Board 8 > Raetsel (and Raetsel's alts) rank 784 songs! [Rankings]

(+) Yeah! (+)

It took a lot longer than expected, but after almost a year, we're finally in a position to start posting some rankings! ...Tomorrow.

SHORT VERSION:

784 songs. List of songs can be found here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QfNa-zf09__z-Om4WO40ocRPWhEeE_83voAt_s-tXLI/edit?usp=sharing

Scores are between 0 and 100. Songs with tied scores are considered to share the same ranking.

Five songs eliminated per day to start with. Will increase to 10 at some point.

Scores and placements are not completely finalized until the winning song (or songs) have been crowned and may be revised even after being posted.

Vast majority of songs have very short writeups. Please keep expectations low.

Thank you.

And now, an overly long and redundant introudction post that restates the above in an overly tedious manner, as is our ancient tradition.

INTRODUCTION POST:

First, a very large thank you to everyone who nominated. For the past few years these topics have been a place for me to basically be and say whatever I wanted, enjoying unrestrained freedom. I can't tell you all how amazing it felt to just "be"--bouncing between various forms and identities, without much of a care what anyone thought. The fact that last year's song won because it made me identify as an 8-year old pink hedgehog and people just rolled with the insanity--not just allowing me to say something that ridiculous, but actively coming back & spending so much of their own time choosing songs so that I get to do it all again--is amazing. This series is my happy place; I still don't entirely understand what you people get out of this arrangement, but I remain as grateful as ever.

For health reasons, this shall be the last massive ranking topic. Physically, I just can't sit here typing for as many hours as I use to, so trying to get through this many songs is... a bit much. Any future topics will likely be much smaller in scope--think around the 200 song cap from my first ranking, instead of the push for infinite songs of this topic & last year's. Don't worry too much, I'm not doing especially *poorly*. I just need to take more frequent breaks and limit how much time I spend at a keyboard each day. Thank you for your understanding with all the delays.

But that's enough serious, "real world" talk..

Standard disclaimer from last year:

All songs are incredibly welcome. The songs I hate offer an opportunity to think about why I hate them and to experience music that I wouldn't normally hear, so while I may complain a lot more than I should, to be quite honest, I do treasure all of the terribly ranked songs. Even the middle of the road songs that fail to inspire any reaction have their place, serving as a divider between things I liked & things I didn't.

Also, my opinion on songs fluctuates constantly. Songs bounce up and down hundreds of ranking positions constantly, so even if I say I hate a song now, its quite possible that I would learn to appreciate it at some point in the future. So please, know that no matter what I say, I do legitimately appreciate every nomination here and sincerely thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Moving along, it's the scoring system!

SCORING SYSTEM:

All songs are scored between 0 and 100 points. Songs with the same score are considered tied and share a ranking. Points are awarded based only on my personal enjoyment and roughly correlate to the following tiers:

90.00 to 100: I love these songs!

80.00 to 89.99~: Not quite top tier songs, but I kinda love them.

70.00 to 79.99~: I really like these songs.

60.00 to 69.99~: I like these songs enough that I can just leave the writeup as "I like this" and move on.

55.00 to 59.99~: I kinda like these songs.

50.0000001 to 54.99~: My feelings towards these songs are more positive than negative.

Exactly 50: These songs failed to inspire any reaction, positive or negative.

45.00 to 49.99~: It's fine. These songs are fine.

40.00 to 44.99~: I'm not a fan of these songs.

30.00 to 39.99~: I did not like these songs.

20.00 to 29.99~: I quite actively disliked these songs.

10.00 to 19.99~: Well, I mean... I don't hate them...

0 to 9.99~: Thanks, I hate it!



The scoring is a bit harsher this year; expect most songs to drop before the 60 point tier. On the plus side, reaching the "I like this" tier is a tremendous accomplishment!

WARNING(S)

I'm still working on assigning songs their final scores while this is going on, so expect things to get a bit... messy. We'll be going slow with only five eliminations a day to start with because there's a large clump of songs separated by fractions of points and the topic might sorta implode if I don't get that completely sorted out before the rankings catch up to it. We'll ramp things up to 10 eliminations a day once things are more clear on my end. Again, thank you for your understanding through the delays and the slower roll out of rankings.

Also, expect a lot of writeups that are so short and insubstantial that they might not count as writeups. With full apologies, I have to be a bit more considerate of how much time I spend typing, so if I don't have a lot that I actually want to say then I'll probably just move along to the next song. It is what it is, but I can promise that all songs will be ranked and have at least one sentence--even if that sentence is "I don't have much to say".

Also also, if a song does have a writeup, don't expect it to be coherent. Expect a lot of unrelated tangents, multiple fursonas, and... spirited debate between said fursonas. (Don't think about it too hard and assume things are exaggerated for comedic effect). If you're a regular, you already know what to expect. If you're a newcomer... ummm... well, you still have a chance to flee this topic before things get too crazy and none of the voices in my head will take it personally. </.<

Also*3: I reserve the right to alter any song's score at any time. You know how it is; you eliminate a song and then a week later it gets stuck in your head and you're all, "aww, I wish I gave it a higher score"? Or a song has a score that keeps fluctuating between the low 20s and high 90s on an almost daily basis, so you have absolutely no idea what placement it's actually going to get until the topic ends? As such, nothing is finalized until the very end. I'm not *expecting* things to come to it, but... well... think of the "final scores" and "final placements" as more provisional suggestions. </.<

...Eh, it's the final MEGA RANKING, so I have even less reason to care about coherency or preserving my reputation. Chaos, chaos, I can do anything, Jevil laugh and what not.

List o' Songs: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QfNa-zf09__z-Om4WO40ocRPWhEeE_83voAt_s-tXLI/edit?usp=sharing

EXAMPLE WRITEUP

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

Song's Ranking (eg.785): Artist Name - Song Name:
Song Link

Nominator: Nominator's Name [# songs remaining]

Initial Score: 0
Revised Score: 0
Final Score: 0

(First Reaction: Thoughts after listening to the song for the first time.)

Standard writeup after listening to the song a second time goes here.

[Final Thoughts: A last chance to type something before eliminating the song.]

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

The format is hopefully self-explanatory. Initial & Revised Scores DO NOT impact anything, at all, ever--they're just included so we can track how my opinion of the song has changed over the year. Only the final score matters.

NOTIFICATIONS:

@MetalmindStats

I'm pretty sure that's the only person who asked for a notification when the topic went up. Though, I believe it was implied CJones might like a notification as they don't check here very often:

@CJones

(Apologies if you did not want that notification.)

Raka's asked for a notification whenever one of their songs is eliminated. If you are someone who'd like to opt in for future notifications about your songs, let me know.

And I think that's it. Bottom five songs drop tomorrow.

Tag

Tag

Tag so hyped for this

Hyyyyype

woo tag

I was here!!

Tag

A

Wooo tag.

tag

NOW ENTERING THE BOTTOM TIER

...Actually, no one nominated a song I actively hated this time! If you were trying to avoid nominating things that I hated, then congratulations! You all got at least 10 points with every song.

If you were hoping to avoid gaining points and simply failed to find a song I hate, then you have my condolences.

NOW ENTERING THE "10 to 19.99~ POINT TIER".

Songs that I definitely don't hate, but wound up being in this year's lowest tier because the actual bottom tier is strangely empty this time.

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784: Saga Arcade Rappers - Saga Arcade Rap (1:00):
https://open.spotify.com/track/4uvitdjupOjGY8M5OcSDoE?si=e1b18d6389714f29

Nominator: Player_0 [29 Remaining]

Initial Score: 28.31
Revised Score: 16.676
Final Score: 11.66

(First Reaction: A short rap song that says nothing and goes nowhere. I'm not sure why this is on the album.)

