LogFAQs > #969930323

The fourth and fifth songs of the Post Wall ranking:

============================

#640: Mark Cromer, Roger Briggs - European Industrial Age (5:13):
https://youtu.be/PehzqNeNqwo

Nominator: NFUN: [24/31 Remaining]

Initial Score: 64.815
Revised Score: 58.36
Final Score: 55.00000007

(First Reaction: A very slow starting song, but it transitions into "above average JRPG town music" which works. I have no idea why, but I'm picturing the town of Lahan from Xenogears [or some PSX -era RPG starting town], only Estelle (Trails) & Rudy (Wild ARMs) are standing on a cliff by a windmill for some reason??

That's a weird crossover to be thinking of and Estelle's not even from the right console, but I'm not complaining.)

!I still like the second half of the song once it picks up and becomes all "village windmill-y", but it takes around two minutes for the song to really kick in. I know that's not a lot of time, but I really wish the song got to the good parts quicker.

[Final Thoughts: I still kinda like this.]

============================

-how dare we shotgun ice when we can chill and be merry-

========================

#639: Bjork - The Modern Things (4:09):
https://open.spotify.com/track/5NWhPxiXYecrYrI9GbM7zL?si=402a6b0e5a814489

Nominator: Bane [30/38 Remaining]

Initial Score: 47.66
Revised Score: 44.44
Final Score: 49.66 [Upgraded to 50.04] [Upgraded to 50.47] [Upgraded to 50.949] [Upgraded to 55.0000009]

(First Reaction: It's an intriguing song, featuring half of its lyrics in Icelandic and some odd musical ideas (such as the final line skipping and repeating like a broken record), but I'm not really invested in the lyrics and I find the music a bit unpleasant. It's different and unique enough that I don't really mind listening to the song, but I'd say it easily falls into the negative point values.)

Another song where I'm pretty confident I already said everything I wanted to. There's some intriguing ideas and I like the outro, but I'm not really into anything else about the song. Sorry--it's certainly not bad and a good attempt at finding something I'd like, but this doesn't do much for me.

[Final Thoughts: One of those tracks where, after it ends, I stare at the tablet for ten minutes without saying anything. Then replay the song in hopes of inding something to say and still coming up empty.

Ultimately the song has a lot to say, all of which is vague enough to lead to countless interpetations, but they're just not subjects I really want to study. A crash course on Platonic idealism, global warming, genealogy, the march of technology, and a vaguely creepy Icelandic verse that feels like it's from a different song entirely--it's a very dense song. The type of thing that demands many hours of inspection, scholarly research, and philosophical debate.

Which I can appreciate on some level, sure, but they're not topics I'm really interested in & studying all philosophies deriving from Plato would take... considerably more time than I can invest on any one song, at least. And it's not catchy enough to be something I really enjoy in spite of being unable to properly grok what it's going for either.

...Though I will say I'm mildly amused by people who try taking the song literally:

Modern Things sounds like bjork was tripping hard

Bjrk: Br... what if like... all the modern things, like cars and tvs and trains, they always existed? Like, what if they were just in a mountain somewhere, waiting for the right moment?

Other person: Djude, you should totally make a song about that! That makes so much sense!

]

[Later: Well, I mean, I guess it's unique enough musically ; lyrically ; and conceptually that I have a very slight positive lean towards the song tonight.]

[Still Later: This track has grown on me a fair amount and been spared from elimination a few times, but I think this is as far as it goes. While I'm learning to appreciate all the layers of complexity to this song, I'm not seeing any other songs I want to move this over.]

[Even Later: Okay, clearly I'm' not actually going to eliminate this until the "kinda like" level. So let's just move it up there now.]

========================