Mega Mana Mega Ranks More Music! (No-minations)

#5. Faces of the Heart
Artist: Dave Koz
Nominated: Bospsy (April 2013)
Score: - [1/6]
Month Change: Down 3 (from 2nd)
Standard Rank: 5/49
Time: 3:42
Link: https://youtu.be/QB3ILJtYTlo

When planning out this topic (which I meant to conclude within the first few dats of April, whoops), there were also a ton of pop-up song nomination topics going around. With how high I expected this to rank, and how saxophone was a recommendation a few years ago, I nominated this for Flutter, Luce, and Rae. It went out midway through, and that's okay, and it's fallen a bit from silver medal status from the last time I did any write-ups.

All five of my top spots are inundated with so much nostalgia and the slow march of time that I don't have first memories or anything core I can connect them to. Obviously this is greatly connected to the long-running soap opera, General Hospital, as its opening theme through the nineties, and my connection to that through my mom and my enjoyment of long-running series with huge sprawling histories to mine and tangled character sheets to be confused by (X-Men, WWE, The Wire, Doctor Who, Legend of Heroes, Supernatural, the Wally West Flash heyday).

I absolutely love the saxophone in this. There is a summertime calming relaxation to it, flowy and sunny. The more concise intro version with the opening heartbeats has more passion and excitement, but I love this one more with the ease and quiet between bigger notes. It feels like a vacation for the mind. It nearly always calms me if my mind is racing, or sets me on a different track where I think about friends and family members past and present in usually a healing and reflective way. I just enjoy the song a lot.

Also, because of my lengthy Lucy Coe-like tangential ramblings in response to this song's elimination last week or the week before, I started watching the 1997 spinoff Port Charles with my mother and it's been nice. It's going to be extremely weird when it turns from a proto-Grey's Anatomy (with some GH character drama) to a vampire show at some point, but I'm enjoying actually connecting with Lucy, Kevin, and some of these interns, and I'm always happy seeing Dr. Alan Quartermaine and Mac Scorpio even in minor roles. Even Scott Baldwin is... tolerable.

#4. Fantasy
Artist: Mariah Carey
Nominated: ZeroSignal620 (April 2015)
Score: #70 [1/5]
Month Change: Even
Standard Rank: 4/49
Time: 4:08
Link: https://youtu.be/qq09UkPRdFY

It's fun. How do you not just vibe to it? The summer I first heard it is also where I heard BIG's "Hypnotize" & "Mo Money Mo Problems," Will Smith's "Men in Black," the Goldeneye 007 tracks, and others, and they all kind of tie together in a big nostalgia nugget where the N64 came out and I watched my babysitters play Secret of Evermore and my sister got deep into Spice Girls and CDs and bullies broke my bike the first time I rode it to camp and just a lot of stuff in a mish-mash.

I also think of the movie "Free Guy" now, which is nice.

Put on the Illinoise Sufjan Stevens album because I was in a "Chicago" mood

First song is "Skylark Interabang?!" but not. I am much confuse.

Illinoise is one of my favorite albums, and I absolutely love the opening track. Made in Heights sampled it because they have good taste.

Bleh

Top three another day, again

Ive got another confession to make

Bump.

!

I had almost forgotten.

What should I talk about?

I have no idea!

Uhh... any thoughts on themed music rankings you'd like to see in the future?

Hmmm.... not sure yet. Will think on it.

Top 129 2021 notes, Part 1/3 - #129-87

Avg: 5.38 (C+)
Median: 5.5 (C+)
Mode: 6.5 (B)
Not First Listen: 7
NFL / First Listen Average: 5.22 (C) / 6.21 (B-)
Mega Mana Exits: 5/43

Top Ten
#1 [096]. Jasmine Thompson, "Run" (S)
# 2 [120]. Linkin Park, "Somewhere I Belong" (S-)
#3 [117]. Savatage, "Gutter Ballet" (A+)
#4 [115]. Girls' Generation, "Catch Me If You Can (Korean Version)" (A)
#5 [124]. Bring Me the Horizon, "Throne" (A)
#6 [102]. Bring Me the Horizon, "Sleepwalking" (A)
# 7 [103]. Poppy, "Don't Go Outside" (A-)
# 8 [129]. Linkin Park, "Lying From You" (B+)
#9 [094]. The Weeknd, "Twenty Eight" (B+)
# 10 [118]. Linkin Park, "Breaking the Habit" (B)

Bottom Five
#43 [114]. Frums, "Mdrqnxtagon" (F)
#42 [126]. Marty Bags, "You're Not Me" (E-)
#41 [123]. The Weeknd, "High For This" (E)
# 40 [111]. Jet Force Gemini, "Water Ruin" (E)
#39 [110]. Gorillaz, "Sleeping Powder" (E+)

Notes:

#124. Throne
- Listened to this thrice trying to figure out what it reminded me of. Linkin Park? Kinda sorta. Have I heard this before? Not to my knowledge. Hmm... "I'll leave you choking-" POISON! HAZBIN HOTEL!

#114. Mdrqnxtagon

Nothing to be said about it. You either like these type of highly chaotic songs or you don't.

- *looks at the big giant F* >.>

#110. Sleeping Powder
- Oooh, I don't recognize this track! ...And I will forget about it immediately.

#103. Don't Go Outside
- Hey, it's Poppy! I forgot all about the medley at the end, <3

#96. Run
- S-Tier. Holy hell this is amazing.

Some quick notes

@Raetsel_Lapin
@Fluttershy_Pony
@Spark_Garou

Italics are songs I've heard before, not just songs I nominated. Numbers in brackets are their placements in their list.

Letter rankings are haphazard and based on initial impressions.

S - Supreme. Best of the best. Instantly playlisted, will listen to again and again, will be remembered five years from now.

A - Excellent. Great song, much enjoyment. It doesn't have the impact or instant love of an S, could get there over time. Will probably listen to again, may go out of way to seek out more like it.

B - Good. It's a good song. I enjoyed it, but for one reason or another, it didn't do anything that wowed or caught me. Pretty much any song I liked well enough but move on from easily.

C - Average. 5 is the baseline. Everything here existed. It wasn't good, it wasn't bad, it really wasn't even indeterminate. I have nothing really to say about it.

