Detailed reviews. First, a couple of quick notes:
I listened in alphabetical order. I fear that this may have affected my take on Zack's song, so I'll randomize it next week.
I don't think I was quite done listening and ranking when Niveous announced the results. I'm not sure it would have made a difference for anyone, especially since I had pretty strong opinions about my top 5.
Adam Adamant
Your sound is pretty unmistakable. If we're dealing with drum machines, synths, and a poorly-tuned uke, it's Adamant. This is no exception. The songwriting is par for the course. I wish the uke were better tuned and played a bit better. The vocals get better as the chorus repeats in a swell near the end, but they're pretty lackluster throughout the rest of the song. I dinged you a little bit for your interpretation of the challenge, but I didn't have you neck-and-neck with any other songs, so I don't think it made a difference.
Balance Lost
I like this jangly Britpop thing you do, even if I can't always understand the lyrics. I may need a few more listens to figure out what this is all about, but I'm pretty sure it's top-tier. On a first listen, I liked your interpretation of the challenge, even though I'm a bit puzzled why it came so early in the song. On subsequent listens, it fell a bit flat, largely because I didn't get the sense that making a point of saying the f-word in between verses added anything more than a chuckle to the song, or really interfaced with your verses in any meaningful way.
Boffo Yux Dudes
It may sound mean to point this out, but I'm pretty sure I've never actually laughed at anything you've recorded. I honestly think you would be a lot better if you stopped trying so hard to be funny (heck, just "stop trying so hard" in general) and just focused on writing good lyrics. Ah well. This has a nice vibe, like a ramshackle acoustic demo from a 60s psychadelic rock band. The lyrics make it tough for me to get into it.
Calliopeva
Unaccompanied voice can be a powerful technique if it's done right, but I suspect that you only did this because you couldn't find any accompaniment. I also don't think we got the whole song, as mine cuts off at 0:32 with no spoken word bridge. You benefited more than anyone else this week from the lack of eliminations. Hope you can get your act together for round 1.
Cavedwellers
Right off the bat, I'm drawn in by that unexpectedly early snare hit. This seems like the one to beat so far. The vocals could have some more oomph, but it's structurally right-on, and the melody is strong. Nothing too terribly creative for the spoken-word bridge, but it works perfectly for this song. I love the eBow and the "doo doo" background vocals at the end. Well paced. This was my #2 in the final rankings. A comfortable #2 - my actual favorite was way out ahead, and this was way ahead of my #3 pick.
Chocolate Chips
I'm having trouble making out any of the lyrics through the vocoder. Not my favorite audio technique in the best of times, but when it interferes with the lyrics, it practically sets me on edge. I do like the synth and guitar groove you set up, but the vocals kill it for me.
Cookie Blue
The vocals are confident and heartfelt, but I think this is just a little too simplistic for my taste. A bit too twee. Maybe I'm judging too harshly, or expecting this song to be more than it was meant to be, but this just wasn't working for me.
Ghost Pup
At the thirty-second mark I was looking at the time remaining and wondering if you'd ever get to the point of actually
saying anything. I guess the spoken-word bridge counts, or it would, if I could make out what you were saying. Oh well. I would appreciate it if you could contribute more original lyrics next time—actually have a message.
DJ Ranger Den
I really liked this at first, then the background vocals started meowing, and it slowly dawned on me that this is from the point of view of your cat, at which point I basically tuned out. The piano is pretty, the vocals are suitably delicate, and your sense of melodic phrasing gets stronger over time, but... I'm sorry, I just don't know if I can get into a persona poem from the point of view of your cat. The spoken-word section doubles down on the silliness. If the silly aspect of the song had worked for me, I probably would have liked the bridge, but since it didn't work for me, the bridge just killed whatever goodwill I had left. By the time the rankings were due, I still wasn't quite sure what to make of this, so I kind of just threw it arbitrarily in the middle. I have every confidence you'll rally in the upcoming rounds.
inflatable vegetables
A little power pop goodness! Yeah! I think it's funny how these overdriven lead vocals are easier to understand than many of the other vocals this round! I think I've detected a missed opportunity: The chorus rhymes "grit," "hypocrite," and "quit," then just repeats "Half full of courage / Half full of courage." I feel like you should have just gone for it and ended the line with "Half full of shit." I normally prefer to exercise extreme caution before deploying swear words in a song, but that one is just staring us right in the face! Maybe you intended it to be an implied rhyme? That can be a pretty powerful trick (one
I've leaned on perhaps a
bit too hard in the past,
myself), but I'm not sure this was the place for it. Anyway, the spoken word bridge here is a little skit that works pretty well with this style, and the guitars are well arranged and well-played throughout. Great work!
Ken Mahru
You're the first (only?) person on this list who's been doing Song Fight for longer than I have. How intimidating! Your "Why Are You Making Me Kick You Out?" was the first song I ever voted for. This week's effort is in a similar vein to that old classic, though I wish that you'd thought to transpose this whole song up a step and a half or so, so that you're not straining at the bottom of your register. The chord progression is very "Canon in D," but lesser songwriters have gotten away with that progression, so I won't hold it against you. The spoken word bridge is a bit trite, but it fits in pretty well with the meticulous pacing of the song. I love how this builds to a beautiful emotional crescendo! A better vocal performance might have put you in my top 3.