Okay, seriously, is there any context that I'm missing here? This is by three guys instead of the zombie idols from the rest of the album, but there's no indication of who these guys are & nothing happens during the song? It's only a minute long and at least half that time is spent on "yo, yo, yo"s and mic checks. I can find no information on which characters are performing this, nor why. It's so insigificant that I can't imagine this was an important part of the episode, but I might have to try to watch the second episode just to see if the scene it was in helps things at all?

....alright, let's do this. *goes to watch the second episode*

No, not much; some of the zombies are wandering the streets & a trio of guys decide to hit on them in rap battle form. The rap is intentionally lame, but I wouldn't say that context really helps the song much (if at all). The scene was kinda funny, but the funniest part was the cop who interrupted the rap serenade and he's not even featured on the track?? It's nice that this was included for completion's sake, but it's a low point for the album.

[Final Thoughts: This track has been on a downward spiral since the first listen. It's short & bland enough to be inoffensive, but it's difficult for a song to pull off "intentionally lame" in a way that's actually enjoyable. This track isn't good enough to really work as a song, nor funny enough to be worth a laugh, nor particularly relevant to the themes of the album/show. It just kinda exists for a moment and then ends, having accomplished nothing other than a general lameness. It's nice that it's here for the sake of completion, but the album would probably be stronger without it.]

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

Yay I won last place again, but it doesn't feel as rewarding without a sub-10 rating! I'll always appreciate the rapper scene for giving us this dub: https://youtu.be/NWow9b-r4D4

Like I said, the cop is the best part of the scene! If the song included his part, it'd be somewhere in the "above 50 point" zone! Alas, in spite of the album's completeness, the nominated version ends without him.

...I suppose I could have fudged things a bit and included it myself to raise the score, but I didn't really think about it and just went with that one "as nominated" instead of taking any liberties to enhance the score. Well, moving along to #783--a song I was sure was going to get last place until it... didn't:

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#783: Philip Glass - Vessels (8:06):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJVxwPoHRSM&list=OLAK5uy_mDCT4_Ky0CAnSs7AexWupMqE4qQRsnc7s&index=2

Nominator: Sergio [12 Remaining]

Initial Score: 08.16
Revised Score: 12.04
Final Score: 12.04

(First Reaction: The parts without the vocalizations are fine, but those are very short and rare. Like "probably only account for 30 seconds or so" of this song's runtime short. The rest is... incredibly difficult for me to get through. I wanted to shut the song off after about a minute and it never got much better. Right now, this song is pretty clearly on its own tier below everything else nominated... there's still room for some songs to do worse, but I'm kinda hoping things don't get to that point.)

This song has the distinction of being the only song I hated on a first listen, which sounds bad -but- as I've said before, I enjoy using this topic series to expose myself to songs I wouldn't normally listen to & work out why I have such strongly negative reactions to them. Unfortunately, while I do think hatred is a bit too strong of a word for this song, the song is still... not the type of thing I enjoy and I don't think there's a lot to analyze about my negative reaction here.

A1.- While it's a bit of a running gag, I wouldn't say I truly hate non-lyric vocalizations in general. Indeed, there are some acapella songs I've enjoyed, and I'm sure you'll find a lot of vocalization mixed into songs I love because that is such a common and general aspect of music that trying to block vocalization from your playlist would be about as stupid as saying 'I prefer my music to be without sound". The less idiotic way of phrasing it would be a more generic 'there are types of vocalizing that I find displeasing to listen to and this song is one of those' which is not particularly funny or insightful, but is where we're at. If I had to try to point specific reasons I disliked these particular vocals;

A2.: There isn't much variation in the vocalizations, triggering a second response of "wow, this is the type of repetition that I dislike". You've pretty much heard everything their voices are going to do less than a minute into the song. This quickly leads to feelings of boredom and wanting something different to happen.

A3.: It could just be me, but the song feels like it's very "ascending to Heaven"-y... especially with the choir like vocals. Not really my jam or an environment I care to experience, even with the implied apocalypse accompanying it.

B: The instrumentation is a bit more interesting to me, but the choir often drowns it out completely. I think that's what I resented the most the first time around; I'd get excited that the choir was going away and something new was happening, only for them to come back in almost immediately and completely overshadow the part I was looking forward to. Now that I know that's what's going to happen and I'm going to be litening to the choir basically non-stop for the full runtime, it's not as agitating and I don't actively hate the experience... but it's also so strongly doing the opposite of things that I find appealing that the song may as well be the theme tune of a hypothetical Anti-Raetsel, who is probably a good person and actually 'appreciates art' and 'has valid reasoning behind her opinions' or something.

So... this is probably going to stay near the bottom of the list, but I'd say it's at least escaping the tier of things I hate, which is potentially a good thing?

[Final Thoughts: The brief moments without the choir are fairly pleasing. There's a sense of ascension and I haven't quite placed how it feels (regular balloon? alien abduction? hot air balloon?)... but I can't place what it feels like because the choir never goes away long enough. There's also a brief "spiraling down" bit without the choir which would be great if... I could actually listen to it for more than four seconds. I'm afraid the vocalizations here are a complete miss and while I definitely don't hate it--I can't really hate something that features sections I want more of--this track is probably a cinch for last place this time around. Though we've certainly had worse and managing to beat 783 other songs for last place is an honor in its own right.

*one minute later*

...Well, actually there's a song I don't have anything nice to say about, so I guess this track isn't actually in last place. Uhh... your call if that's an improvement or not?]

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

And now for a couple of firsts: The first participant to lose two songs a row & the first time I openly talk to myself, here's 782 & 781:

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#782: HANABIE. - Sunrise Miso Soup (3:46):
https://open.spotify.com/track/0qAspOPBxPaq0WUzRTcA3t?si=958f77f7304b4c8b

Nominator: Murphiroth [31 Remaining]

Initial Score: 47.00
Revised Score: 18.74
FInal Score: 12.58

(First Reaction: It's a fairly forgettable J-metal song. Nothing wrong with it, but being unable to sleep is a fairly banal topic & lyrics about food never work for me and thus I find very little to be interested in here.)

I'm not really sure how a first reaction that terrible could get a score that high because that was brutal. There are a few points in the song with clearer, more operatic vocals that are alright? I'm just so... uninterested in the story of this song that even at its best, I'm rather disinterested in listening to it.

...And I think I'm going to take a break early tonight because I'm being way, way too cruel and don't want to carry this negativity onto whatever song is being ranked next.

[Final Thoughts: Well, I don't like intense drumming or lyrics about food, so this feels like a fairly easy "bottom of the list" type song. It's not something I hate, but it consists almost entirely of things I don't like being performed in ways that don't exactly improve my opinion of them.

And yet, that Initial Score implies there was a time where I at least didn't mind the track. I'm not really sure what I was getting out of the song that it had such an incredibly high score, but I'm certainly not recapturing those feelings on any of the re-listens.]

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-space filling divider-

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#781: HANABIE. - We love sweets (2:39):
https://open.spotify.com/track/0XuctrPVJmwNifmEaoC5Bj?si=e76ada0c36cf482c

Nominator: Murphiroth [30 Remaining]

Initial Score: 34.00
Revised Score: 18.01
Final Score: 13.00

(First Reaction: I see now that this year's running gag is going to be complaining about songs with food related lyrics. This is obviously not the only song to get that complaint (it wouldn't be a running gag if it only came up once), but this may be the lowest scoring of all of them, which is vaguely impressive in its own right?)

There's a spoken-word section towards the end that is fairly nice. Other than that, I'm in even less of a mood for this song than I usually am. I think the only food related song in recent memory that I enjoyed was "Mozzarella Try Cooking" and I fear there's not much of a secret reason for that. That song is cute and catchy; this song is not cute or instantly memorable in a "get stuck in your head years later" type way.

I suppose that's the only real takeaway here. "If you're going to sing about food, be cute".

[Fluttershy's Note: I thought the moral of the story was "cheese is cuter than chocolate"?]

...Sure, let's go with that too.