D - Unwelcome. Not necessarily bad, but I was more ready for it to be over than average, or we just don't vibe. It exists more nonexistantly than average songs.

E - What Is This? This is a wastebasket for songs I don't know what to do with. Songs I recognize other people would like but I don't. Tracks that are obtuse and hard to get a hold of. Nominations that weird me out. Things I hate now but might like if I subject myself to them more. Lyrics or sounds I just can't get behind. Whatever is in this tier made me pay attention but for the wrong reasons.

F - No. Just no. I actively hate this track. There is no redemption. I do not want to hear this ever again.

Sorry for the slow response here. Yesterday was a big Gravity Falls day and I'm still obsessively reading everything posted on the subreddit, so I'm way behind on... everything else. I'll take a quick glance at any song you mentioned.

Jasmine Thompson | Run: Sorry to disappoint, but I really don't remember this song at all. Nothing about this feels familiar & I have absolutely no idea why I was into with the last verse:

You set the world on fire
And the flames are getting higher
So I stand beneath the waterfall
Yeah, you set the world on fire
And the flames are getting brighter
But I don't feel the heat at all

...But whatever past me was thinking, she didn't care to offer any explanation other than that she was close to connecting with that verse. Very curious. I mean, I can certainly work with repeated references to fire, but it's all *metaphorical fire* and that would hardly be an emotional connection, so I am absolutely lost on what I was getting out of this song three years ago.

-

Linkin Park | Somewhere I Belong: Definitely a memorable track as I haven't heard this in years and still remember the chorus relatively well. Pretty good song, though I still prefer some of their other songs.

-

Savatage | Gutter Ballet: I think I agree with my write up. It's a fine song, but there aren't any lyrics I'm really drawn to which holds it back a bit. Not that lyrics are a requirement, but it just stays as "a good song" without something that I can latch onto.

-

Girls' Generation | Catch Me If You Can (Korean): O.o? This song was really down this low, huh? That feels quite inexplicable... there were only a few songs from this topic that I added to Spotify's "Liked Songs" list so I could keep track of them:: This song, & "Live | Horse" are definitely two of them. "Maggie Rogers | Retrograde" & "Gin Wigmore | Cabrona" were added to the list around the same time, but I feel they may have been from an earlier topic (...or a later one? Time has n0 meaning). "Every Time I Die | It Remembers" was also added around the same time and may have been from a post topic ranking? ..Dunno, maybe that one was also at the topic and cut early on.

The point is, I legitimately thought this was one of the 100 point songs and wondered why you were commenting on it so early. Perhaps the audio quality on Spotify is just that much better that I only started loving it after switching to Spotify? But who knows. The fact that this song is side-by-side with a 100 point song on my playlist and I remember loving it raises a lot of questions that I have no answers for. I'd say this is pretty easily my current favorite out of the 15 songs you posted and, considering how heavily I binged everything else I loved from this topic, likely to be my favorite out of all of them.

-

Bring Me the Horizon | Live at Royal Album Hall songs: Ah, another very underrated song. This eventually became my favorite album and I binged it SO MUCH that year. I think every track from it apart from Shadow Moses, the instrumental opening (which is attached to Doomed as one song at this ranking), and Antivist (which had no upload at the time to be ranked) was my favorite at one point or another. I'm thoroughly burned out on all these songs by now, but they definitely should have been ranked much higher than they were.

-

Poppy | Don't Go Outside: Some nice lyrics here. Apocalypses and being whatever you want to be are always nice themes... though it does mostly just make me want to listen to Concrete again.

-

Linkin Park | Lying From You: Definitely ranked a bit too low... I don't think I'd go up to 100 points for it, but I feel like the mid-80s at least. Very good lyrics on this one.

-

The Weeknd | Twenty Eight: This is still an almost total misfire lyrically, but I love his voice enough that I definitely get why the song is as high up as it is. Honestly, I've kinda wanted to go back and revisit Trilogy now that I'm more into The Weeknd. Between having nominated his work at multiple ranking topics & not having as violent a reaction to sex and drugs as years ago, I feel like I might have a more positive reaction to the album rather than the "the bottom tiers basically consist entirely of his work" from when I first listened to it.

-

Linkin Park | Breaking the Habit: Honestly, I listened to "Breaking the Midnight Sun" so many times that I forgot how this song is meant to sound.... Really good music video on this song and I do like it quite a bit. Probably should be ranked a it higher than it is.

-

Frums | Mdrqnxtagon: Second best song you mentioned, probably should have been around 93 points. Surprised I let a high chaos song wind up this low to be quite honest... I suppose it does devolve into a rather "thump-thump-thump" beat for a while, but honestly I love this song. While it wouldn't have won, I feel like the final part of the topic may have been more interesting if I had moved it up to 100 points (this should be the topic where I did something weird with the scoring at the top tier & having a high chaos palette cleanser could have provided some interesting data). Still not much to say about it though; is chaos & I love chaos.

-

Marty Bags | You're Not Me: Ah, Yu-Gi_Oh!. This is no "I'm Back" or "Face Up, Face Down", but the series is fairly important to me and this type of cheesy fun is something I love. Definitely surprised to see it so low on the list.

-

The Weeknd | High For This: Uhh... I'm going to say this probably sounds better on different headphones? The write up claims it features those heavy bass tones that I love, but I'm not really getting them tonight... willing to say this is a problem with the headphones I'm using though.

-

Jet Force Gemini | Water Ruins: Vaguely ominous. It never quite nails the oppressive atmosphere that I want to, but it's still trying to be something I love and I give it some props for the attempt.

-

Gorillaz | Sleeping Powder: ...No idea. It's a fine song, but I may have just been so nostalgic for Gorillaz music at the time that anything would have wound up around this tier. Alternatively, the lines about being trapped inside a cage in your own mind hit really hard at the time for completely normal reasons.

-

Catch Me > Mdrqnxtagon > You're Not Me > Lying From You > Breaking the Habit > Throne > Somewhere I Belong > Twenty Eight > Don't Go Outside > Run > Sleeping Powder > Water Ruins > Sleepwalking > Gutter Ballet > High For This

Actually, I've had Sleeping Powder stuck in my head all night and morning. Should probably have it higher... let's move it up to third in that list. Tempting to move it up to second, but I think I still prefer chaos a little bit.

