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

(+) Yeah! (+)

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

#375: Azealia Banks - 212 (3:25):

this is an interesting reaction because all the negatives you mentioned are pretty much why i love the song. the unapologetic crassness of the lyrics and the abrasive attitude just make it really memorable. and tbh if i had to pick a 'least favorite' moment of the song it would be the bridge which you mentioned as being your favorite part because that's when the song's tempo slows down and i just want nonstop spitting

also interesting you mentioned not thinking of it as 'club music' because there is a pretty well-known(?) scene from the Bling Ring where they are very much dancing to this song lol

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

#371: The Music Man (original Broadway Cast) - Pick-A-Little, Talk-A-Little/Goodnight Ladies (1:56):
https://open.spotify.com/track/5wYdEMPGGB0wWDX0nVI54m?si=8200150832e043f2

Nominator: @Raka_Putra [20/31 Remaining]

Initial Score: 53.13
Revised Score: 63.00
Final Score: 60.103 [Upgraded to 63.00]

There are songs in The Music Man other than Seventy Six Trombones?

I'm kidding of course. I never understood why they cast Robert Preston in the lead. He's not exactly a great singer. Although, he is great at all the non-singing parts, so maybe I just answered my own question.

Cheep cheep cheep is fun!

And heck yeah Katrina Lenk.

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

What really got me into them was when I randomly hit their cover of Last Daze which I played a lot last year.

As a fan of Birthday Massacre....I did not realize this cover was theirs!
It popped up on Spotify for me last year randomly and I liked the song, listened to it plenty.
...
But on Spotify it's just labeled "Last Daze - Funland Mix" Left Spine Down
And I looked it up on youtube as well and the version I saw was labeled just the same "Last Daze (Funland Mix) Left Spine Down" no cover band name mentioned.

No wonder I liked it so much lol

I meant to nominate another one of their songs this time around (I was the guy who nominated them last time) oh well lol

Oh, I hadn't heard that Deafheaven song - wasn't a fan of the vocals but the second half was great. If you liked the calm guitar you might also like Please Remember from Sunbather?

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

#370: T-Pain, Kurt Hugo Schneider - T-Pain Mashup (3:04):

this is on loop now

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

#363: The Birthday Massacre - Lovers End (4:14):

i think i was trying to decide between this track and Happy Birthday but went with Lovers End because i figured Happy Birthday was more well known

the sound was something i was very much into years ago

kateee posted...

also interesting you mentioned not thinking of it as 'club music' because there is a pretty well-known(?) scene from the Bling Ring where they are very much dancing to this song lol

I have no idea what that is and I can't fathom why anyone would dance to this, but I'll take your word for it... can't really fathom modern dancing at all to be honest. I just typically think of club music as having a more THUMP-THUMP-THUMP one-note beat, as opposed to this song which is very much not monotonous.

CJones posted...

There are songs in The Music Man other than Seventy Six Trombones?

I don't think I know that one. Or at least, the name and the lyrics don't seem familiar. I'll probably add it to the list for no specific reason.

Xtlm posted...

As a fan of Birthday Massacre....I did not realize this cover was theirs!

I'd love to take credit for recognizing the band, but I randomly stumbled onto it through Audiosurf 2 during the brief period I was playing it a lot. I was browsing the songs that were recently played by other people and someone was listening to this on a link that credited The Birthday Massacre & I was somewhat interested in the band following the song you nominated last year, so I checked it out and wound up with a brief obsession with the song.

PIayer_0 posted...

Please Remember from Sunbather?

kateee posted...

Happy Birthday

Added both of these to the list as well.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

ZA'LIST 2023 EDITION:

UF8: "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"

The Great Escape by Seventh Wonder

Try something else by Thomas Dimuzio and 5uu's

Exit Strategy of a Wrecking Ball (Diablo Swing Orchestra)

Sunbather by Please Remember

The Birthday Massacre - Happy Birthday

The Music Man - Seventy Six Trombones

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw6hANHeIaw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuRZYB9EEZM

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

https://youtu.be/D_Jh6upswd0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT-uWOVP5q0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVbH1BVXywY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCLsqg05boo

https://youtu.be/paepYX9E6iU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUS-_CaMftE

Electric Callboy - Tekno ( Pump It, [the one that might count as a censor bypass], Spaceman, Hurrikan )

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

As usual, if I forgot to add something to that list, please let me know:

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Two songs to start the morning, because that's what I have room for in this post.

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#357: Kimihiro Abe - Space Ship (3:46):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roPBGGy_DMQ

Nominator: sergio [2/13 Remaining]

Initial Score: 52.76
Revised Score: 60.00
Final Score: 63.309

(First Reaction: I think I ran out of ways to say "nice instrumental track that doesn't make me envision anything speific" a few topics ago.)

I like this tonight. I'm...oddly interested in the string instrument here (violin or whatever it may be) and it provides a pleasing contrast with the futuristic space vibe the other parts of the song are going for. It still not a very *inspiring* or *hallucinogenic* song, but it is a song I like, which is well worth moving up a tier.

[Final Thoughts: I really dig the stringed instrument & the contrast between it and the future ship vibes of the rest of the track. It's a very nice effect.

The score isn't exactly what I want to give, but it's as close as I can get on the spreadsheet. I feel like the score is "63.Three Hundred", but 63.300 is considered to be the same as 63.30 because extra zeroes do not matter to normal people. So there'll just be a 9 instead of a 0 because that's "an actual number" and "works properly on the spreadsheet".]

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#356: The Lion King Broadway Musical - He Lives in You (Reprise) (4:12):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GqyE7GiRJ4

Nominator: ZaziGuado [17/28 Remaining]

Initial Score: 60.00
Revised Score: 63.19
Final Score: 63.40

(First Reaction: Song repeats itself a few too many times, but it's good and a welcome addition to the story and significantly better than the version from The Lion King 2 soundtrack.)

!Good song, though it does feel a bit long due to the lack of new lyrics towards the end.

[Final Thoughts: I like this.]

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Three more songs, kupo:

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#355: Bjork - It's Oh So Quiet (3:37):
https://open.spotify.com/track/0OMNQyneWmmZtTQpULYJcl?si=2bf79356b4044f13

Nominator: Bane [17/38 Remaining]

Initial Score: 46.14
Revised Score: 51.43
Final Score: 58.27 [Upgraded to 63.4000003]

(First Reaction: Oh hey, this song played on a commercial a while back, and I was like "what the heck is this? I can't tell if I hate it or if it's just weird enough to be interesting". Though this version of the song doesn't sound quite right in comparison to said commercial version.

*a few minutes of Googling later*

Ah, so Bjork's version is a cover of the Betty Hutton version (which is what I heard on a Facebook commercial) which was itself a cover of a German song from the late 40's.

Betty Hutton's >> Bjork's >>>> Horst Winter's.

That was a fun detour, though it sadly makes me like this version a bit less. I just think Betty has a deeper, richer voice that compliments the song better & I'm having a hard time seeing a reason I'd listen to this version of the track... which really isn't fair, but c'est la vie.)

I do like the way the song cycles between the two extremes, the changing speed makes it feel almost like a Vib-Ribbon track. It's a fun gimmick and well executed. I'll also say this version does compare more favorably to Betty Hutton's than I first thought, having gone back to compare them once again. At the very least, I don't think the backing singers contribute anything of value to Betty's song & Bjork's decision to be a solo vocalist made more sense.

...but I don't have any lyrics that I'm particularly attached to & the song's main gimmick makes it a bit hard to get an emotional reaction out of. Slow-Fast-Slow-Fast kills any chance of connecting with the song emotionally, because the song will bounce to the opposite emotion every thirty seconds or so. Without a connection to the words or feelings, this song feels more like a novelty: Neat to experience in the moment, but a bit fleeting.

...Okay, so that's exactly the point the song's going for. Well played.

[Final Thoughts: Much better than I remembered it being. Quite catchy and memorable.]

[Later: Extra points, yeah, extra points, yeah!]

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

-because everything I say is a reference to something, please imagine that "Well played" was said like Leonardo Leonardo from Clerks: The Animated Series.

Also the later part should be read to the tune of the Wacky Deli theme. Even though the syllables are off.-

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#354: Hooverphonic - Deep Forest (3:22):
https://open.spotify.com/track/0LgsEbNaKJlvGo23hAtl3b?si=sCaFbqd8RCSiSonZKmiDxA

Nominator: Jesse Custer [18/29 Remaining]

Initial Score: 53.13
Revised Score: 60.00
F'nal Score: 63.45

(First Reaction: Yeah, I typo'd Final Score, but I like the way it looks and I'm keeping it. Very Klingon-esque.

I think I need a second listen to judge this fairly. The intro was so tense and dark, I was expecting a really deep voice... I'm not complaining about her singing, but her voice & the direction the song went were so far removed from what I expected, that it was very jarring and kinda gave me a headache. Which is very much a "me" problem and not the song's fault, but I don't know how to make myself judge it for what it actually is & not what my mind hyped up was going to be the greatest song of all time.)

Song is definitely better now that I know what to expect from it. The instrumental intro & outro are still my favorite parts, but I've also learned to appreciate her singing.

...another ridiculously short writeup, but... AEW's Double or Nothing is starting soon-ish at the time I'm writing this and I have things I need to take care of before the show starts, so I'm having a hard time concentrating enough to get anywhere. So we'll put this writeup on old, like so many--many, many, many, many--many others and hopefully have something to say by the F'nal Score.

[F'nal Thoughts; Chorus-Bridge-Chorus-Chorus is still a bit more repetitive of a music format than I'd like, but this is a high quality song. The instruments are fantastic, her voice is pleasing once I've accepted that it's not going to be as deep or resonate as the instruments, and the lyrics aren't bad either. I like this a fair amount.]

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-Internet was down earlier this morning, so I had all of these writeups prepared & just couldn't post them until recently-

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#353: Hitoshi Sakimoto (arr. Yoshimi Kudo) - Above Ota City (microcynic mix) (4:06):
https://youtu.be/YVVIbGVfdjs

Nominator: NFUN: [13/31 Remaining]

Initial Score: 60.00
Revised Score: 53.27
Final Score: 63.50

(First Reaction: Good shmup music. Even without having ever heard of the game, it's really easy to tell that this is a shmup song, so I'd say this song is definitely accomplishing whatever it's going for. I'm quite fond of the opening 10 seconds... it's brief and I can't quite place what emotion it's making me feel, but it's definitely inspiring some sort of feeling which is commendable. I do enjoy the rest of the song, but that intro is sublime.

...I never noticed how weird that word looks. sub-lime. Not going anywhere with that, it just looks weird.)

!Just not in the mood for shmup music tonight, I suppose.

[Final Thoughts: Complicated song that I'm pretty into at the moment, but can't think of a way to describe why I like it outside of the generic "I like this" response.]

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Last five of the day, though I'll likely need to break this into two posts:

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

Nominator: Murphiroth [8/32 Remaining]

Initial Score: 32.30
Revised Score: 32.30
Final Score: 32.30 [Upgraded to 59.00] [Upgraded to 60.00] [Upgraded to 63.57]

(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 destroying culture,, 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.]

[Later: Well, I actually do kinda like this now... the lyrics are still a miss, but the song itself is high quality.]

[Latest: Oh hey, we're FINALLY here! I can remove that asterisk from Murphiroth's remaining song count... it's been over 200 songs since I planned on eliminating this and then un-eliminated it & made everything so much more complicated than it needed to be...

Honestly, I do need to go back and revisit a few eliminated songs & possibly upgrade their scores a bit, but I'm trying to wait until I get a Final Score for all remaining songs before I go back and re-evlaute anything else... either way, back on topic, this is a good song. It kinda drags in the middle when he starts just yelling body parts, but the main part of the song is catchy as hell and I do fairly like it....

....ehhhh.... alright, I'll upgrade this to 60 points and add it to the Neo Clump...]

[Later: I actually really like most of this song--from a musical standpoint at least--but the body part interlude is still unappealing. I'm quite tempted to move the song up anyway because there's quite a few parts that I really like...ehh, fine, let's try the 63 point zone for a bit.]

[Later: I do like this, but the interlude is kinda... not up to the level of the rest of the song, even if I fully disregarded the lyrics themselves. ]

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-the dream is dead-

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#351: Miranda Lambert - We Should Be Friends (2:50):
https://youtu.be/2fOxxRf_3XI

Nominator: Snake [13/32 Remaining]

Initial Score: 74.992
Revised Score: 63.66
Final Score: 57.21 [Upgraded to 58.225] [Upgraded to 60.00] ]Upgraded to 63.614]

(First Reaction: I don't know why, but I am really into that instrumental break part way through the song. Like, I genuinely enjoy all of the song, this laid-back mellow vibe is hitting the right notes for me, but I jumped the score up more than ten points based entirely on the guitar work during that break,)

!Short and sweet, but I wish it was longer and had a bit more to it... also that guitar break is really cool, but only about 17 seconds long and I'm having a hard time justifying that +10 bonus for something that brief since it leaves me wanting more.

[Final Thoughts: Whatever part of me loved that instrumental doesn't appear to be around tonight. The song is... fine and I still kinda like it, but there isn't much that I find interesting in the lyrics & this song was being carried entirely by the guitar playing that I'm just not especially into this time around.]

[Later: I don't know, let's go with one exxtra point for now.

