LogFAQs > #971845500

One song today and I need a couple days to rest after typing this much, but I do think it was worth it:

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Seventh Wonder - The Great Escape:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMjO7y-98Ak

Estimated Score:The average of all parts is 62.55, but that feels really low... I'd probably start it at exactly 70 points and then see if I wanted to go up or down when comparing it to other songs at that Really Like level.

Part I (...and The Earth Wept): 65.80

Repeating my earlier remarks: "Soft, painful, blunt, some nice quiet guitar playing... really quite pleasing, actually.".

It is rather brief and it quickly transitions to a more sweeping, orchestral, epic majesty feeling which doesn't play quite as well as the intro for me, but it's nice enough.

Part II (A Poisoned Land): 59.46

A harsher instrumental that has a darker, more mechanical feel that quickly overpowers the epic beauty that ended part one. I like it more than the epic instrumental, but not as much as the intro to Part 1.

Part III (Leaving Home): 52.99

This part feels more like a typical prog metal track. It's not bad; I do kinda like adding the synths in this section, since the singer's character is preparing to board the ship and leave the Earth. But it's also incredibly short & since it stops with him boarding the ship, not much gets to happen in terms of story. It's... fine; it's good for what it is, but as a short bridge that exists only to get us to the next phase of the story, it doesn't hold up well on its own.

This is a good reason why I should *not* judge each part as its own thing and average the scores, but I shall continue to do so anyway for the duration of this writeup.

Part IV (Take-off): 77.48

Now this section gets interesting. I kinda love his vocals here. He does convey a lot of hope & optimism about heading into space, and I naturally gravitate towards lyrics about night & stars. The backing music is suitably intense as a contrast towards his personal optimism. It's all very nice; sadly, the section is also very brief... I know the real meat of the story is after things go wrong, but I wish this bit here were extended out to a full length song of its own because this segment is awesome & I don't want it to end.

Part V (A Turn For The Worst): 54.06

Too epic for my blood. I mean it's not without its charms; I can appreciate how quickly the song turns, the way neither the listener nor characters have a chance to even fully appreciate things before it all goes to hell & we're all doomed, but the level of intensity it ramps up towards isn't exactly my favorite... it's also at a bit of a disadvantage because while it's appropriate that it suddenly destroys the part I was starting to love, that doesn't mean I enjoy it doing so.

I do like the outro here as it starts to transition to the next part. Those notes please me.

Part VI (A New Balance): 80.00

After the epic metal, the rather subdued piano playing & tame electric guitar that open this part are quite welcome. Also, eternal darkness where no light will spawn, very nice. Honestly, there's a lot to like in the lyrics here, with everyone trying to avoid facing reality or themselves:

Shine your light, blind us when reality bites
[...]
Mima, save us from seeing ourselves

Also, it doesn't end too quickly or drag on for too long, which is nice. I think I may put this section as a solid tier above the previous ones. Also, Mima is an AI, so there's even a bit of a non-human bonus in this part of the song, so that's neat.

Part VII (Death of the Goddess): 56.44

People weren't miserable for two minutes,, so it's time for death. I've seen Joss Whedon shows, I know how that goes.

This part may go a bit too hard on the darkness, to a point where it starts veering towards dark comedy than tragedy. "You are damned to drift through space, forever! Also Earth is dead, even if you could go back, which you can't. Also your AI killed itself."

I'm too lazy to make more Simpsons memes & get around the three image limit, so just pretend the relevant Potasium Benzoate images are here:

"You are damned to wander space for eternity!"

"Thats bad."

"But you have an AI companion to distract you from the horrors of reality!"

"That's good!"

"The AI just killed itself."

*awkward silence*

Part VIII (The Age of Confusion: Despair): 61.034

*before listening* Well, I like the title at least.

*after* It's way too brief and there aren't any lyrics I' want to draw attention to, but the music itself is nice enough that I'd say I like what little is here.

Part IX (The Age of Confusion: Lust) 50.76

The shortest orgy of all time? *shrugs*. This is a section of the song that exists, I suppose. I'm not bothered by it, I just find nothing here to react to in the first place.

Part X (The Age of Confusion: Reason): 54,63

For a half-hour long song, they're not really giving many of these parts a chance to breathe... I suppose one shoudl take the three Age of Confusions as one part instead of three, but even so, it's all so brief. Everyone having an orgy and then getting bored of all the orgies takes, like, one minute total? I haven't checked the runtime, but while I'm sure I'm being hyperbolic, I don't think I'm that far off. This section of the story is fast-forwarded through at such great speed that I'm not entirely sure why parts IX & X are in the song at all.

I mean, they're not bad! This is a good band and I'm definitely here for the song, I just feel "they had an orgy and then instantly got bored of the orgy" is so relatively pointless in the context of the story that I don't get it?

Part XI (The Aftermath): 74.49

After the rather pointless sections, the song picks back up and basically pretends that none of that just happened. We're back to dealing with the tragedy of Earth's demise & the AI Goddess' suicide in a section that is a decent length & has some nice lyrics to it:

We're holding on, within our cradle of confusion
[..]
Oh for so long, I was the wielder of illusions
But there's no hiding what we are
We are the plague of all,
For humanity there is no cure

Now there's a verse I can work with. There's also just the faintest trace of metal growling on a couple of lines which is quite marvelous when used sparingly like this. I'm going to keep this at the "Really Like" section, but I could see a full-length version of this section going way up the list.

Part XII (Dining On Ashes): 60.00

I like it, though it's not one of my favorite parts. "Repenting sinners will wither and fade" is a fairly nice line, I suppose.

Part XIII (The Curtain Falls): 66.00

Neat. The end doesn't feel quite as dramatic or impactful as I'd expect, but having everything circle back to the sad guitar playing is great (love that guitar outro).

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Well, that was a journey. I think I really liked it; even the low points aren't especially bad and there are enough bits that I kinda love that it was worth spending the time on this. Thank you.

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