Board 8 > Raetsel and the Alts finish ranking 784 songs [+ Bonus Songs]

(+) Yeah! (+)

Oh hey, I ended up in the Top 10 after all! :D

Yeah after following the topic I did feel like Say My Name would be the highest-ranking of my songs. It's just so catchy, interesting, with a dark but playful mood. I love it a lot.

And I'm glad you found many of my nominations interesting and even thought-provoking. I see that you love musicals too, so I'm really glad, since showtunes don't always do well in these kinda topics.

Thanks for running the topic, it's been a whole lot of fun. And I really like following your thoughts in how some songs get better as time passes you rethink over it.

thanks for doing this again! it was fun to follow.

Ahhhhhhh I missed out on top 10! Ah well, this was very fun! I'm pretty sure I did much better than the last ranking, and even without that I love sharing music I love so thanks for letting me do that! It's always fun to read your thoughts on songs.

And though you have more than enough music on your plate already with suggestions, I'm curious about one I remembered. There's an alternative metal/shoegaze-y band called Fleshwater that came out with their debut album last year, and on it they did a cover of Enjoy! I'm wondering how you might feel about the song when done in a different direction, I think it's pretty neat. And their whole album is fun too.

Fleshwater - Enjoy
https://youtu.be/tZ_HIVLuQqA

Thanks for another impressive ranking! Pretty happy with my #784 and #3 placements. I nominate full albums mostly out of laziness, but it's also fun to watch a storyline unfold over the collective songs of one album. If you want more Grimes her other popular album is Visions, though I haven't heard it. The newest Franchouchou album is not as good so I wouldn't recommend it, but if you want visuals you can watch the season 1 and 2 final concerts (even without watching the show, you seem to have an accurate impression of the context in your write-ups):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHPFD0-bXhE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzChWc3pZvA

(also I just noticed that my recommendation for Please Remember should be by Deafheaven, Sunbather is the album name)

i know the final rankings have been posted but i'm still catching up

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

#43: The Mountain Goats - No Children (2:48):

i almost nommed this one myself and it's never left the top 10 of my personal rankings for like ten years now. there's strangely nothing quite as comforting as that absolute bleakness in some of those dark moments for me

Hey, if you do listen to The Great Escape by Seventh Wonder, I would recommend looking into the story that it's based on. It's called Aniara, and it's an epic Swedish poem from 1956 (Seventh Wonder is a Swedish band).

A very short summary of the plot would be that it's about a spaceship fleeing the imminent destruction of Earth. The ship is critically damaged by a meteor, and is knocked out of the solar system with no way to get back. They spend the next 30 years drifting through the dark. Everyone goes crazy. Really depressing, so maybe right up your alley ;)

There are at least two movies based on it, neither of which I've seen. I think they're both in Swedish. The more recent one is from 2018, and I've been meaning to watch it. I hear it's fairly mediocre though.

Be warned, the song is 30 minutes long.

I shall respond to everyone and return soon-ish. Just taking a few more days off.

CJones posted...

Be warned, the song is 30 minutes long.

Thanks for the heads up. I'll do a more in-depth listen and look into things when I really return, but I wanted some background music for some stuff today & decided to throw on The Great Escape to get a feel for what I'd be in for. I'd say it sounds pretty good? I can't really say I listened to it yet, since it was just on in the background, but it seems promising. Progressive Metal with a nice sound that doesn't go overly hard.

I think I might like the opening part best. Soft, painful, blunt, some nice quiet guitar playing... really quite pleasing, actually. The rest of the song also seems neat? Again, I need to do an actual listen where I pay attention to the lyrics and story & actually focus on the song, but I'd say it's probably worth at least 60 points.

For anyone wondering how long the main ranking took: Nominations started December 18th, 2021 and the winning song was officially declared on Feb. 17th, 2023. Just under 14 months.

It's going to be a bit of an adjustment coming down from working on a project for so long. Perhaps thankfully, there's still a long way to go with post-topic music ranking; I'll *try* to go a bit more in-depth with commenting on things than past years, possibly even get a new spreadsheet going so everything can be (sorta) ranked. I'll definitely be taking my time with listening though, so... it's going to be a while.

BlackDra90n & UF8 posted...

You did it.
[...]
neat

Indeed! Thank you.

&

Very neat, yes. Thank you.

[Too many quotes, had to edit two of them together and these were the two shortest. Apologies.]

TheArkOfTurus posted...

I'll take this as a moral victory!

Thanks for all the work you put into this, it was very fun to follow.

As well you should! It was definitely in consideration until the very last moment. And thank you!

Snake5555555555 posted...

Excellent topic as usual! As I said you are a legend for doing these and I still stand by that.

Thank you!

handsomeboy2012 posted...

Great topic will surely read through a few things again
Really thought I could do better. Oh well
Might post a couple more songs for the list
Fingers crossed we will get another ranking topic some day!

Thank you! If things are going well at the time, I might try something in early 2024? I have *ideas* for a scaled back topic (most likely limiting people to around 5 songs each), but that's a long way away.

While it's limited to first impressions only, the post ranking is a mini-ranking of its own, so feel free to post anything you want. So long as you acknowledge that it might be a few months before I get around to any specific song. </.<

Haste_2 posted...

Holy Wilds is one of my favorites from Opoona. You mentioned low tones. I totally agree with that. The full sound really fills out with the majestic, mystical feeling it evokes. The perfect score you gave for it would have been a powerful motivator for me to get it into the next VGMC. The problem is that, well, it was rolled in BOST6, and it got nearly doubled by Small Two of Pieces. >.<

I was bothered by how poorly that song did... I had a hard time keeping quiet, in spite of barely saying two words throughout the entire contest. I know my tastes are never compatible, but it was brutal to see what might have been the best song in the entire contest do so poorly.

Also thank you! I'll add the other version of the Marching Song to the list.Mega_Mana posted...

fuck elon musk

Definitely. I find the song's version of Elon is so incredibly fictitious that I have no issues with the song, much in the way I don't feel compelled to judge actual George Washington as a person when listening to the tales of a giant radiation monster killing for fun. Though I do acknowledge why others wouldn't be able to.

ZaziGuado posted...

The lyrics are a lot of fun too, especially his mention of being in the lead in '95 when Weezer was at their all-time high in terms of critical success.

Neat! I was mildly curious what happened in 95, but never tried looking anything up. It's like... the song was already winning, so there was no reason to look for further context. It couldn't exactly win harder, which is largely why it wasn't going to be part of that hypothetical second group of songs that were set aside for more in-depth research.

I never even got around to looking up the Happy Days video, in spite of it being referenced and quoted directly. I feel like on any other song, I'd definitely look into that--be it for added context or just filling out space on the writeup--but... again, if it's already winning, why?

[Of some interest is that the first topic's winner had a similar response, where I never made much of an attempt to find what the lyrics were. I loved the song and nothing could make me love it more.]

Anyway, thank you!

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I'll respond to Page 6 comments tomorrow. I'm starving and need to get something to eat; but before I go, official comments and scores for three of the songs UF8 posted, to officially start the post-ranking ranking.

[..in the next post because I'm sure this one is already getting kinda large. And I'm out of quote blocks.]

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memex feat. kiila - Interference
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03sh3CI0mEY

Estimated Score: 67-ish. [Upgraded to 70 during another writeup, and then 72.00 a moment later]

Pretty good song! I like this one quite a bit on first reaction. The piano intro is very pleasing and I kinda love her voice in the first verse--I can't quite figure out the adjective I want to use for it, but I do love it. Once the song picks up in speed and intensity, I think it loses some of the beauty & it can get a bit much near the end (there's a one note tsg-tsh-tsh-tsh beat for the last bit of the song which I'm not fond of, though it is admittedly quite brief). It's the type of song that I'd start in the high 60s and see how I felt on another day, but the first impression is quite good.

The auto-translation of the lyrics are... nice enough, though I'm not raving about them:

Lock everything up, stop time
A moment of brilliance, merging, continuing forever

It sounds neat, at least.

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Koyoi (CLAM AND MIRAGE) - Eternity in our last scene
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdMbPOX1EcQ

Estimated Score: I'm torn between 80 & 90 points here; I think I'd probably go with something like 86.93 for a first impression.

I kinda love the intro on this track. The instruments here resonate quite strongly with me & I vibe with it quite a bit. Then we get to a spoken word section with incredibly bleak lyrics that almost destroy me:

In a town of ghosts, just the two of us,
I won't get yelled at if I run or sing.
Even the gods forgot about this town,
We are going to be transparent.

I do love where this is going. And the rest of the song is also pretty depressing:

Soon everything will sink in red,
The summer I hate will never come again.
That steel tower, the factory, and the breakwater that blocked the way,
It will soon be all burning red.
[...[
I no longer need an alarm clock or calendar,
I'm sure I can't do anything anymore.

Burning cities, ghost towns, time losing meaning, hopeless despair... I certainly can't complain about the lyrics or their choice of imagery. Still, I'm not completely in love with it; once it reaches a frantic pitch and the song goes more for "intense panic" than "all-consuming despair" it moves away from some of what I loved. Still; hard-hitting lyrics with some extremely high quality music, I feel like I'd be obligated to start with it in the mid-to-high 80s & see if the strong emotional connection held up on repeat listens.

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Skipping ahead a bit because the next song posted has two links and I really only want to click three videos today:

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Yusaku Nakano (feat. Hatsune Miku) - AYATOBI:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7mihjnfyAI

Estimated Score; 52.73?

I don't know... it's not bad, but it's also not nearly as appealing as the previous two songs. To a point where it's making me feel like 67 points may have been underselling Interference.

...actually i want to go listen to that again. *ditches this writeup for a bit*

Oh, I do kinda love the intro & first verse on that song. It should be at least at 70 points. Probably more.. eh, fine, let's just say 72 points for it and move on.