That was a typo, but I'm keeping it.]

[Later: ...I don't know. It's quite memorable and stuck in my head a lot... I may just add it to the Neo Clump for want of a better idea of what to do with it.]

[And Still Later: Ehhhh... I'm going to move this to a point where it'll be one of the last Neo Clump songs eliminated. I haven't decided if I want to move this up or not, so I'll just put off making a decision as long as possible.]

[And Still Later: ...Well delaying the elimination doesn't entirely work when I rearrange this part of the list to go by nominator. Snake is not last alphabetically. </.<

But.... while I'm not into the lyrics, I am starting to remember why I liked it so much originally. Moving it closer to the Revised Score.]

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-though we could have temporarily changed his name to Znake or something if we really wanted to put him at the end of the list...-

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#350: Hu Ito - Seaside Vacation (4:44):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oq9utTsAMg

Nominator: DoctorJimmy [11/24 Remaining]

Initial Score: 53.27
Revised Score: 74.09
Final Score: 63.68

(First Reaction: A fairly standard jpop love song that is notable more for the context in which it plays than the quality of the song itself. It's enjoyable enough, but doesn't do much to stand out on its own merits.)

13 Sentinels was a great game. I'll refrain from commenting on it to avoid spoiling things for anyone who may not have played it yet (and if you haven't, then seriously, you should make a point of playing it as soon as possible), but still, great game. This song is cute and sweet, which is what I want right now. It also involves beaches and I'm apparently really, really, *really* easily manipulated by beaches at this exact point in time. I'm... honestly not convinced that this song is really all that great by itself, but the line about waiting for them on a beach completely wrecked me in the best way possible, so I'm jumping this up multiple tiers. Triggering pleasant flashbacks is as valid a reason to rate a song highly as any other... at least at topics where I don't have to care about objectivity anyway.

[Final Thoughts: I still love the thought of beaches, but I'm less into the song... let's just split the difference and set this at the average of the two extreme scores.]

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-out of room-

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#349: Feeder - Tumble and Fall (4:19):
https://open.spotify.com/track/1D0uRqlJvv70VMi7HhRoXl?si=NhCvbVSxRLKhbGUejnTX3Q

Nominator: Jesse Custer [17/29 Remaining]

Initial Score: 91.00
Revised Score: 84.71
Final Score: 63.69

(First Reaction: I'm really tempted to dock some points from the score for the outro...

yeah yeah yeah *3
chorus*2
yeah yeah yeah*6

...seriously guys, if the song is over, you can stop. You don't have to keep playing and repeating one word to pad out the time It's cool. But it is an emotional song that I was able to connect to, so I love it anyway,)

!I'm not really connecting with the song tonight, but it sounds pretty and I like it quite a bit anyway.

[Final Thoughts: That...uhh...didn't sound like a mid-80's writeup. Sounds like the type of thing that songs in the 60 point zone are getting. Which is kinda where I feel like the song should be at the moment; It sounds very nice and I like listening to it, but I don't have a personal attachment to the lyrics and it just goes on aimlessly for so much longer than it needed to. Sorry; this song was at the absolute highest tier, but I'm not quite getting that emotional resonance that I need these days.]

[Later: Another unfortunate song that I once truly loved and has been on a rather steep downward trend since then. I still like the song, but I'm not entirely sure why I loved it and I've been unable to recapture that magic.]

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-and the last song for now:-

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#348: Spiritbox - Constance (4:30):
https://open.spotify.com/track/0hdDPaUbhi1OkzhyicPSBb?si=f0a3e79dad70487d

Nominator: BlackDra90n [10/30 Remaining]

Initial Score: 74.823
Revised Score: 76.94
Final Score: 63.7000007

(First Reaction: A heavy song--emotionally that is, it's definitely one of the lighter songs in terms of intensity--that's easy to connect with. While I can't say I've experienced anything like losing someone to dementia or not being able to say goodbye to a dying loved one, the lyrics and vocal performance make it easy to relate to the emotions and feelings anyway. Great song.)

!Tonight I'm feeling kinda opposite on things, in that I'm here entirely for the backing music--that power starting at around 1:05 is *chef's kiss* and that outro is exactly the type of thing I love. The vocal performance and lyrics are fine, but when I'm getting really drawn into the backing music, they almost get in the way of the parts I love... which is definitely not how I felt a few months ago, but somehow works out to almost the same score anyway.

[Final Thoughts: It's a nice song and it shows off a softer, more emotional side for the band. I still like it, but I'm not quite clicking with any aspect of it the way I did the first two times.]

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Wow I'm suprised Constance got eliminated before Donna.

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

-though we could have temporarily changed his name to Znake or something if we really wanted to put him at the end of the list...-

Not entirely opposed to it!

War Painted Valentine: I still remember how hard I laughed when the chorus hit and the chicken noises kicked in when I first heard this single, especially considering that it follows an opening verse that just sounds like borderline gibberish unless you have the lyrics sitting in front of you. It just so perfectly encapsulates what I love about DSO. And I remember reading somewhere that, when asked about the song's inspiration, the band said something along the lines of "The world is going to hell and all of our leaders sound like a henhouse." Which is just a fantastic line. Solidly in the upper third of songs off Swagger & Stroll in my mind.

Falling Out of Trees: I'm a big fan of that ghost line as well, though I think the bit of wordplay with "white as a sheet" that precedes it makes it even better. Really, I think the whole song is pretty awesome lyrically, though I suspect I identify far, far more strongly with its themes than you do. And as you mentioned, the singer's voice is beautiful. All that being said, though, it's definitely one of the less interesting songs I nominated this time around.

I'm a bit nervous that Falling Out of Trees is the only song I've had come up in quite a while. Looks like the last one before that was King Other, a whole 180+ places ago? Usually when that's happened in the past it's been setting up for a bunch of my noms to drop like flies soon after.

Also, props for the reference to the Community peanut bar rap. Easily a top 3 moment on the whole show.

The fun thing about not having a finalized list is that I honestly have no clue if anyone loses a bunch of songs in succession and couldn't possibly spoil that even if I wanted to!

...Though by coincidence, you do have one song in the next block of five songs, dropping now (though I'll likely have to use two posts to fit them).

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#347: Rhapsody of Fire - The Wizard's Last Rhymes [10:25]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1M2hsI78pzM

Nominator: paulg [17/52 Remaining]

Initial Score: 46.904
Revised Score: 33.15
Final Score: 50.08 [Upgraded to 50.50] [Upgraded to 55.505] [Upgraded to 55.948] [Upgraded to 63.722]

(First Reaction: The song is a bit too epic for me and I don't really get basing the song on the New World Symphony... like I've never felt classical music needed to be more epic. I like the spoken word section, I like the parts in Latin, and the idea of a high fantasy song with "snakes from the abyss" & whatnot is sound. I'd just prefer it to be less epic, less classical, or both.)

Yeah, I'm rarely in the mood for classical music or epic music, so Epic Classic is a hard concept to sell me on under the best of circumstances. Right now, I just quite actively do not want to be listening to this... just ten and a half minutes of "thing I don't particularly like" done in "style I dislike" and that is especially draining to my motivation. Normally, I can at least acknowledge that there are aspects that I like, but right now... eesh. Maybe I'll be in a more charitable mood on the final score, but tonight, this was not an easy song to get through.

[Final Thoughts: The song starts off on a bad foot and never really recovers. Classical's typically not my first choice and epic drumming is a big turn-off usually... this song opens with a classical song with epic drumming added to it. It does have its moments--there's a more subdued instrumental towards the middle which is pleasing, spoken word sections (while not automatic win buttons these days) are still worth a few extra points, the synth is fun and used sparingly, and the fantastical lyrics are fairly amusing. It's not quite for me, but I'm moving this song back up to where it was--there's enough positive traits for this to be in the high-40's, at least.]

....actually, let's go ahead and move this into the positive scoring category. It's kinda close, but I think the sections without the drums are nice enough that I wind up kinda liking more parts of the song than not.]

[Last Thoughts: So, fun fact, I'm just pretending this song is about "The Looney Tunes Show"'s version of Daffy Duck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xi_hcwB8i64

And treating this as one of Daffy's hallucinations is helping this song a lot. But it's so, so long... there are long songs I love, but this one just doesn't stop. I've had my fun laughing at the song by the three minute mark. It does eventually do some different things, adding in the synths and spoken word section, and by seven minutes I'm content with everything the song accomplished.

Then it continues.

Finally the song reaches a natural ending point at around the 9 minute mark, which is rough, but well, we made it. Then we get an instrumental outro because the song actively hates me. And it's just a lot. Though it is something I kinda enjoy (albeit for reasons that are wrong and nonsensical) and it wouldn't be the first song that I've liked in spite of not ending when it should have.

....Ehhhh.... I suppose I do kinda like this now,, strange as it is to admit that.]

[Later: I do like this more than the earlier writeups implied, these days at least... though I do still feel like I'd prefer it to be shorter. There's nothing wrong with long songs, but this really isn't a preferred genre & it's a bit of a hard sell even if I'm starting to like it more.]

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-So far we've had references to Daffy, Sylvester, and an old Looney Tunes intro. I wonder if we'll see a fourth reference? I didn't even remember having this many in the first place...-

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#346: Feu! Chatterton - Un Monde Nouveau (5:01):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwJji0LBkwY

Nominator: ZaziGuado [16/28 Remaining]

Initial Score: 70.00
Revised Score: 74.036
Final Score: 63.724

(First Reaction: It feels like the song's ending is a bit abrupt, though it's probably a good sign that I was actually disappointed that it ended & wanted more of it. I don't have any particular opinion on the lyrics, but the music gives me a fair amount of those lower toned notes that I love & the singer's voice is nice enough that I don't really care what he's singing about. I'm going to add this to the 70 point song cluster for the moment to mark it as a song I really liked.)

!Wow, Spotify's sound quality for this song is garbage... I briefly tried listening to it there (I was already there and it was faster to just type in the song name), but the song is not even half as deep & powerful sounding there... I'd say this song is getting at least 20 extra points for the quality of the link as compared to the Spotify version. Good choice.

[Final Thoughts: I still like this, but it's not quite deep & bwoom-ing enough for me tonight to stay up at the "really like" tier, though it's still quite a nice nomination.]

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-the heart goes "bwoom-bwoom, bwoom-bwoom".-

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#345: Gerry Rafferty - Baker Street (6:12):
https://youtu.be/dU6w56epBdc

Nominator: Mega_Mana [19/38 Remaining]

Initial Score: 68.14
Revised Score: 63.75
Final Score: 63.75

(First Reaction: Ah yes, the 80's song from GTAV with the very pronounced sax, yes, I like this one. It's probably the best song that game's soundtrack introduced me to. (Also, it is apparently a late 70's song, which I obviously did not know.))

!

Rafael Ravenscroft has a way of stealing the limelight with his sax Baker Street, Year of the Cat, Gunners Dream (Pink Floyd).

Well, now I need to go listen to Gunner's Dream to complete the trio of Ravenscroft sax solos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIJN6WWf3Rg

...Yeah, I'm not really a fan of Gunner's Dream, but the sax is on point at least.

Aaanywho, Baker Street is a fine song & I still like it, but it's one of those songs that I'm starting to get a bit tired of... like, I'll always like listening to it, but it's hard for it to compete against new experiences or old songs that I still truly love. Still, definitely a good piece of classic rock with some iconic sax playing.

[Final Thoughts: A good song, but I think I've heard it enough times that I'm not as attached to it as I might have been a few years ago.[

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

-out of space, continued in next post-

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

#344: Ayumi Hamasaki - End of the World (4:40):
https://open.spotify.com/track/5W8nkF93BjTenNIw37Wu52?si=642a8b0cdfa24f47

Nominator: Kateee [13/21 Remaining]

Initial Score: 60.00
Revised Score: 82.00
Final Score: 63.79

(First Reaction: Ooh,a new (to me) song from someone who performed one of the InuYasha ending themes! I have a lot of nostalgia for that show and her song (Dearest, the third ending theme) is so angelic that getting to hear more from her is a treat. This is a fairly nice jpop song; I'd say I don't like it as much as Dearest, but Dearest has the advantage of many, many years of nostalgia & power behind it so it's not a fair comparison. For now, I'll place this in the ever-growing Clump of 60 point songs--I like it and we'll see if it goes up or down once I stop endlessly comparing it to the only other Ayumi Hamasaki song I know.)

!

You were the first one
To try to understand me
And the way I am

Simple, but it triggers the type of painful memories I need to work on moving on from, so this is... significantly better and more important to me than I initially realized. Surprised I gave it such a comparatively low score at first.

[Final Thoughts: A good choice of artist & the lyrics are the type of thing that can hit me incredibly hard when I'm in the right mood, but I'm not quite connecting with them tonight... I mean, I know why I loved them so much, but... well, let's just say that I still like the song & I'm glad to hear more from her.]

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

-I should just go back and listen to all the InuYasha ending themes again...-

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

#333: The Dear Hunter - The Haves Have Naught (4:12):
https://open.spotify.com/track/4tlKcVyNLf8JoshzORIGN5?si=d0c3602eadd04ecb

Nominator: NBIceman [15/22 Remaining]

Initial Score: 63.83
Revised Score: 63.83
Final Score: 63.83

(First Reaction: The Dear Hunter having a duet with two different people singing? I'm actually shocked. After Act IV's "this is a duet, but good luck figuring out which verse goes to which character or even which two characters are here since we only have the one singer doing the same voice for every character in this story" song, I wasn't really prepared for multiple singers.