[Final Thoughts: There are metal songs that I absolutely love, but this isn't my style. If we're going full metal growling like this then I need some lyrics that I can get attached to and food songs are *really* not the way to go on that end. I'll acknowledge that this is good for this style of metal, but it's not a style for me & there's not really a lot here that I find appealing. There are some cleaner, kinda cute vocals occasionally? I don't mind that bit.]

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

I'm aware that ideally I should spread the drops out a bit more, but with my schedule it's easiest to get the five songs posted here in the morning & then rest a bit before working on getting final scores for some more songs in the afternoon.

And so it's thus time our final drop for the day, which I'm sure will be the most controversial pick of the five.

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

#780: Pearl Jam Porch (7.19):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_eDMjv0HwU

Nominator: Xtlm [12 Remaining]

Initial Score: 36.41
Revised Score: 30.15
Final Score: 18.83

(First Reaction: I feel like this is a "you had to be there" type of song. I'm sure that, if you're actually in the crowd, then a prolonged instrumental break so the star can go crowdsurf or do whatever nonsense he wishes would be pretty awesome; from a distance, as someone who doesn't particularly have any feelings towards Pearl Jam to begin with, it just feels... long. And theres a lot of extended points of just shouting "hey, hey, hey, hey" or "yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah" that make the song feels like it's so much longer than the 15 or 20 minute long ones that were nominated.)

This definitely feels like the longest nominated song, even though there are numerous examples of longer songs being included. By the time we hit the instrumental break, I really want the song to be over and it's somehow not even the halfway point?? It's just so, so exhausting to listen to. I should try to find more to say, but honestly, I want to just file this song as a sleep aid & move on.

[Final Thoughts: Long and aimless. The guitar work is impressive, but not something I'm super into--or at least not into enough that I want it to be so long. I don't really mind the vague "open to interpretation" lyrics, but there's also no lyrics that I find particularly interesting... it was kinda nice to listen to a masterclass of rockin' guitar playing at first (even if not precisely what I wanted), but by the third listen, I fear I've gotten as much out of the song as I'm ever going to and wish it were a good five minutes shorter than it is. Sorry; I'm not averse to listening to other songs by the band or other rock instrumentals, but this track didn't land for me and has been on a steep decline with each listen.]

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EDIT: Wow, I hadn't intended it or noticed, but that was actually the last elimination of the tier! Tomorrow we'll begin the 20 point tier.

I was hoping to get one in bottom tier, so much competition this year

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

I'm sure you'll find a lot of vocalization mixed into songs I love because that is such a common and general aspect of music that trying to block vocalization from your playlist would be about as stupid as saying 'I prefer my music to be without sound".

:<

GameBopAdv posted...

:<

I was trying to be self-deprecating about how little sense my complaints made even to myself, but I apologize to anyone I accidentally insulted.

NOW ENTERING THE 20 TO 29.99~ TIER

Songs that I still dislike, but are still a tier above the last five eliminations--and two tiers above the actual bottom that just wasn't used. We start with something that's probably not much of a surprise after last night's eliminations: Non-cheese food products!

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#779: Ratna Petit & Nanahira - Confetti's Yacht (3:45):
https://youtu.be/X66YlReFzSc

Nominator: UF8 [29 Remaining]

Initial Score: 49.46
Revised Score: 49.61
Final Score: 23.80

(First Reaction: It is cute, but not quite cute enough to overcome all my biases against it. I don't think food related songs have ever done very well at my topics*, the repeated "sweety, sweety, honey, honey" lyrics are just repetitive enough to be mildly bothersome, and the backing music isn't doing much for me either. I certainly wouldn't say I dislike it because it is cute and we could always use more cute songs, but it's still a bit of a miss.

*[Later Edit: Alright, Mozarella Try Cooking is the exception and I talk about that one more in a different writeup.])

I really want to like this because I want more cuteness on the list, but I need something from the song itself. The singers are cute, yes, but the song doesn't do anything for me. From the subject matter of the lyrics, to the repetitive chorus, to whatever you'd call the instrumental rowing sections that I actively dislike, it's like the song actively misses every target. The singers are fine and I wouldn't mind hearing other songs from either/both of them, but this track really isn't doing them any favors.

[Final Thoughts: "Let's go on a sweet adventure"

Let's not. In fact, let's never speak of sweets or food ever again.

...Sorry, but the repetitive lyrics & wubbing in the chorus are a definite turn-off and all the talk of sweets is just a complete misfire. They're cute and I wish the best for them, but I'm rather aggressively opposed to this song tonight.]

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

totally forgot that was a song i even nominated, or that it was even a song at all lol

yeah i think i picked it just because the video was from harumaki gohan, pretty sure thinking back that i didn't even actually listen to it before selecting it and i just assumed "this'll do well probably"

i don't think i would've had it this low but yeah not a song that leaves a strong impression on me now at all

there actually is another song i probably 100% would've picked had it been fully out then though that also has a harumaki gohan-esque music video, remind me to bring it up if/when the ranking ends in another year or so lol

UF8 posted...

there actually is another song i probably 100% would've picked had it been fully out then though that also has a harumaki gohan-esque music video, remind me to bring it up if/when the ranking ends in another year or so lol

I have made a note of this, so I'll try to do so.

Up next, our first elimination with a rather chaotic score: It started fairly decently for novelty value, fell three tiers to absolute last place, and then bounced back up two tiers to land here:

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#778: On The Franches Mountains - Jura Orchestra (AKA The Yodeler Song from Price Is Right) [3:10]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h12F120ffYg

Nominator: paulg [49 Remaining]

Initial Score: 40.00
Revised Score: 9.15
Final Score: 24.00

(First Reaction: I'm not a fan of yodeling, but I think i should give some points for the sheer novelty of the nomination.)

Ehh... I'm really quite actively not in the mood for this right now. I'm sorry, but I don't have any real nostalgia for The Price Is Right specifically--it's a fine show and I watched it quite a bit, but let's just say the years I watched it weren't exactly the best & trying to flash back to when I watched it on a regular basis would be a bad idea--and... I just rather aggressively do not enjoy this style of music at the moment, so I'm going to give it a really low score to mark it as last place.

...Again, sorry. Perhaps I'll be more charitable by the Final Score.

[Final Reaction: Well, I do regret giving this song a score saying that I hate it, which is definitely too strong. I still rather dislike it though; I'm not going to say it's impossible to find a yodeling song I enjoy, but this isn't it and my memories of this specific era are best left untouched. I will say I appreciate the novelty and the gamble on something really unexpected, but it didn't pay off for me.]

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EDIT: Per usual, the remaining nominations section is never accurate and we've had our first error (now corrected). I really thought I was going to make it through at least the bottom ten this year...

Tagging happily, excitedly, my body is readily

Speeding along because, as I've said, it's way more convenient to release all five in the morning here are the final two songs of the tier!

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#777: Percy Grainger - Marching Song of Democracy (7:45):
https://youtu.be/l-wmubwt0Wc

Nominator: Haste [30 Remaining]

Initial Score: 50.00
Revised Score: 50.00
Final Score: 28.00

(First Reaction: The dullest type of traditional music. The type where you don't even care enough to dislike it; with certain other nominations we could try to analyze why I have an aversion to that type of classic music (we probably won't, but we could) and I can try to listen to it to build up a greater tolerance or understanding of it. There's a lot of value in songs that I dislike. This... may as well have been eight minutes of silence, as I have no appreciable reaction to it at all.)

It's okay, I guess.

[Final Thoughts: Really not in the mood for this style of music tonight. I... would argue that it's better that I dislike the song (as it at least makes me feel *SOMETHING*, as opposed to the "you may as well have nominated 8 minutes of silence" death void the song was previously placed in, but your mileage may vary.

At least 777th is a cool number to have a song place at?]