Back to AYATOBI.... it's fine? I mean, I don't dislike him or Miku & I feel the song should be in the positive side of scoring, but I feel like it's a few points below the 55 point wall. I just never have much of a reaction to the lyrics or the music--the backing music itself feels like it's lacking in impact. It's not that it's too light, exactly, it just feels... oddly subdued? I don't know. It's fine enough that I don't want to spend any more time complaining, and it's in a rough spot being listened to right after two high scoring songs--this might go up at a full ranking where I'd be listening to it next to other songs that were grouped around it, scorewise... I know there were a lot of songs that started in the low 60s and then went way up when it turned out they were better than everything around them. It's just not exactly a hit on first listen.

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Post ranking rankings hype.

Raka_Putra posted...

And I'm glad you found many of my nominations interesting and even thought-provoking. I see that you love musicals too, so I'm really glad, since showtunes don't always do well in these kinda topics.

Thanks for running the topic, it's been a whole lot of fun.

Yeah; I haven't seen too many musicals myself, but I think I usually come around to liking their music in the end. It does usually take a few listens for things to really "click", but they're neat!

And thank you!

Mr_Lasastryke posted...

thanks for doing this again! it was fun to follow.

Thank you!

Bane_Of_Despair posted...

...this was very fun! I'm pretty sure I did much better than the last ranking, and even without that I love sharing music I love so thanks for letting me do that!

Yeah, last ranking you went all-in with ETID songs--which may have helped get me adjusted to their style so that I could properly enjoy their final album this time, but I wasn't quite prepared for such high intensity back at the last topic. [There is a decent chance that I may be more open to songs from their previous albums these days.]

And thank you!

(Also, I'll get to the song you posted in just a moment since I wanted something different before breaking for the night)

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PIayer_0 posted...

Thanks for another impressive ranking!

Thank you! I'll add those Franchouchou videos to the list. I may try looking into that Grimes album... haven't decided yet, though Artangels was strong enough that it could be worth the try. And I've updated Sunbather's artist credit on the list.

kateee posted...

i almost nommed this one myself and it's never left the top 10 of my personal rankings for like ten years now. there's strangely nothing quite as comforting as that absolute bleakness in some of those dark moments for me

Agreed.

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And a few more songs; mostly VTubers from UF8's list, but also that one cover Bane posted:

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nodoka - Natsu no Kanata (theme of natsuno-kanata)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqpAQNkuKTs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3jR_TbCFJc

Estimated Score: 64.00

I think I prefer the full version, but it's pretty close. It's not like the first version feels incomplete or anything, I just like the song enough that it's nice having a little extra. I'm not really finding anything I want to say about the song itself, but it's apparent that I like it--I listened to the full version an extra time to try to find something to enter here, so I can say that I like it enough to keep trying instead of just moving on to the next song. Though I also feel that if it were at the 70 point tier, I'd *probably* have something more to say about it... so, this is the first of the post-ranking where I just say "I like this" and move on, which feels like a mid-60s type reaction.

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Choko - tiny twinkle thoughts (composer: AAAA)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVmScXPhTfI

Estimated Score: 61.30

It's cute (both the song and the video) and I like it,, though it's also one of those songs where I feel relatively alright leaving things at "I like this". There's no real standout moments or lyrics, it's just cute and enjoyable.

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Choko - Bye bye JiangShi (composer: Capchii)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qDFccMr3E8

Estimated Score: 63.22

As the first song officially added to the post ranking ranking list, and a mystery song at that, I've been looking forward to this one for quite a bit now. The backing beat is a bit too thumping, but the song is sweet enough and the beat tame enough that it doesn't bother me quite as much as it seems like it should. Not a favorite, but definitely enjoyable enough.

The video is definitely nice, I can see why you'd want to show it off. Her zombie dream sequence is adorable and the happy twist ending is rather sweet.

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-continued-

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Choko - Fancy Jiang Shi (album preview) (composers: Capchii/Rissyuu)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-osynWYC0Y

Estimated Score: In Progress

Again Again > Fancy Jiang Shi > Starry Song

Something about "Again Again"'s sound intrigues me and I want to hear the full version. ...Actually, it's on Spotify, so let's go deal with that now:

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Choko - Again Again:
https://open.spotify.com/track/08sOQLDjiV99V6dnSSlIui?si=c60bb74dae3c45f9

Estimated Score: ....62, though I think it's the sound quality of the Spotify link that's to blame for it not getting more points.

Could just be my phone, but the soundmix on the full version seems off compared to the preview. It's still... neat enough that I'm getting some of what I liked, but while the preview is fascinating and I need to hear more of it, I do not have that reaction the full version at all. (Going back to the Preview, I still find it very fascinating, so i'm sure there's something off about the audio that's throwing me). ...So...I like it, but I feel like the full version should be in the high 70s & the Spotify link just isn't doing it for me. Ah well.

Album Preview, Again

Estimated Score: 58.15

I've never given thought as to how I might score something like this. It's not exactly a medley, and not really something that's meant to be judged on its own, but it is music. Either way, the first song (Fancy Jiang Shi) seems nice enough--perhaps a bit peppier than I'd like, but it's more" cute zombie music" and good enough; Again Again inspired me to listen to the full song, in a way the other two previews didn't (it's also the rare example of a pleasingly repetitive beat. It feels... "rhythm game platformer"-esque) ; Starry Song feels a bit too sweet... like it's nice, but somehow it comes off feeling a bit too artificial and I'm not really gelling with it.

All together, I'd say it does a good enough job marketing the EP & I largely enjoyed it.

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And I want something different, so let's take that song Bane posted:

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Fleshwater - Enjoy:
https://youtu.be/tZ_HIVLuQqA

Estimated Score: 74.26

I think I really like this combination of clear (and slightly distant) vocals combined with the weighty instruments. It is quite an interesting concept, giving both "dreamy vibes" and "crushed in a factory" vibes at different points (and sometimes simultaneously) in a way that I find incredibly pleasing to listen to. I really like what they're going for with this track.

I'm also surprised this is a cover of a Bjork song, especially one of hers that I did not like to start with. This is definitely a vast improvement and I think the band should be commended for how completely they made the song their own. Very nice.

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And it's late, so this is enough for one evening.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Part II (A Poisoned Land): 59.46

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

Part III (Leaving Home): 52.99

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

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

Part IV (Take-off): 77.48

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

Part V (A Turn For The Worst): 54.06

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

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

Part VI (A New Balance): 80.00

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

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

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

Part VII (Death of the Goddess): 56.44

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

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

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

"You are damned to wander space for eternity!"

"Thats bad."

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

"That's good!"

"The AI just killed itself."

*awkward silence*

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

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

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

Part IX (The Age of Confusion: Lust) 50.76

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

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

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

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

Part XI (The Aftermath): 74.49

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

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

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

Part XII (Dining On Ashes): 60.00

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

Part XIII (The Curtain Falls): 66.00

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

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

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Raetsel_Lapin posted...

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

You're welcome. Glad you liked it :)

I've heard this song more times than I care to admit, and I agree with a lot of what you had to say. It does feel like some parts are largely glossed over, and I've always felt that the ending is awfully abrupt. They kinda just skip over the last 10 years. But it's still one of my favorite songs.

i thought i put remark remarks in here already but i guess that was when my browser was constantly crashing the other day and i didn't actually post

i hadn't heard of kiila (guest vocalist on that memex song) but apparently it was made specifically for her final concert which i thought was neat

i'd also only heard it relatively recently and so far only a couple of times, but that song of koyoi's also had a strong impact on me too so i'm glad it got a similar reaction from you. besides this and that one song that sounds kinda like a kaf song early on i think i posted in last time's post-rankings i haven't gotten around to any other koyoi songs tbh, i feel i should fix that some time

ayatobi was something i figured wouldn't do that hot given the songs it followed, it was just a catchy song that managed to become an earworm for me a while back. also it just impressed me that nakano yusaku was not only the singer/songwriter/vocaloid producer/etc but also artist and animator (and translator, and provided choreography for the jumprope moves too. apparently one of them was called the DK shuffle lol). just a song from an obscure singer/vocaloP i think deserves more attention

the theme of natsuno-kanata stuck out to me mostly just because my first reaction when i heard it was "is this kaf???" (or rim or whoever else). also tbh i didn't know the full version was a thing until i was adding links to my post lol, i decided to keep the short one just because it was the one i was familiar with

i didn't intend for you to rate any of that mini-album crossfade lol, i don't really consider any of them to be particularly good songs tbh, it's just an interesting novelty that byebye jiangshi takes elements from all of them

songs with animated music videos that left some impression on me continue through to oarana pretty much, with one having a notable anime OP/ED composer, and oarana itself being from a notable game composer that randomly happens to be in an anime film. looking forward to reactions on all of them, as well as the other (and admittedly only) kamitsubaki songs since last time i thought were noteworthy. a bunch of that list may be very hit or miss, i haven't been particularly on the ball about finding good new stuff in the past year outside of vgm and vgm-adjacent stuff tbh (heck natsuno-kanata is a game)

Post Ranking Ranking Spreadsheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PdmLE6aEud4aead38RuPHRSdIVgyesokOgEvqmvmSWk/edit?usp=sharing

Just Artist Name, Song Title, and Estimated Score because I did not write down who brought up any given song & haven't gone back into the archives to try to track that information down.

(Spreadsheet is updated with the three songs that are ranked in this post, so you may want to finish reading before clicking it.)

UF8 posted...

also it just impressed me that nakano yusaku was not only the singer/songwriter/vocaloid producer/etc but also artist and animator (and translator, and provided choreography for the jumprope moves too. apparently one of them was called the DK shuffle lol)
[...]
i didn't intend for you to rate any of that mini-album crossfade lol,

That is really impressive! And yeah, I didn't think you wanted that to be ranked, but since i was already listening to it it felt like an interesting challenge.

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Three more songs today, as I take a quick look at some of the songs that were posted as YouTube links... since I didn't write down any information about the links or arrange them in any order, it's like a big pile of mystery songs.