More seriously, this song does a good job of advancing the story & I like the way their voices and verses play off of each other, and the outro is just slightly unsettling in a very pleasing way. I like this.)

!Nothing else to really add here. An unexpected & welcome duet that advances the story nicely and has a very pleasingly ominous outro.

[Final Thoughts: A good duet with fun lyrical contrasts between their verses. I like it.]

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

Three more songs and then I need to take a break before I post the last two of the day. Got a block of songs that are getting more points, so it'll be later this afternoon before I can work on moving them around the list & seeing what actually drops.

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

#332: Hammers of Misfortune - The Locust Years (7:32):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRhEurx9N3Y

Nominator: Ark [9/17 Remaining]

Initial Score: 50.62
Revised Score: 51.76
Final Score: 60.25 [Upgraded to 63.84]

(First Reaction: I like the lyrics to the chorus. They're nicely apocalyptic, drowning the world in flames & blood & pain. Unfortunately, neither the prolonged instrumental intro, nor the verses, offer anything that I find interesting. I honestly found the song rather dull until we got to the chorus, which isn't enough on its own to get the song a truly great score. It's enough to give it a positive amount of points & I wouldn't mind trying a different song from the album--with their references to the Horsemen of the Apocalypse & at least one review comparing the band to Ghost, it's quite probable that a song I love is somewhere among the tracks.)

Now that we're unchained
We'll reign, insane
And drown the world in flames
And blood, and pain

That is exactly the type of villain song I can fall in love with. It's evil in a fun way; fire, blood, and torment but not in a realistic tragedy way. All the darkness, none of the trauma. Even the lyrics to the verses are a bit better than I recalled, with the singers' pausing to define a Latin word in the middle of their song/speech serving as a particularly theatrical bit of comedy. Frankly, the story and setting here are A+. I'm just not really into the song itself...

In a way, it reminds me of some of the songs from Metallica's "Master of Puppets" album that we recently (at the time this was written) covered at Rank the Tracks. Some of the ideas were sound, but I *really* could not get into that album... it's easily my most disliked album we ever covered and it's not particularly close. I can easily point at things from it that I like the idea of (the Lovecraftian horror song seemed like it'd be the best thing ever), but the genre and style are so against what I want to hear that I just have a hard time saying I enjoyed any of it. I'd probably take The Locust Years over anything from that album and it's certainly not getting an outstanding score. So while I love aspects of this song and while I love some songs from subgenres of "metal", I think I can safely say this is just "too metal" for my blood. Solid idea though and I can see why someone would be into it/why it makes sense as a nomination, even if it didn't work out.

[Final Thoughts: Not quite a type of metal that appeals to me, but the flair for the theatrical and evil appeals to me enough that I kinda like this.

...Actually, I think I may just actually like this. Like 60 point like this like this. I am in a very "drown the world in flames" mood, after all.]

[Later: Not sure why I was against the song to start with, but I'm definitely turning around on it now. This absurdly theatrical style of evil is exactly the type of thing I enjoy, so a score lower than 60 points feels positively absurd. I'm still not a fan of the prolonged instrumentals that open and close the song, but they are hardly dealbreakers. Also, there are still some songs yet to come with far more drawn out intros/outros, which only raise further questions about why/how this was so low.]

[Later: Great lyrics and concept, but a bit too epic for my blood.]

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

-from long and epic, to short and fun-

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

#331: Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl - Main Menu [1:57]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDTiOnFaWpU

Nominator: paulg [16/52 Remaining]

Initial Score: 59.27
Revised Score: 59.70
Final Score: 60.80 [Upgraded to 62.4192] [Upgraded to 63.8406]

(First Reaction: It's a surprisingly good song, but not exactly the most memorable; I remember liking it, but I'd be hard-pressed to tell you anything about the song itself.)

!I like this, but I still have a remarkably hard time finding the slightest thing to say about it--or even remembering the track in general as soon as it ends.

[Final Thoughts: I like this. It's.... computerized battle music, but not intense or epic or any of the words I would usually use to describe battle music. It's really quite good.]

[Later: Slight boost to score.]

[Later: Adding another point to this. I do like it more than I realized.]

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

-from short and fun, to... also short and fun-

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

#330: Sze Hing Loong - Peanut commercial (0:29):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikBSrA45-Go

Nominator: Handsomeboy [18/31 Remaining]

Initial Score: 60.00
Revised Score: 65.48
Final Score: 61.411 [Upgraded to 63.94]

(First Reaction: This is surprisingly catchy and actually makes me kinda want to try a wanli wang peanut. I don't particularly care for nuts, but these peanuts are prepared in a different way that may make them more appealing? Credit to the video description for explaining the process:

After the peanuts are dug out, they should be cleaned immediately, then boiled with salt water, then air-dried or sun-dried, and finally fried and baked.

Neat! And surprisingly well translated for Google Translations. The lyrics are typical commercial fare--"less salty, more crispy", there's enough sweetness, and they're very good for any occasion... but Google Translate fails at one specific line:

"You must eat the canal when you drink the cup"

Which is probably something completely normal when translated professionally, but feels almost like a profound bit of wisdom in its garbled form.)

!Short, memorable, well-performed, and quite good at selling the product. Can't really ask for anything else from a commercial.

[Final Thoughts: They do sound like good peanuts.]

[Later: And a few extra points to this song as well!]

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

And I'll see you again in a few hours.

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

#330: Sze Hing Loong - Peanut commercial (0:29):

I'm not sure which exact line got translated to 'eat the canal', but assuming it's the thrid line the correct translation would be 'you must eat them when you drink (beer)'.

Here's another fun commerical jingle featuring rap that I wanted to nominate initially.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JoC99uBCfo

handsomeboy2012 posted...

I'm not sure which exact line got translated to 'eat the canal', but assuming it's the thrid line the correct translation would be 'you must eat them when you drink (beer)'.

Here's another fun commerical jingle featuring rap that I wanted to nominate initially.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JoC99uBCfo

Commercial jingle is officially added to the list; I'm pretty sure something shorter and presumably lighthearted would offer a nice contrast to some of the other songs that have been added.

And sadly Google Translate no longer garbles the line that way and is much closer to your accurate version:

Golden Turtle Mark Miles Wang Peanut
Less salty, more crispy
Drink the cup, you must eat it

I remain unsure how it was translating "it" as "canal" a year ago, though I still feel that version of the line almost sounds profound.

-

And we end the day with two of the more relaxing nominations:

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

#329: Pat Metheny - So May It Secretly Begin (6:24):
https://youtu.be/vmc2JgoUOYU

Nominator: NFUN: [12/31 Remaining]

Initial Score: 52.00
Revised Score: 54.61
Final Score: 54.77 [Upgraded to 55.00] [Upgraded to 57.27] [Upgraded to 60.00] [Upgraded to 62.12] [Upgraded to 64.125]

(First Reaction: I don't think I'm a fan of Pat Metheny. I've been trying to find an album to nominate for you for a long time and since you gave high marks to Pat, I've spent more than a few nights searching for artists like Pat in hopes of finding something similar enough to Pat that you'd like it, while still being something I enjoyed and wanted to nominate. You gave this song & album high marks over four months ago and I have yet to find anything that fills both the "similar to Pat Metheny" and "I like this" quotas. This isn't a bad song or anything, I do like relaxing instrumentals, this just doesn't quite... actually relax me or inspire any bizarre fantasy dream sequences. It's definitely the best I've heard of in the "songs by or similar to Pat Metheny" category, I'm just afraid that isn't saying a lot coming from me.)

Well some reviews of Pat Metheny say he occasionally creates really avant-garde borderline noise type music, so I probably shouldn't say "I'm not a fan" when I've really only heard a few of his songs that are decidedly not as experimental as that sounds. By all accounts, his music transcends the concepts of genre and rules, so there's probably something I like somewhere in his discography. Aaanywho...

As usual with instrumentals that don't inspire any bizarre feelings, I find it difficult to say much about them at all. The song's relaxing and elegant, kinda "lounging in a deck chair on a fancy cruise ship" 'lazy in a rich and fabulous way'. Kinda. Not to a point that I particularly feel as though as I have been magically teleported to a cruise ship, but in a way that's still vaguely reminiscent of such things. (Though probably not really and only to me).

So... it's pleasant and semi-relaxing, though not exactly in ways that I tend to love. And I probably shouldn't call it an instrumental do to the light vocalization in the background at the end, but it's so faint and non-specific that I lack a better term to describe it.

[Final Thoughts: Close to greatness, but I want something more... something that makes me actually relax or inspires a more specific feeling than "lounging around".]

[Later: Not sure if I want to move this above the Wall or not, but I do want to hesitate and think about it for a bit. Delaying the elimination for a day or two while I think.]

[Later: Yeah, I think this is smooth and relaxing enough to go up to 57 points.]

[Lounging Around Later: Well, let's move this up a tier to the Neo Clump. I'm getting ridiculously carried away with adding things to Neo Clump, but whatever, I can put things wherever I want to.]

[Suckin' on a chili dog outside the Tastee Freez: Yeah, I'm actually starting to dig this. Going to move it further up the list ]

[Later, Wondering Why We're Quoting Jack & Diane: Two extra points.]

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

-I really have no idea where that reference came from or why-

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

i#328: lkae - LSK+ [5:33]:
https://ilkae.bandcamp.com/track/lsk

Nominator: Kopazzynth [4/21 Remaining]

Initial Score: 60.00
Revised Score: 63.19
Final Score: 64.143

(First Reaction: This song is nice to zone out too. It's not really tiring or relaxing, it's just nice in a way that shuts my mind off for five and a half minutes.Which I like, so it's being added to the clump.)

!The song is unusual in ways I find appealing and it's really nice to just kinda relax with, but it's not something I find so enthralling that I can say I want to move it up a tier... still, it's a fair bit better than the exactly 60 point songs & quite neat in ways we don't see often.

[Final Thoughts: This song is the relaxing, tranquil side of chaos.]

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

First five of the day, featuring a double drop from Mega Mana:

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

#326: The Dear Hunter - Regress (1:22):
https://open.spotify.com/track/59oL5ViTv269IMOrPPFEls?si=49a7f5c02d2b4487

Nominator: NBIceman [14/22 Remaining]

Initial Score: 60.39
Revised Score: 64.09
Final Score: 64.152

(First Reaction: A nice intro. Suitably bleak, yet melodic... kinda short though and it's more building the setting and emotions than doing a lot on its own. So I like it and appreciate it, but there's not enough here to really go to the song by itself.)

!I like what the song is doing, I just wish there was more of it & leading directly into "The Moon / Awake" makes it a bit hard to listen to this track by itself.

[Final Thoughts: Far too short, but I do like it. The abrupt ending actually does kinda work... "the end comes swiftly for you *sudden silence*" would be a pretty defining moment, were it not meant to segue into the next track.]

[Later: I suppose I could have combined this with The Moon / Awake to create a monster three part track... but I don't think doing so would have actually improved things.]

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

-

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

#325: Brick + Mortar - Locked in a Cage (3:16):
https://open.spotify.com/track/1Z4bpgy49F5P9mQrp29OVK?si=bkLj-ml-RUabeZ4yDGpx4w

Nominator: Jesse Custer [16/29 Remaining]

Initial Score: 58.00
Revised Score: 54.49
Final Score: 64.19

(First Reaction: I'm not literally docking points for the album cover, but the me from the universe in which I never looked at that is marginally happier and I inexplicably feel the need to not only share this information with you, but to share it in this utterly nonsensical way.

Song is nice, I think I'll pass on saying anything here--it's been, like, six minutes since the song ended and I haven't found anything I'm willing to share right now, so we'll just bounce along.)

!I was really expecting something much more hideous for the album cover considering past Raetsel's reaction to it. Song is fine... chorus feels a bit repetitive & I'm not really attached to any part of it, but the performance is fine enough that I wouldn't mind trying some of their other songs later.

[Final Thoughts: I'm not entirely sure why, but I want to move this up to the liked tier. Fairly far up the tier as well. I know the "locked in a cage" refrain appears frequently, more frequently than certain things on some songs I've trashed for being too repetitive, but there's something oddly captivating about this song. I'm going to move this up almost 10 full points.]

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

-

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

#324: Third Eye Blind - Losing a Whole Year (3:21):
https://youtu.be/MwlqymYLCb4

Nominator: Mega_Mana [18/38 Remaining[

Initial Score: 53.00
Revised Score: 60.76
Final Score: 64.222

(First Reaction: *before listening* Not an officially ranked song, though I did go through the entire album for brief thoughts at the end of the first ranking. I dismissed this song as not leaving much of an impression (apparently my top three were "Motorcycle Drive-By > The Background > God of Wine", though I provided no reasoning at all for that). That being said, I haven't listened to this song in years, and only heard it once without making any attempt to analyze it, so I'm optimistic that I may have a more favorable impression this time around.

*after*

Well, it's still not a breakup song that I connect with, but the chorus is pretty catchy.)

I like this song, but I'll pass on commenting on it for now. It's lame that I'm doing that WAY too often, but I'll probably come back to this before the ranking is actually posted. Probably.