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-space dividing line-

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#776: Bjork - Enjoy (3:54):
https://open.spotify.com/track/6JQVN9gi04NCK1tiz0aQA1?si=b8fd274dd19a433a

Nominator: Bane [37 Remaining]

Initial Score: 43.89
Revised Score: 29.709
Final Score: 29.90

(First Reaction: An oppressive and monotonous beat that would benefit from having some oppressive lyrics to grind your soul to paste while the heavy music pummels you into submission. As is, I don't feel her vocals or lyrics properly contribute to the song, leaving me with a mild headache and lamenting the wasted potential.)

Heavy and intense pounding without reprieve seems like a good idea--I've praised Triangle from the Thumper soundtrack multiple times and that track could be described the same way--but tonight I find it to be unsettling in a not very enjoyable way. It could be my total lack of interest in this type of intimacy that leaves me unable to connect with the song or possibly that I just don't care for this particular brand of intensity, but I'm afraid this track isn't really working for me at all tonight. Definitely a different type of experience, so I wouldn't say I hated it or intensely disliked it, but it's... not something I want to hear right now to be polite.

[Final Thoughts: I think I like the concept of the song and it comes *close* to creating a truly oppressive environment that I'd enjoy, but it doesn't seem to fully commit to the pressure. With more crushing lyrics or a different vocal performance, this might have been a hit, but as is it's... not entirely a miss, but not something I'm eager to go back to either.]

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NOW ENTERING THE 30 TO 39.99~ TIER

Still songs that I don't like, but feel like it'd be too harsh to say I disliked them as they're a fair number of tiers from the bottom. And our last drop of the day:

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#775: Philip Glass - The Grid (14:57):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SegECuY22Rs&list=OLAK5uy_mDCT4_Ky0CAnSs7AexWupMqE4qQRsnc7s&index=5

Nominator: Sergio [11 Remaining]

Initial Score: 10.76
Revised Score: 17.46
Final Score: 32.00

(First Reaction: The song started off okay, but once the vocalizations came to full prominence it became rather displeasing... they don't last too long, but I can't say I'm a fan of the section immediately after the vocals either. It's kinda... bland and repetitive until the vocalizations resume. That section actually ain't bad; it's "choir like, but in a way I slightly enjoy"... but then things go back to being kinda bland.

*yawns* It's so long too... I don't hate it, but that's about the nicest thing I can say.)

Let's see if I can get at least one sentence about each section...

The first two and a half minutes are basically the instruments from Vessels being reprised without the choir. I don't quite like it as much as I expected, but it's fine? It's, it's fine.

Then the choir comes back in and I'm pretty sure I hate what they're doing here. Those two minutes are just remarkably unpleasant and I wish I could just start the song around 4:20 because this stretch here is absolutely murdering the score--I think I'd give this segment a total of four points if ranked by itself.

Things improve drastically after that; we basically revisit the instrumentation again, but it's more synthetic and deeper & booming, and I might say I kinda like the stretch from 4:20-ish to 6:50-ish.

Bad choir. Go away. Shoo. This segment's probably around 20-ish points--the notes I like are being played, you just can't make them out clearly. I think this song may have went over better two years ago, because there is a bit of a chaotic quality to the overlapping vocals & the instruments that feels like something I would have found appealing at that point. [In fact, the First Reaction states directly that I did enjoy that section not too long ago! Not tonight though. I wish I had an explanation for you.]

At eight minutes and whatever, we go back to instrumental music and I start to blank out a bit... the different parts of the song overlapping feel odd in a way that I'm unable to appreciate, though it's not bad and I like some of what it's doing.

More choir at...whenever, you kinda get how the song is bouncing between both sections and increasing in intensity each time, yes? It's "heavenly" & "chaotic" & "constantly ramping up". Which are things! Things I'm sure several people here will love! But for me, it's just kinda... not me. The song also doesn't have a satisfying denouement; after all that ascending, we just STOP. Which probably works better when we seamlessly transition into the next song (Prophecies), but here is just kinda disappointing... I suppose there's something to be said for combining this song with Prophecies to avoid that flaw, but I'm not sure making them into a 23-minute long behemoth would really help either song's score.

[Final Thoughts: I'm definitely not combining this song with Prophecies. Not because making it 23 minutes would be too much, but because Prophecies really doesn't need this track dragging it down. This song feels like a continuation of Vessels in many ways, but the choir is a bit softer & the increased runtime allows more focus on the parts I enjoy, so it's almost like "Vessels done right".

...Unfortunately, I'm just not really into that much of what the track is doing and being an improved version of a song at the bottom of the list is still not worth a fantastic score. I'm moving it up a couple tiers because there are enough segments here with parts that I kinda like that this track feels like it better fits in with the 30 point songs. Too many positive attributes to say I particularly disliked the song, but still not quite something that fully appeals to me.]

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

Woo hoo, escaped the active dislike tier unscathed again!

Lol, Enjoy is actually one of my favorite songs on the album. I love how dark and menancing the beat is, and I think her voice matches it well. Very off kilter as Bjork should be. Also the line "This is sex without touching" I always thought was neat.

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

I see now that this year's running gag is going to be complaining about songs with food related lyrics.

*checks noms* and of course I nominated one of those. Great lol

Tag

Oh no Hanabie

Fun Fact: There are exactly five songs left at this tier! I kinda wish I'd planned that out, but I honestly haven't paid any special attention to how many songs were at each level so the fact that things keep working out nicely is a surprise.

Less fun, it's time for two of the most controversial eliminations in the history of this series.

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

#774: Serj Tankian - Reality TV (4:09):
https://open.spotify.com/track/0OQRA4JVazdXw30zLCUe9y?si=28d74eb3d3a644f4

Nominator: Murphiroth [29 Remaining]

Initial Score: 32.30
Revised Score: 32.30
Final Score: 32.30

(First Reaction: I honestly find this song rather dull. I wouldn't say I especially dislike it, but there's absolutely nothing here that appeals to me and it's easily the weakest song of the album.)

The music is at a very pleasing "slightly intense" level, where it's not exactly easy listening but it's tamer than you'd get from the average metal song. I like the band on this track. Sadly, the lyrics are pretty far removed from anything I want to hear. "I abhor the whore who calls herself reality TV" is an oddly sexist lyric for Serj and he eventually descends into just shouting body parts:

Body piercings, those of
Ancient kinky Egyptian slave prisoners fly at me
Nipples, tongues, testicles, cheeks
Nipples, tongues, testicles, cheeks

And it's just... man, I'm an easily offended twit who's triggered by everything and I fear I may be more open-minded towards sexiness than he is. ...Well these days at any rate, I mean, I did give Candyman last place a few years back for the line about panties dropping... but, I mean, I'm less likely to do that sort of thing NOW at least. *coughs* Either way, while there are some solid arguments to be made for pure lowest common denominator drivel being actively detrimental to society, I don't feel the song ever makes much of a point in that regard. Like, yeah, it's not all shouting whore and naming body parts, but he certainly dedicates more time to "eww, sex" than on anything resembling a point.

...Still, there is a good band here, at least.

[Final Thoughts: Song is fine, but the lyrics are probably the biggest miss of the entire topic. I'm aware that he has a point about society and lowest common denominator drivel,, but screeching EGYPTIAN SLAVE TESTICLE WHORE NIPPLE!!!!!1!11!" borders on being the most ridiculous way to deliver that point. The song is fine enough that I should give it more points, but I'm just not into this.]

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

-space divider!-

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

#773: Miles Davis - Prince of Darkness [6:32]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUGqD0VmTIQ

Nominator: Lasa [13 Remaining]

Initial Score: 46.41
Revised Score: 46.29
Final Score: 38.64

(First Reaction: There's no real darkness in the song, which is a bit disappointing considering the name... though I do kinda like the end of the song; it slows down and becomes a smoother sort of jazz that I like. It's just a bit too late in the song and a bit too short of a section to really push it up another tier or two.)

It's possible that I just don't care about most forms of jazz, and also possible that I'm not really into trumpet focused music--I can't say I particular dislike the instrument, but the opening minutes of the song that are focused entirely on it are easily the weakest part of the song for me. I also stand by my belief that the song improves with each section it goes through, with it hitting its stride at the last section. Regrettably, I'm not super into the song even at its best, and while I do appreciate one of the greatest jazz legends getting nominated here, I don't think his style of music is quite for me.