Not that it really matters, I just felt bad about undervaluing SP and wanted to mention that somewhere.

Grabbed a book called 1001 Albums to Listen to Before You Die released in 2005, and it's been fun hitting up random pages.

Listened to 23 albums so far. Cursory Rankings

#1. Amy Winehouse, "Frank" (S)
- The only song of hers I know I've heard over the past twenty years is "Rehab" and I'm really not a fan of that song, so I never checked anything else out. But wow is "Frank" insanely good. "In My Bed," "Amy, Amy, Amy," and "Stronger Than Me" stood out, but I was loving the whole album from Intro to Outro. Wow.

#2. Wu-Tang Clan, "Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)" (S-)
- I've heard "C.R.E.A.M." and "Method Man" before (though not often), anf great to hear them again. "Da Mystery of Chessboxin'," "Protect Ya Neck," and "Tearz" stood out. Great album.

#3. Big Brother & The Holding Company, "Cheap Thrills" (A)
#4. 2pac, "Me Against the World" (A)
#5. Sly & the Family Stone, "Stand!" (A-)
((Beastie Boys, "The In Sound From Way Out!" (A-, not in book))
#6. The Fall, "The Infotainment Scan" (A-)

B
Black Sabbath, "Paranoid"
PJ Harvey, "Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea"
The Black Crowes, "Shake Your Money Maker"
R.D. Burman, Various Artists, "Shalimar (Original Soundtrack)"
Daft Punk, "Homework"
John Lennon, "Plastic Ono Band"
Ryskopp, "Melody A.M."
Alexander 'Skip' Spence, "Oar"
John Martyn, "Solid Air"

C
Bee Gees, "Odessa"

Red Hot Chilli Peppers, "Blood Sugar Sex Music"
- I enjoy their singles... often far apart from other RHCP songs in a single sitting. Despite having "Under the Bridge," most of it was just not for me.

Kings of Leon, "Youth and Young Manhood"

D
The Who, "The Who Sell Out"
Joan Baez, "Joan Baez"
Dion, "Born to Be With You / Streetheart"
The Stooges, "Fun House"

F
Sepultura, "Roots"

Haven't done much album listening. Lessee what I've got here...

S
Simon & Garfunkel, "Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M."

A
Simon & Garfunkel, "Sounds of Silence"
Def Leppard, "Pyromania"
Robbie Williams, "Life Through a Lens"

B
The Cardigans, "First Band on the Moon"
Eurhythmics, "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)"
13th Floor Elevators, "The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators"
The The, "Soul Mining"
Depeche Mode, "Music for the Masses"
Malcolm McLaren, "Duck Rock"
R.E.M., "Murmur"

But that's not these @Raetsel_Lapin & @Spark_Garou & @Fluttershy_Pony are for

Top 129 2021 notes, Part 1/3 - #86-43

Avg: 6.62 (B)
Median: 6.5 (B)
Mode: 6 (B)
Not First Listen: 9
NFL / First Listen Average: 7.17 (B+) / 6.59 (B)
Mega Mana Exits: 1/43
Unranked (???): Setsu x Queue, "Side Setsu" & Queue x Setsu, "Side Queue"

Top Ten
# 1 [069]. Poppy, "Fill the Crown" (S-)
# 2 [065]. Taylor Swift, "the last great american dynasty" (S-)
#3 [043]. Bring Me The Horizon, "Drown" (A+)
#4 [050]. Bring Me The Horizon, "Doomed" (A+)
# 5 [044]. Enigma, "Return to Innocence (Radio Edit)" (A+)
#6 [052]. Imagine Dragons, "30 Lives (Starlight Edition?)" (A+)
# 7 [076]. The Dear Hunter, "King of Swords (Reversed)" (A+)
#8 [053t]. Michael Kiwanuka, "Cold Little Heart" (A+)
#9 [055]. Al Stewart, "Year of the Cat" (A)
#10 [078]. Bob Curnow's L.A. Big Band, "Every Summer Night" (A)

Bottom Five
#41 [046t]. Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, "The Donkey-Headed Adversary Of Humanity Opens The Discussion" (E-)
# 40 [073]. Eminem, "Venom" (D)
#39 [074]. Lee Brice, "Rumor" (D+)
# 38 [066]. Poppy, "Sick of the Sun" (C-)
# 37 [051]. Liam Lynch, "United States of Whatever" (C-)

Damn good batch if a C- Poppy is in my bottom and Top Ten doesn't fall below an A!

Notes:

#80, Jam With Pancake
- I like the sizzle and Earthboundiness. Too short!

#78, Every Summer Night
- Started as a pleasant B+, but those horns late? Mmmmm~

#70, Concrete
- Break me off a piece of that tasty treat, sugar in my teeth, demons in my dreams watch me while I sleep for eternity

#69, Fill the Crown
- I think this is the first Poppy song I ever heard when they opened for an NXT Takeover. Absolutely struck by the music, the discordance, the presence. Fan ever since. Gets better with the reverse! As xtlm noted, the wrist with the tech chip mark is shown every time she says that.

#53t, Three Lions
- David Baddiel!!... I honestly have zero recall of him. Looking up Series 9, I absolutely recognize Jo & Rose & Ed. Katy... maybe, sort of. David? Any memory I thought I had of David was actually Series 5's Mark Watson. Song for a fan? Mark. Constant Woody Allen anxiety? Mark. Greg's stolen trousers? MARK! AND SERIES 9'S ED GAMBLE WAS PART OF IT!! WHERE ARE YOU, DAVID??

#46, Donkey-Headed Adversary
- Unrelated note. The 0:44-0:51 bit immediately transports me to the Wyatt Sicks. And is my only enjoyment in the entire track.

I should listen to the other songs you mentioned (I had an obsession with Sound of Silence for a year or so and I just nominated an Annie Lennox song elsewhere, so there's at least two songs there I'm into), but I've been sick for a few days (my fault and I'm recovering well) and haven't felt like listening to anything new... but I think I'm up to revisiting some old songs, yes.

(Unrelated, but I've listened to Sleeping Powder a few more times and really should have had it in second on the last list.)

-

Donkey-Headed Adversary: Not surprised that you hated this one, though I still love it.