*per usual, we do not come back to this*

]Final Thoughts: I like breakup songs and this is a good one. Not my favorite because it's a type of pain that isn't exactly relatable enough for me to vibe with, but I dig it.]

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

-

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

#323: Usuwa Suu - Marmalade and Daydreams (5:13):
https://youtu.be/djxJM15NaPw

Nominator: UF8 [16/30 Remaining]

Initial Score: 67.119
Revised Score: 59.38
Final Score: 64.27

(First Reaction: It's about time we got some Lo-Fi music going in this topic, or lo-fi adjacent at any rate. I'm a bit surprised so many of the comments feel that this is a relaxing song, when it feels like a very "quiet, painful sadness" type song. I suppose that could just be my imagination, but the Google Translation of the lyrics certainly don't come off happy either: "a lonely, distorted daydream; alone in tears"? That... that certainly seems to fit the vibe I was getting from the song.

And since I like this type of lo-fi music and this type of sadness, I like this.)

!Well, now it feels like a much more relaxing song and I'm not getting all the notes of pain that I was so drawn to the first time... it's still a nice vibe, "relaxing lo-fi" certainly isn't bad, but I'm missing the connection to it that I felt originally.

[Final Thoughts: I like this again.]

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

-

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

#322: Sonique - It Feels So Good (3:39):
https://youtu.be/zns8Y8phigk

https://open.spotify.com/track/4Y8q64VnhD0vFYy9g2WFpi?si=4ad0ab2ee1644961

Nominator: Mega_Mana [17/38 Remaining[

Initial Score: 82.01
Revised Score: 64.45
Final Score: 64.28

(First Reaction: I think I might love this song. It's a bit more club-like than I usually go for and I can't say I'm actually into the lyrics or repetition, but I felt really positive feelings towards this song from the first note & it didn't let me down.)

!I still enjoy this song, but it's rather firmly in the "I like this tier" as opposed to one of the "I love this" ones and I'm not entirely sure why I loved this song originally, nor why it's not hitting those highs the second time around.

...also I'd say I'm not sure if I should include the little bit at the end of the video which isn't exactly part of the song, but the brief line doesn't seem to help or hurt the song in any way, so I see no reason to argue for or against including that spoken word ending there.

[Final Thoughts: I'm going to cheat and use a Spotify link; it's 20 seconds longer & doesn't have the spoken dialogue so I am blatantly cheating by doing so, but the audio feels so much crisper compared to the music video that I feel it's the right move.

....I know the score is still going down, but I was thinking of moving the video version down a tier, so this is at least close to where I had it.]

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

And the last five, featuring a double drop from Bane & a lot of musical variety.

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

#321: Tomosuke Funaki - L'avide (4:31) :
https://youtu.be/haoGCu55cuU

Nominator: NFUN: [11/31 Remaining]

Initial Score: 58.36
Revised Score: 60.00
Final Score: 60.00 [Upgraded to 64.281]

(First Reaction: A pretty and wistful song.)

!Yeah, I like this. I also like what I've managed to get from the story being told here, so that's also nice.

[Final Thoughts: Is this the shortest writeup for anything at the 60 point level? I'm not sure.]

[Later: Much prettier than I remembered, adding four more points.]

[Later:

The Epic of Zektbach is a complex multimedia project initiated by video game music composer Tomosuke "Zektbach" Funaki, and graphical artist Maya Takamura. It started with a music video for the rhythm game Beatmania IIDX, called Apocalypse ~Dirge of Swans~, and its goal is to tell a long and complete story through the use of Zektbach's music as well as videos (some of them by Maya, especially the earlier ones) and textbooks.

The story takes place in the fantasy world of Aria Te'Laria, inhabitated by eight races of completely wild beings, none disposing of any self-awareness or emotion. One day, however, a strange ship falls from the sky, housing a purple gem that brings them all to gain those gifts and start developing. But this gem's powers will not only bring forth prosperity...

Suffice it to say that trying to study all the available info is beyond what I'm willing to attempt at this point, but it seems like a pretty good story from what little I've read.

Also I'm aware of how poor parts of that description from the Wiki is, but I'm preserving it as written.]

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-

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

#320: Dorian Electra - Sorry Bro (I Love You) (1:27):
https://open.spotify.com/track/5mcQEEsF7qB67sxzoVJvhC?si=bdf4986c7ff448fe

Nominator: Bane [16/38 Remaining]

Initial Score: 60.00
Revised Score: 62.46
Final Score: 60.69 [Upgraded to 61.034] [Upgraded to 62.474] [Upgraded to 64.296]

(First Reaction: All songs go to the clump. Glory to the clump. More seriously, I'll get into this later.)

!Surprisingly sweet song that also features those low tones I tend to love.

[Final Thoughts: Yeah, I like this one.]

[Later: Very minor boost.]

[Later: A very, very minor boost apparently... I think this is the first time I increased a song's score and ran into it again on the same day. I suppose I'll move it up to its Revised Score; I still don't want to eliminate it right now and I'd prefer it at least be delayed by an entire day. (NOTE: Score was slightly revised further to avoid ties)]

[Later: Adding another pair of points to this one.[

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

-

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

#319: The Smurfs - Smurfhillbilly Joe [2:59]:
https://archive.org/details/tvtunes_25178

Nominator: paulg [15/52 Remaining]

Initial Score: 68.84
Revised Score: 70.00
Final Score: 64.31

(First Reaction: I wanted to believe this was a Smurfs parody of Cotton Eye Joe, but was skeptical that such a thing would even exist. And yet, here it is! It's a rather well selected choice: someone important to me was a fan of Cotton Eye Joe (or at least listened to it often enough that one would have that impression) and I do have a noted interest in cartoon music. The Smurfs aren't exactly my favorite characters, but I don't particularly dislike them and I think I enjoyed the second live-action film at the time... haven't seen it in quite a few years though, so I kinda doubt it held up..

...Well, whatever, I like the song quite a bit and it was exactly what I hoped it was.)

!This is so stupid and yet I kinda love it anyway.

[Final Thoughts: Took a while to find a replacement link for this one since there isn't one on YouTube or Spotify, as far as I can tell as of this writing. I still like this song and it's a fun novelty, but it's not quite as much fun as I remember it being.]

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

-

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

#318: Every Time I Die - Hostile Architecture (2:36):
https://open.spotify.com/track/0YQQn6gBg1qXABJR9bVBkD?si=aa08b47929214961

Nominator: Bane [15/38 Remaining]

Initial Score: 52.05
Revised Score: 56.89
Final Score: 64.33

(First Reaction: There's some hint of dissociation and alternate personalities that appeal to me towards the end of the song:

All this pain inside
But all this pain can't be mine
I'll become the ones that I buried in the past
I look in the mirror, is it a face? Is it a mask?

Those are some fairly great lines and he compares himself to a stray dog, so you can almost make it work in a furry context if you're willfully ignorant enough (and I very much am), but I can't connect with the rest of the song. Having never been in the type of relationship he had with his ex-wife, there's nothing I can relate to and the story hasn't been fictionalized enough to work from a story perspective. It's like... "well, from what you've told me, your ex-wife was a bitch and I'm sorry she made you feel that way" which is not exactly a top-tier reaction. It's nice that he can be vulnerable like this, it's nice that it's so personal, and there are some great lines here but it's missing something to really draw me in.)

Ooh, a first reaction that actually stayed on topic and counts as an actual writeup. So rare.

I don't have a lot to add here. That quoted verse is still great and I also rather like the repeated apologies in the outro, but most of the song is a bit too hardcore for my blood and I can't fully connect with it which keeps it from going up another tier. Still, definitely something I like and it's generally on the right track.

[Final Thoughts: Ooh, I like this. The lyrics are top tier--as usual, I'd like to dial the aggressive nature of the instruments down a few notches, but it's hardly a deal breaker.]

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

-

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

#317: BANKS - Drowning (4:07):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzGHgQBPyV0

Nominator: Dragon66116 [8/12 Remaining]

Initial Score: 86.11
Revised Score: 75.1933
Final Score: 64.36

(First Reaction: https://www.stereogum.com/1682482/banks-drowning/news/

The song, Drowning, is an angry fist-wave from a woman scorned. Its not necessarily a triumphant vengeance, though, because shes still drowning and all.

I'm not sure if that's a self-aware parody of a music critic or not, but I love it.)

!It's a song that does everything right; I dig her voice, I'm into the lyrics, the vibe, the sound... but somehow it's not really clicking for me this evening. Like I still appreciate the song and everything about it, but in more of a "mid-70's, I like this quite a bit way" than a "mid-80's, I think I love this" way.

[Final Thoughts: I don't know... I like everything about the song, but I'm consistently less into it with each successive listen. It's like I love her voice and the crushing weight of the music, but it's missing one killer element that gets me to keep playing it on a loop.]

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

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

#361: Deafheaven - Come Back (9.17)
It conveys the feeling of breaking through the pain and being embraced by peace & serenity in a way that few songs can compare to.

that contrast/shift is absolutely my favorite thing about Deafheaven. i don't remember if i mentioned it before but with Dream House, the following track on the album is a more calm one evoking that similar type of feeling and it just transitions seamlessly

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

#355: Bjork - It's Oh So Quiet (3:37):

i remember when i first heard this i was blown away.

vastly prefer Bjork's version personally because those high pitched/screaming moments conveys that feeling of completely giving in to the moment so well

kateee posted...

i don't remember if i mentioned it before but with Dream House, the following track on the album is a more calm one evoking that similar type of feeling and it just transitions seamlessly

I'm not sure if you mentioned it either. I don't recall hearing another song by them until this ranking topic, but I also wasn't listening to every song that got mentioned back then & my memory isn't exactly the best. So I'll go ahead and add Dream House + Irresistible to the post topic list; wouldn't mind revisiting Dream House after all these years and it seems worth hearing the transition instead of just going directly to the new song.

-

On an unrelated note, I regret my decision to eliminate Sorry Bro (I Love You) and I'm retroactively raising it to the next tier. So now Bane can have an asterisk'd name for a while. The few songs that fell after it are dropped one ranking spot & we'll resume with the new #317... later.

I woke up on time today and have listened to a fair number of songs, but thus far I've given extra points to everything... and looking at the upcoming songs, I have a feeling that I'm probably going to be giving points to the next few as well and don't have the time to listen to anything else right now.

And so many songs have been shuffled around that I'm taking a half-day today... five drops, coming in right now:

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#317: Diablo Swing Orchestra - Les Invulnerables [6:02]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eGnECCX1SA&list=PLbqs-W3v0JokCip1yCvbDS5Diki_yhvvC&index=10

Nominator: CJones [ 6/18 Remaining]

Initial Score: 60.00
Revised Score: 60.00
Final Score: 64.60

(First Reaction: Daniel's verses are perfect, though I'm less sold on Kristin's performance... not because there's anything wrong with it, but there's a strong "quiet tragedy" vibe in Daniel's voice that I'm drawn to and want to experience fully. While she's fine (or even good), the parts I love just don't happen to include her & her performance feels notably different than his.)

!This is probably his most enchanting vocal performance, probably around the high 70's to low 80's, but I feel like her voice is utterly wasted on repeating the same few lyrics in a style that doesn't really complement his. I do like it, but the combination doesn't quite work for me.

[Final Thoughts: I really, really like his performance on this song, so I'm adding a few extra points to this.]

[Later: Sorry, I do kinda love his performance on this track... just not quite enough to raise the score any further, since he's only featured on about half the song.]

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#316: Saturday Night Slam Masters - Theme of Gunloc [1:55]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9lHMPPx5kI

Nominator: paulg [14/52 Remaining]

Initial Score: 52.26
Revised Score: 52.66
Final Score: 52.46 [Upgraded to 55.00] [Upgraded to 56.25] [Upgraded to 64.947]

(First Reaction: Ohh, I love Slam Masters! Unfortunately, I don't have any real feelings towards the soundtrack? It's fine, but "fight music" is rather low on my list of VGM preferences and there's no interesting soundfonts to make the song fascinating. So it's a little nostalgic and an interesting bit of Capcom's history, but not something I'm really excited to listen to.)

GUNLOC TRIVIA:

Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game Spoilers: Blade's ending reveals that he was really Gunloc going deep undercover and posing as a Shadaloo officer. While that game obviously isn't canon, Blade does have an official Street Fighter profile that lists him as having the same height, weight, and favorite food as Gunloc which means that the backstory may actually be canon??

...of course random robots from the American Street Fighter cartoon have official profiles as well, so that probably doesn't mean a whole lot: https://game.capcom.com/cfn/sfv/column/132734

While the Slam Masters characters are inspired by real life wrestlers, people are still unsure as to who Gunloc's inspiration was. Possibly Lex Luger??

As for the actual song... I kinda like the soundfont being used here and could see myself highly enjoying a song in this style, but I'm not hearing anything here that sets this track apart from any other random 90's Capcom song. It's perfectly fine, but on the short side and doesn't inspire any real reactions other than "yep, that sounds like Capcom music alright".

[Final Thoughts: Odd how this song's score changes every time, but only by such a minor fraction of a point that it has little-to-no impact on anything. Definitely a song from a game I have a lot of nostalgia for, but the song isn't triggering any memories or flashbacks... I wonder if it's because I've only played the SNES version and this is the arcade version I've never heard?

