LogFAQs > #969863310

And these should be the last two of the afternoon, numbers 19 & 20:

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???: Keisuke Ito, Yasuhiro Kawagoe - Illusory Holehills (3:32):
https://youtu.be/brtdP3mKm2M

Nominator: Haste [22/31 Remaining]

Initial Score: 60.00
Revised Score: 54.79
Final Score: 54.79 [Upgraded to 55.00]

(First Reaction: I'll pass on commenting on this for now. Let's put it in the clump of 60 point songs and see where things stand on the second listen before I commit to anything.)

!Energetic and fun, though I'm not quite sure why it was all the way up into the CLUMP of songs when I'm not feeling a strong enough attachment to justify that... I mean, it's fun and I like it, but not quite at that level.

[Final Thoughts: Most of the song is a bit too epic adventure-y for my blood, but the flute (or whatever flute-like instrument it is) segments are pretty enough that they almost carry the song back up another tier. Unfortunately, those sections are all too brief and the majority of the song isn't working for me tonight.]

[Later: I believe this might be the first song to drop that was part of the Clump. Basically it was the same thing as the Wall we're currently building. There were a lot of songs that fit the "I can just say "I like this" and leave the writeup at that" category without inspiring any specific value greater than exactly 60 points. So I just threw everything into a Clump and figured I'd sort them out later.

....and I might as well define all the other groups while we're here.

CLUMP: A ludicrous mass of songs that had exactly 60 points for their Initial Score.

Cluster: A smaller mass of songs, I believe these were the ones at the 70 point barrier after the Initial Score.

Neo Clump: The newly forming mass of exactly 60 point songs that is being created. Basically, we'll be doing this whole "wall" thing again once we reach the next tier. </.<

The Wall: We are here.

Or to put it another way: I have a bad habit of gathering large number of songs at the starting point of a tier. Anyway, this song is fine... definitely too adventurous for me, but I still kinda like it.]

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-too lazy to make reference. Need break.-

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???: Grimes - laughing and not being normal (1:47):
https://open.spotify.com/track/0DnYvbdoVg88EF2ddh7Tn6?si=6e361bd7a2384433

Nominator: Player_0 [25/33 Remaining]

Initial Score: 52.20
Revised Score: 57.392
Final Score: 54.796 [Upgraded to 55.00]

(First Reaction: A short song with a weird sounding outro that doesn't really establish what's going to come next on the album. Which is interesting, I do kinda like how uncertain I am about the future.)

Well, the track doesn't have laughter, but it's definitely not normal. So we'll say the title is accurate enough. And I actually really dig the outro; it's just so completely out there bringing the rumbling low tones I love, a quiet siren type effect, and different instruments that quickly build up tension that goes nowhere as the song just stops with a sudden abruptness & moves onto the next (completely unrelated) song without any time to react to what just happened.

Sadly, the fact that the song leaves me wanting so much more from it, rather limits how many points I actually want to give it... I love what it feels like the song is starting to do, but the way it just stops leaves me incredibly disappointed. And while it's probably best for a song to leave me wanting more than to overstay its welcome, my main takeaway from the song is still rather negative because of how it leaves me hanging.

I hear rumors that Grimes actually ran out of time for the album and had intended for this to be a full song before releasing it in this state; if so, there's a chance that the complete version may have been one of the greatest songs of all time. It's also possible she'd have edited out the part I did love or it would otherwise not live up to its potential. Sadly, we'll likely never find out.

As for the lyrics.... they're fine, but I have no particular attachment to them. I get that they continue metaphors from the last song on her previous album, but without any emotional connection to that story, they're just fine. Go collect your emotional leaves or whatever. Cool. The main part of the track is fine, but don't really compare to the "what just happened??" nature of the outro.

[Final Thoughts: The outro remains fantastic, but I think I had this placed a bit too far up the list because 27 seconds of pleasing insanity is not exactly a lot... even for a song this short, it's still a relatively small portion of the song.]

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