Mankind is a plague
Breathing hell into every corner of the rotting earth
Even now in this our finest hour
I feel the hate of every stone, tree and flower

Pleasingly apocalyptic & featuring a very non-human character, along with a metal adjacent sound that I'm rather into, leads to a song that feels like it was created especially for me. I'll admit that I haven't listened to it all that many times since the topic ended as it's still a bit too intense to be something I can just throw onto a random playlist, but that also means that I haven't binged on it so much that I'm tired of it like so many other high scoring songs.

...this song tied with Activate the Dancebot? Dancebot wasn't at 100 points? Shame. Dancebot's probably 40 ranks too low.

-

Venom: I feel I said just about everything I needed to on this one. I still enjoy it quite a bit, but I still wish there was more Venom to it.. for being created for the movie, the song is entirely about Eminem? "Eddire Brock is you and I'm the suit" is a good lyric & I enjoy the few Eminem songs I've heard enough that I don't exactly mind hearing him, but making the main theme of a movie about a popular character all about you feels so wildly egotistical that it does pull me out of the song a bit. Good song, I do still really enjoy it, I just have to try to focus on what the song is instead of what it isn't.

-

Rumor: Easy listening country. Nice song, doesn't inspire any strong feelings... i'm very curious how the Revised Score was so incredibly high, as I apparently had nothing to say about the actual song itself.

-

Sick of the Sun: "Everyone told me that it would get better, but every day feels exactly the same" is the type of blunt sadness that plays well with me & being against the sun is always worth points. Definitely feels like it just repeats the same lyrics and drifts along a bit aimlessly though.... I enjoy it, but for barely being over three minutes long, it feels like it only has the content to support half the runtime...

-

United States of Whatever: Ah, yes, the song with the video that permanently warped my mind into an obsession with pool tables. How different my life would have been had they nominated a link without the video attached to it. I'll always love this song for being one of the most personally impactful things I've ever heard and honestly, it is kinda charming in its simplicity. Just rocking out and not caring about things... also pool & gambling? It's very much a "me" song.

-

Three Lions: Ironic that you should mention Mark Watson, as he's someone I was completely unable to recall for a long time. Watched his entire season, didn't create any memory of him or his name; saw him somewhere else that referred to his appearance on Taskmaster and was deeply confused... watched the season a second time and clearly remembered everyone except for him. I still have a hard time remembering who he is & have to trick my brain into getting his name right (I've mentally mark ed him as being Sherlock's assistant) I briefly joked that he actually had a magic enchantment that rendered him invisible to non-humans, but I'm at least capable of remembering his name these days. Sort of.

Song is enjoyable, though I can't separate my feelings for the song from the bizarre way it was so relevant in ways its nominator could not have known. There was a moment of shock when Greg referenced the song and I realized I'd been watching one of its singers for several episodes without knowing it & a further shock when the song randomly started playing in the game I was using to avoid thinking about the ranking (Watch Dogs; Legion). Of all the songs to stalk me across time and space, I would have not expected a novelty British football song.

-

Every Summer Night: Smooth jazz that still vaguely reminds me of the Taxi intro. Definitely enjoy this one, though it still doesn't inspire any particular fantasies or reactions... it's just one of those very nice songs. On the plus side, I've been in the mood for this type of smooth sound lately (see: my nominating a Kenny G song for no good reason at that 1992 topic), so this is definitely something I was in the mood for.

-

Year of the Cat: I'd say I was surprised that I had this song as low as it was as I'm always happy whenever it plays on this radio, but mid-90s does feel like an appropriate score for it... I suppose the set of songs was just that strong. Very nice song... sound feels a bit off compared to what I'm used to hearing on the radio, but that's likely just the difference between car speakers & headphones.

-

Cold Little Heart: Ah, how convenient. I saw this song's write up while I was going back over "Three Lions" and felt I wanted to click it since that blunt misery is still something I'm attached to, now I have a reason to play it. I think I still feel the same way about this track; the opening vocalizations still go on longer than I'd like, but his pain and sadness remains very appealing.

-

King of Swords (Reversed): Still absolutely love this song and feel it was ranked too low, -but- I still feel like it should be attached to "If All Goes Well" as one long song... I'm always left feeling unfulfilled without the immediate fall to darkness, which always make this song hard to score and likely why it would up as low as it did.

-continued-

30 Lives ("Starlight" Version): "Good morning myself, it's been a while since we have spoken"... ah, peak dissociation and very relevant to me for completely normal reasons. If you want the full 30 Lives + Starlight live performance:

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Ex411r7mP

...Though the audio quality is a bit low, it shows how 30 Lives was meant to flow into Starlight & how this fan remix--while extremely good--isn't really Starlight.

-

Return to Innocence: Beautiful. I listened to it a few too many times so its effect is a bit dulled, but still a powerful and beautiful piece of music.

-

Doomed (Live): Been quite a while since I listened to Doomed with the violin orchestra intro. I went absolutely wild for this song after the topic ended... I think I listened to the live version on Spotify, like 87 times or something stupid? Plus all the times I listened to it on YouTube, plus all the times that I listened to the original album version of the song... this song almost definitely should have won, but I just didn't fully click with it until after the topic ended.

...Of course, having listened to it over a hunded times in one year & many times on following years, this is easily the song I've most burnt myself out on. It was really neat hearing the violin orchestra again though! On the album, I tend to just skip directly to Doomed by itself, so they were a fun hit of nostalgia.

-

Drown: "What doesn't kill you makes you wish you were dead" is so direct that I'm surprised I never referenced the line. As is "I'm not okay and it's not alright". This live version feels a bit quiet.... I think I've gotten too used to the album version which has a harsher edge in places, particularly the way his voice cracks on the previously mentioned "I'm not okay" line which lends it a greater deal of pain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymo9oX83kJI

-

the last great american dynasty: Good song. I'm still turning against Taylor on a personal level, but it's relaxing and has a good story. And "I had a marvelous time ruining everything" seems like an oddly self-aware lyric for her these days. </.<

-

Fill the Crown: I think the juxtaposition of the happy sections with the Manson inspired portions works better for me than it did years ago. It's still not exactly a favorite (and I'm kinda not into the "fill the crown" sections which feel... unpleasant with their beeping and repetition, which is the point, but still), but likely a bit undervalued.