*goes to listen to a few of the SNES tracks*

Nah, no real nostalgia bombs here either. I guess I just never really noticed or had an interest in this soundtrack, in spite of how many times I played through the game. (Best 16-bit wrestling game there is, not that there's much competition).

[Later: Actually got this stuck in my head while trying to sleep last night and I'm starting to kinda like this one.]

[Laterier: Going to give this one another brief delay.]

[Laterierier: Yeah, I'm starting to get pretty into this track for some reason.]

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#315: nekono - Mystagia (4:00):
https://youtu.be/d-vXws6WaJQ

Nominator: NFUN: [10/31 Remaining]

Initial Score: 78.40
Revised Score: 78.62
Final Score: 64.999

(First Reaction: This is the good kind of repetitive thumping. Didn't know there was a good kind? Neither did I! But this is it.)

!I find this song combines rather pretty and soothing backing music with pulsing techno & the contradiction between the styles elevates the song in a way that it becomes a fantastic example of something I don't typically like performed in a way that I almost love--I don't quite want to put it at the 80 point tier, but it's right up against it at the very least.

[Final Thoughts: A fun combination of styles that is quite enjoyable, though not as completely mesmerizing as I once found it to be.]

[Later: There's a brief stretch around the 50 second mark with the low tones I love, combined with an ethereal sort of beauty that I find works quite well. The rest of the song does have quite a bit of thumping going on--not enough that I'd say it ruins the song or anything, but it fails to compare to that moment.]

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#314: Minako Adachi - Malie City (Day) (2:12):
https://youtu.be/ED1D822MfYg

Nominator: Haste [5/31 Remaining]

Initial Score: 49.94
Revised Score: 57.601
Final Score: 57.601 [Upgraded to 64.987] [Upgraded to 65.00]

(First Reaction: Japanese city music. It's instantly recognizable for what it is, so it's definitely accomplishing every goal & fitting perfectly for where it plays. I just don't think it's something that really appeals to me.)

I'm not sure why I didn't like this song the first time around, as it seems rather nice now! It's... hard to describe in any remotrely coherent way. It feels as crisp as an autumn morning, mixed with feelons of "light adventure" and "vaguely foreboding sense of danger" which combine in a novel way to create something as intriguing as it is exhilarating.

...which feels like something that should be worth a lot more points than I'm giving it, yes, but somehow I'm still not completely into it. i enjoy it well enough and I appreciate it as being much better than I initially realized, but I feel like it's not quite what I want from a song at the moment for some reason...

[Final Thoughts: Deciding if I typo'd feelings or intentionally created the new word of feelons to describe this song is an exercise left to the reader.

[Later: I am suddenly really, really in the mood for Japanese city music apparently.]

[Later: Very minor boost to this song to at least reach the 65 point marker.]

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#313: Gorillaz - The Lost Chord (4:04):
https://open.spotify.com/track/5jDIIpm38XbdvvSt4oilcI?si=mSeptPLMTjix1pZk70aGsg

Nominator: Jesse Custer [15/29 Remaining]

Initial Score: 64.47
Revised Score: 64.47
Final Score: 64.47 [Upgraded to 65.003]

(First Reaction: I feel like I need to listen--or at least read about--Plastic Beach to get context for this song, as the discussion is a bit rough when you can't understand all the references and symbolism everyone is talking about. That being said, it's a... *consults thesaurus for another word for "nice"* ducky. It's a ducky song with a mellow beat that I dig, quack quack quack.

*proceeds to pace back-and-forth quacking for far more time than is healthy*)

!I like the First Reaction's implication that there is a healthy amount of time to pace in front of your tablet quacking at the walls.

The lyrics are a tad repetitive, but the mellow groove works and I like this.

[Final Thoughts: *resumes quacking at the walls*]

[Later: Up to 65 points]

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

Zektbach is pretty awkward to get into in English and I'm not sure I'd recommend it. Very cool story though, Tomosuke clearly put a lot into it, so of you thought the description was interesting you could give the YouTube English compilation a shot, or at least find a shorter summary and listen/watch the music when appropriately

NFUN posted...

give the YouTube English compilation a shot

I imagine that's a bit longer than I might like, but I might be interested in giving it a chance... I don't suppose you have a link? Searching Zektbach English Compilation on YouTube isn't getting me anywhere.

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Three songs to start the day off early:

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#312: dave rodgers - Deja Vu (Classical Version) (4:13):
https://open.spotify.com/track/7aA7bCsLTvrMWM9Vmz71MK?si=610d3d760769408c

Nominator: CPU [9/30 Remaining]

Initial Score: 55.20
Revised Score: 55.04
Final Score: 53.22 [Upgraded to 55.20] [Upgraded to 58.65] [Upgraded to 62.499] [Upgraded to 65.033]

(First Reaction: It's nice. "It's so hard when I try to be me" feels really close to the lyrics I love, but I'm not fully jiving with it tonight.)

I prefer the ridiculously over-the-top nature of the original version, which manages to be "fast pulsing dance music done right" in a very charming way... this slowed down, classical version is certainly a different take on the song, but I don't know that it entirely worked out.

[FInal Thoughts: I'm just not clicking with this track. It's too subdued and quiet, which keeps the lyrics from having much of an impact. It's like I know the lyrics are on point and the instrumentation is objectively good, but it's lacking enough of a punch to really push it to the next level. The instrumental outro is also way too pretty for the song's general vibe. It's still.... almost something I like, I suppose, but it's still a bit of a misfire tonally.]

[Later: Actually, I do enjoy this more than any of the songs that I'm actually eliminating at the 53 point level... going to move this back up to its Initial Score, see if it fits in better with that group.]

[Later: Adding a few extra points.]

[Later: Let's take this up a tier.[

[Later: A few extra points.]

[Later: The lyrics are fantastic, but I think this is as far as I want to take the song itself, I'm afraid.]

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#311: Fishmans - Night Cruising (6:02):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD29iWW94yg

Nominator: rwlh [9/24 Remaining]

Initial Score: 60.00
Revised Score: 58.73
Final Score: 54.911 [Upgraded to 55.00] [Upgraded to 58.73] [Upgraded to 60.00] [Upgraded to 60.002] [Upgraded to 63.06] [Upgraded to 65.08]

(First Reaction: I feel like this song might go on a bit too long for something with so few lyrics, but it has both an "interesting dream-like feeling" and a "distorted, trapped inside a radio wave feeling" overlapping with each other and it's such a unique experience that I'll be adding it to the Clump of 60 point songs anyway.)

!A bit on the long side, but still an enjoyable trip.

[Later: I feel like I really enjoyed this when I wasn't expecting "radiowave dream pop", but it's lacking that surprise factor on relistens. I do still enjoy it, but it's one of those where the score gets a bit lower each time, sadly.]

[More Later: Ehh... I'm still not nearly as into this, but I remember the good times & it hurts to see this song so low. Which I guess means I like it enough to move it up a little? ...Eh, let's just go back to the Revised Score.]

[Also Later: Moving this back up to the Neo Clump. I'd still like to cut one or two minutes from the runtime, but it's an enjoyable dreamy trip & I don't want it to drop any earlier than the 60 point tier.[

[Later: The vibes on this song are fantastic, but it doesn't seem to know when to end... I like it, but the last two minutes feel a bit excessive. I think I'll move it up a bit since I like it more than most CLUMP'd songs, but this would be a much easier sell if it were a bit shorter or did anything new towards the end of the song.

...well, I suppose I do like the last note. It's kinda distorted and static-y.]

[Later: It's odd... I so strongly dig the general vibe of this song that I keep refusing to eliminate it, but the last several minutes seem so aimless that I never feel like giving it a lot of extra points. I guess I'll try adding three points? Maybe I'll be more in a mood to eliminate it when we get up there.]

[Time Has No Meaning: Two more points, I guess? I still can't work out exactly how I feel about the song... I do love the atmosphere, but I do wish it started to fade out around 3:20. Falling into the radio waves and slowly vanishing would be perfect, but the track is barely half over at that point. Still, I guess I do enjoy it enough to get at least 65 points?]

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#310: moussa - cabrioli [2:32]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l98fXGtGkqg

Nominator: cakophon [6/20 Remaining]

Initial Score: 60.00
Revised Score: 59.86
Final Score: 60.00 [Upgraded to 65.29]

(First Reaction: Wealth and glory to the CLUMP.

Song is fun. There's never any telling which very overly romantic songs will work for me and which won't, but something about his voice and choice of metaphors really clicks for me. "She has flames in her pupils" is obviously a garbled translation of the fairly generic "fire in their eyes" saying, but... i dunno, I like it. I like his voice and I like the thing his voice is saying, don't care if the sentiment isn't especially original.)

!Good voice and some nice lyrics, but I think I like it just a tiny bit less than 60 points.

[Final Thoughts: I like this and I'm moving it back up. He's definitely got a voice that pleases me, I may also look into some of his other work sometime in the future.]

[Later: I don't enjoy the artificial high notes, but the clean lyrics feature a rather sensual voice that is quite appealing. I'm going to go ahead and move this song up quite a ways, to the 65 point area.]

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

https://youtube.com/watch?v=RzjNof-Tj3M&list=PLSkBT8UcCTh_QUTOs4rLUnd61I43T2P1c&index=1

NFUN posted...

https://youtube.com/watch?v=RzjNof-Tj3M&list=PLSkBT8UcCTh_QUTOs4rLUnd61I43T2P1c&index=1

11 videos and about three hours... not as bad as I feared, honestly. I'll give it a shot after the main ranking ends; personally, I'm hoping to stretch the post-ranking out until April because March kinda sucks emotionally (anniversary of some events I'd rather not get into), so longer blocks of videos are actually pretty welcome at the moment.

(Not bad enough emotionally that anyone should be concerned, just having this topic continuing for a distraction would be nifty.)

Thank you!

Four more, including a double drop from CJones & the Diablo Swing Orchetra:

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#309: Diablo Swing Orchestra - Jig Of The Century [4:32]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMi1TuCSRYY&list=PLbqs-W3v0JokCip1yCvbDS5Diki_yhvvC&index=5

Nominator: CJones [5/18 Remaining]

Initial Score: 58.23
Revised Score: 58.23
Final Score: 58.23 [Upgraded to 61.481] [Upgraded to 62.69] [Upgraded to 64.23] [Upgraded to 65.293]

(First Reaction: Combining metal and a traditional jig is an interesting idea and it largely works well here, to a point where I'm not sure how the song could actually be improved.)

!It's a fun combination that works well. Not something I want to move up a tier, but definitely a fun song that I'd suggest people listen to to hear something different.

[Final Thoughts: Very fun song.]

[Later: I'm going to place this a peg above the Neo Clump, actually. I like this combination of genres enough to give this a few extra points.]

[Later: At least one extra point for the novelty this track brings.]

[Later: Giving this song another bit of a boost... it's certainly interesting.]

[Later: One more point, but I think this is probably the last boost for this song.]

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#308: Masashi Hamauzu - Weltall (4:18):
https://open.spotify.com/track/2mMaRT6GugiZ5JjEu6MP4f

Nominator: Haste [4/31 Remaining]

Initial Score: 29.92
Revised Score: 56.14
Final Score: 56.14 [Upgraded to 57.99] [Upgraded to 60.00] [Upgraded to 62.136] [Upgraded to 65.295]

(First Reaction: Dun dun. Dun dun. Dun dun. Dun dun. Dun dun. Dun dun. Dun dun. Dun dun. It's like having a chime bouncing back and forth in my head. I wouldn't call it painful or say I hate it, but it almost feels like the song wants to come in last place.)

Another of those songs where the score went way up on a relisten and I'm not entirely sure why, beyond the obvious "being prepared for what the song was going to do" making it easier to tolerate. It's still a bit too long for how monotonous it can wind up feeling, but it creates the sensation of exploring a magic imperial city. The repeated dun-dun sounds are like a very rapid marching song (perhaps not the right cadence for a marching song, but work with me here), while the other instruments impart a bit of a mysterious feeling because these are magical soldiers from an empire or whatever. So while it's definitely not a favorite track or anything, it was an interesting headspace to inhabit for a bit and I enjoyed it.

[Final Thoughts: Yeah, I actually do kinda like this now. It definitely paints an interesting picture.]

[Later: Moving this one up some ways.]

[Later: Hmm... I may go ahead and raise this one up to 60 points. It.... intrigues me enough to keep it around, at least until the all-consuming Neo Clump.]

[Marching Towards Later: I do like musical experiences and this is an *experience*. Going to add a couple more points.... though while this song has grown on me immensely since the first listen, I think we're starting to reach this song's limit.[

[Later: And a few extra points because this song has really grown on me, in spite of the repetitive nature of the chimes.]

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#307: Diablo Swing Orchestra - Out Came The Hummingbirds [4:21]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92mP0t85GXA&list=PLbqs-W3v0JokCip1yCvbDS5Diki_yhvvC&index=8

Nominator: CJones [4/18 Remaining]

Initial Score: 60.13
Revised Score: 73.29
Final Score: 65.40

(First Reaction: The rare song that is rather rave dance adjaent, yet something that I thoroughly enjoy )

!I'm surprised this song was only at the 60 point tier considering the lyrics are pretty much exactly what I want.

