Rate The Song Above You

78/100 - I want to rate this lower because I feel like it cockteases us with too many good ideas it does not carry out fully; some songs deserve to be shorter but this was the polar opposite of us. There's a fascinating narrative of melody woven through it but it kinda just peters out before it can really fulfill what it is promising.

The Ancient Technology Cult - Thunder Perfect Mind

7/10 Sweet electronic atmosphere, didn't really need to be nearly 9 minutes however.

Tony Joe White - "Elements and Things"

About as bayou as it gets - a deep, propulsive swampy groove, with a surprisingly prominent sinister undercurrent that underpins the track's strongest moments (e.g. the atonal organ wails whenever Tony Joe asks if you hear the thunder), fronted by a singer who sounds like he's got moss growing on his vocal cords. Even if it's not something I'd listen to regularly, I can appreciate how committed this guy is to the swamp rock vibe and how well he embodies it. 7/10

The Drones - Shark Fin Blues

A good sound, very hard rock I think, with a vocalist that is breaking everything on the mic, with some Joe Cocker flavor in his style. Good choice to be true, probably if this guys had hitted hard in their time, they would rock an entire stadium with this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLfjlL0H-ek

8/10 Solid J-Rock with a unique sound. Great energy and vocals.

Oferta Especial - "Arde la Kalle"

72/100 - Punk is one of those genres that's simple enough you can modify it to do nearly anything. Ska makes sense though it's hard not to feel like the default minimalism of the genre also limits some of the impact. The actual brassy instrumentation is fun but it doesn't really lead the song; the howled and just somewhat whiny, abrasive vocals do. Not uncommon in punk but the guy is in this odd spot where he's trying to sing but not exactly using a voice fit for that and it's not aggressive or charismatic enough to really run on its own either. In a way it reminds me of pop punk in that it wants to be a more digestible, openly melodic take on punk but it's hard to not feel a bit more edge would have benefited it a lot.

Hasturian Vigil - Any song of your choosing.

"Nine Bellowing Hounds"

6.5/10

The heavy instrumentation fits the lyrics very well, and it really makes you feel like you're in the presence of a pack of demonic hounds. My favorite part, however, was the last two minutes, where the soloing starts. While it's not my thing, I think it accomplishes what it sets out to do.

The Beatles - The Fool On The Hill

8.1/10 Certainly the Beatles album I've listened to the least. Even alongside the motif returning from When I'm Sixty Four, the flute melody definitely stands out, especially when they go staccato. Quite a lovely song overall.

Lisa Hannigan - "Knots"

Edited by FirstSnow on Feb 7th 2024 at 3:38:59 PM

bump

holy shit a ukulele playing, like, arpeggios and complex chords and such? is this a dream?

But seriously, the ukulele is an easy instrument to misuse; its chipmunked-up version of the tone of an acoustic guitar is often far too twee for its own good, especially when applied to compositions that require more weight than this squeaky little choirboy of an instrument can provide. Lisa Hannigan, mercifully, seems to understand the ukulele's weak points, so even aside from her playing something a bit more interesting than just basic open pop chords, we've got a composition imbued with an airy levity that suits the ukulele's pitch and a nice, full string-and-horn arrangement committed mostly to adding extra heft. As twee turn-of-the-2010s indie pop goes, this is a fine example. 7/10

Shoji Meguro - Will Power (from the Persona 5 OST)

7/10

Those power chords are pretty cool. While the track is repetitive and doesn't really go anywhere, its melody and riffing is engaging enough that I didn't really mind throughout the entire 4+ minutes.

Tsuneo Imahori - Irradiation

80/100 - I thought I had another song playing while this one was at first because the syncopation is fucking bizarre. Like everyone is intentionally playing out of time with everyone else, but that lends the song this psychotic, manic energy seemingly at odds with the pleasantly musing synths. It's tense to the extent of nearly being nauseting and hairpulling, though halfway through it just puts a stop to that, before looping back anyways. I appreciate it ending very unambiguously as any longer and I think it could cause a mental breakdown.

Wandering Oak - Vespertine

Edited by StillbornMachine on Feb 19th 2024 at 5:55:48 AM

9/10 Just great overall. The guitar solos are especially impressive. The harsh screamy vocals sound kinda weird at first but they really do work well with the rest of the song. Again, simply great.

Next up Holy Touch - Foxy Shazam (song actually starts around the 1-minute mark)

8/10 Lots of fun in a simple and well-done Queen pastiche.

Grizzly Bear - "Southern Point"

7/10

This song reminds me of late-60's psychedelia because of its combination of folk sound with jazzy and african-sounding rhythm, as well as its lyrics. Its only problem is that the "breakdown" towards the end feels kind of pointless. Otherwise, it's a solid track.

Jefferson Airplane - Comin' Back To Me

55/100 - For such a tranquil song, there's a veritable sense of dread that this conjures in an odd sort of way; an undercurrent of some kind of long lost memory that perhaps you don't really want to remember but it keeps coming up. I like that a lot but the very cyclic, static nature of it doesn't let that fully breathe, as much as it does right to at least maintain its atmosphere.

Coltre - Rat Race

I love that the 70's sound is making a comeback, for once we're getting actual hooks in metal, even if it's almost hard rock by modern standards. Anyway, everything about this is perfect: the groovy beat, the bassline, that moment of halftime before the chorus - the band nails all that is great about this era of music. I'll have to check out the LP now. (10/10)

Magnum - Kingdom Of Madness

Solid 6/10.

Okay for me it's https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFOy1Qn5ji8

8/10 Absolutely a banger. Kinda makes me wanna dance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJjrf9RkzGo sorry, i'll keep that in mind next time

Edited by EggFredd on Feb 24th 2024 at 6:38:49 AM

Please list the name of the song, you have no way of knowing if the video will be available to the next poster.

6.8/10 I dunno, it's fine, catchy even, there's just not much that stuck out to me and kept my interest up.

Nick Drake - "Cello Song"

50/100 - Where the fuck is the cello Drake? You can't name a song like that, have a cello, and make it a supporting character at best, false advertising ass mfer. That aside, this comes off as a song initially focused on a very particular, agile guitar riff if a very repetitive one but it's Nick's voice that is the main star of the show. A sort of lulling calm I'd be tempting to call boring but that seems like the point of it, with just the slightest hints of flair and peaks of melody within the verses. It's very pleasant but super specifically focused on very minor variations of a core idea, too much so to feel anything other than numbness to after a while.

Abigor - Forniotrs Weltenreise

"SUPREME AND IMMORTAL IS THE ART OF THE DEVIL", declares faux-medieval cursive text on weathered parchment, flanked on each side by inverted crosses and pentagrams. These guys are eager to let you know they're black metal black metal, and the music delivers. This isn't subtle or complex music; its sole interest is in bludgeoning you with a whole circle of Hell's worth of vile, Satan-summoning riffs, but fortunately, they write those really well, and have an appropriately hammy vocalist with a surprising diversity of technique to top it off. Hail the big red guy or whatever. 8/10

Kero Kero Bonito - Well Rested

8.5/10 Some very fun pop on display here. The vocals were especially memorable, but the energetic instrumentation really added some extra spice.

Nathaniel Rateliff - "Nothing to Show For"

bump

7/10

A pretty emotional track that still manages to have an engaging rhythm without it sounding dissonant. I quite like the organ, which helps with the build-up to the instrumental break.

La Máquina de Hacer Pájaros - En Las Calles de Costa Rica