LogFAQs > #971626778

I should probably let the Top 10 simmer for a bit to build dramatic tension, but I'm feeling pretty good about 9th & 10th place right now.

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#10: 2Pac - Changes (4:28):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xg3J5slvB-k

Nominator: rwlh [0/24 Remaining]

Initial Score: 84.60
Revised Score: 99.99
Final Score: 95.10 [Upgraded to 98.30] [Upgraded to 99.00] [Upgraded to 100]

(First Reaction: Ohh, now I see why Mega Mana nominated "The Way It Is" earlier, As great as that song is, it felt like a bit of an odd pick, but I see the value in establishing extra context for this track & directly comparing the two. Neat. I think I prefer "Changes"; it's fresher since I haven't heard before & it goes a bit harder on the subject matter, while still being an easy listen considering the realness of the subject matter. Great song.)

!Fantastic song that I had ranked a bit too low the first time out. Having a hard time deciding if this should be in first or second place at the main ranking*, so I'll place this song into a tie with the other one and make a decision later. More fun if even I don't really know which song is going to win until the very end--or who knows, maybe we have a tie for first. That could be interesting.

[Final Thoughts: This is how it's done. Real and heavy, but extremely pleasing to listen to. I love this song; There are a few songs that I prefer, but not very many at all & this was very much in the conversation for first place for quite a while.

*There were originally two rankings. I edited most writeups to remove references to that for ease of reading, but as this was tied for first at one of the rankings, I'm leaving the reference here. I 'll talk more about the other ranking on the song that was tied with this one, Probably?]

[Later: I've always kinda hoped a 2Pac song would get nominated for one of these rankings eventually. I've never heard any of his work before, that I know of, but he was such a big name that even I knew of him at the very least. I'm glad that his song lived up to the hype and I'm also glad for the song choice here: taking the iconic music from "The Way It Is" and making the lyrics so much harder & real, he truly elevated the song way beyond the popular song he sampled. I absolutely love this song. While I'm not quite willing to put it in first, or even take it over every silly cartoon song, I very much need to spend more time with music like this. Great song, great nomination.]

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Elimination #22: rwlh

Lowest Scoring Song

Sonny Wharton - Raindance [47.54]

Highest Scoring Song

2Pac - Changes [100]

Average Score: 66.18

You'll have to forgive these elimination writeups getting shorter and shorter. The problem with waiting to do them until an elimination is 100% finalized is that leaves me having to try to do a lot of retrospectives in a row, which is difficult from both "amount of time spent preparing the day's eliminations" & "how much I can actually type" standpoints. As expected, you had quite a bit of variety in your nomination set: Changes was probably one of the more important songs of the topic, giving some much needed exposure to classic rap & more serious topics in a very easy to listen to way. Objectively that song should be even higher, but... I think this is where I want to drop it, if I'm being fully honest with myself.

Besides that, you were the only one to go with an actual opera song; while it didn't quite work out, I think we discovered that I'm far more partial to operatic singing with deeper, lower registers than the nominated song, so it was fairly important as a test case. And "Playing Pool in Outer Space" was a mindbendingly literal interpretation of things I like which was rather difficult to score. That barely scratches the surface, but I am sadly running quite late, so suffice it to say that I highly enjoyed the highly unexpected trip your playlist provided. Thank you!

[Later: Well, i'm not running late right now, but was when I had this song set to be eliminated last night. It wasn't, but the writeup stands as written, even if that part isn't quite accurate right now.]

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