LogFAQs > #969903657

And two more because, if anything, I'm oddly ahead of schedule for things this morning:

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#???: Port Blue - Seagulls (5:04):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxGGqWes2_8

Nominator: ZaziGuado [26/28 Remaining]

Initial Score: 50.56
Revised Score: 53.72
Final Score: 54.904 [Upgraded to 55.00]

(First Reaction: It's another in the long line of instrumental songs that don't really click for me. I have no complaints about it, but I also don't really remember much about it either.)

Ooh, this song is an unreleased demo and not meant to be heard in this format? Not gonna lie, knowing that this is *forbidden secret music* makes me more interested in it. Though now I feel we have to take a look at Wheels Down, the finished version of the song:

Adam Young - Wheels Down:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7HqG7cLY8k

Ohhh, this version has those powerful low notes that I won't shut up about... I'd probably put Wheels Down a full tier or two above Seagulls, simply because it's doing things that I love in a way that Seagulls simply isn't. Which isn't to say that Seagulls isn't good on its own; while the songs use the same base, they go in fairly different directions. Seagulls, like its name, is much lighter & breezier. It's "opening credits music for a sequence with lots of sunshine and happiness" and you can almost feel the bright sun on your skin.

I'm not sure yet how I'd describe Wheels Down, but with its rumbling nature that reverberates through your soul, I'll tell you "sunshine" isn't the number one adjective. ...Alright, so sunshine isn't an adjective like that... uhh... "sunshiny". It's not sunshiny. That's a word. Seagulls should be less sunshiny and then I'd like it more, review over.

[Final Thoughts: Clear blue skies and rays of sunshine distilled into instrumental format. Quite pretty and I appreciate it, though it's not exactly my type of ambiance.]

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-still not the song you expected-

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#???: Jinjer - Vortex (4:02):
https://youtu.be/AiaOSGZTwtY

Nominator: BlackDra90n [24/30 Remaining]

Initial Score: 49.14
Revised Score: 54.39
Final Score: 54.92 [Upgraded to 55.00]

(First Reaction: Pretty nice song, though I don't have much reaction to it. It is nice to give Jinjer another shot and I appreciate that the lyrics are much easier to deal with & there's a pretty good video to accompany the song. Wish I had more of a reaction to it, but it's good and I certainly don't mind listening to it--maybe it'll go up a bit on repeat listens.)

Past Raetsel: *says nothing but positive things*

Also Past Raetsel: *gives less than 50 points*

It's still impressive how the singer is able to transition from melodic vocals to the incredibly deep metal growling/roaring, espeially as she's practically doing a duet with herself towards the end of the song. I'm still not actually into the growling though... as fantastic as she is at it, that's just not something I typically like. Nekrogoblikon seem to have the most consistent success on that front and I still haven't felt the need to try a full album of theirs... though a new one just came out (from the timeframe in which this is being written; it'll be quite old news by the point any of these writeups are posted), so maybe I should give that one a chance someday? Or I could go with the album that had "Darkness" on it, that's an absolutely amazing song and really should have been in the Top 10 songs that year...

....right, we're not even meant to be talking about them. Apologies, we do get carried away at such times. Anywho...., the song has some real high points. Her clean & slightly dark vocals are something I enjoy and could learn to love. I also think the song had a good concept for the lyrics, though the metaphor is a bit odd...:

[Vortex is] dedicated to all those people like me who spend so much time thinking about their inner world that they start to be devoured by the dark thoughts. Their head is getting heavyso heavy that it turns into a steel ball and falls off and makes a hole in the floor and then a hole in the ground and then a hole in the earth and then sucks you in. So, please dont dive so deeply into your thoughts. Its a bad habit.

Depression and being consumed by darkness isn't exactly new territory for music, but it's a topic that traditionally does pretty well for itself. The metaphor is a bit too absurd to emotionally connect with and I dislike the way the lyrics feel targeted towards someone else, who is referred to with male pronouns:

The man in the room looks so dramatic
...
The man is wandering around
Where's the way out he never found?

For being dedicated to people "like her", the lyrics create a separation between her and the subject, which makes it harder to vibe with. It's about darkness, but also it's about this unnamed dude with a metal head that destroys things---but like a metaphorical dude with metamorphical metalic head inside a metaphorical house and at some point, you've covered the song in so many layers of metaphor that I've lost the feelings of darkness and despair entirely. I think there are enough high points and things to think about in regards to the song that I enjoy it, but between my issues with the other half of her singing & the metaphors missing the mark, it's not at that 60 point "I can say I like this without any qualifiers" tier.

[Final Thoughts: Well, I suppose she does switch to first person lyrics for the last section of the song, so it's really not accurate to imply there's *always* a space between her and the lyrics. Also, the song eschews repetition and traditional design choices, continuously ramping up in intensity and progressing through different phases, which I really should have praised somewhere in those paragraphs up there.]

[Later: ...I know I misspelled "metaphorically metallic", but I like the way "metamorphical metalic"]

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