[Final Thoughts: I suppose there are days when asking to be held endlessly is exactly what I'm in the mood for, but for better or worse, that's not quite what I'm looking for at the moment.... I still like this, but I'm missing that personal connection that pushed it to the next tier.]

[Later:

It's a fight
Going on in my mind
[...]
I'm falling deep
Hold me now
Endlessly

Definitely the type of lyrics I'm into and there's a good beat to the track. I do like this, but I'm not as strongly attached to the words as I was the second time around.]

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#306:The Trashmen - Surfin Bird (2:20):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Gc4QTqslN4

Nominator: paulg [13/52 Remaining]

Initial Score: 52.13
Revised Score: 60.00
Final Score: 65.5213

(First Reaction: The video goes a long way in helping this song. Seeing someone bold and confident enough to get up on stage and run around in circles while flapping their arms may be the most inspiring thing in the entire topic series and I'm exactly the type of crazy where I actually mean that,

The song is... something I've learned to tolerate due to its ubiquitous nature. I'm still not a fan of it, but there's some enjoyment to be had from it at least.)

I should not give this song as many points as I am because this is being caried almost entirely by the video, but there is something so beautiful and pure about this man deciding he's going to run around in circles while pretending to be a bird & people loving him for it. It is quite possibly the most beautiful and inspirational thing to have ever been posted in this topic series---it conveys a feeling that everyone, absolutely everyone, can find a place where they belong and I'm almost crying at how moving a performance this is.

There's also something that can charitably be called a "song" playing alongside the video.

[Final Thoughts: ...I don't care, I'll raise this song up as high as I want.]

[Later: ...In retrospect, one of the voices in my head probably should have cared but I'll stand by this placement anyway.]

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Going to take a break here and resume later this afternoon. I'll try to squeeze in another five so that we can officially reach the top 300, but that's not guaranteed.

Been incredibly busy as of late, but I'm still reading along! Glad some of my stuff is still in.

Hanabie has dropped a couple new tracks since this all started, and while they haven't done so hot in here, I adore this track and I'm dropping it here for you to look into later.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuFbQ-Mewfw

Hanabie. song has been added to the post-ranking list, thank you!

And the final five songs that just miss the top 300 (barring anything else being retroactively moved up), though I'll likely need two posts to fit them all in:

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#305: Made in Heights - Ghosts (3:30):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX9SEkpJ-VQ

Nominator: ZaziGuado [15/28 Remaining]

Initial Score: 54.06
Revised Score: 59.077
Final Score: 57.26 [Upgraded to 60.00] [Upgraded to 65.50] [Upgraded to 65.525]

(First Reaction: Fantastic verses & tedious choruses.

Wow, only way to feel is wow
Wow, wow, wow, wow
Wow, wow, wow, wow
Ow, ow, ow
Ow, ow, ow
Ow, ow, ow
Ow, ow, ow
Hey, hey, hey, hey
Hey, hey, hey, hey
Hey, hey, hey, hey

That stretch of the song is actively painful to endure and not in a fun way. I really like the verses enough that my final opinion of the song might be positive, but... well, my hatred of repetition has been stated enough times, I suppose.)

This song is carried by the instrumentation in the verses. There are a lot of those low tones throughout the verses that I really love and her wispy singing voice is pleasing. I'm learning to tolerate the choruses a bit more since the repetition isn't as bad when I'm aware it's coming up, but I can't honestly say I like them. It makes it difficult for me to move the song up a tier because, while there are aspects I love, there's definitely a fair amount of the song that I don't like which is holding it back. Still... generally a good song and I appreciate people nominating songs with parts that I love even if the whole doesn't live up to its full potential.

[Final Thoughts: Yeah, I kinda like this and the choruses are definitely not bad once I'm properly prepared for what they're doing.]

[Later: Let's go ahead and move this back up where it was for a minute.

...nah, let's just put this into the Neo Clump. I think I can say I like this now.]

[Later: Song is starting to grow on me these days. Going to try moving it up to 65 points.]

[Later: Minor boost to put it over the Bird.]

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#304: Electric Wizard - Vinum Sabbathi (3:05):
https://youtu.be/vuONl02N-Kw

Nominator: Kateee [12/21 Remaining]

Initial Score: 54.50
Revised Score: 62.11
Final Score: 65.497 [ [Upgraded to 65.53]

(First Reaction: A hard track to score. The droning certainly conveys the feeling of being tormented by the ancient ones and I like the dark, Lovecraftian feel to everything, but... well... the experience isn't exactly something I'd call enjoyable, since enjoyment is not something they were aiming for with this track. It's an experience I'll remember and appreciate, but not likely to be something I come back to on a regular basis.)

Fun Fact; This is the first song I'm rating after taking time off to recover! This is certainly an interesting song to have as my reintroduction to this topic... quite dark and intense, but in a way that's quite fun and enjoyable. I'm not sure I'd like an entire album of this type of music, but as a standalone track, it offers me the darkness I like in a package that is at the right level of intensity... heavy enough to convey the idea of torment, without actually turning into torture itself. Good song choice here.

[Final Thoughts: I like this.]

[Later: A minor boost. Not enough to delay the elimination even for a day, but it moves it above a few other songs. I like the final note of the song which is this buzzing tone that lingers in the air; buzzing is nice.]

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#303: Two-Mix - White Reflection (4:40):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNSOcPjL-Gw

Nominator: Handsomeboy [17/31 Remaining]

Initial Score: 63.44
Revised Score: 63.44
Final Score: 65.605

(First Reaction: Ooh, from the Endless Waltz soundtrack. I actually don't have much experience with the anime version of Endless Waltz, oddly enough. I didn't get around to watching it until years after the TV series had finished airing--I loved Gundam Wing at the time, but I felt the ending wrapped things up nicely enough that I didn't particularly yearn for a continuation & I had more interesting things to do at the time it came out, so it just wasn't something I got around to. I eventually wound up renting the DVD from Netflix, back when they were exclusively sending films through the mail. Eesh, has it really been that long?

...Aaaanywho, I mainly know the song from instrumental versions in the Super Robot Wars series. A lot of Gundam Wing's appearances in the series are set in the Endless Waltz or post-Endless Waltz timelines; it's easier to adapt the short film to fit into any story & Wing Zero Custom is awesome, so it's actually rare for the TV series to get any love. (If you need a strategy RPG version of the TV series, please look into "SD Gundam G Generation: Cross Rays", now available worldwide on Steam!). And whenever Endless Waltz is adapted, they use a version of White Reflection as the theme for all of the characters. Just do a search for Super Robot Wars White Reflection and you'll be awash with a variety of covers to choose from. How many enemies have I had Heero shoot down with this song playing in the background? Probably thousands from SRW X alone. (I'd go into why Endless Waltz makes no sense to be included in X, but then X was a low-point for the series and virtually none of the series had any reason to be included. That game was basically just a bunch of people getting teleported to the world of Mashin Eiyuuden Wataru for absolutely no reason while Wataru serves as more of a protagonist than even the main character of the game, but that would be an unrelated tangent inside of a tangent, and we'll never escape from this writeup if you let me get that sidetracked.)

.....AAANYWHO, song is fine. It's a bit weird to hear it with lyrics and it's just as weird that the lyrics are so lovey when I'm used to this song accompanying the slaughter of thousands of generic enemies, but it's still another Gundam Wing song by the band who performed the best Gundam Wing songs, so I like it.)

!I know it's a personal fault of mine, but I can't quite adjust to hearing this song with lyrics. Since my first... several hundred times hearing it came from instrumental versions, this actual version now feels *incredibly* odd to listen to. It's an intriguing feeling, but not a type of strangeness that I'm in love with.

[Final Thoughts: Gundam music is good.]

[Later: I like that I had to hard reset myself during a hard reset. I apparently found it virtually impossible to get on topic on this track.]

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

*continued in next post*

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#302: Yelle - Que veux-tu (3:54):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xXvEqo3DKk&list=PLR2ATVrSGTX91hJXNoWIHovzSIqVNBM8u&index=2

Nominator: hotdogturtle [5/14 Remaining]

Initial Score: 62.24
Revised Score: 56.27
Final Score: 59.333 [Upgraded to 60.00] [Upgraded to 61.965] [Upgraded to 65.73]

(First Reaction: I really like the chorus on this track, it's bouncy & fun (musically, not so much with the lyrics) but the verses feel like they're a few steps behind musically.)

!Not as drawn to the chorus this time around, though it is still fairly bouncy.

[Final Thoughts: I'm not particularly interested in the story told by the lyrics, though I have nothing against them either. Some of the translations of one of the lines are kinda funny:

I'd really love to say to you "I love you" without consonant or vowel
Things would happen by themselves, I have the flame and the laziness

Which is oddly relatable. I too am very passionate and lazy. But either way... this has a highly enjoyable energy to it, like a dance-y pop song done right. I don't know that I quite want it at that 60 point level, but it's pretty good and very close to it at least.]

[Later: Minor boost to Neo Clump. That line is pretty great.]

[Later: Is that line relatable enough to get an extra point? ...Yes.]

[Later: Is it worth several extra points? ...Yes.]

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-and we reach the 66 point mark here, at #301:-

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#301: Coeur de Pirate - Combustible (3:30):
https://open.spotify.com/track/6xflVTxAELGne4B7X2thlv?si=RdU-L_a4TZepAgUpxge1lQ

Nominator: Jesse Custer [14/29 Remaining]

Initial Score: 53.3? (treated as 53.35)
Revised Score: 55.55
Final Score: 55.55 [Upgraded to 57.292] [Upgraded to 58.292] [Upgraded to 60.75] [Upgraded to 66.004]

(First Reaction:

But I warned you: monsters are hiding
Inside my heart thats changing
But free-spirited, I secretly pray
That my alter ego doesnt show itself

...

And when will you stop?
You cant change me, a broken being

Non-human metaphor, check ; alternate personas, check ; blunt sadness, check. Well, I can't say this song isn't the literal definition of what I've asked for, Still, somehow, I'm not entirely sold on the song itself.. I'm missing a bit of a dark edge to her voice or the instruments to sell the misery. I don't really feel the inner torment in the way I'd like to; I do kinda like the song anyway, but it's missing the darkness to jump to the top of the charts.

The song feels very "53.3?" in that I'm sure I want to give the first three digits, but would be rather content putting anything 0-9 as the last digit. But that uncertainty would break my formatting, so we'll call it down the middle and enter a 5 on all official records.)

I still feel the same way as before. The lyrics are exactly what I want and her performance is good, but her voice feels too pure and bright for a broken monster. It keeps me from forming a true connection to the song and leaves it as something that's enjoyable and very close to being what I want, but not quite reaching its full potential. Which is unfortunate because I do like her music, just not as much on this specific track.

[Final Thoughts: Too upbeat and poppy for the way the lyrics make me feel, but there's some great lyrics here & I generally like her music, so I kinda like this.]

[Later: Let's move this one up a bit.]

[Later Still: Eh, let's add one extra point exactly.]

[Later: I think I like this. Going to move this one up a tier as well.[

[Later: This is another of those songs that starts winning me over with how many times I listen to it as I refuse to cut it. Adding another six points.]

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

Standings update soon.

...Okay, let's just say there were a lot of errors all over the place and there are 312 songs left.

----------------------

REMAINING SONG COUNT

Bane: 16*/38 Remaining
BlackDra90n: 10/30 Remaining
cakophon: 7/20 Remaining
CJones: 4/18 Remaining
CPU: 9/30 Remaining
DoctorJimmy: 11/24 Remaining
Dragon66116: 8/12 Remaining
handsomeboy: 17/31 Remaining
Haste: 4/31 Remaining
hotdogturtle: 5/14 Remaining
Jesse_Custer: 14/29 Remaining
kateee: 12/21 Remaining
Kopazzynth: 3/21 Remaining
Lasa: 2/14 Remaining
Mega Mana: 17/38 Remaining
Metalmind: 16/25 Remaining
Murphiroth: 8/32 Remaining
NBIceman: 14/22 Remaining
NFUN: 10/31 Remaining
paulg: 13/52 Remaining
Player_0: 12/33 Remaining
Raka: 19/31 Remaining
rwlh: 9/24 Remaining
sergio: 2/13 Remaining
Snake: 13/32 Remaining
TheArkOfTurus: 9/17 Remaining
TunnelScene: 10/27 Remaining
UF8: 16/30 Remaining
Xtlm: 7/13 Remaining
ZaziGuado: 15/28 Remaining

*Sorry Bro was un-eliminated.

----------------------

I haven't found all the errors, but the list goes from #434 to #432 without any song being in 433rd place. A few "remaining song" counts were off, but correcting those still leaves me at 312 remaining, so I'm a bit lost.

...but the remaining count says 312 & the Public Song List says there are 312 songs that haven't had scores posted, so that seems to be accurate? So, false alarm, we're not actually at the top 300 and apparently the placement numbers are very, very far off.

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

#305: Made in Heights - Ghosts (3:30):

I find it interesting that you view the chorus as being lyrics. I've only ever thought of the chorus as an instrumental chorus with her voice just acting as another instrument. She has a very wispy voice so I think it transitions well into this instrument-like state.

I will be fully honest, I was the most unsure... other than with I'll Pretend... about how you'd take to the nine of my picks left on the board? Happy ya like or more the lot, but I am a skosh surprised in at least two cases.