Ben Krieger
This is a spot-on pastiche of an 80s commercial, complete with very clever rhymes and a flawlessly-integrated use of the challenge. "Snort responsibly" made me laugh. But I was the only judge who gave this song fewer than 23 points, because, well, at the end of the day, as funny and well-executed as it is, it's still just a 30-second ad for cocaine. You're capable of bringing it in a much more satisfying way than this, and I look forward to hearing you do exactly that.
Levittdown
Reminds me a bit too much of "Horse with No Name." This song isn't bad, and I appreciate the lyrical approach, but I'd be more excited about it if it had more dynamism in the mix. It's pretty much the same volume throughout, and the arrangment never changes, except for that harmony that gets added in the chorus. Straight-up middle-of-the-road stuff here.
Ligers with Attitude
And the award for "Best Simon & Garfunkel Impersonation" goes to... I guess that's a backhanded compliment. I really love Simon & Garfunkel, and y'all really
nail that sound. Combining it with this science fiction premise (wait... is that
Starship Troopers? Wow!), it's alternately silly and moving. This could have benefited from some more brevity. I was about ready for it to be over by the time the spoken word part came.
Manhattan Glutton
This is kind of a modulation of your Cake impression, which is one of the modes I like you best in. This is great. Smooth groove, silky bassline, clever lyrics, great spot harmonies, the "na na na" chorus works great, and I'm not even bothered by the fake handclaps. I think your spoken word part fits the song perfectly, and then you vary up the pace on it to keep it interesting, even in that one section! This is very well done, and it's been stuck in my head all day. I had it at the top of my list.
Merisan
Can't hide my bias on this one either; Merisan is one of my favorite Song Fight groups. This seems like a pretty average Merisan song, but even an average Merisan song is better than many other songs that come out of this community. Sam's guitar work is really slick here. I'd love to hear more harmonies, and some less generic drums, but that's more of a nit pick. There's a chimey instrument (vibes? glockenspiel?) that adds a significant amount of texture in the second half, and it works really well. This is probably on the same tier as Ken's song - not a winner's circle entry, but excellent nonetheless.
Nick M. Soma
This is well-executed pop-punk, which we don't see very often around here. I guess other artists just find it too easy to fall on the side of cacophony. I like the way the vocals are delivered through a sneer. I like the chugging guitar. The drums match the song well (though they could stand to be de-quantized a bit). Not bad at all.
Paco del Stinko
I like how this (and many of your songs) hit a sort of staggering groove. The guitar seems to lurch along, which fits the song pretty well, yeah? My only complaint here is that your songs kind of occupy this weird genre which is just a little too weird to fit in with a batch of rock songs, but not quite silly enough to be considered full-out comedy or novelty. So I have a difficult time picturing being in the mood to hear this song any time in the future. But you do what you do very well, and we all know it.
Pigfarmer Jr.
I had a conversation with you about an hour before I got around to listening to this, and you seemed quick to make excuses: "Oh, I was just experimenting with this new recording method, I didn't have much time," etc. Were you trying to lower my expectations? If so, mission accomplished. This is perfectly lovely. You may think it's a "mic fart" entry, but this is easily in the top half for me. Could be a bit shorter and not be any worse for it, but the performance of both the guitar and vocals are on-point, confident, and appropriate. Other people did songs I enjoyed more this round, but I see nothing wrong with this.
Vincent Von F
I like this groove, what would you call it? It's vaguely funky, but really low key. It sort of reminds me of New Radicals, or maybe the kind of sound they'd accomplish at an open mic in some quiet coffee shop with Persian rugs on the walls. Anyway. My big problem here (as with many of the other entries) is that I can hardly hear a single word of the lyrics. It also runs a little longer than it ought to - I think you could have stood to fade this out twenty seconds into the solo that comes after the bridge. I'd rather be left wanting more than checking my watch, y'know?
Rabid Garfunkel
Hmm, an unpretentious four chord progression strummed on an acoustic guitar? Is this really Rabid? Well, I do recognize that voice. This is a rough mix, even for a simple guy-and-guitar song. Your voice occasionally spikes loud enough to be distracting in the mix here, and might have benefited from a few more takes, or some judicious compression.
Ross Durand
The polish on this guy-and-guitar song only serves to underscore what Rabid's song is missing. Ross, your lyrics are tight, you deliver them with emotional swells in all the right places, and you hit all the marks. The spoken section here is fine, and like a good bridge should, it introduces a twist of sorts, but it's seems a bit flat to me.
The Tydon Docks
This is the sort of daring intro I'm not used to hearing from Caravan/Tex/Sid/Tydon/whatever you're calling yourself this time around. This is a great drinking song, but the lyrics are packed a bit too densely to sing along to, which hurts it in that regard. I like the drunken delivery in the bridge.
Zack Facco
I rambled a bit about whether it suits the challenge to do a song where all of the verses are spoken-word. I guess this squeaks by, since the bridge is spoken without cadence whereas the verses are kind of sing-talked. Maybe I've got listening fatigue from hearing 24 of these things, but this one is just annoying to me. I can tell you're trying to be kind of tongue-in-cheek, but it just comes across as annoying. It's entirely possible that you didn't get a fair shake due to listening fatigue. I'll try to be more charitable in the next round, when your score actually counts.
Overall, good round. The bright spots were REALLY bright. If some of the people in the middle of the pack can tighten up their vocals, then later rounds should be especially tight and fun to listen to!