (nearly) always being last on the playlist. It seems that I took a slightly different approach on the prompt, although at this point that's usual for me I suppose.

[WreckdoMelle]

Pretty great bunch of tunes! Where to start, let's be random:

James Owens
This has an old timey sound and feel but rocks to a modern level. I like it.

Berkeley Social Scene
Always rockin', great sound and live in studio right? I wanna get back to this place of which you speak, too.

IXTXI
I totally have genre bias so I'm voting for this. Also the guitars sound great, I liked the vocals and the effects on them. Good screams.

Everybody Hurts
This one really gets down. Great lyrical hook.

Johnny Cashpoint
I enjoyed the lyrics. Plus for a sample that sounded sorta like a bird and explosions as percussion.

VA4imal3
This is cool. I like the rapid percussion and busy synth over longer sung phrases. Good lyrics. The panning split was a little suprise, perhaps a metaphor for folks' duplicitness...

The Pannacotta Army
Always great sounding Pannacotta! Guitars sitting in the mix nicely. Solid.

Brown Word and the Big Whine
Well ya know one gets to be in a mood and in a mode when always hearing of the insanity, the inanity, the banality, like if billionaires had their gold in sight, people would just pick away at it like little mice and feed off it forever before they noticed.

[AJOwens]

Berkeley Social Scene: I'm getting Neil Young vibes from the opening vocal line. I like the lyrics a lot. The bass line in the verses adds nice colour. For me, the chorus pattern runs a bit long. The unison riffs give the song a distinctness, and the five-chord interludes provide strategic breaks.

Brown Word and the Big Whine: I love the deep, rich, serious textures and the way they flow like a river. The words are a composition to be reckoned with. I wish they were always as clear as they become at the end. "Buy buy buy" is read ambiguously, sounds like an ironic "bye-bye-bye." Just a great sound coming out of this track.

Everybody Hurts: A weird blend of "My Sharona," "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)," and maybe something by Billy Idol. Nice lyrical turn on the title. Great vocal deliveries, good hard-hitting urgency from the band. A fun track.

IXTXI: Fine heavy death metal, machine gun guitars, excellent snarling and roaring. The slight bend in the guitar line adds character. Tritones noted. Nothing gets old in this track. This is the genre done well.

James Owens: The lyrics came late, so I didn't spend a lot of time on the composition. As I added instruments, trying to maintain musical interest, it began turning into an older style, because I'm an older guy and those are the licks I know. That's OK, it was fun to jam with the drum loop.

Johnny Cashpoint: Optional challenge met. Angry lyrics, cynically delivered: strong communication, appropriately backed by the dissonant anarchy of the music. The recording gets a bit distorted, but that's all part of it. This song wears its heart on its sleeve, I like that.

The Pannacotta Army: A really smooth, solid recording, with a downright hooky chorus. Tasteful guitar fills, a gently imaginative and responsibly unobtrusive bass line, a catchy tambourine, and even something like a handclap, strangely spaced out in the chorus. A plausible commercial love song but for some slightly clunky lyrics.

V4nnim3l: Busy synth pop with autotuned vocals give this a late 20th-century sound. With just a drum track and a poly synth, the arrangement is a bit thin, and the composition is fairly flat and narrow-band except when that lovely closing harmony stretches upward. The catch in the higher voice at that moment is positively Lennonesque.

[Lunkhead]

The results are in and the fight has been won by ... The Pannacotta Army!