What a great Weltall write-up-up-up-up-up-up. =p

Maybe you listen to it every day for the next year, and it'll become your favorite music of all-time.

ZaziGuado posted...

I find it interesting that you view the chorus as being lyrics. I've only ever thought of the chorus as an instrumental chorus with her voice just acting as another instrument.

Well, I mean, a focus on non-lyric vocalizations doesn't usually work well for me either... again, not something I actively hate and you can find plenty of examples of high scoring songs that feature them, but they tend to be an easy target.

IhatethisCPU posted...

I was the most unsure... other than with I'll Pretend

I thought Lonely was the one you expected to do the best? Though thinking back, I suppose you just said you were most interested in it or something...

-

Four songs to start the morning, featuring a group of songs that were given a small boost in score to make it to this exact point! Which, back when I thought we were reaching a milestone, meant a lot... now it's just kinda sad and awkward...

-

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

#312: Bjork - Cover Me (2:06):
https://open.spotify.com/track/2DjBfhvS7yRM2l1sk0Jnti?si=4b1c4ce231f14e60

Nominator: Bane [15*/38 Remaining]

Initial Score: 67.02
Revised Score: 61.04
Final Score: 64.03 [Upgraded to 66.005]

(First Reaction: A short, quiet, and mysterious song. It feels like the start of an adventure, as though we are venturing deeper into a seaside cave and awaken that which should never be awoken. What impossible horrors await in the depths of these caverns and why am I following her siren call knowing that this can only end in our deaths?? It's all very unusual and intriguing, and feels like it came from a completely different album.)

!The song remains as intriguing and mysterious as ever, though I think I had it ranked a bit too highly at first.

[Final Thoughts: Moved the song too far down; averaging the two scores might give a better value?]

[Later: Putting this a bit closer to the Initial Score.]

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

-

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

#311: Grimes - World Princess part II (5:05):
https://open.spotify.com/track/7v9t1j6m5nYYGG1etmAD12?si=a330fdd40da342eb

Nominator: Player_0 [11/33 Remaining]

Initial Score: 57.44
Revised Score: 58.22
Final Score: 62.98 [Upgraded to 65.793] [Upgraded to 66.007]

(First Reaction: I wish the song ended sooner. There's a very long stretch after the last verse and before the outro where it feels like the song is just going on for the sake of going on; this is unfortunate because I like the rest of the song and the outro, but kinda space out a bit during that long gap.)

!I don't know what past me was complaining about, that break is pretty short... song's neat enough. I like the slow fade to darkness during the outro.

[Final Thoughts; Well, I'm oddly vibing with this song tonight, so up a tier it goes.]

[Later: Adding a few more points to this one.]

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

-

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

#310: Michael Sambello - Maniac (4:04):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GCNUeTFSbA

Nominator: Handsomeboy [16/31 Remaining]

Initial Score: 53.64
Revised Score: 60.00
Final Score: 60.00 [Upgraded to 60.00000004] [Upgraded to 66.00000004] [Upgraded to 66.0091]

(First Reaction: Not a bad song, but one that's been overplayed to heck and back & which I never fully got the appeal of. There's some appealing lines, especially in the second verse--"On the ice-blue line of insanity" stands out as particularly interesting--but it's unlikely that the song is suddenly going to click for me after all these years.)

I imagine everyone's familiar with this song's history, how it started off as being about a serial killer before being rewritten to actually fit into Flashdance? ...Well if not, you are now, that's basically the entire story. I was going to kill some time by repeating the tale, but between most people knowing it & the story being so brief, that did not take up nearly as much space as I was hoping it would.

Either way... it's an iconic 80's dance song and I enjoy 80's pop music, so yeah, I like this. I undervalued it at first because I was a bit tired of how overplayed it was, but honestly, I still enjoy it. There's not a lot here to analyze lyrically and I'm not likely to have any sudden revelations about the song's quality, but it's an enjoyable time and I can safely move it up a tier.

[Final Thoughts: I like it. It's overplayed, but it's a fine example of an era of pop music that I enjoy & an enjoyable way to kill a few minutes.]

[Later: Catchy and iconic enough that I think I will give it that little fraction of a point to put it above the Neo Clump.]

[Later:

In the real-time world no one sees her at all
They all say she's crazy

It is.... close to resonating. After all, I can only exist in un-real worlds and am fairly crazy. Though I hate dancing.

...Still, this song does warrant further research. Let's try going up to 66 points for a while, as it seems that this song may "suddenly click for me after all these years".]

[Later: I am enjoying this song more than i ever thought possible.]

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

-

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

#309: Ario - Imago [4:35]:
https://ariomusic.bandcamp.com/track/imago

Nominator: Kopazzynth [2/21 Remaining]

Initial Score: 60.00
Revised Score: 62.00
Final Score: 64.00 [Upgraded to 66.00000005] [Upgraded to 66.0092]

(First Reaction: The intro feels like the entrance to some evil sci-fi alien church, which is a fascinating and new musical landscape to explore... the song doesn't really go in that direction once it picks up, giving way to more "space shmup adventure" and "hopeful because this is a fairly easy stage and you shouldn't be too stressed" type vibes. I like it.)

!I still like the intro part the best, but this is a pretty neat sound all the way through.

[Final Thoughts: Some fun musical environments to picture in this track. Very space-y, but also foreboding & hopeful & introspective & shooty. Very neat!

Also, I decided to check the following track (Thirdly Serious) and that's a rare example of a pulsing beat done well, so I think I may actually like this artist.]

[Later: Going to add a couple extra points to this one; I'm more into it than usual for some reason.]

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

Double drops for Ark & NBIceman for the next four songs:

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

#308: The Dear Hunter - The Most Cursed of Hands / Who Am I (6:42):
https://open.spotify.com/track/66Y8otWil998QC8FCDDXAa?si=87f7e6cc91184d27

Nominator: NBIceman [13/22 Remaining]

Initial Score: 66.01
Revised Score: 66.66
Final Score: 66.02

(First Reaction: A song in which we ditch the current story to tell a short story about gambling with the devil, as an allegory or whatever. *shrugs* Hey, more albums should randomly throw in a song about Satan in the middle of their stories, so I'm cool with this.)

!A pretty neat parable and I'm always up for songs featuring Satan.

[Final Thoughts: Hail Satan.]

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

-not nearly enough Satan in this topic-

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

#307: Riverside - Egoist Hedonist (8:56):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKlPRzemdIY

Nominator: Ark [8/17 Remaining]

Initial Score: 64.14
Revised Score: 70.00
Final Score: 66.047

(First Reaction: The instrumental outro goes on a bit too long and I don't think the three parts were equal (I > III >> II), but it was generally a good song.)

!I make jokes about how often I use the word "interesting" way too often, but here we go again; this song is interesting enough to get moved up a tier.

[Final Thoughts: The second section is still by far the best and carrying the song.

It's not right
It's not fair
When I am forced to live your life
It's not right
Just let me live without your pain

Not exactly the most complicated lines, but they are the type of lines that I'm very drawn to. Unfortunately, those lines are kinda only present in one of the song's three movements, so I think this fits in better as a mid-to-high 60 point song instead of a 70 point one.]

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

-

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

#306: Anathema - One Last Goodbye (5:23):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhg1KGezkCc

Nominator: Ark [7/17 Remaining]

Initial Score: 50.00
Revised Score: ?.? [Later set to 60.00 so it can actually be in the ranking.]
Final Score: 65.09 [Upgraded to 66.06]

[REDACTED, oh god, so much redacted text]

Well, no other song at this topic has had so long of a writeup be completely redacted. Let's just say I have family issues to work through. I think this may be the only song to officially have question marks as its score because said family issues cause this track's score to go absolutely berserk; one of those things that is simultaneously first, last, completely neutral, and everywhere inbetween. Even more so than that Spring Awakening song from a topic or two ago (which I have since decided I actually really like).

For obvious reasons, I'm not going to go into any deeply personal stories and I can't reflect on this song without going into the feelings and flashbacks, so this writeup will say less than nothing. Either way, due to the overwhelming emotions, this is something that is virtually impossible to rank and I have no idea what I'm going to do with it.

[Third Listen, because the song needs to have *A* score on the spreadsheet: Let's put the very strong emotional song into the "I like this" Neo Clump. That feels like an acceptable placement, or at least as acceptable as a song this volatile is going to get at this stage.]

[Final Thoughts: Moving this song further up the list, though I am... disinclined to speak about the memories.]

[Later: Adding one point to the score.]

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

-

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

#305: The Dear Hunter - The Fire (Remains) (5:26):
https://open.spotify.com/track/0jIHgUfojekFEuGobepy4H?si=aa05a584b797430d

Nominator: NBIceman [12/22 Remaining]

Initial Score: 64.56
Revised Score: 66.09
Final Score: 66.09

(First Reaction: It's a great song, but somehow all I can imagine are more terrible Simpsons Memes

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/6/5/AAakf6AAEFE1.jpg

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/6/6/AAakf6AAEFE2.jpg

!As usual with this album, this is a good song but I'm very much enjoying it for the wrong reasons.

[Final Thoughts: I may be broken & completely ruining the songs, but I'm enjoying myself and that's really all that matters. To me. I also like the sounds of the fire & the angry lynch mob at the end of the track.]

[Later: Soo.... it's blasphemy, but there's going to be quite a few Simpsons memes in response to this album. I'm... well, not sorry exactly, as apologizing implies that I would undo the things that I have done and I am very much still going to do this. Still, I at least feel some level of regret that I don't take many of the songs as seriously as they should be.]

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

And four more to actually reach the top 300 for real this time:

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

#304: Soshi Takeda - Floating Mountains (6:01):
https://youtu.be/hhsnr5aTVO8

Nominator: Snake [12/32 Remaining]

Initial Score: 65.00
Revised Score: 66.59
Final Score: 63.062 [Upgraded to 63.192] [Upgraded to 66.15]

(First Reaction: An incredibly nice instrumental that feels a bit like a loading or waiting screen. You know in Mario Kart 8 how, if you join a race in progress, you just watch everyone else for a minute? This feels like the type of pleasant waiting music that would be playing as you quietly wait to get into a match. I'm sure it's blasphemous to compare a song like this to background music, but I can't really control where my mind wanders & it's incredibly nice & i like it, so nyah.)

!A bit long, but it's nice to relax with.

[Final Thoughts: I still like the song, but the length is a bit much here. Not a lot happens musically, so it feels like it was extended just for the sake of being extended, which can be a bit of a hard sell when I have to listen to it repeatedly. Still, there's a very nice dreamy & tranquil feel to it, so I do like this.]

[Later: Minor boost.]

[Later, that same day: And a more substantial boost. I was going to eliminate this, but I changed my mind.]

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

-There's some 4s in this house-

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

#303: Luniz - I Got 5 on It (4:14):
https://youtu.be/Dsct-TZ26Pw

Nominator: Metalmind [15/25 Remaining]

Initial Score: 70.00
Revised Score: 66.25
Final Score: 66.25

(First Reaction: Ah, is this where that saying came from? I feel like I've heard the song referenced a lot back when Da Party (Austin Creed/Xavier Woods, Adam Cole, Tyler Breeze, and Cesaro) were playing their weekly Uno games, but never felt like searching to find out what the reference was about. Sadly, the YouTube channel is basically dead now after WWE fired damn near everyone associated with it & refuses to pay Creed for all the work he put into it... but I digress. If you let me start venting about the current state of the WWE, this writeup will never end.

So, the song: Is good! I've mentioned how I don't care about drugs enough in the past, so there's not a lot to glomp onto from the lyrics... but it's got a good beat, a slow & smooth vibe that I dig, and it's easy to listen to & appreciate. Feels like an easy 70 point song--not something I love, but definitely a solid tier above the songs that I just like.)

!The UpUpDownDown channel is back up and doing fairly well again! They even managed to bring Breeze back. ...Not relevant, I know, but I'm happy.

Song still has a good sound and vibe to it, but I think I slightly overvalued it originally just because it gave me extra context for some old videos I loved.

[Final Thoughts: It's not a weekly thing and not part of Woods' channel anymore, but Da Party is back playing Uno on Twitch occasionally! How things have changed over the past year. On topic, I should say that this is the music video of the song which is shorter and censored; doesn't really make a difference, but still, the type of difference that should be clarrified somewhere. Either way, this is a rap song with a good groove to it; I like it.]

[Later: *looks at WWE's current state* ...Well. It is... kinda weird how every single time this song comes up to be listened, something has radically changed the entire company. I know it's coincidental, but I almost want to delay this elimination in hopes that something will change again because WWE's current state is... bad. This is very, very bad.

Back on topic, I do like this song.]

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

-the eternal choice between an overly extended version of a song with high sound quality or a brief version of it with terrible quality-

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

#302: BT - Suddenly (Album Version) (8:06):
https://youtu.be/nR38z2Eb3hM

Nominator: hotdogturtle [4/14 Remaining]

Initial Score: 74.69
Revised Score: 74.69
Final Score: 66.297933

(First Reaction: I think I might want to hear more music by him. His voice really, really appeals to me--with the right song, he'd be an easy contender for first place. I don't think this track is quite it, I'm not as into his voice when he goes for the high notes, but there's still a lot to love here & it's close to being absolutely amazing.)

!This song is oddly enchanting.