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Frank Zappa - Return Of The Son Of Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS_Q7RUtVL4

Estimated Score: 64.96

Just started the song, but I actually really like the way the guitar sounds on this track. It's not exactly distorted, but... kinda tuned in a different way that I find pleasingly unexpected. The first two minutes here are really, really good. Then it transitions into a more metal-sounding guitar, which is... still pretty good, honestly, if not as intriguing. I didn't notice any other parts that I really wanted to draw attention to, but I never felt bored or particularly bothered by the direction the song took. I'd say the first two minutes should be in the mid-70s, the rest of the song should be around 60 points, so... I'd try around the mid-60s for the first impression. It doesn't quite reflect all the highs or lows, but it's close enough and it leaves some room to go up or down on repeat listens.

[Later: I think I may be undervaluing this a bit... I may try listening this again next week.]

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Diablo Swing Orchestra - A Tap Dancer's Dilemma:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6_Uy6HBAJY

Estimated Score: 57.11

My first ranking topic didn't have scores, but this had a rather high placement--#31st out of 200--which was considered to be about equal to a 91.00 song. I'd copy the original writeup, but I'm afraid I didn't say much of anything... just generic comments about how unique the songs combination of genres is & some brief rambling about the band's backstory (though not in any way more substantial than "there is a backstory")

Anyway, I'm not as into this song these days. That first year I was really into anything new to me, and this type of swing metal was a completely foreign type of music & guaranteed a rather high ranking from pure novelty. Now that I've had more exposure to various kinds of music, including that entire album by this band, it doesn't have that wild surprsie factor working for it any longer. And honestly, I don't think I'm really into "swing metal"? It's... well, I do kinda like it still. The lyrics paint a somewhat apocalyptic picture with a most likely corrupt preacher singing to the masses, which isn't a bad story. And it's certainly interesting that tracks like this one from an earlier album don't have the odd sound-mixing decisions that *may* have held back a few of their songs.

But.. it's not exactly one of my favorite styles of metal and while the story has some interesting implications, there aren't any lyrics that I'm especially drawn to. While it's harsh dropping the song so many tiers, I feel that these days it fits in better with the moderately high 50s. A very "I like this, -but-" type song... like, I like the idea here & the band is always interesting enough to be worth the listen, but it's not something I'd go back to often.

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Whitechapel - Hickory Creek:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw6hANHeIaw

Estimated Score: 62.027 [Upgraded to 63.027] [Upgraded to 67.66]

It's time to walk away with nothing left
Nothing left in my soul

Neat lyric! I can work with that. The song itself is also quite good; it's definitely a much lighter and cleaner side of "-core" music, making it more of a mainstream type song with a bit of an edge to it. Which definitely works for me, though I do understand why those who preferred the much harsher songs from the band would be disappointed with this.

62 points does feel a bit low, but I think at a full ranking I'd probably start the score there. Because I'm sure I like this, enough to get it over any "exactly 60 point" barrier, but I'd like to see how it feels around the 62 or 63 point area before moving it any further up.

...eh,, 62 points is definitely too low, let's just go ahead and add the one extra point.

[Later: I'm still not sold on moving the song up another tier, but when I was entering the data onto the spreadsheet, I felt 63 points was too low & listened to the song again... going to move this a few points closer to the 70 point barrier.]

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And one more song for the early morning:

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Whitechapel - When a Demon Defiles a Witch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuRZYB9EEZM

Estimated Score: 60.00000001 [Upgraded to 70.00]

The drumming's a bit too intense, but I like most of the lyrics & I enjoy the clean vocals near the end. It's hard to decide on a favorite line in the song as there's a lot of overwhelming despair & a lot of all-consuming rage, both of which play very well for me at various times.

I cant erase these memories
But I will erase humanity

The song could easily join Planet Shit near the top of the charts some days with a line that direct.

Burn everything
Its a lie anyway

Theres nowhere left to run
Theres nowhere left for me to be

While the blunt despair and hopelessness here is more generally pleasing, along with a decent amount of anger from wanting to burn everything. But then there's also a lot of dissociation:

I cry but if you take a closer look
Youll see its a demons eyes
Theres no coming back for me
For my spirit guide is trapped inside my brain
I dont know who I am

Which is definitely the type of thing that plays very well with me at this exact moment. So there is a lot to love in this song... though the intensity is a bit much, I feel like the lyrics (and oddly the chorus, which I seem to like quite a bit in spite of the intensity) should guarantee the song a place in the "I like this" tier. I'd probably start it just a minuscule amount above the CLUMP and then see how I felt about it after I'd had time to adjust to the more intense parts. I can definitely see times where I could give this the full hundred points, but I'm not quite there at the moment, but I do like this and would look forward to revisiting it.

[Later: I decided to hold off on posting this one for a day so I could listen to it a second time; And... I'm honestly not sure. It definitely is more intense than I'd like, but I'm also really into all of the lyrics and the chorus. I also doubt that I'd be giving all this extra time and attention to just any random 60 point song. So... best estimation is that I'd set it at exactly 70 points and revisit it a few months later, with a note that the song's score is expected to fluctuate wildly.]

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Glad you're liking the Whitechapel songs. Their earlier things are probably a bit too heavy for you but their recent stuff is quite decent, despite being pretty different.

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

Frank Zappa - Return Of The Son Of Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS_Q7RUtVL4

Estimated Score: 64.96

Just started the song, but I actually really like the way the guitar sounds on this track. It's not exactly distorted, but... kinda tuned in a different way that I find pleasingly unexpected. The first two minutes here are really, really good. Then it transitions into a more metal-sounding guitar, which is... still pretty good, honestly, if not as intriguing. I didn't notice any other parts that I really wanted to draw attention to, but I never felt bored or particularly bothered by the direction the song took. I'd say the first two minutes should be in the mid-70s, the rest of the song should be around 60 points, so... I'd try around the mid-60s for the first impression. It doesn't quite reflect all the highs or lows, but it's close enough and it leaves some room to go up or down on repeat listens.

[Later: I think I may be undervaluing this a bit... I may try listening this again next week.]

interesting how you also go against the consensus opinion that zappa played his best guitar solos in the late '70s (based on the two examples i gave you, at least). in this era, he played in a more straightforward rock style, which i guess a lot of people liked the best. but like i said, i prefer his more "out there" solos from the early '80s, like the one in truck driver divorce.

that being said, vinnie colaitua (the drummer on return of the son of shut up 'n play yer guitar) is definitely the best drummer zappa ever played with. the way he accompanies the guitar playing is insane.

Mr_Lasastryke posted...

interesting how you also go against the consensus opinion that zappa played his best guitar solos in the late '70s (based on the two examples i gave you, at least). in this era, he played in a more straightforward rock style, which i guess a lot of people liked the best. but like i said, i prefer his more "out there" solos from the early '80s, like the one in truck driver divorce.

My tastes do seem to be growing almost distressingly mainstream & boring these days, so preferring a straightforward style does sound about right at the moment.

-

Four more songs; two mystery songs & two vtuber songs:

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Frank Zappa - Duprees Paradise (Live From Edinboro, PA - May 8, 1974)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLlsWpxvmgc

Estimated Score: 53.29

My first thought is that the live performance doesn't sound as clean as the nominated version did? I don't know if that makes sense, but there's this sort of dirt and grit feel to the instruments here which is different. It's not bad, but for a 22 minute long song, I'm not finding any parts of it that I'm drawn to either. When you compare it to something like Suite Photoconductivity, another 20+ minute instrumental, I just don't feel as inclined to analyze all the different sections on this track. It's fine, but I'd say it's a few points behind the officially ranked version.

Still, it is nice to try one of the many other versions of the songs, so I'm glad it's here. I also enjoy the end where he addresses the crowd--something fun about the way he grudgingly consents to playing old songs for them.

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Lacrimosa - Alleine zu zweit:
https://youtu.be/D_Jh6upswd0

Estimated Score: 70.22

Ooh, I really like this one. His deep voice in the slow-paced intro gives that section an almost funeral-like quality as the relationship is already dead; but once the female singer joins in things really start to pick up, building to a frantic level of desperation that is intoxicating. Definitely something I really like and would look forward to hearing again... it feels like it might be one of those songs that keeps avoiding elimination because I can easily see this getting a lot of "[Later: I don't know that I want to move this up a tier, but the pure rush of emotion towards the end of the song... I do kinda love that part... ehhhh, moving this to the Void for a bit while I think about it]" type bonuses.

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Natori Sana - Amakamisama:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uvosnOrKoc

Estimated Score: 57.39

It's fairly nice and the video is rather cute, but it never quite resonates. The lyrics are kinda nice, but missing something... I suppose there is one auto-translated line that I rather like:

but i want to see you again
'Cause I want to bite you a little

But I wouldn't say I like it enough to start throwing out a bunch of extra points. Likewise, there's a line about things being like professional wrestling, which is... nice. Everything about the song feels nice, so I kinda like it.

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Natori Sana - Mondainai Tripper:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5HQFrSk4OA

Estimated Score: 55.00

It's been a while since a song's lyrics have broken the auto-translator this badly.

If you smartly sound the whistle (alert), you'll be hired
Oh, my physical strength (battery) is not enough!?
Well then, today is Kyou, yes Oyasumi!
[...]
Hula France!? From an artistic point of view, bandages are also art!
[...]
It looks like it's going to be a big bang with a big alligator!?

...'Kay. I also don't really understand the music video either; most images whiz by so quickly that I never process anything that's happening; there's a (digital?) nurse traveling the world and going on weird adventures (like running hand-in-hand with a mummy?) & doing a lot of running and/or falling over, while some sick girl watches the adventures -but- also watches herself watching herself watching herself watching herself? It's all very busy and not particularly clear.

The intro before she starts singing is fairly nice. It's all computerized beeps & boops that I somewhat enjoy. There's also a very brief section starting shortly after the two minute mark which is very swirly, invoking images of spirals & and 16-bit games & dreamscapes in a very trippy way that I quite like. The main parts of the song are a bit too busy, like the video. It's not *exactly* a musical journey, but it feels disjointed... like it wants to showcase a feeling of traveling the world so it has a variety of sections, but each section is only like ten seconds long?