[Final Thoughts: I kinda like the last minute, but in general this isn't quite a style of music that I'm really into. I want to appreciate it and I'm glad it's here for the chance to listen to it, but... ehhh... not really a fan of this if I'm being honest.]

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

Change of plans, don't want to eliminate the song that was originally scheduled to be in 772nd place and have to work out exactly how many extra points I wish to give that song & reorder the list to properly accommodate it. So perhaps there's only going to be four songs at this tier? Either way, we'll move along to the next song that -didn'-t get a literal last minute reprieve:

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

#772: Run D.M.C. & Guns N' Roses - Tricky Child O' Mine (3:35):
https://youtu.be/OmDhk1tDwTo

Nominator: Mega_Mana [37 Remaining[

Initial Score: 50.13
Revised Score: 50.13
Final Score: 39.77

(First Reaction: Two good songs that don't really seem to go together. Not even in a 'whoa, this sounds weird way' that I might like, but in an "I wish Slash's guitar solo was either removed so I could focus more on the rapping or the rapping was removed so I could have Guitar Hero flashbacks" type way. )

I feel either song by itself would get at least 60 points, but this mashup just doesn't work for me. The two halves don't compliment each other or offer a fresh perspective on the component songs, resulting in a track that just makes me want to drop everything and listen to the actual songs. I wouldn't say I dislike it because the two components to the song are such high quality that it''s impossible to say there's nothing appealing about it, but it's like a "jellybean and sausage pizza": you could have made something worse, but why did you make it in the first place??

[Final Thoughts: Sorry, but I kinda resent Slash's guitar solo tonight... I actually want to listen to Tricky right now and Slash is overpowering the lyrics enough that I can't enjoy them. It really is two great songs that I'm just not sold on the combination there-of ; Sweet Child by itself would let me reminisce about the best year of my life and Guitar Hero, Tricky is the song I want to hear right now (and relatively new to me due to how little rap music I've listened to), but this is.... well, about half as good as either song would be by themselves.

Mash-ups can be great and I wouldn't advise *against* nominating them, but this one's not working for me. Tonight, at least.]

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

Okay, moved that one song up a bit. I'll talk more about that when it drops in the future, but for now, the last song from the 30 point tier:

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

#771: HANABIE. - Genkai numa life (3:06):
https://open.spotify.com/track/1On2uNPDyJSrinjmFzv3DH?si=db5043e26afb45f4

Nominator: Murphiroth [28 Remaining]

Initial Score: 39.96
Revised Score: 39.96
Final Score: 39.96

(First Reaction: J-Metal song with some high pitched choruses that don't really land favorably with me anymore than the metal parts do.)

It's fine, but I don't think it does anything to stand out. While it's not the lowest scoring track on the album, it's probably the least memorable and is just sort of there.

[Final Thoughts: The first of roughly 700+ songs that I don't have anything to say about. </.<

It just kinda exists. There are songs on the album that go a lot harder. There are songs that go softer. There are worse songs and several better ones. This leaves no real lasting impression and could probably be cut from the album without impacting much. I don't hate it, I can't even say that I truly dislike it, it's just.... here. Much like this writeup. It doesn't say much and wouldn't be missed if it weren't here, and yet, it is.

I suppose the fact that the score is consistent is mildly interesting?]

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

NOW ENTERING THE 40 TO 44.99~ TIER:

I'm not a fan of these tracks, but I wouldn't complain about them much either. And while it would be good form to take a short break before the first cut... I do have some stuff to do back in "reality", so let's just pull the trigger.

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

#770: Valravn, Maria Franz - Kelling (4:47):
https://open.spotify.com/track/5FU2ItcYLr3RFwEwBiZtLS?si=xtKTtemHT8KfRkZdk6OVCw

Nominator: Jesse Custer [28 Remaining]

Initial Score: 46.15
Revised Score: 39.76
Final Score: 40.99

(First Reaction: It's good to have an Icelandic song for the sake of variety, but I'm not finding a lot here that appeals to me. Not... not really into dead hags or dancing and while they're not the worst example of it, the lyrics can get a bit repetitive by the end of the song:

Stand up and dance
Stand up and dance
Stand up and dance
Stand up and dance

Hag lies on, hag lies on, hag lies on
hag lies on, hag lies on, hag lies on
hag lies on the doorstep, hag lies on
hag lies on, hag lies on, hag lies on

That kinda thing is always a hard thing to sell me on. I appreciate the variety and taking a chance on the song, but it misses the mark.)

I feel less in the mood for the type of reptition from the outro than the first time around. And while I'm trying to find something to say about each song, I'm not finding anything else I want to say here...

[Final Thoughts: "[I'm] not really into dead hags."-Raetsel_Lapin

Ya know, let's just end things on that note.]

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

No worries on Tricky Child O' Mine! After first hearing it like ten-odd years ago, it's just one of my favorite dumb Youtube mash-up things, and it's gotten to the point where I cannot hear either song without wanting to enjoy the other with it.

And if there's any 80s rap group that combines well with rock, it's gotta be Run DMC. Even if Guns N Roses is no Aerosmith.

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

Also*3: I reserve the right to alter any song's score at any time. You know how it is; you eliminate a song and then a week later it gets stuck in your head and you're all, "aww, I wish I gave it a higher score"?

I've had Reality TV stuck in my head all morning and will probably give it some extra points tomorrow. Haven't quite decided how many though; it certainly is a catchier song than I was giving it credit for, but I still have a bias against the way he's delivering his message. Feels like it should place anywhere from low 40's to mid 50's... I'm going to give things another day before I shuffle things around, but I'll probably do something.

For now, we'll just keep rolling with the next two songs to drop and worry about everything else later.

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

#769: Sabu - Choferito - Plena [4:05]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_M9Bv1FmwM

Nominator: Cakophon [19 Remaining]

Initial Score: 49.37
Revised Score: 42.11
Final Score: 42.11

(First Reaction: It's not really my thing, very... traditional, percussion heavy, and the lyrics sound like they're repeating themselves fairly often (though I cannot find any trace of the lyrics online and don't speak the language, so i could be wildly mistaken on that end and apologize if I'm completely off-base). That being said, I don't have any actual issues with the song... it's not something I'll really choose to listen to, but not something I'd make an attempt to avoid or complain about either. )

I really want to have more to say here, but this is just both too traditional & focused entirely on a style of instrument that's hard for me to get into. I'm grateful for the chance to try classic Latin jazz, but I don't think the genre is for me... or at least this type of song isn't, one with different instruments and/or a more modern flavor could easily be a radically different experience that I enjoy, so I'm hardly going to dismiss the entire genre... but this particular example is not a great starting point.

[Final Thoughts: That's about it. I want to like it and I'm glad something different was nominated, but it really doesn't seem to be a style that I have an affinity for. I did try to find a different version of this song to see if that improved the experience and I kinda like the "Chopteeth Afrofunk Big Band" rendition:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObCYawvt01M

Removing the somewhat repetitive vocals and using different instruments obviously results in a very different feel to the song, but this one has a Carribbean feeling that's more appealing to me. ...Though it's changed so drastically that it's basically a completely different song and "I like this if you change every single thing about it" is not... not as positive sounding a writeup as it sounded in my head.]

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

-SPACE DIVIDER-

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

#768: Franchouchou - Mezame Returner (Electric Returner) (4:18):
https://open.spotify.com/track/36P5LYtR9a0BHKKIGmzWGm?si=92c2ec4462b44a78

Nominator: Player_0 [28 Remaining]

Initial Score: 56.11
Revised Score: 42.00
Final Score: 42.48

(First Reaction: I'm not really into this type of vocal distortion these days and I'm not sure why we need a mechanical version of a song from earlier in the album. This is fine enough, especially if taken entirely on its own, but it's rather hard to judge it on its own merits when a superior version of the song played just a few minutes ago....)