[Final Thoughts: Wow, these lyrics just repeat on an endless loop, don't they? I'm kinda... kinda really wanting this song to stop several minutes sooner than it actually does. His voice is entrancing, the backing music is enchanting, I kinda dig the way the song freak out during the breakdown, this has a lot of points going for it... but it feels like he said "And I love it when you fall" a hundred times in a row. I'm still going to say I like this quite a bit, but uhh... I could really use some more lyrics later on in this track because this borders on being a slog to make it through at times, as much as I kinda love most of it.]

[Later: I think I want to try to hear more of his work later because I do quite like what is here. It's just a bit much. (It's a shame the audio quality on the music video is very subpar because halving the runtime would be nice, if it didn't also make everything sound so bland.).]

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

-and a very significant jump in points because another massive block of songs got moved up-

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

#301: Every Time I Die - People Verses (3:33):
https://open.spotify.com/track/1ky1EDkwmYtN5GpgVCYGVd?si=aa927dcb3de14abb

Nominator: Bane [14*/38 Remaining]

Initial Score: 60.00
Revised Score: 56.14
Final Score: 60.00 [Upgraded to 61.993] [Upgraded to 63.12] [Upgraded to 67.12]

(First Reaction: This song feels like it belongs on the first half of the album. This call for righteous anger and to stop fighting fair certainly fits the album's themes, but we'd largely been moving away from such direct calls to action on the second half of the album, It's not a bad thing for things to circle back to where they started, but I think placing this song before "Thing With Feathers" would make the album feel more cohesive.

That being said, I still like the song and I'm adding it to the clump. I think this is the album with the most songs in the clump, which is an interesting statistic (even if it is potentially setting Bane up to lose a bunch of songs that all managed to tie with each other).)

!It's so weird how the vast majority of First Reactions are completly irrelevant, but then you get to songs like this where I talk about 'album cohesion' as though that were something I ever actually noticed or cared about.

I do still generally like this song. It's got a fair amount of clean vocals to it and there's nothing wrong with it, but in retrospect there are several other tracks on the album that I like more & I'm not as into metal at the time I'm doing the second part of the ranking so I feel my enjoyment is a few points less than the original score.

[Final Thoughts: Moving this back up where it came from. Will worry about sorting out the new Neo Clump of 60 point songs later.]

[Later: "What we fail to do defines who we are". Well, that line is hitting harder than usual for reasons. Going to add one extra point for the moment, revisit this on a later day.]

[Later: I think I want to add a bit more to the score here.]

[Later: Four extra points. Mostly for that one line, but I want to hear what I want to hear.]

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

Okay, trying the update again:

----------------------

REMAINING SONG COUNT

Bane: 14*/38 Remaining
BlackDra90n: 10/30 Remaining
cakophon: 7/20 Remaining
CJones: 4/18 Remaining
CPU: 9/30 Remaining
DoctorJimmy: 11/24 Remaining
Dragon66116: 8/12 Remaining
handsomeboy: 16/31 Remaining
Haste: 4/31 Remaining
hotdogturtle: 4/14 Remaining
Jesse_Custer: 14/29 Remaining
kateee: 12/21 Remaining
Kopazzynth: 2/21 Remaining
Lasa: 2/14 Remaining
Mega Mana: 17/38 Remaining
Metalmind: 15/25 Remaining
Murphiroth: 8/32 Remaining
NBIceman: 12/22 Remaining
NFUN: 10/31 Remaining
paulg: 13/52 Remaining
Player_0: 11/33 Remaining
Raka: 19/31 Remaining
rwlh: 9/24 Remaining
sergio: 2/13 Remaining
Snake: 12/32 Remaining
TheArkOfTurus: 7/17 Remaining
TunnelScene: 10/27 Remaining
UF8: 16/30 Remaining
Xtlm: 7/13 Remaining
ZaziGuado: 15/28 Remaining

*Sorry Bro was uneliminated.

----------------------

Raka has the most songs remaining at 19, with Mega Mana right behind with 17.

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

Percent Remaining:

Raka: 61.29%
Metalmind: 60%
kateee: 57.14%
NBIceman: 54.55%
Xtlm: 53.85%
Zazi: 53.57%
UF8: 53.33%
handsomeboy: 51.61%
Jesse Custer: 48.28%
DoctorJimmy: 45.83%
Mega Mana: 44.74%
Ark: 41.18%
rwlh: 37.5%
Snake: 37.5%
TunnelScene: 37.04%
Bane: 36.84%
cakophon: 35%
BlackDra90n: 33.33%
Player 0: 33.33%
NFUN: 32.26%
CPU: 30%
hotdogturtle: 28.57%
Murphiroth: 25%
paulg: 25%
CJones: 22.22%
sergio: 15.38%
Lasa: 14.29%
Haste: 12.9%
Kopazzynth: 9.52%

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

Surprisingly, eight players still have over half of their songs remaining (two of which are at or above 60%)! Perhaps unsurprisingly, Raka has the high marks on this version of the update as well. Still a lot of songs to go though and it only takes one song to win.

Ya go Raka!

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

(I > III >> II)

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

The second section is still by far the best

...You'd think that, at some point over the past year, I would have noticed those symbols were backwards.

2 > 3 > 1.

Woo ten in the top half.

I'll be taking a half-day today. I've got some stuff I need to take care of in other topics, such as getting in another listen for this week's Rank the Tracks which is going to take an hour by itself, and it'll be easier if I can focus my attention on said other more time-sensitive topics today.

Today's five drops, coming right now:

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

#300: Caetano Veloso - Manhata (Para Lulu Santos) [5:17]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMRe_EjiZWU

Nominator: cakophon [6/20 Remaining]

Initial Score: 66.46
Revised Score: 66.46
Final Score: 66.46 [Upgraded to 67.1201]

(First Reaction: He's got a rather sensual voice & the song has a laid-back, lounge feel which makes the song feel pleasingly intimate and relaxing. The chorus just repeating "Manhatta" is a bit of a turn-off, but this song should easily be in the mid-to-high 60's at least.)

!Song goes on a bit long... it's very nice, but I think you could cut it in half and it'd be a stronger song for it; that being said, I do still quite enjoy the vibe of this track and think I'll leave the score where it is.

[Final Thoughts: Good song. I like his voice and the instruments, along with the very chill vibe the song has to it. It's all very pleasing.]

[Later: While it'd be nice to keep the score exactly the same, I think I want to move this ahead of a few other songs. His voice and the relaxing vibe of this song pleases me too much to let it fall before reaching the top 300.]

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

-

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

#299: Jessica Darrow - Surface Pressure (3:27):
https://youtu.be/ErY3eeRFTFg

Nominator: Mega_Mana [16/38 Remaining[

Initial Score: 49.65
Revised Score: 50.75
Final Score: 50.75 [upgraded to 55.02] [Upgraded to 57.155] [Upgraded to 66.749] [Upgraded to 67.124]

(First Reaction: The singer has good range, there's a lot of symbolism in the music itself with how the song builds but never has any release or breaking point (as opposed to certain other songs that are just all build-up with no release for seemingly no reason, *cough cough*), it's important and the pressures of living up to expectations and sholdering burdens are something most people can relate to... but not me. Let's just say no one ever expected anything of me at any point, so I can only try to appreciate the song on an abstract 'this is what life is like for other people' type way; which is important, yeah yeah, rah rah empathy, but... well let's just say the song isn't for me personally and I'm not scoring on an objective basis.)

*leaves a note to come back to this after watching Encanto*

[Final Thoughts: Ehh... I meant to watch the film, but I didn't. This track is *generally* in the right area; sad, but not cripplingly sad. Animated. Supernatural. But it's nothing I can relate or connect to & it's not the type of song where I fall in love with regardless. It's great that the song has helped millions of other people and I can vaguely appreciate it on that level, but that's about it.]

[Later: I've had this song stuck in my head all day, so have a few extra points to get to that "kinda like" tier.]

[Later: And a few more points at the last minute.]

[Later: This song is too infectious. Moving up another tier.]

[Later: And a final bit of a nudge to move it above a few other songs.]

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

-

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

#298: Blitz Lunar - Prisoner; Cosmic Joke [6:01]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAepjzLC0to

Nominator: @TunnelScene [9/27 Remaining]

Initial Score: 70.00
Revised Score: 64.55
Final Score: 64.55 [Upgraded to 66.17] [Upgraded to 67.13]

(First Reaction: Starts off with a cool, cyberspace vibe that I've been missing ever since "Area 6 Ver. 2" (which I currently have ranked too low, but will likely revise in the future) and quickly transitions to RPG dungeon music while keeping that cyberspace flavor; like if Battle Network had a high budget remake that was actually great, I'd expect this to play during one of the final dungeons as we're heading deep into the net to... fight terrorism or whatever, the only game in that series I ever finished was the Gamecube spin-off that failed to blend classic Mega Man action with Battle Network's chip system--I enjoyed it, but I kinda just scammed my way through the game with busted Program Advances. One of those things turned you invisible, made you immune to everything, and let you rapidly fire extremely damaging cannon shots that nothing seemed to resist. It's practically cheating, but they're the ones that programmed in a "push this button to become omnipotent" feature?? I'd try playing it more legitimately, but I have no desire to hook the Gamecube back up just for one old game.

[Slightly back on topic, I think this probably suits an MMX game more than a Battle Network game, but X didn't explore cyberspace nearly as often...]

Whatever. Song is good, 70 points and added to the Cluster.)

!Fun cyberchiptune song/s.

[Final Thoughts: Sadly, I don't seem to be as into cyberspace themes as i was back at the start of the year, but I still enjoy this. It's a fun environment, even if it's not one that I seem to be in love with as of late. Towards the end of the song, it's surprirsingly bubbly and effervescent, so that's a really nice effect.]

[Later: There's also an upbeat, playful, town-like quality to parts of this song that I didn't remember. It's an intriguing cyberspace journey and I'll add a few more points to this.]

[Later: I think I'll add one more point here.]

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*last two songs in next post, due to lack of room*

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#297: The Heavy - How You Like Me Now (3:37):
https://open.spotify.com/track/7D180Q77XAEP7atBLmMTgK?si=WOQEBfdiSYaSuQA5515Xrg

Nominator: Jesse Custer [13/29 Remaining]

Initial Score: 57.11
Revised Score: 60.50
Final Score: 60.16 [Upgraded to 63.19] [Upgraded to 67.262]

(First Reaction: I thought I hated this song. It plays way too often and that chorus is practically the defining example of "just repeat one thing constantly" that just agitates me to no end. But that first verse... admitting to being a bad, bad man and embracing that darkness, well, that type of sentiment usually scores fairly well. And the song actually isn't bad, when it's not at that one part of the chorus--you know the one, it's been in every TV show & commercial for the past decade or so.

*paces back-and-forth*

This is a more difficult placement than I had imagined. I'm going to drop this is in the high 50s for a bit... as much as I hate, and love to hate, that one section of the song there's actually a high number of qualities here that I think I may have enjoyed most of the song. But I'm not quite ready to go up another with it yet.)

!Well I love, hate, and love to hate this song. So... uhh... I think that breaks the scoring system... I don't think it breaks it enough to get into the absolute highest tiers because I'm well aware of why I love the parts I love and hate the parts I hate, like, there's nothing to really analyze or work through here.

I think I'm going to elevate this up to the very low 60's. I can't say I love the song without reservations, but I think I can say I like this with a reasonable amount of confidence.

[Final Thoughts: I still like this and I'm a bit surprised by that fact.]

[Later: And a few more points for this.]

[Later: And a few more. I'm always surprised by this song... every time I see the title all I think of is the chorus repeating the song's title over and over, and I wonder how on Earth something with this level of repetition could make it this far--then I click it and remember, oh yeah, this is actually a good song and I really do like this.]

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#296: proswell - PANTALAIMON [5:27]:
https://proswell.dsp.coffee/track/pantalaimon

Nominator: Kopazzynth [1/21 Remaining]

Initial Score: 60.00
Revised Score: 62.03
Final Score: 67.33

(First Reaction: I can't say I really know what this song does or why I like it, but this is pleasant in a way that gets it added to the clump fairly easily.)

!Pleasingly odd. A refreshingly different way to spend a few minutes. The stretch after the four minute mark is especially intriguing.

[FInal Thoughts: Refreshing and joyful, in a non-negative way with some heavy tones that wouldn't be described as joyful by anyone else.]

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...Did I say Lonely? I genuinely do not remember, my memory is that bad a lot of the time @_@

But... yeah, I was and am unsure how "I'll Pretend" was going to... resonate with you, I suppose? I feel like that's the wrong word, but depending on mood and how one's feeling in general... it... can have varying reactions, I imagine.

IhatethisCPU posted...

I will be honest, I was, and still am, most looking forward to how you feel about 'I'll Pretend'

...Huh. I was positive this message said "Lonely" last month. Not sure where I got that idea.

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

#305: Made in Heights - Ghosts (3:30):

this is great but it's not even on spotify...?

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

I'm not sure I'd like an entire album of this type of music, but as a standalone track, it offers me the darkness I like in a package that is at the right level of intensity

i kind of get it because while the album is great atmosphere for the mood, i for sure return to the opening track the most

this is certainly a better reaction than the last time i nommed this in a song ranking topic and i was told i made their eardrums bleed or something to that effect lol