I don't know. I suppose it's baffling enough enough that I kinda like it, so I'd start it off at The Wall & then decide if I wanted to move it anywhere.

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

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

My tastes do seem to be growing almost distressingly mainstream & boring these days, so preferring a straightforward style does sound about right at the moment.

oh no, i meant that you seem to prefer his NON straightforward playing style, given that you gave truck driver divorce a way higher score. ...unless you mean that you've grown to really dislike TDD since you ranked it and you prefer return of the son of shut up 'n play yer guitar to that song.

too bad you didn't like that version of dupree's paradise much. a major difference between it and the version i nominated is that this version has two drummers as opposed to one, which might make it sound more sluggish. i didn't think it sounded particularly dirty and gritty, though, but i also haven't listened to it in a long time. i'll check it out again to see how i feel about it now.

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

#34: Turnover - New Scream (4:14):

i remember this actually being the last song i decided on for my noms and i almost didn't even choose it lol. i was trying to decide between this and Cutting My Fingers Off which was my favorite track off the same album (the track right before it as well) and went with New Scream because it had more lyrics.

my favorite line is "Adolescent dreams gave to adult screams" which hits harder every year as time passes.

i'm glad you liked some of the songs at least. if i went back in time to noms after getting to the end of this topic i would have probably picked some more depressing stuff too

Mr_Lasastryke posted...

oh no, i meant that you seem to prefer his NON straightforward playing style, given that you gave truck driver divorce a way higher score. ...unless you mean that you've grown to really dislike TDD since you ranked it and you prefer return of the son of shut up 'n play yer guitar to that song.

No, no, I just misunderstood you since I think I praised the guitar work more on The Long Named Song more than Truck Driver Divorce; I definitely prefer Truck as a complete song, but it has quite a bit of lyrical setup before reaching the instrumental section which I find helped my appreciation for the instruments. Based only on the guitar work, I suspect that I'd prefer the Long Named Song.

...Also, TDD's Initial Score was only 57.04, it just went *way* up by the end so "Return Of The Son Of Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar" actually has a bit of an edge on initial impressions. So since that song is more immediately enjoyable and doesn't have an entire story backing it up, I think it'd be fair to say I'm more drawn to the guitar playing on it. Or at the very least, it'd be up for debate.

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kateee posted...

i remember this actually being the last song i decided on for my noms and i almost didn't even choose it lol. i was trying to decide between this and Cutting My Fingers Off which was my favorite track off the same album (the track right before it as well) and went with New Scream because it had more lyrics.

my favorite line is "Adolescent dreams gave to adult screams" which hits harder every year as time passes.

i'm glad you liked some of the songs at least. if i went back in time to noms after getting to the end of this topic i would have probably picked some more depressing stuff too

I'll go ahead and add "Cutting My Fingers Off" to the post-ranking list, sounds like it might be worth checking out.

That is a good line.

And I really liked most of your picks! You had the sixth highest average score, so your list had a lot of hits on it. And I can understand not having gone all-in on depressing songs this year because my interest in them is a fairly recent development? I... honestly have no clue what the saddest song to get a high score at the first ranking was, as I very much was not in a headspace to deal with many of them at the time.

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And now a large update, in which I go through all of Blues Traveler - Four.:

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Blues Traveler - Run-Around:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Lk5ByPl9Zo&list=PLF3F194upBNzniOIahkqCbzsgXcwKhv6T

Estimated Score: 68.99

The band's biggest hit and a song so popular that I have nothing to really add about it. I like it quite a bit, but as great as it is, it's a bit too familiar for me to take it over any of the newer 70+ point songs. I'll always enjoy hearing it on the radio, but probably won't often seek it out because I've kinda heard it enough times & it plays often enough that I'll run into it again soon anyway.

There is an argument that since I still like it so much after all this time that it definitely should have more than 68 points, but if I move it up then I have to move every other song ranked above it as well... so I think I'll leave it at this score for "estimation purposes" with a note that it could go up a ways on a day when I'm feeling more objective about score quality.

[Later: ...Yeah, I definitely should have this song at at least 70 points, but I still don't want to go back and revise the scores of everything at the "Really Like" tier.]

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Blues Traveler - Stand:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zetLRkbgwk&list=PLF3F194upBNzniOIahkqCbzsgXcwKhv6T

Estimated Score: 58.33

I'm not sure why, but this feels more Classic Rock to me. Kinda retro in a way. It's pretty good, but the repeated "the answers are getting harder" refrain repeats a bit too often and the song starts to lose me towards the end. I know it's not quite repetitive and there's a good build from how it starts out very slow & trippy, with the refrain constantly building up speed and intensity... the song is doing its thing well, but it's still not quite a gimmick that's really for me. I'm also not really a fan of the ending; a long string of non-lyrical "badiddela da de doo" vocals followed by an abrupt stop is...something.

Though I'm being far too negative. The general sound of the song is pleasing and I mostly liked it, so the score is much closer to the 60 point level than that previous paragraph implies. I'll say that it *might* go up on relistens where I'm more prepared for the repetition and sudden stop, but it's really hard to guess--it's worked out that way for some songs in the past, but not all of them, and it'd be a few months before I could really tell how it went with this one in particular.

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Blues Traveler - Look Around:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1hBD-hBsIM&list=PLF3F194upBNzniOIahkqCbzsgXcwKhv6T&index=3

Estimated Score: 59.02

I don't know. It seems like a song that I should really like:

And sometimes
In the midst of all my crimes
I feel lost
Or have I lost enough?

There's some really good lyrics in this song and I do like the band's sound, but somehow I never quite click with the song enough to move it up to the next tier at the moment. So I don't know. I'd like to believe that the song would eventually click after a few more listens since I very much *should* really like it, but it's not there yet.

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Blues Traveler - Fallible:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y-v6oBAQw0&list=PLF3F194upBNzniOIahkqCbzsgXcwKhv6T&index=4

Estimated Score: 50.96

Ehhh... there are some lyrics I can work with here, with masks and hating what we see in the mirror, but

[Later: ...I apparently didn't end that sentence, but considering the low score this song got, I'd say it's an appropriate enough writeup.]

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Blues Traveler - The Mountains Win Again:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmibOCoyyQw&list=PLF3F194upBNzniOIahkqCbzsgXcwKhv6T&index=5

Actual Score: 70.58, I see no reason to change it.

Yeah, I'd say I still really like it and don't want to alter the score from the 70.58 it had at the actual ranking. Also can't think of anything I didn't say at the writeup, so not much to say here other than still really liking it.

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Blues Traveler - Freedom:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gY5AmrWeVO8&list=PLF3F194upBNzniOIahkqCbzsgXcwKhv6T&index=6

Estimated Score: 44.909

No, rhank you. This style of harder classic rock doesn't really appeal to me and I don't really want to analyze the lyrics. It's fine, but not likely something for any version of me.

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Blues Traveler - Crash Burn: [or Crash & Burn, I see the song listed with both titles depending on where I look]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrHe11Fqgjk&list=PLF3F194upBNzniOIahkqCbzsgXcwKhv6T&index=7

Estimated Score: 50.03

This feels like a filler track. It's not bad, but I'm not sure removing it would impact the album in any way. It just kinda exists.

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Blues Traveler - Price To Pay:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7nR8LOQXto&list=PLF3F194upBNzniOIahkqCbzsgXcwKhv6T&index=8

Estimated Score: ....Hard to guess. I'm going to take a break and revisit this song in a couple hours.

[Later: 60.00? It doesn't feel right--at all--but it's the closest I'm going to get tonight.]

Definitely the hardest song to pin a score on thus far, out of the Post Ranking Ranking. I think I like the story being told here; wanting to escape the shit place where you were born in quite relatable for *reasons*, things not working out is also *relatable*, and the ambiguity of the ending is also... well, I haven't found an aadjective for that yet, but I don't dislike it.

But while I applaud the story, there are no specific lyrics that I want to focus on. And I don't really remember much of the song itself. It's nice enough, but it feels like I don't click with it as much as one would expect from a 60 point song. But it's giving me a lot to think about and remember, so it's probably the most relevant and interesting of the "new to me" songs from the album. So I really don't know where I'd place this song, but I'm going to say starting at 60 points would probably make the most sense..

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Blues Traveler - Hook:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pni_IBkQcoE&list=PLF3F194upBNzniOIahkqCbzsgXcwKhv6T&index=9

Estimated Score: 64.69

I've liked this one for a while now. It's not quite on the level of Run-Around, but it's an infectiously catchy pop song wrapped up in a self-deprecating shell that hates infectiously catchy pop songs. It's neat and I had a brief obsession with this song for about a week at some point in the past... not quite something I want to go back to listening to on an infinite loop, but still a good track that I like a fair amount & a fairly significant reason that i wanted to try the rest of the album in the first place.

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Blues Traveler - The Good, The Bad And The Ugly:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrH1hOuEPfM&list=PLF3F194upBNzniOIahkqCbzsgXcwKhv6T&index=10

Estimated Score: 50.00

This may somehow be more of a filler track than Crash & Burn was. This instrumental does nothing for me and it's too short to really feel anything positive or negative towards it. There's some faint whispering at the end of the track, but I can't make it out & I'm not having any luck finding info on it. It's.... I don't know, I'd start with it at exactly 50 points and probably wind up moving it slightly up-or-down by the end because I don't like giving exactly 50 points.

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Blues Traveler - Just Wait:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=So9zRJtkop8&list=PLF3F194upBNzniOIahkqCbzsgXcwKhv6T&index=11

Estimated Score: 70.00

This type of inspirational message isn't exactly what I want right now, but this song is strangely charming? I'm surprised by how much I like this one... I think I'd actually start this one at 70 points. This one pleases me.