!Oddly, I think this song was originally helped by following the regular version of the track. I liked that version and hearing a bizarre, corrupted version had some novelty... without that, this is uhh... not something I'm into these days, but it probably would have played well at the first ranking.

[Final Thoughts: The autotuning does no favors to this specific song and having a corrupted remix of a song play so closely to the (vastly superior) original song is a weird design choice for the album's track listing. I'd personally have placed this as the last track, as a bonus song or something. It's not something I really mind listening to, but I don't think I'd ever choose it over the original song which is *RIGHT THERE* and this doesn't change the song up drastically enough for this to stand on its own as a unique experience. It's... alright.]

[Later: Decided to look up a scene from the anime to see why we're reprising this track in this fashion. Actually kind of a cute scene; everyone gets hit with lightning, but since they're already dead it just does *this* to their voices.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqvsAJJf_Dw

Which is somehow more fun than I expected... but not *quite* fun or interesting enough that it impacts my impression of the song in any notable way. Still seemed worth pointing it out though.]

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

This is going to be one of *those* mornings... *shuffles another song scheduled to be eliminated up the list *

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

#767: HANABIE. - Sentimental Heroine (1:39):
https://open.spotify.com/track/1tiVcULS0wYfMW99PdpJxc?si=973d0a414ed345ae

Nominator: Murphiroth [27 Remaining]

Initial Score: 48.00
Revised Score: 36.401
FInal Score: 44.15

(First Reaction: I kinda liked the part with the clear vocals instead of the yelling.)

A very intense and very short song, which appears to be impossible to find lyrics for. After trying every possible search condition I could think of, I finally found the official lyric video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YucH3BX9Oy0

Which naturally only has the lyrics displayed on the video itself, not in text or closed captioning format where you could copy it and run it through a translator. Of course. I'm not holding the lack of lyrics against the song, but it definitely prevents me from getting any added context that may have helped the track.

I'm not finding a lot to say about the song itself... it's a very hardcore metal song that goes full out from the beginning and ends almost as quickly as it started,

[Final Thoughts: The way the lyrics video displays the lyrics also makes it ill-suited for "image to text" translators, even if I wanted to go lyric by lyric through an auto translator. The song itself is... alright, I suppose? The clean lyrics towards the end of the song are nice. And it's short enough that it's hard to really complain about it... even if I'm not in the mood for this style of metal, the song ends before it can become grating or leave much of an impression.]

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

-Dividing Driver!-

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

#766: John McLaughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra - Birds of Fire (5:43):
https://youtu.be/AulNvAR0u5c

Nominator: Haste [29 Remaining]

Initial Score: 20.00
Revised Score: 50.00
Final Score: 44.31

(First Reaction: Epic guitar playing bores me and I was really wanted this song to end before the two minute mark. Unfortunately, it just keeps going....I'll grant that it does change things up and settle down around three minutes, but 1: I'm not a fan of that part either, I just don't dislike it quite as much & 2: it kinda picks back up later in the song anyway, so it's more a brief reprieve than anything else. I also don't like the fading out at the end here; usually, that doesn't bother me at all, it feels like the majority of popular songs end in a fade out, but here it's like "you bore me for almost 6 minutes and then the audio just quietly goes away instead of actually ending" and I feel an irrational dislike of the song. I certainly don't hate it, but it's a pretty drastic miss.)

I'm not sure if I'd call it "good news", but tonight the song is failing to generate any type of reaction at all. I don't find it to be epic, nor do I know why I felt that way months ago... it's just music that exists and I kinda forget is even there. I can hear you saying, "But how can you possibly not notice this??" and I just sorta shrug. It's fine, not something I really wish to compliment or complain about. It just is.

[Final Thoughts: "Electric Jazz Fusion Rock" is apparently not my jam, but I'm glad I got a chance to sample it anyway. Also this has a rather chaotic score... I apparently never feel the same way about it twice, which is slightly interesting?]

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

just letting you know i updated the playlist of my noms for you to include anything missing just now!
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLliVxBMurmt711l2U-OyU-wfYjNcmFR9D

One consequence of rearranging the list is that a helpful description was lost... or rather, moved further up the list so it's not being posted as quickly as it needs to be. Let's go back up to Electric Returner's writeup:

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

!Oddly, I think this song was originally helped by following the regular version of the track. I liked that version and hearing a bizarre, corrupted version had some novelty... without that, this is uhh... not something I'm into these days, but it probably would have played well at the first ranking.

If a main writeup starts with an exclamation point like that, it means that one was typed up after my wrists became problematic & I may not have been able to offer a longer writeup at that time.

Ones without a leading exclamation point were written when I was fine and don't have a valid excuse for their low quality.

TunnelScene posted...

just letting you know i updated the playlist of my noms for you to include anything missing just now!
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLliVxBMurmt711l2U-OyU-wfYjNcmFR9D

Noted, thank you.

-SPACE FILLING LINE-

And our last drop of the morning since I'm already here and may as well conserve posts:

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

#765: Floor Jansen - Let It Go (3:37):
https://open.spotify.com/track/75SocEUWFkQMcY4Wf90ZFH?si=de407e2a09cb4815

Nominator: CPU [29 Remaining]

Initial Score: 45.00
Revised Score: 44.86
Final Score: 44.89

(First Reaction: A synth metal song that would probably do a lot better if it weren't forced to compete directly against Idina Menzel. I love the original and I don't find this as appealing on any level: she's a perfectly good singer, but she's not as fantastic as Menzel. And while harsher and synthetic usually plays well with me, it doesn't quite fit this song for me... not really part of the princess aesthetic. [Not that one can't be a dark princess... perhaps I should specify "not really part of the mainstream cartoon popular character/mascot aesthetic".]

Ultimately, I think the song just goes for a bit too much power, too quickly. There's supposed to be an emotional journey here: Sadness about how you're isolated from the world due to your true nature being revealed, slight trepidation and slightly hopeful backing music as you start to embrace your nature, building up with dramatic swelling and tension as you release everything that you've been suppressing your entire life. This song throws all of that out to play synthesizers--which normally I'd like, yes, but this is going up against a song that emotionally wrecked me the first time I heard it. Sooo... yeah... if I could completely separate my feelings towards the original, this might have gone somewhere, but as it is...)

Wow, a first reaction that actually stayed on topic and was more than two sentences! It's so amazing when past Raetsel actually makes an effort at things.

...Not to use that as an excuse to not try here, but I think everything worth saying was covered up there? I wish an original song of hers was nominated or she was at least covering a song I didn't have as strong an attachment to because I just can't get past how much more I want to be listening to the original to give this a fair shake.

*some brief Googling later*

Oh, she was the lead singer of Nightwish. Alright, then I have heard some of her work and there are songs of hers I like, it's just this particular song that I'm bouncing off of. Good to have confirmation of that.

[Final Thoughts: It's hard for a cover of a song I love to live up to the original, so this song had an uphill battle from the start. I'm obviously not opposed to covers and I could always use more cartoon songs, but I don't think this one was the right pick for me. Sticking with Disney song's she's covered, I think "Into The Unknown" would have gone a bit better? I didn't care for Frozen 2, so covers of that film's songs can only go up.

...actually, let's just talk about that track for a minute:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlPoCe5CwsE

Her verses are on point, there's an edge to her voice as she tries to reject the voice's call--a bit of self-loathing towards herself for being tempted, which is far more appealing than anything from the original song (and the entire film for that matter). The choruses feel a bit too pop ballad for me, too happy and powerful for the suppressed anger the verses are conveying. That's the fault of the song she's trying to cover though, that's just the way it *is*.

...Probably like a 58 point song, I'd guess. Not great, but an improvement.]

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

Electric Returner is very much an auto-skip on that album. What's even more ridiculous is that they felt the need to do a similar electrified scene in S2, complete with a newly auto-tuned Mezame Returner that takes up a spot on the second album!

i definitely don't remember nomming some of these...