-

King of Swords > Crown > 30 Lives > Whatever > Innocence > Adversary > dynasty > Summer Night > Year of the Cat > Venom > Cold Little Heart > (Three Lions) > Drown > Doomed > Sun > Rumor

I'd add more albums I listened to, but I think that's an exclusive the Rank the Albums 7, :P

Top 129 2021 notes, Part 3/3 - #42-1 (+1)

Avg: 6.84 (B+)
Median: 7 (B+)
Mode: 8 (A)
Not First Listen: 5
NFL / First Listen Average: 8.3 (A+) / 6.63 (B)
Mega Mana Exits: 3/42
Unranked (No Link): Yuni, "Hello/How Are You" & Paule Clown, "Boku No Friend"

Top Ten
#1 [006]. Dux Content, "Dux Mix 1" (S+)
# 2 [007]. Linkin Park, "Easier to Run" (S+)
#3 [011t]. The Eightfold Road, "Alfyn, The Apothecary" (S)
#4 [005]. Bring Me The Horizon, "Happy Song" (S)
#5 [029]. Bring Me The Horizon, "Oh No" (S)
#6 [014]. Linkin Park, "Numb" (S)
#7 [004]. Avantasia, "Runaway Train" (S-)
#8 [034]. Maria Mena, "I Don't Wanna See You With Her" (S-)
#9 [008]. Live, "Horse" (A+)
#10 [001]. Nuage, "I'm Gonna Carry On"

Bottom Five
#40 [040]. Nemukawa Yumena, "You & Me (AkkeY Remix)" (F+)
#39 [038]. Hachioji-P (Hatsune Miku), "Sweet Devil (VDM Remix)" (E)
#38 [023]. PSO2, "Snowball ~ Franca's Caf" (D-)
#37 [009]. Eartha Kitt, "Snuff Out the Light" (D+)
#36 [020]. Danny Chan, "Ripples" (C-)

Too many notes, ten minutes before close. Will try and remember to write-up tonight, but I have no idea if I'm going out or not.

I typed out 75% of the notes and somehow refreshed or deleted them. Bleh.

@Raetsel_Lapin

#42. Carol Brown

• I barely recollect this song, and listened to it about eight times in a row just vibing. There's something so whimsical and enjoyable and wistful, and I agree that it's more smirk than laugh. Carol Brown took a Gundam out of town.

#41. They Stood Up For Love

• The glitch is the only memorable part of the song.

#40. You & Me

• This is her voice softened??? ...The sax is great and the Weather Channel vibes are amazing, but her voice in the f- >.< FIRST HALF and this latest stanza FUCKING HURT. Take away the singer and lyrics, this is probably a B. As is, F+ is the highest it can go. Fuck.

#35. Yuni - Hello/How are You - no longer available on Soundcloud

#32. BOlla Twins

• I don't remember this Bo Dallas theme AT ALL. It's an excellent mash. Also starting with the Titus whistle! "It's my dream, it will never die" line hits different now than three years ago for sure. 'And keep on dreaming on the stars above...'

#27.5

• *jots down to listen to more Maria Mena*

#23. Snowball ~ Franca's Cafe

• I was rating it at 3.5 (D) after about five minutes, not realizing I was barely halfway.

#18. Stand Out

• Stand Out was good, but before I moved on to the next song, "Seagulls (Stop It Now)" came on and I forgot all about Stand Out. Then "I2I"! Goofy, Jason Marsden's Max, and Tevin Campbell, a pretty perfect cast. "I2I" is a 9 to 9.5. "WATERFALLS"?! Sorry, Rae, done for the day. We're sticking with full nostalgia playlist!
• [That was a full seven days ago, and much vibing was had. I will note that "Stand Out" stood out above the crowd over that time as it played in my head far more often than anything else in these 129, and even against twenty-five recent albums I listened through.]

#15. Herbal Tea

• Played it five times. E\very single time it was two minutes after the song that I realized it ended and I was listening to nothing. I missed the entire song after like the first ten seconds. Even hunkering down and trying to focus on the lyrics and subtitled video, which SHOULD HIT ME CUZ THEY ARE GOOD, it just became white noise and I zoned out completely. [Even trying twice more to listen, the only thing that's happened is I accidentally refreshed the page five hours ago forgetting what I was doing.]

#13. Tat Ming Pair

• Not a fan of the song on a casual listen, but really really enjoyed your due diligence and research. Fascinating history!

#14. Numb

• That was a fun and upbeat E.G.G.M.A.N.!

#11. Alfyn, The Apothecary

• *diverges from going into top 10 because insaneintherain links*

Will write-up the other notes later.

Mega_Mana posted...

This is her voice softened???

Somewhat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPyCfaKKH7A

I recall the actually nominated YouTube music video as being even harsher, but I don't have a link to that. I'll say that I kinda enjoy the original version these days... enough years have passed that it's somewhat nostalgic.

Considering your reaction to VTubers, I doubt there'd be a reason to try to track down the missing songs. I might be able to find something for YuNi's song as UF8 seems to refer to a music video version for it, but he also says the video is vastly inferior so it wouldn't be a good substitute.

What's interesting is that I can't seem to find any trace of a Paule Clown ever existing in the first place... I've tried a few different searches, but I'm not getting anywhere. Since I can't recall the song or what she looked like, it's proving difficult.

(More actual comments later.)

EDIT: Okay, at least managed to prove Clown existed in the past. Found an archived version of that video's page which did not have the video, but does give the Japanese rendition of her channel name:

ch

And the song title:

...I did find song of hers saved elsewhere, but not quite that one. Still, progress.

Carol Brown: Delightfully goofy and charming. Not quite funny or emotional enough to ever hit the top tier, but wonderful enough that it's not exactly far removed from it. Kinda makes me want to try watching the show, though I've been saying that since the show was actually on the air, so I doubt that's actually going to happen.

-

They Stood Up For Love: Ooh, I binged most of the Live songs that I love too many times, but this one I don't get to hear too often... as a glitched upload, it requires me to go out of my way to find it, unlike all their accurate songs. I still love the absolute perfect timing on the song glitching out--the way it is somehow tied to Ed singing about living in another dimension is brilliant. And there's something charming about the lyrics... it's spiritual, but wrapped in so many metaphors that it's wonderfully weird. May actually be my current favorite song by the band, owing to the fact that I spent way too much time listening to the few songs I used to enjoy more than it.