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Blues Traveler - Brother John:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4i7NNIzdZ3o&list=PLF3F194upBNzniOIahkqCbzsgXcwKhv6T&index=12

Estimated Score: 38.00

Too many oft-repeated lines in this song, along with being a style of rock that I'm not into, combined with the innate disadvantage of playing right after a song that I really liked. This song starts off on the wrong foot and never recovers... it's not something that I aggressively dislike, but this would probably be a track that I'd skip in the future.

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

General Thoughts: Pretty good album! I still consider anything with two 60+ point songs to be worth the listen and this album certainly passes that test. Even if you remove the three songs I already liked from the album, "Just Wait" & "Price To Pay" score enough points on their own to justify listening to the album. So, this was a pretty good day; got to revisit some old favorites, a new story to think about, and a new track that I really like.

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

No, no, I just misunderstood you since I think I praised the guitar work more on The Long Named Song more than Truck Driver Divorce; I definitely prefer Truck as a complete song, but it has quite a bit of lyrical setup before reaching the instrumental section which I find helped my appreciation for the instruments. Based only on the guitar work, I suspect that I'd prefer the Long Named Song.

...Also, TDD's Initial Score was only 57.04, it just went *way* up by the end so "Return Of The Son Of Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar" actually has a bit of an edge on initial impressions. So since that song is more immediately enjoyable and doesn't have an entire story backing it up, I think it'd be fair to say I'm more drawn to the guitar playing on it. Or at the very least, it'd be up for debate.

ohh ok, i see what you mean now.

yeah, this is exactly why i was hesitant to nominate ROTSOSUAPYG as an example of zappa's late '70s guitar playing. like i said before, a lot of zappa fans don't like the guitar solo albums at all because they think the solos lose a lot of their power when you listen them out of the contexts of their respective songs. case in point, this solo was actually extracted from a live performance of the song inca roads.

if you're still taking bonus song noms, i recommend this one. this is also from one of the guitar solo albums (shut up 'n play yer guitar), but this actually IS a complete song. zappa's solo here is not quite as long (or good, in my opinion) as the ROTSOSUPYG solo but i still really like it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwCv4p1veAI

Mr_Lasastryke posted...

if you're still taking bonus song noms, i recommend this one. this is also from one of the guitar solo albums (shut up 'n play yer guitar), but this actually IS a complete song. zappa's solo here is not quite as long (or good, in my opinion) as the ROTSOSUPYG solo but i still really like it.

Yeah, people can still suggest songs. I'm not in any hurry for this to end and it's good practice to see how a light ranking schedule would work for a future topic; just three or four songs a day with regular days off... slow, but steady progress that I can keep up with. I'd say it's looking good so far.

Three (or four, depending on how you wish to count?) songs for the day:

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Turnover - Cutting My Fingers Off:
https://open.spotify.com/track/0Wl2RALqRacaIJhnlRHK8J?si=0808f37b52f84bf1

Estimated Score: 70.29

I really like this one. The opening is so dreary and bleak, with a windswept desert vibe, that things definitely start on a high note (...metaphorically, obviously). And when it picks up, there's enough pain to make this a sad bop that I still really like even as it ditches the ambiance.

You always said that every thought I had was geometric
I couldn't think outside my own lines

I'm also rather drawn to that line in particular. I'd start this song's score in the early 70s; it's another one where I *think* I'd probably move it up in the future, but want to wait a bit and try it on another day before I commit to raising the score.

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Deafheaven - Sunbather:
https://open.spotify.com/track/1mJXIdJK4wCesSLegNctMh?si=d6d83ed7d16f43ba

Estimated Score: 64.00207

This song feels oddly familiar. Particularly that "I gripped the wheel" part... I don't think I've heard this before, but it feels like I have and this distorted Deja Vu feeling is making it hard to focus my thoughts on the song itself. "An ocean of light" also feels like a very familiar lyric... how odd. Skimming the first ranking topic, I don't see any evidence that this song was brought up at all; since that was the only prior ranking featuring a song by the band, if I didn't hear it then, then I likely haven't heard it. How incredibly strange.

I like this song a fair amount. I still wish I could make out *any* lyrics, but I think I'm starting to better appreciate the band these days. The low volume on the screaming keeps the song from being overwhelming, there's a nice beauty to most of the backing music, and even the parts with the more intense drumming are actually pretty good.

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Deafheaven - Dream House + Irresistible:
https://open.spotify.com/track/6l3A2EWZSOA8LTMmzRCyD3?si=bfe2a1df691c437c

https://open.spotify.com/track/3EAUSlUzVTLhxLn8Fhpz5V?si=d86b026f9d434c5e

Estimated Score: 62.16

The short, irrelevant writeup from the first ranking topic where Dream House was nominated by itself:

Well, we've hit peak screaming here. No matter how many times I look at the lyrics while listening to this song, I don't think I've heard a single word. But it's interesting and experimental; the background music itself is happier than expected for this genre of music, and the lyrics would be nice if it were possible to hear them.

Well, nice probably isn't the adjective I'm looking for, with the references to alcoholism and the phrase "I'm dying", but I don't know what word I should be using instead.

...oh hey,I managed to hear the "I WANT TO DREAM!!!!!" this time. That's something, I guess. Either way for being unique and being a long song that I enjoy, it ranks surprisingly high on this list.

[FINAL NOTES: I finally heard more of the lyrics this time, though it didn't really help or hurt the song any.]

The first topic didn't have scores, but based on the song's placement was estimated to have a score of 63.00 points. While I think that may be a bit too high these days, I do still like Dream House. The outro conversation in particular:

"I'm dying."
-"Is it blissful?"
"It's like a dream."
-"I want to dream."

Irresistible is a pretty instrumental that serves as an extended outro to Dream House. I wish I was surprised that I didn't try listening to it the first time around, as Dream House does kinda end mid-note without Irresistible around to properly finish the song, but I know I didn't put as much effort into learning about the songs at the first topic. Either way, this is pretty neat; I still like the song and it's nice to hear the outro that I missed the first time around.

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Harusaruhi - Oarana:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZgW9ZmB150

Estimated Score: 52.003

It's a very high budget music video, but unfortunately, the music itself isn't really doing anything for me. I'm not entirely sure why.. I kinda like the chorus, but the main parts of the song are... not appealing. I suppose the steady beat, while not really thumping or pulsing, is still a one-note "tap tap tap tap tap tap" throughout the entire song, but I've certainly enjoyed far more pronounced beats than this in the past, so it feels like an incomplete explanation.

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

-

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

Isekai Joucho - With a Picture Without Anyone:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgR34fFacVw

Estimated Score: 70.00

I like this one. While I'm sure it's not a reaction normal people would have, I find myself closing my eyes and tapping my foot along with the song... it's got a surprisingly enchanting groove to it. I was going to give this a score in the mid-to-high 60s, but this reaction is intriguing enough that I think I'd probably move this all the way up to the Cluster of exactly 70 point songs. That might be overvaluing it a tad, but I'd want to revisit this in the contet of other songs I really like & see if the reaction holds up.

No real favorite lyrics or moments, just a general groove that I vibe with, in spite of this not being a very goovy song at all.

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

-and now for a change of pace, I try a few random 5uu's songs as I have no idea where to start with the band-

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

5uu's - Roan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asb8BA3jbeE

Estimated Score: 52.63

It's one of those songs where I don't know what to make of it, though it's not quite so inscrutable that I become infatuated with it. Opening with wind chimes & the sounds of a horse galloping the song transitions to a singer hearing fires, earthquakes,, & riots while only worrying only about his own home. It's a fine song, but I neither properly grok what it's going for or become mesmerized by it and it's just kinda in that early 50's "fine in a positive way" zone.

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

-

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

5uu's - Resentments:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMdP9771XH8

Estimated Score: 52.80

A somewhat jazzy progressive rock song that has a somewhat interesting section after the two minute mark, but never leans enough into chaos for it to quite be something that I like. It's also fine; I'd say I prefer it over "Roan", but not by that much and I somehow have even less to say about it, I'm afraid.

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

-

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

5uu's - Welll...Not Chickenshit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLoZ6Z_UaIY

Estimated Score: 59.64

There's a lot more chaos on this track and it's definitely beyond the first two songs I tried today. While I'm not a fan of the parts with lyrics, the unpredictable instrumental sections are pretty neat. I don't quite want to move it up to the 60 point Clump right now, but I am more interested in hearing this again at a later date than this score would indicate. It's... not quite *interesting*, but on the cusp of being described as so and deserves a second chance on another day.

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

-and now to go completely offscript, a random comment compares 5uu's to "MERZBOW" so let's see what that is-

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

MERZBOW - Slave New Desart (Remastered):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wnMoqOdfwU

Estimtaed Score: 57.66

High chaos. Static, computer noise, distorted laughter, blasts of noise that may or may not be distorted screaming. I... think I may have had my fill of noise music, but it's still relatively neat as a palette cleanser and I do kinda like what's going on here. I do wish it were a bit shorter... almost six and a half minutes of high-intensity noise can be a bit much to get through, but it's still something I'd say was worth finding.

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

Just one song today which I wanted to listen to while I was very interested in listening to something from its genre:

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

Make Them Suffer - Doomswitch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSW5gBfdR_8

Estimated Score: 82.00

Fair warning, I'm back in an "angry metalcore" type mood today which means I have a large bias towards this song right now that might not hold up on an average day. But right now, I kinda love this song and I'm glad there was at least one song here for when I'm in this type of mood. Most of the song is a bit harder than I'd normally go for, but it works well & Alex's clean vocals during the chorus are a highlight. I also like the lyrics here; while there aren't any I truly wish to quote or discuss, I quite like everything going on in this song. i even went back and listened to it a second time immediately because I didn't want it to end. Great song.

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

Great song, you can definitely hear the differences between Booka and Alex and I'm excited to see what they release next.

Two more for today:

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

Epic Rap Battles of History - Alexander the Great VS Ivan the Terrible:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVbH1BVXywY

Estimated Score: 61.15

I forgot I was supposed to comment on this over here and probably should have just said something back when Raka's Most Epic Epic Rap tournament was going on, since I heard this a few times over there and this isn't really a first impression anymore. Anyway, I do like this one; every character portrayed here has some good lines and there are no real weak links to it. I wasn't a big fan at first because Alexander gets killed off fairly early on, which was disappointing as I was mostly interested in the track due to him but the song really accomplishes what it was trying to do and I've come to appreciate it.