PIayer_0 posted...

Electric Returner is very much an auto-skip on that album. What's even more ridiculous is that they felt the need to do a similar electrified scene in S2, complete with a newly auto-tuned Mezame Returner that takes up a spot on the second album!

Huh. I may have to check that other version out next year, out of curiosity if nothing else.

kateee posted...

i definitely don't remember nomming some of these...

Well, I did ask people for a lot of songs and it was almost a year ago. I'd be surprised if most people remembered everything they nominated.

Yikes Hanabie getting BTFO

Yay, it's begun!

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

@MetalmindStats

Thank you for the notification! ...I honestly forgot I even asked all those months ago.

Speaking of which, it's interesting looking back on my nominations and seeing how clearly many of them are an artifact of what I was listening to (and what I hadn't heard) back then. I still enjoy all those songs, just haven't been returning to some of them. (And conversely, I have been returning to the one I cut, go figure.)

Anyways, I doubt I'll post much, but I promise I'll be silently following along the whole way.

That's fine! I don't expect much commentary, I'm just happy to have gotten nominations at all! (Though feel free to jump in whenever you do have something you wish to say).

REALITY TV

Alright, so this is still stuck in my head and I'll admit that I kinda like it; I wouldn't bother altering the past if I didn't at least kinda like it, but I'm still not sold on the choice of lyrics... so I'm raising the score to 59.00 & will revisit it when we get to that point on the list. This causes the following changes:

Murphiroth goes back up to 28 songs remaining.

The song formerly ranked above it drop one placement:

#774: Prince of Darkness
#773: Tricky Child
#772 Genkai numa
#771: Kelling
#770: Choferito
#769: Electric Returner
#768: Sentimental Heroine
#767: Birds of Fire
#766: Let It Go

Which brings us to the next song to fall, our new #765th Place Track:

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

#765: Rob Hubbard - Sanxion Loader / Thalamusik (5:34):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy6nEHz_sCc

Nominator: Sergio [10 Remaining]

Initial Score: 54.32
Revised Score: 44.93
Final Score: 44.93

(First Reaction: I like the soundfont, song itself is fine.)

I enjoy the fade-out at the end of the song. It uses the deep "bwoom" sound that I love and the beeping slowly fading out feels a lot like dying, so it's a fun effect. The rest of the song isn't bad, but I haven't been in a chiptune mood the past few weeks and Rob Hubbard's style of music isn't usually my preferred type of chiptune--I'll talk about that more on a different Rob Hubbard track, but the short version is that I find most of his music too clean & light when I prefer my chiptunes dark & crunchy. (At least, I understand what I meant by that.)

[Final Thoughts: Too high-pitched for the beeps. I like my computerized beeps low and infused with static. I can always use more chiptunes, this just isn't quite the style of chiptune that I'm often drawn to. The outro is still great though--hits that low tone that I love and slowly flatlining is a nifty effect. I just wish the song leaned more into the tragic darkly dying aesthetic for the rest of its runtime, instead of hiding it in a short bit at the very end.]

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

Might be nice to show how many songs the person nominated in the [X Remaining] section too. Like maybe [X/Y Remaining]. Because a number by itself isn't a whole lot of information outside of the context of how many were nominated in the first place.

No reason not to try that.

NOW ENTERING THE 45 TO 49.99~ TIER

These songs are fine. I wouldn't really say anything negative about them, unless forced to in a context like this where I'd admit I have a *slightly* negative lean towards them... but really, they're all fine. It's fine.

Our next two eliminations to introduce the new tier & test the new format:

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

#764: Danny Playamaqui - Fig [2:50]:
https://playamaqui.bandcamp.com/track/fig

Nominator: Kopazzynth [20/21 Remaining]

Initial Score: 37.00
Revised Score: 44.14
Final Score: 45.00

(First Reaction: Ehh... short version is that it's not my type of chaos, even if there is a picture of a fox.)

Honestly, these past few years I've started mellowing a bit on chaotic or atonal songs. I think the problem is that I binged pretty hard on this style of music, listening to absolutely anything I could find for a while, and now it's much harder for these types of songs to feel "new" or "unexpected". A more experienced person with musical knowledge could probably tell you the differences between bunbleman, the more artificial songs from Venetian Snares, Frums, and this nomination... but to me, a lot of the songs have started blurring together.

That's not to say that there aren't abnormal songs that I love, but the common thread linking them is that they all do something I haven't experienced before.

bunbleman - Focus Tous was my first experience with the genre and vibrated with me so strongly it put me into a trance like state, an experience few songs could ever hope to replicate.

Frums - Credits EX had broken weather reports, combining the familiar with the bizarre, resulting in something that was completely overwhelming (in a fantastic way).

Dux Mix 1 took a very familiar song (Higher Love) and twisted it, making it feel like it an artifact from another dimension--along with an interesting choice in spoken word samples & an incomprehensible shifting of styles to where, even after listening to it countless times, I'm never sure what's going to happen.

Venetian Snares - Li2Co3 was an almost spiritual experience that I will not shut up about; the way there's an almost divine, pure melody that stays consistent while the chaos tries--and fails--to overwhelm or corrupt it is one of the purest examples of beauty that I've ever heard. I would not say it's my favorite song of all time, but I may nominate it as the best song of all time.

Those songs are wonderous and I love them, but there are also other songs by those artists that didn't really click with me. They're definitely out of the mainstream, but not... well, not unexpected for want of a better word. This song feels different, but not in an unexpected way like one of the countless songs that I heard while I desperately sought anything that could compare to the above mentioned songs. And this is a fine song, I'll always take a chance listening to experimental avant-garde music, but it doesn't feel experimental enough to make me fall in love with it.

[Final Thoughts: Right genre and I like the image of a fox, but it's not one of my favorites.]

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-Zero Divide-

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#763: Stupendium - Rogue's Gallery [4:11]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aikO7ACgMPQ

Nominator: paulg [48/50 Remaining]

Initial Score: 46.79
Revised Score: 43.13
Final Score: 45.39

(First Reaction: I dunno. A cartoonishly evil fox should be the type of character that I love, but most of the song fails to click with me. My favorite part was definitely Blathers' interlude.)

I've never been entirely sure why, but I don't usually go for "checklist" songs that start checking off too many boxes of things I like.

Furry song? Check.

Villain song? Check.

Comedy song? Check.

"Dark, but not too dark" edginess?

Say I'm a fake and it hurts
Say I'm just after a way to your purse
Say that to my face? You'll save on the hearse

Check.

Performed by a fictional character? Check.

I wouldn't say it's specifically a "thing" of mine, but as someone who absolutely loves fangames, I like the idea of fansongs like this--doubly so if they're likely to earn the ire of companies like Nintendo or Square that are rather overzealous in shutting down fan projects.

But at some point, once a song starts hitting every little thing that appeals to me, I begin to get bored. It's probably because nothing could ever live up to the hype: If I love songs that do A, songs that do B, and songs that do C then surely a song that does all three would be triply loved! But it rarely, if ever, actually works out that way... in the nominated list alone we have furrier songs, better villain tracks, more humor, and far more enchanting darkness. This song attempts to do everything, but it doesn't really nail any of them.

I will say the lyrics are incredibly clever and I highly enjoyed the Blathers cameo (SPOILERS: Blathers song is by far the highest scoring of the trilogy, so yes, I would prefer if the song were entirely about Blathers thank-you-very-much.), but I find the end result to be a bit "eh".

[Final Thoughts: It was a good song choice on paper, but as clever as it is, I'd prefer a song that did one thing I loved perfectly over a song that does a bit of everything competently.]

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EDIT: Oh hey, I didn't even notice this was a double fox related elimination. Funny how that worked out.

wow already in the 45 range

kateee posted...

wow already in the 45 range

What can I say, most songs were pretty decent this year.

One more song for the moment. Possibly rearranging some upcoming songs a bit, so I want to take a bit more time before dropping the fifth.