-

You & Me - AkkeY Remix: I still love this one. The vastly improved backing music makes her voice much more palatable... though apparently I eventually started liking the original--looking back at the second music topic, while the song started at 4/10, it eventually wound up at 6.7/10 with a note about her being "cute enough". I honestly didn't remember giving such a relatively high score to the original... but I definitely still love AkkeY's Remix and feel it may have been slightly undervalued; I'd say 98 points minimum.

-

BOlla Twins: It's amusing that Bo finally became the overly theatrical villain the music wanted him to be all along. Still a very fun mashup; it took me a while to admit how much I enjoyed it, but it's definitely a top-tier mashup now that I've had time to properly adjust to it.

-

I Don't Wanna See You With Her: Good song. I don't vibe with it as strongly these days, but she has a powerful voice and I'd say that I still really like it.

-

Snowball: I continue to love Cyberpunk Christmas, though the extreme length can make it a bit difficult to listen to in its entirety. Still a really nice treat (or an ice treat?), especially since I tend to completely and utterly despise anything Christmas related.

-

Stand Out: Ah yes, G-Rated rebellion song. Pretty nice, though I think I'd prefer something with a harder edge to it these days.

-

....Wait, Eleanor Rigby was part of the third ranking topic? It's so omnipresent that I didn't even notice it was a returning song at the recent ranking.. *checks* Ohh, the third ranking had an odd cover/deconstruction of the song while the fifth topic had the original. I really do not remember an Eleanor Rigby cover... remind me to look into Esperanto's cover of the song later. (The original video has been deleted and I'm not invested in the detour enough to track it down right this second).

-

Garden: Obviously I don't have the same reaction to this song since I loved it (and still do), it's overly epic music that does that to me. Something like the Eightfold Path's decision to play eight epic battle themes in a row or the barely tolerable tedium of "The Downward Spiral" that bores me to sleep from the start and never gets better. Aaanywho , I should probably listen to some more of herbal tea's work... they don't have many songs, but this type of painful lofi sound seems to define them & I wouldn't mind listening to more songs like this. ...Also, perhaps I should have nominated this song or something like it for tazzy? This is kinda lofi or lofi adjacent.

-

And some more thoughts later. It's quite late in the afternoon--I blame Bash at Berlin messing up my schedule--and I have other things that must be dealt with before I can revisit any other songs.

A Forbidden Fruit Every Day: I tend to enjoy all the nominated Tat Ming Pair songs & obviously this one is no exception. I am a little proud of how much effort I put into researching the song, as there were several songs that basically didn't even get write ups & I actually made a real attempt at checking sources and thinking about things. It helps that I enjoyed the song enough that I kinda loved it before doing any research... not sure I'd have put the effort into a song I wasn't already attached to. Thank you for the compliments!

-

Numb: Speaking of songs without write ups... while the lyrics here are *technically* vague enough to work with any type of relationship, it's pretty hard for me to see this as anything other than being about issues with parents. And yeah, I'm not going to get into those here, I feel I've shared way more than enough about familial issues for several lifetimes.

-

E.G.G.M.A.N. (CD Version): I still come back to this one occasionally! Probably my favorite SiivaGunner track. This mashup has absolutely no reason to work as well as it does, but I love it.

-

Alfyn, The Apothecary (The Eightfold Road): This album really had some great character themes... this one gave me that type of smooth jazz-ish sax that I wanted and some cheesy 80s guitar shredding which still feels like Bill & Ted "bring humanity together through the power of rock"-esque. Probably my favorite song from the album, though I do still live Ophilia & H'aanit's themes as well.

-

Sweet Devil (VDM Remix): Ehh... I think I'll pass on commenting on this. I still love it, even though it does everything that I don't like & I don't want to do any deep soul-searching as to why. "Make of this song's placement what you want" kinda sums up as much as I wish to share...

-

Snuff Out the Light: Fun song, though I'm not as into it right now... perhaps I listened to it way too many times that year, perhaps I just have other anti-sun songs that I'd rather listen to (the fact that I'm dropping everything to go listen to "Ever the Optimist" again is not the best sign). I like it and it's still really neat how this is from an earlier, completely different version of the film which makes this song a lost artifact from another reality, but it's more something I like than something I'm obsessed with.

-

Ripples: Beautiful. I'm not often in the mood for beautiful love songs, but it's hard to top this song when I'm in the mood for it. As handsomeboy pointed out, I never properly acknowledged the sadness of the ending--he sings that his time with her is still recollected in his dreams, implying the relationship has ended (or she passed away) & he's unable to move on... honestly, while the sadness usually plays well with me, I prefer this as a "love song" rather than "sad" & typically ignore the implications of the final line.

-

I'm Gonna Carry On: Perfection. I don't think I was really a fan of Amy before this song broke my mind in a very specific way in which I suddenly identified as an eight year old pink hedgehog, but I've certainly come to enjoy the character these days. I think my Google account still uses an image of Amy in part because of the way this song impacted me. ...I'm still not entirely sure why people continue to nominate songs for me when one openly won for such an arbitrary reason, but I remain grateful.

-

Horse: Under certain scoring systems this song would have tied "I'm Gonna Carry On" for first place. Remarkable since the first reaction was extreme dislike, but there's just something so sweet about this song... the simple tail-wagging groove is quite appealing, I think I love Ed's voice, and I'm way more attached to the "I'll pick you up and it will be alright" line than I should be. This was one of the most soothing songs I ever heard, so I did listen to this one a lot... it does kinda hurt its placement these days, though not quite as much as some other songs.

-

Runaway Train - The Wicked Symphony: Ooh, this one also got a *lot* of play from me over the years. One of my most listened to songs on Spotify for multiple years & I also played it quite a bit on Audiosurf 2. The dissociation as the singer argues with voices in his head is exactly what I want and it's attached to possibly the greatest symphonic metal song of all time, so this is another perfect song. Just an absolute materpiece, musically and lyrically.