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

-

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

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

Estimated Score: 28.99, though I will listen to this again in a day. [Upgraded to 42.00009]

I'm sorry, but this type of sweeping orchestral majesty is really not for me; I know that it's a high quality song with a well-designed video accompanying it, but something about the style of song causes me to bounce off of it incredibly hard. I don't hate the track, but... *trails off*

I'll try listening to this again tomorrow; might have a more favorable view when I'm aware of what the style is and am mentally prepared for it.

[Later: Okay, I do feel somewhat better about the track after taking an extra day. It's still not quite for me, but my opinion is much closer to neutrality than actual dislike this time around. I can tell the song is doing things that I should like--this theatrical Broadway inspired metal *should* have a place and it feels similar in tone to certain moments of Guilty Gear Strive's "Drift" which is still a favorite--but I still don't like "Why?".

Ultimately, I think there are two things holding it back. "Why?" goes for a type of beauty that I don't really connect with; I'm aware that it's majestic, powerful, and beautiful but it's not a type that I'm interested in and I just can't appreciate it as much as I know I should or other people would.

The other point is that I rather dislike the repeated lyric of "Why run away?", but I elect not to get into those topics right now. I wouldn't call the line triggering, but... well, I elect not to finish this half of the sentence either. So I'm aware it's a very good song, but the style and lyrics are not for me and I think neutrality is the best reaction the song can hope to get out of me.

...also I seem to take a break from everything after listening to this. Yesterday morning, I left because I wanted to put things on hold until I could evaluate this on a different day. Today, I find this song putting me in a type of headspace where I need to quietly think about some things and further work would be quite fruitless. This isn't a *bad* thing, but it is a far more intense reaction than would be typical of songs with this type of score.]

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

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

Epic Rap Battles of History - Alexander the Great VS Ivan the Terrible:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVbH1BVXywY

Estimated Score: 61.15

I forgot I was supposed to comment on this over here and probably should have just said something back when Raka's Most Epic Epic Rap tournament was going on, since I heard this a few times over there and this isn't really a first impression anymore. Anyway, I do like this one; every character portrayed here has some good lines and there are no real weak links to it. I wasn't a big fan at first because Alexander gets killed off fairly early on, which was disappointing as I was mostly interested in the track due to him but the song really accomplishes what it was trying to do and I've come to appreciate it.

Yeah, the Alexander part is the best part, and I wish there was more of it too. Although Frederick was also pretty good. If you watch the behind the scenes video, you can hear that they did record more of Alexander than what they ended up using. Skip ahead in the following video to 1:43 to hear everything.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ4enZo1MdQ

Shame you didn't like Why?, but fair enough. I won't press you on it. Once again, I put very little import on lyrics, and even less so than usual on this song. I just like the music. It's funny that on an album that is ostensibly a metal album, this is probably the song I've listened to the most times.

CJones posted...

Yeah, the Alexander part is the best part, and I wish there was more of it too. Although Frederick was also pretty good. If you watch the behind the scenes video, you can hear that they did record more of Alexander than what they ended up using. Skip ahead in the following video to 1:43 to hear everything.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ4enZo1MdQ

Ooh, I'll try to remember to listen to that soon.

-

Sticking with the two songs a day, here's two more from the VTuber section:

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

Isekai Joucho - PANDORA CALL:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQz2IA56VCo

Estimated Score: 59.33

There are some pretty good lines in this song; lots of night, shadows, darkness, and dancing. But there aren't any lines that I'd say I'm in love with and the music itself is something I kinda like, but I don't think I quite want to give it 60 points right now. It's doing things I enjoy and it's doing them well enough, but I never click with it enough to get beyond the "kinda like" and "this is kinda neat" stage.

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

-

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

RIM - Kuruenai/(Not) Lunatic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TB9qe4ahzac

Estimated Score: 77.74

I cried over all the things I couldn't do
Well, it's still better than nothing

This song pleases me quite a bit. Somehow, I find myself being drawn in to her voice & the backing music--there's a sort-of breathless pain & anguish to her vocals, along with a melancholic beat to the music that is quite intriguing. Factor in some of these lyrics, particularly the part I quoted, and we've got a very strong song. While not my favorite, it's incredibly well-rounded and scores highly in all aspects. I don't quite like the rewinding outro or the brief interlude (the part where the video gets very dark before the fireworks start, I don't have timestamps on hand) which don't really gel with the vibe I was getting from the rest of the song, but the highs from literally everything else make those issues incredibly minor and barely worth referencing.

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

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

Electric Callboy - Pump It:
https://open.spotify.com/track/6emZMVNvIxW57fhxPlyxLp?si=9679c520df834e46

Estimated Score: Somewhere in the high 60s to low 70s.... I feel like I'd probably start this slightly below the Cluster with something like "69.99999" points.

The highs and lows on this song make it difficult to process exactly how I feel about it. The clean vocal sections, with their synth-heavy backing track, are totally radical and I like them quite a bit; the more metal sections of the song are also pretty good, honestly, but the lyrics in those sections are a bit of a turnoff.

Just look at my glutes, what a perfect butt

No, thank you. But if the only complaint is some of the lyrics during certain portions of the song, then it's probably fair to say that I really liked it and give it the full 70 points? But I feel like the complaint is strong enough that it should be marginally below the songs already in the Cluster... so I'd put it a tiny fraction below them, then see where everything winds up on a different day. It's probable that a few songs would get moved up and this would go up to the early 70s, letting it keep it space slightly below them while still being up on the next tier. I just tend to be more conservative with scores during first impressions.

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Electric Callboy, Conquer Divide - Fuckboi:
https://open.spotify.com/track/1YO1vzBy6y44sosMHviv0S?si=e914cfff1188432e

Estimated Score: 77.19

I really like this. It's not a very deep or complex song, but it's got a sort-of.... "punk-esque, but catchy and very mainstream" type of vibe. It's one of those songs where I just really enjoy the sound and general feel to it; no real moments I want to draw attention to, but I enjoyed every moment of this.

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

Electric Callboy, FINCH - Spaceman:
https://open.spotify.com/track/2zNZ81rcbDUvOmKo0borJr?si=2a702a79f3544708

Estimated Score: 68.198 [Upgraded to 72.30] [Upgraded to 80.00]

I wasn't sure about this song at first. I did like that there was a section in German, but it had a really pulsing beat (Pump It did as well, but Pump It was somehow that "pulsing beat that I actually like" & this... wasn't), but the beat lightened up & the lyrics made me laugh:

I am travelling space
I got a rocket on my back
Fueled by big bang bass
I'm Tekkno
My religion is rave
And I bring it to the outerworld

Hell yeah, man. This is great. Actually, take a few extra points while I'm here. Definitely a song I'd be interested in hearing at a full ranking, because I do wonder if it will hold up to more intense scrutiny but the first impression is really high.

...actually, I kinda love this outside of that one section, so screw it. Let's go ahead and give it the full 80 points; it.... may wind up going back down towards the "like" level on a future day, but the more I think about this song, the happier I feel about moving it up.

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

Electric Callboy is just such a fun band, hope to see them live one day.

BlackDra90n posted...

Electric Callboy is just such a fun band,

Indeed! And now more from them, featuring the last suggested song and then some others from the album because I just want to finish listening to the album at this point:

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

Electric Callboy - Hurrikan:
https://open.spotify.com/track/4uBXb5llcXoL231RHUv8JD?autoplay=true

Estimated Score: 57.96

Not as immediately appealing as the other suggested songs by the band, but I still kinda like it. The opening verses are light and simple, in a way that's nice enough; they're not as catchy as some of the band's songs, feeling a bit weak--but I kinda like them anyway and it's nice to have some more German music. It then goes pure metal for the end of the song and it's also nice enough? It's kinda dark:

Oh honey, I'm ready to die
Oh, you feast on my blood, my bones, my guts

But... as I've mentioned once or twice before, I'm not really into cannibalism, so I'm not exactly hyped by either the "metaphor for sex" or "literal" interpretations of the lyrics here. But I still kinda like it? It's not my favorite metal section, lyrically or musically, but it's still enjoyable enough. So... a bit of a low point in comparison to some of their other songs, but neat enough that it wouldn't get stuck in the Wall or anything.

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

-
==========================

Electric Callboy - Neon:
https://open.spotify.com/track/5Ax3CrEaFiQHb65JMijp2J?si=285a29a7152b4fd5

Estimated Score: 64.19

I decided to just let Spotify continue on to this song considering the title & the heavy synth that opens the track. It's pretty good! It feels very 80's pop inspired; not their most original work, but a heavily synthesized 80's-style pop song about lost love? Yeah, definitely the type of thing I'm here for.

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

Electric Callboy - We Got the Moves:
https://open.spotify.com/track/0W4N0KzHKWQp2Wn1Mf6uMa?si=d4b825f3a9d442a0

Estimated Score: 60.00, surprisingly.

I'm oddly drawn towards this song, in spite of it not really being my style. The metal sections to this song are far more pronounced & I'm not really into partying or booze, so there's not a lot here for me in terms of the lyrics... and yet I do find this curiously appealing. I think this song would be best served by placing it into the Wall of exactly 60 points and trying to evaluate it in context of other songs I like. I *think* it'd probably wind up a bit above the Wall, likely in the 62 to 63 point range, but I'd like to listen to it on another day before I commit to moving it up.

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

Electric Callboy - Mindreader:
https://open.spotify.com/track/0qdzdBNLU6BAxTCt8FLptu?si=bf609a4eb2f7490c

Estimated Score: 59.17

Another surprisingly pretty good track. It's also one of their more metal offerings, but there are some catchy & lighter moments alongside a fairly dark breakdown:

You are the devil, bitch
Everybody knows that
When I'm done with you you'd rather be dead
Dead, so dead

This track pleases me; perhaps not as much as the last song, so I'd like to keep it a bit below the Wall to start, but I do generally like what they're doing on this track.