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#762: Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Chest Opening and Getting Item [0:13]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69AyYUJUBTg

Nominator: paulg [47/50]

Initial Score: 46.02
Revised Score: 46.02
Final Score: 46.02

(First Reaction: Official Zelda item Sound Rankings:

Zelda 1 > Adventure of Link >>> Minish Cap >>> Twilight Princess > Link's Awakening (Original) > Link's Awakening DX = Oracle Series > Link to the Past > Four Swords Adentures > Four Swords > Wind Waker > Hyrule Warriors > Ocarina of Time = Ocarina of Time 3D = Majora's Mask > Triforce Heroes > Breath of the Wild > Skyward Sword > Majora's Mask 3D > Between Worlds > Spirit Tracks > Phantom Hourglass

Though really, the sheer gap between the NES games and everything else means there's absolutely no reason to nominate anything from another system... though the low-fi grittiness of the Game Boy Advvance made Minish Cap notably more interesting than every other non-NES entry.)

Not bad, but when it's tied for 13th place among jingles in its own series, it's not especially good either.

[Final Thoughts: In retrospect, ordering every Zelda's game Item Get jingles for no apparent reason was perhaps not the best use of time.]

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i think most people who have done any ranking project like this will say that the middle section is the hardest to get through though because it's a huge chunk that you just want to say "this is ok" for and be done with since there aren't strong opinions either way

Oh definitely. There's a massive amount of songs in the "more than 50 but less than 60" range and it's going to be a bit of a slog for all of us, as I rarely have much to say about them and there are so many that one will wonder if I'm even capable of fully enjoying something. On the plus side, I'd like to believe the special-ness and joy from the 60+ tiers will make it feel worthwhile when we reach that point.

Last song of the night [EDIT: Or morning, I suppose.]:

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#761: Yelle - S'eteint le soleil (4:12):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JKMLMQxRmg&list=PLR2ATVrSGTX91hJXNoWIHovzSIqVNBM8u&index=11

Nominator: hotdogturtle [13/14 Remaining]

Initial Score: 46.13
Revised Score: 48.13
Final Score: 46.13

(First Reaction: The end of the world and eternal darkness... trapped in a song that is very wub-wub-wub-wub-WUB-WUB-WUB-wub-wub-wub. Ah well, I guess we can't have everything.)

Turn off the sun
The night will be eternal for us
[...]
In some way, it is logic
In some way, it is justice
Everyone through the same magical gateway
Everyone suffering the same punishment

It's definitely the type of bleakness that appeals to me and I like the outro starting at around 3:18--it's just a very pleasing instrumental section, though the wub-wubs try their best to ruin the feeling. I don't think I like the dissonance on this track though; adding bleak lyrics to a wub-heavy electropop song (or whatever genre this actually is) doesn't result in a combination I find especially appealing or unexpected enough to count as "intriguingly weird". It's nice enough and I hear the song trying to do things I enjoy enough that I like that it was nominated, but there's just too much wubbing for me to fully enjoy it.

[Final Thoughts: *before clicking* Wow that's harsh, could the wubs really be that bad?

*after clicking* Yes.

Enjoyable lyrics, but the wrong song genre for me. Skimming through remixes, the "Ridu Remix" seems like a bit of an improvement:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LyA6JfDbYM

Perhaps a bit too pretty of a take on the song, but it is blissfully without the electronic wubbing and allows the vocals to take full prominence. It's still not a song I love, but somewhere in the 50 point range, probably.]

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Time for another double cut, where someone coincidentally loses two songs back-to-back. Also, two very consistent songs that have not any change in their score at all; their final placement has varied from other songs being moved around them, but they've both remained completely frozen in place.

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#760: Dorian Electra - M'Lady (1:27):
https://open.spotify.com/track/2i9yWmgHVqWW1vmXtxUaN9?si=ad8ac79d44d14866

Nominator: Bane [36/38 Remaining]

Initial Score: 46.24
Revised Score: 46.24
Final Score: 46.24

(First Reaction: The other half of "Gentleman" which I should probably combine with this song (the official music video combines them, so they're very much meant to be act as one song), but I think I want to keep them separate because this song would just drag Gentleman's score down. M'Lady feels like an almost pointless song--it's tedious to get through and has virtually nothing to say about incel culture.

"You ever notice the way incels complain women won't have sex with them, but also think women are whores?? END OF SONG."

That's not really a song, it's just a statement Not even a controversial statement. And while this is meant to be the darker side to Gentleman, if anything, it's actually less dark? Gentleman features emotional manipulation, while the darkest thing here is calling someone (who may very well be an anime character or entirely imaginary) a whore. I'm not saying the song should end in sexual assault, murder, and/or suicide but if you want to show the "darker side" of things, then I need more than 'ooh, a bad word was said' and 'ooh, here's some heavy breathing'

On the plus side, the backing music is suitably dark. If this song were expanded with another verse where things got dark or something actually happened, it could easily be great. As is, I just find it all rather dull and full of wasted potential.)

Also starting almost every line of the song with M'Lady is exactly the type of repetition I'll complain about. The heavier industrial sound to the backing music is still nice, but the lyrics & repetition are such major turn-offs and the song so short that I'm not getting as much from this song as I'd like. It definitely does have its positive qualities though.

[Final Thoughts: Not a bad idea and I like the industrial feel, but if a song wants to be dark then there should be some darkness? And this is so short that it just kinda stops in a really anticlmactic way. Which is all the more reason to combine this with Gentleman, I suppose, but I remain pretty sure that I prefer Gentleman on its own merits instead of as part of a combo.]

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-he will not divide us-

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#759: Every Time I Die - Distress Rehearsal (3:13):
https://open.spotify.com/track/2RwKP8s03yrLtEGBmZ7Fb4?si=63d9e215005348d9

Nominator: Bane [35/38 Remaining]

Initial Score: 46.33
Revised Score: 46.33
Final Score: 46.33

(First Reaction: The first song from the album to fall below the 50 point line. It's also the closest thing to a happy or optimistic song on the album thus far, with lyrics about his heart healing and trying to cherish time. The fact that it's the lowest scoring song probably says a lot of negative things about me.

[Later: Turned out this was the only song from the album to score less than 50 points on the first listen, so that's neat.])

I wish I had more to say in regards to this song, but the only two relevant points are quite short. But if I space them out in numbered form, it looks longer and creates the illusion of paragraphs of text, when there's really only two fairly generic sentences, one of which was already stated.

1: I'm just not in the mood for a happy or optimistic song, so those types of songs are starting off on the wrong foot. There are always exceptions and it's not as simple as "I don't like songs with this sort of theme", but they have to do something to overcome the initial bias and this track doesn't.

2: It's one of the more intense and hardcore songs on the album. By itself that isn't entirely a bad thing (though several of the band's more intense offerings haven't historically done very well), but it feels at odds with the lyrics. If you want me to abandon negativity, embrace love, be healed by light, and learn to cherish the gift that is time then you need to illustrate the beauty of love. This song is not aurally beautiful, nor is it even making an attempt at such a thing. The power works for the first half of the song, in which he's obsessed with negativity and trapped in a loop of assuming the worst tragedies are inevitable... but then there's supposed to be this emotional breakthrough which doesn't really come through in the music.

Great lyrics as always and a fantastic concept for a song, more power to anyone this song helps (and I'm quite sure there are people it will help, who will find the hidden beauty within), but it's the albums one misstep for me.

[Final Thoughts: Embracing darkness is always worth extra points. Embracing the light isn't worth *negative* points, but it doesn't help the score either. Also, it's not relevant to the song, but I rather wish I had said "off on the wrong hoof" there on Point 1... I'm tempted to edit it, but I wasn't in a pony mood on that particular day, so I guess I'll leave the choice of wording as it is.

...also, I have no idea why we're openly spoiling that nothing else from this album falls below the 50 point line, but the rankings are almost up to that point anyway so I guess it's not much of a spoiler?]

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