-

Oh No (Live at Royal Albert Hall): Possibly my favorite song on the album these days, largely because I haven't listened to it as much as all the other songs from it that I loved. Incredibly catchy and with a damn fine sax solo for no apparent reason, this is still something I love quiet a bit. I'm a bit sad that it missed the cutoff to the 100 point Final Round, but the unusual rules for the finale meant it was quite impossible to add any extra songs... oh well.

-continued-

Happy Song (Live at Royal Albert Hall): Honestly, "We're all fucked in the head, alone and depressed" is still incredibly inspirational when performed live like this. And "The world has coalesced into one giant mess of hate and unrest" lyrics become more appropriate every year. FUN FACT: The original version of this song appeared in WWE 2K23, so now this song also reminds me of wrestling!

-

Easier to Run: Ah yes. Self-loathing & wishing you couldn't remember the darkness of your past. Exactly what I wanted lyrically at the time and a pretty easy entrant to the top ten.

-

Dux Mix 1: I still love the song and seek it occasionally, but I'm surprised that you're into it. I don't think you're usually into the really experimental tracks? This one is so avant-garde that even after listening to it for years, I still remain unable to properly process what it is or even recall it in detail... it still feels like a completely new experience every time I listen to it & I'm never ready for it end, even though it's a fairly long song. A truly spellbinding and alien song that I can never get tired of. The "Higher Love" cover/remix/whatever still goes incredibly hard.

-

-

Now if you'll permit me, there are at least three other songs from that topic that I need to revisit, so I'm going to go off script and look at them real quick even though you didn't mention them.

-

Posthuman: I'm really not as into this song, but it's somewhat responsible for me learning to separate art from the artist. After listening to this song, I sought out a few other Manson songs and got fairly into "DON'T CHASE THE DEAD". I was feeling quite happy with myself; I'd finally broken free of the religious right's programming and was listening to the ultimate forbidden artist & found a song of his that I loved on my own. I was showing signs of personal growth & the lines about a night that lasts forever were exactly what I wanted.

...Then all the allegations against him came out. And we were back to him being some ultimate forbidden evil. And I just... couldn't go back to letting other people tell me what I couldn't listen to.. I loved that song and it represented a very important milestone for me & even if he was absolute garbage, the song was still important to me. I'm aware that makes me a horrible person, but I'd rather be scum that's free to enjoy what I enjoy than go back to who I was.

-

Scattered Lights - AI: I've been half-looking for this song. I knew there was some meditative PSO2 song nominated at one of these topics, but never quite felt inspired to find where it was... if I'm in the mood for quiet meditation, I'm not really in the mood to go hunting through archives to find a specific track. Then you mentioned Snowball & indirectly showed me where this was. As the song that got first place on my last trip through the 24 finale songs, this song could also be considered a winner of the topic: "I'm Gonna Carry On" has the distinction of being the actual winner and the most consistently high placing song ; "Horse" is the only song to have come in first multiple times during the finale & would have shared first place if all pre-finale scores were tossed out ; "Scattered Lights-AI" would have won under my traditional 'only the ranking I feel like giving at this exact moment matters' ranking. So, in a way, they're all winners! (Though only one of them is the actual winner & conveniently that one is still my favorite, so it all worked out).

...Anyway, this song is nice! It's not quite as meditative as I remember, but it's still a peaceful and relaxing ambiance that I'm drawn to.

-

Esperanto - Eleanor Rigby:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2V1MTGWJgA

...I have no memory of this song. It's...weird and not in a way that I'm a fan of, but I don't dislike it. It's just so unexpected that I mostly just blink at it in confusion.

-

I'm Gonna Carry On > E.G.G.M.A.N. (CD Version) > Sweet Devil > You & Me Remix > Oh No > Happy Song > Dux Mix 1 > Runaway Train > Snowball > Horse > They Stood Up For Love (Glitched) > Numb > BOlla Twins (I'll Touch Whatever I Want) > Carol Brown > Garden > Forbidden Fruit > Scattered Lights > Ripples > Stand Out > Alfyn > Easier to Run > I Don't Wanna See You With Her > Posthuman > Snuff Out The Light > Esperanto Rigby

...I probably shouldn't have ranked songs that you didn't mention & really shouldn't have included "not nominated by anyone anywhere E.G.G.M.A.N.", but I did. This was a fun trip down memory lane, thank you.

Definitely need to do the write-ups now so I can explain Dux Mix 1 =P

#10. Our Own World

• Don't let my hotel room's anchor point constrain you from your spaces. We don't need reality! My door can be any place if ever the hotel doesn't work out for you and your sisters =D! Also, the VA for Professor Doofenschmirz pops up in my reels a lot despite not growing up or watching more than a handful of Phineas and Ferb episodes. However, I am now picturing his high nasal crooning to a platypus about love and reality and it is amazing.

#8. Horse

• Gives America vibes.
• ...The band. Like Sister Golden Hair, Ventura Highway, A Horse With No Name. That America.
• Like, in the way that America's sound and songs are go-to memory capsules of youth and family trips to New Hampshire, watching the skies of summer or winter blues and the big white fluff clouds out the car windows.

#7. Easier to Run

• This song getting broken up by two different customers calling regarding their cars, the lack of communication with our service department, and how both are thinking about going to different dealerships. Like back-to-back in two minutes time. Extremely disheartening and making 'Easier to Run' hit very different notes. Would it better to run? I feel like I do what I can, but I don't know how to improve anything and haven't improved myself in a long time. I work in a Business Development Center answering calls and making appointments, and I feel like it might be better to leave and let them hire someone competent and helpful...
• 'with all this helplessness inside pretending I don't feel this place is so much simpler than shame'
• yeah, am I doing any good by staying? Should they get someone more confident with full-time availability and car knowledge?