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

-

Last songs of the album tomorrow, hopefully.

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

Indeed! And now more from them, featuring the last suggested song and then some others from the album because I just want to finish listening to the album at this point:

Excellent.

damn I misread that as "Electric Catboy" which is a much better band name

NFUN posted...

damn I misread that as "Electric Catboy" which is a much better band name

That would be a marked improvement.

-

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

Electric Callboy - Arrow of Love:
https://open.spotify.com/track/6IkcTpdDbL4OVg7skLdUyF?si=b9cdc95ae2ee4307

Estimated Score: 52.96

I'm not sure. This song isn't exactly the most appealing work of theirs. There's a harsh electric distortion feel to parts of the song, which usually I like, but I'm not a fan of how it sounds here; the chorus repeats too often (the fact that it often repeats twice in a row isn't great) and I'm not finding much in the lyrics that I'm drawn towards. There are a few lyrics that are close:

Love is everything that you need, love
Is missing in this loveless place
[...]
We will be forever young, ever young

So it's not like I'm against the lyrics, just they're not quite on the mark or especially captivating. Still, I am growing rather fond of the band and what's here is enjoyable enough.

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Electric Callboy - Parasite:
https://open.spotify.com/track/3f3HfaJfzYK4SzsVhQnLZO?si=104d95c74a3343b6

Estimated Score: 54.00

The verses can feel a bit monotone, but the lyrics invoke a dysfunctional relationship & denying reality:

You're like a parasite
But you keep me alive

And I can hear you say
We're gonna be okay
I know you're lying but, the truth is what I fear

So, it's doing things I appreciate as well. I'd probably put it right before the Kinda Like level to start with, then see how I felt on a different day. It's possible that I'm undervaluing this because it doesn't compare to some of their work from yesterday & my expectations were set unrealistically high... so I'd like to judge this song in context of other 54-to-56 point songs by other artists, see if this still feels accurate under those conditions.

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Electric Callboy - Tekkno Train:
https://open.spotify.com/track/1XK0SrwnujLMZv22WjVQU9?si=67f2cbdfade84642

Estimated Score: 70.00

I should not like this half as much as I actually do. Overly sexual lyrics ("Licky, Licky, Sucky, Sucky", the 69 train to climax city) with food metaphors ("Shaky, Shaky,, Sweaty, Sweaty ; You make my spaghetti ready") initially paint this as a song that should be down near the bottom of the rankings... but it's catchy as hell and the singer's commitment to the bit is hilarious. I almost lost it when he literally started making choo choo sounds. So... I think I'd start this at exactly 70 points, with an expectation that it'd probably hit 80 by the end of an actual ranking; I'd just like to give some space and take a bit of time to determine if it completely holds up over time. It *could* be getting a bit of a boost because it was so unexpected, but I think it's likely a song that would hold up.

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

-

Good album! Quite a few high-scoring songs and even the worst track stayed on the positive side of scoring.

54 songs into the post ranking, our current top 5:

Koyoi - Eternity in our last scene [86.93]
Make Them Suffer - Doomswitch [82.00]
Electric Callboy - Spaceman [80.00]
RIM - (Not) Lunatic [77.74]
Electric Callboy - Fuckboi [77.19]

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

Electric Callboy - Tekkno Train:
https://open.spotify.com/track/1XK0SrwnujLMZv22WjVQU9?si=67f2cbdfade84642

Estimated Score: 70.00

I should not like this half as much as I actually do. Overly sexual lyrics ("Licky, Licky, Sucky, Sucky", the 69 train to climax city) with food metaphors ("Shaky, Shaky,, Sweaty, Sweaty ; You make my spaghetti ready") initially paint this as a song that should be down near the bottom of the rankings... but it's catchy as hell and the singer's commitment to the bit is hilarious. I almost lost it when he literally started making choo choo sounds. So... I think I'd start this at exactly 70 points, with an expectation that it'd probably hit 80 by the end of an actual ranking; I'd just like to give some space and take a bit of time to determine if it completely holds up over time. It *could* be getting a bit of a boost because it was so unexpected, but I think it's likely a song that would hold up.

I laughed so much when the song first came out. They recently released a video for it too and as you said, they really commit to the bit.

BlackDra90n posted...

I laughed so much when the song first came out. They recently released a video for it too and as you said, they really commit to the bit.

Choo choo choo choo choo choo choo!

It is a good video. I also like that the first comment on the video is someone asking for a longer Choo Choo breakdown. Sometimes, just sometimes, looking at the comments isn't completely miserable.

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Three more Vtuber songs with very brief writeups.

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

Izu-Tan (Etotama Vtuber) - Bokura ga Kowasu Sekai (composer: Azusa Kikuchi):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTrmaxnYNdc

Estimated Score: 70.00

I like this. Her voice is cute & the song has a very pleasing energy to it. The lyrics are also quite nice, though I think I'll chicken out and refrain from analyzing them much at this time... sorry, but this is the type of thing I'd rather just think about quietly until forced to speak on it, though I do really like it.

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Somunia- Ameiro no Binetsu (composer: Toiki):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vu0Sx4aFT7Q

Estimated Score:49.9 [leaving off the trailing zero once again does nothing, but I feel like doing so]

I'm afraid this one doesn't quite work for me. Something about the instruments is borderline unpleasant for me & the dissonance between her soft voice and this music is.... not something I'm into right now, though I'll acknowledge it as a stylistic choice that many people enjoy. I wouldn't say it's something that I strongly dislike, but I'm just not feeling this song on any level tonight.

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Himekuma Ribon - Ritoratan No Mori (composer: Okka):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ox0I6iWhNww

Estimated Score: 50.03

I don't know, perhaps I'm just in an oddly negative mood at this moment. This song isn't really landing either... I know it's not an accurate take, but something about this track feels monotonous. It's reminding me of a fast-paced march (except for the brief instrumental break late in the song) and not exactly in a good way... it's... something I want to put on the positive side of scoring for invoking some type of ambience, but that ambience is "military doubletime march through a forest" which is apparently not a high scoring ambience. And I know that's not remotely close to what the song is, but that's still the only feeling I get from it... I even gave it a second listen, but I can't get this particular image out of my head.

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

ngl i expected ratings to decline on my selections by the time you got to here, not surprised these ones ended up lower, glad you did like izutan's song (and not lunatic too) tho. still i do expect to get a lot of sub-50s past here...

Back when this first started, I had an idea to revisit some songs from past ranking topics and post them whenever I needed a day off, so there'd always be some content. Obviously, I did not do that. Any time that could have been spent revisiting old songs was better spent on the actual ranking.

I did, however, revisit five old songs before scrapping the idea & will post them now so there's an illusion of content today:

EDIT: Also, these aren't considered official parts of the Post Ranking Ranking. Just sorta extra stuff.

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

Christina Aguilera - Candyman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ScjucUV8v0

Original Score: 0
Revised Score: 32

At first, I hated this song--too explicit and the rather out-of-place military cadences turned me off of the song completely. Looking back though, it's not that explicit and it is fairly memorable... I still dislike the song, but not nearly as much as I did a few years ago.

[Later: Yeah, not something I like, but it's very memorable and not worth hating. I'm a bit torn between high 20s & low 30s, but I'll stick with the higher value for now.]

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Glassjaw - shira:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsmRYan062E

Original Score: 78, approximately.
Revised Score: 90 [Upgraded to 100]

The first song to have a meteoric rise from an initially low placement, shira is one of the most memorable songs from the first topic. While the song's opening is definitely heavier than I usually like--the drums in particular are a bit much for me--the song mellows out quite a bit and the singer's voice becomes quite enchanting.

With its mysterious lyrics & hypnotic vocals, shira overcame my bias against its opening and cemented its place in history.

[Later: I'll go ahead and move this up to the 100. It was briefly at the top of my Spotify's "On Repeat" playlist for a couple weeks last year and it's hard for a song to have better justification for 100 points than that.]

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*NSYNC - Tearin' Up My Heart:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZcmuKsyvzg

Original Score: 43, approximately
Revised Score: 58 [Upgraded to 68.45]

Fantastic singing, but it's a bit too repetitive and I'm not a fan of one of the instruments--after the chorus there's this annoying Wub Wub sounding thing and I don't like it at all. But, I must admit that I do love Justin Timberlake's voice, which makes this song hard to place. Whenever I see the title, my first thought is, "wow, I love the way this sounds, how could it possibly have been so low??"

Then I actually play it and it's like, "wow, I do not like that wubbing and this song has so few lyrics, this is going nowhere, do we even actually like this"? And in the end, I think the high 50s is the right place for this. I cannot honestly put a song with peak Timberlake vocals into the dislike pile, but there are enough factors against the song that I can't say "I like this" without added caveats.

[Later: I'm less bothered by the wubbing and repetition today, so take an extra 10 points.]

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Set It Off - N.M.E.:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odPdq_W15D4

Original Score: 60.50, roughly.
Revised Score: 75.73

While it's certainly not the deepest or most complex song, I've found myself oddly drawn to it lately. When looking back through the first ranking topic, this was the only song I literally couldn't wait to hear again--I dropped everything to listen it to immediately.

While I really like the song, I still don't quite want to place it at the highest tiers. It's something that will always make me smile, but it's more a "other songs must amuse me more than this song to reach the top tier" guardian. Still deserves a far better placement than it originally had.

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Kiryu Coco - Kiryu Coco ED:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jI3xJh6xipY

Original Score: 00.01
Revised Score: 50.01

I have a childish bad habit of picking up words and phrases of media that I consume. I still lapse into Hamish from Hamtaro at times and several other such pop culture references I will not get into. After this song, I've called more than a few people & characters shitbags. I don't think I'd call that a good thing, but it does give me a strange appreciation for the song. I wouldn't exactly say I like the song, but I'd say it's marginally above average? Certainly left more of an impact than most songs...