#6. Dux Mix 1 (A Timeline)

• A. See comment about 'Higher Love' and file it away for later, wondering if it's the 'Higher Love' I'm thinking of
• B. Weird but okay but good but groove, really like it
• C.Hear trumpets start playing 'Higher Love' and let out this one burst of a loud guffaw. Like a single blast that lasted less than a second, but with the force of thunder
• D. Day is made instantly better. Thank you for having this one spot higher than 'Easier to Run'
• E. 'Higher Love' touched fuzzy, got dizzy
• F. Even the middle-of-song advertising has an old shareware, early internet feel [Geocities!], adding to an already SNES/Genesis soundmix
• G. This is easily, hands-down, no question the highest ranking I have ever given to a @MycroProcessor / @Toxtricity nomination

#4. Runaway Train

• Reminds me of the singer from Rent's 'Another Day,' but better

I've had Happy Song stuck in my head all day, so I'm thinking I may have had that one a bit too low last night... but that's what happens when bombarded with songs I love. Other than "I'm Gonna Carry On" being in first place, everything else is rather volatile and kinda 'wherever I feel like placing them at that moment'.

I'll also *slightly* apologize for attacking The Downward Spiral. I still hate the album, but I do enjoy "Hurt" so it's wrong to say the album never improves.

Aaaanywho...

Mega_Mana posted...

#10. Our Own World
Don't let my hotel room's anchor point constrain you from your spaces. We don't need reality! My door can be any place if ever the hotel doesn't work out for you and your sisters =D! Also, the VA for Professor Doofenschmirz pops up in my reels a lot despite not growing up or watching more than a handful of Phineas and Ferb episodes. However, I am now picturing his high nasal crooning to a platypus about love and reality and it is amazing.

We'll keep that in mind, thank you. Also it's funny that you mention Doof! A few (re: several) years ago, while half asleep, I somehow wound up watching part of a Phineas & Ferb episode on mute while my computer was playing "Hit Me With Your Best Shot". And I swear Doof's animations synced up with the chorus so perfectly that it took me quite a while to realize that it wasn't an actual music video.

...I have no idea why I had that song on the computer, why it was playing, why I had Disney Channel on mute, or why I have no memories prior to the animation & music synching up. ...Also, in retrospect, I'm not sure that wasn't a dream. It feels too vivid and too oddly specific to have been a dream, but the memory is so nonsensical and scrambled from exhaustion that it doesn't feel real either.

......I swear this sounded more interesting before I started typing.

Mega_Mana posted...

someone competent and helpful...

I'm not really good at being supportive, but you seem competent and helpful to me. Also, I hate most people and like you, so statistically speaking any replacement would assuredly be worse.

...I know that's not great advice, but I'm sure you're better than you give yourself credit for.

Mega_Mana posted...

C.Hear trumpets start playing 'Higher Love' and let out this one burst of a loud guffaw. Like a single blast that lasted less than a second, but with the force of thunder
D. Day is made instantly better. Thank you for having this one spot higher than 'Easier to Run'

I'm glad the song helped! Also, kinda funny: I was playing one of Spotify's radios on shuffle & "Higher Love" came up as the third song, even though I'm pretty sure I've never listened to it on Spotify before. Had a hard time not laughing at that, but I didn't want to try explaining why the song suddenly playing for no reason was so funny.

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

Considering your reaction to VTubers, I doubt there'd be a reason to try to track down the missing songs. I might be able to find something for YuNi's song as UF8 seems to refer to a music video version for it, but he also says the video is vastly inferior so it wouldn't be a good substitute.

oh yeah, i remember putting the music video over the album version for what i think you're talking about but it wasn't synced up and i didn't keep the file...

for what it's worth, there is this topic upload if you're fine with using a vpn https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=GooHn7C_CZw

#b#

Ooh, thank you for that. That makes it easy to find an unlocked version of the song:

https://invidious.jing.rocks/watch?v=GooHn7C_CZw

Song is still a fun bop, but it was definitely the lyrics that were pushing it so far up the list.

Suddenly, yesterday's words come to mind
"Well, I don't have any hopes for you anymore ..."
And well, it's not like
I have any hopes for myself,
But just what were you trying to get across?

Really, all the lyrics are brutal. I didn't really focus on any of them at the time because... well, let's just say any of the stories about people not having any hopes for my existence were a bit too personal and brutal to share at the time. So the song got a very vague write up about the lyrics hitting the right note without any elaboration or direct quoting.

So, definitely a song I still love and I'm glad to hear it again. Since it's been a few years and the write up was so vague, I honestly didn't remember what the song was or why it was so high on the list, so thank you for this.

......I swear this sounded more interesting before I started typing.

It still did!

*spends two hours looking at Rank the Tracks and trying to decode what to listen to or where to begin*
*pop into this tabbed topic and scroll through quickly to see if any new replies*
*eyes catch the note for 27.5 about listening to more Maria Mena*

Try saying 'Mega Mana Maria Mena' ten times fast

Mega_Mana posted...

*spends two hours looking at Rank the Tracks and trying to decode what to listen to or where to begin*

The current week, which ends on Thursday, we're covering Nina Simone's Pastel Blues:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/80836994

If you remember Sinnerman from our recent ranking, this would be the album that song came from. Though none of the other songs are quite like it, so your mileage may vary on if that's a good example track or not. I think the album has a reasonable amount of variety; a few lighter, poppier songs & some very heavy tunes.

Next week will be "Genius/GZA - Liquid Swords" if you wanted to get a headstart listening to it. I haven't listened to it yet, so I can't offer any thoughts about it. I don't even remember what the sample track was when it was nominated...

Fluttershy_Pony posted...

The current week, which ends on Thursday, we're covering Nina Simone's Pastel Blues:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/80836994

If you remember Sinnerman from our recent ranking, this would be the album that song came from. Though none of the other songs are quite like it, so your mileage may vary on if that's a good example track or not. I think the album has a reasonable amount of variety; a few lighter, poppier songs & some very heavy tunes.

Next week will be "Genius/GZA - Liquid Swords" if you wanted to get a headstart listening to it. I haven't listened to it yet, so I can't offer any thoughts about it. I don't even remember what the sample track was when it was nominated...

Went through the first 150 RTT, and I am so scattershot at joining.

1. Gorillaz, "Demon Days"
2. Weezer, "Weezer (The Blue Album)"
105. Gorillaz, "Plastic Beach"
116. Prince, "Purple Rain"
131. Franz Ferdinand, "Franz Ferdinand"
132. Rusted Root, "When I Woke"
144. Weird Al Yankovic, "Off the Deep End"
145. R.E.M., "Automatic for the People"
146. Vince Guaraldi, "A Charlie Brown Christmas"

I'll check it out.