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Three more VTuber songs & one arbitrarily selected song (a Frank Zappa song, to be more precise)

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

Hoshino Meguri - Connect (composer: Virtual Cat):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbQ-r9_3zRc

Estimated Score: 60.00

It's nice. It's not the greatest Virtual Cat related song, but it's got a very mellow & chilled out groove which is fairly neat. I'd say I like it, though I think it'd probably wind up in the Clump; something I definitely like, but not strongly enough that I want to throw extra points at it. Still, quite nice to get more Cat in the topic.

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Enma Ruri - Mahou no Uta (composer: cyan slime):
https://kakeru2546.bandcamp.com/track/feat-4

Estimated Score: 62.00

Swapped the link because the YouTube link sounded a bit softer and more distant to me than I think it was meant to; not sure this link is an actual improvement (it could well all be in my imagination), but either way, it's the link I wound up using. This is a fairly nice song... while it doesn't inspire any really strong reactions, I think I like it a couple points more than the last song, which I also liked. So, a pretty nice song all around. Definitely a more traditional pop song than I expected from seeing cyan slime's name, but still good.

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Queue - Fluctuat (composer: ioL):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DBQc_zvPFA

Estimated Score: 58.06

A fairly nice track. I think the instruments and her singing are all nice enough; nothing to really rave about, but also, a reasonably enjoyable experience from start to finish. Probably on the higher end of the "kinda like" tier. I also like how auto-translation handled the last two lines of the song:

Fragments that turn into smoke, hold me tightly
I close my umbrella and go to sleep

Which is some pretty nice imagery. It's all a very nice song.

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-and taking a detour to my unlabeled mystery song pile, in which we find more Zappa music-

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Frank Zappa - Treacherous Cretins:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwCv4p1veAI

Estimated Score: 68.4796

My first reaction is that this is probably the prettiest Frank Zappa song to be nominated (excluding the last four or five seconds anyway), There's a fairly simple, yet pleasing, pattern of notes that keeps repeating & keeping the song grounded while more complicated melodies are layered over it. At times Heavenly, vaguely heavy at other times, I think the result is pretty neat. I like it.

The four second outro is weird and disconnected from the actual song, but is short enough to not actively detract from the experience. It also may-or-may-not help transition into whatever the following song would be.

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Whoa, awesome to hear about the shira love! Still love me some glassjaw, and that song is a banger.

Indeed it is!

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Two more songs from the mystery pile today. I spent yesterday listening to this week's "Rank the Tracks" three times in a row to get it out of the way early (better album than I thought it'd be, but that's neither here-nor-there I suppose) so I want a light music day after that marathon.

...also I'm quite close to the end of Octopath Traveler 2 and going to selfishly try to finish that rather than get an extra song in.

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Persona 4 -Reincarnation- Specialist:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=899kstdMUoQ

Estimated Score: 58.74

It's got a nice smooth jazz groove to it. I kinda like it, but it doesn't inspire anything more than generic "that's nice" and "that's Persona 4 dance music, alright" reactions to a point where I can't find anything to say here. I kinda like it and would never be disappointed to hear it, but would be unlikely to seek it out in the future.

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Blind Guardian - Wheel of Time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCLsqg05boo

Estimatd Score: 75.05

I'll admit I didn't have the highest expectations for this track. Epic metal can be rather hit or miss and, as I've mentioned, I don't know much about Wheel of Time other than Rand being one of the most powerful characters in all fiction so I wouldn't be able to properly grasp the lyrics here. Thankfully, I find the song stands well enough on its own, that it's an enjoyable trip even without context. There are definitely two blocks of lyrics that I'm drawn to:

Light it binds me
Light it blinds me
Light it finds me
Light denies me now

[...]

The inner war
I can hold against it
My mind, my mind
My mind's in darkness

Light and darkness, yes yes, quite appealing.

I'm not as into the Arabian feeling interlude that divides the song into two halves, though I don't dislike it... it's more a "thing that happens" than something I have a clear reaction to; I also feel the ending feels a bit anticlimactic. That being said, I did quite enjoy this and wish to give it a decent nudge above the 70 point Cluster, so well done.

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Minor Octopath Traveler 2 spoiler: The bonus boss requires more effort and planning than expected, so it'll be a while longer before I can finish it. Not a complaint, just a more significant difficulty spike than I thought there'd be.

And I'm suddenly in a mood for Deafheaven today, so let's work our way through the rest of the Sunbather album; we already covered 3 of the 7 tracks on this page alone, so we might as well finish things. I shouldn't as no one suggested doing so, but I want to and enough songs from the album have been nominated that it's vaguely relevant.

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Deafheaven - Please Remember:
https://open.spotify.com/track/7gTyR63h4FXXxOIXTZYDzv?si=9a2d9b76d3af4ada

Estimated Score: 67.9993

A very unexpected track, one of those where you're never quite sure where it's going or what's about to happen. I suggest not reading this until you've heard this song, if you were interested in hearing it at all. The song opens with someone from another band reading a few paragraphs from "The Unbearable Lightness Of Being", and it's really a quite nice reading. I still have a certain fondness for spoken words and odd samples, so I'm here for it. It then kinda goes into this industrial noise section which is.... I don't know that I want to say pleasing, but I enjoy it--the stark contrast between the first two sections seems like it should be too much, but I like it. And then we break through the noise to rather quiet, subdued music which is also nice. I wouldn't have expected the disparate sections to work together as well as they do, so I rather like this track.

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Deafheaven - Vertigo:
https://open.spotify.com/track/1Oe2Um6K7AsiDjKOBKKbZP?si=98f6e7533b864ebe

Estimated Score: 60.00

A longer track, but a welcome one. It's... well, very much a Deafheaven song. The vocals that I can't make out, the lyrics filled with regret & longing, the shifting between hard and beautiful instrumentation. Not my favorite track by the band, but probably one of the better examples of their style. I like it.

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Deafheaven - Windows:
https://open.spotify.com/track/1NClfLPFneHXcvHSkF64JK?si=696d1e1c40d847c6

Estimated Score: 60.093

I... don't know right now. A slow, methodical droning beat with a church sermon sandwiched between a drug deal that opens & closes the song. It's weird, dark, heavy, raw, intriguing, and I'm really not sure how to even process it. I think I'll say that I liked it and give it a very minor edge over the Clump of songs, but i wasn't prepared for anything about this track and there's really no guessing where it'd wind up after I had time to properly process it.

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Deafheaven - The Pecan Tree:
https://open.spotify.com/track/0whlO9oEAYISh4plID7lXa?si=63e26b3c21dd4647

Estimated Score: 58.33

Another song that serves as a good introduction to the band's style. It's pretty nice and I do like the bleakness & father issues that close out the track:

I am my father's son
I am no one
I cannot love
It's in my blood

But while I mostly enjoy it, I think it might be my least favorite track from the album. There's nothing really wrong with it, I'm just less into it.

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-and the next song is not part of the album on Spotify, but Genius lists it as being part of it & I want another song, so let's go one more:-

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Deafheaven - Punk Rock/Cody:,
https://open.spotify.com/track/7DqOHh26YDaq5DCIbMJiLQ?si=27d0feaae5e9494a

Estimated Score: 74.19

A good song to end the day on. It's.... well, honestly, "like other songs they've done, but I personally like it a bit more". We've got unexpected samples ("William Faulkners speech at the Nobel Banquet" is today's choice), some amazingly beautiful music after the speech, and painful lyrics:

Sad songs remind me of friends
And the way it is
I could leave it all
And I ask myself
Would you care at all?

Yes, this song is definitely what I was looking for when I decided to try another song. I do wish it didn't go so hard at the end, the last minute is a bit much, but I really enjoy the rest of the song enough that I'm not going to hold it against it.

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Neat album! The band is far more interesting than I gave them credit for in the past.

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

Deafheaven - Punk Rock/Cody:,

i didn't even know this existed but the title immediately told me it was a Mogwai cover. definitely interesting take on the track

I'm glad someone else got something out of that musical detour!

I'm in the mood for something unique, so let's try something by Thomas Dimuzio. He's a bit harder to figure out where to start--a lot of very long videos and albums that need to be taking as one long event rather than individual songs... so we'll just try three videos from his channel that aren't too long and see where we wind up:

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Thomas Dimuzio - Arc Of The Fallen Arch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVdNZVSOwUM

Estimated Score: 56.44

It's nice enough and I kinda like it, but I have a hard time focusing on or remembering it. It's another of those songs with a gloopy, alien feel to them which is still neat, but my memories of various experimental alien songs are getting jumbled togeher these days. Which... is overly negative sounding since I do still kinda like it, enough that it should probably be above the Wall, but not as far above it as I might have hoped.

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Thomas Dimuzio - Scanters:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXvyQZ-povs

Estimated Score: 57.00

I should try listening to this again later because it's another one where I enjoyed it while it was playing, but I don't really remember it? Like it just stopped and I don't exactly remember anything from the past few minutes...

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Thomas Dimuzio + Gregg Bielski - Yesterday Died And Tomorrow Won't Be Born:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrzHQ-H-dNs

Estimated Score: 60.00

The droning and repetitive beat that carries on for the first two minutes of the song feels rather tedious to me, but around 2:45 there's this deep spiritual shift that feels like evolving to a higher state of being. It's a unique feeling! Then we get some buzzing noises, very "alien insect swarm" thing and robotic... kinda like an organic version of the Ultimate version of Galactus (Gah Lak Tus)??

Hard to place this song on only one listen. I loved the ascension part, disliked the opening, and haven't worked out how I feel about the last two minutes of the track. I'd say that I'd probably start with this in the Clump? The experience is novel enough that I feel fairly good about saying I liked it.

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Not a bad way to spend the morning, but I feel I should find some other tracks later... I don't think I have enough grasp on his style to feel satisfied with just these three tracks.

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

Deafheaven - The Pecan Tree:

this is one of my favs off the album. that soothing part from around 5 min before it blows up again ahhhh