Lurker > Raetsel_Lapin

Ballad wasn't bad. He still has a great voice when he's not going full metal with it, but I prefer Sorrow.

Trigger on the other hand... Google Translate did a better job with the lyrics than any official translation ever could.

To deprive fate
The crushed star sings
As the devil is clawed

I don't care what an accurate translation of the lyrics would be, that line is gold. Still prefer Sorrow, but I do like it and it would have gotten a good score, thank you.



Gravity's Union wasn't as good as Number City, largely because it felt less...experimental? It's still good, don't get me wrong. I'll probably try listening to more of their work later on; it shows a lot of promise, but I'm not as excited to dive into it as some other things.

Now, I should probably try to organize the list:

Songs From This Topic (and the sign-up topic)

Future Foe Scenarios:



10-20-40:



Honey:



Anthill (Album):

https://inpuj.bandcamp.com/album/anthill)

Dear Future Self (Album):

https://inpuj.bandcamp.com/album/dear-future-self

Mycro's Playlist (assorted songs):

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLliVxBMurmt4lRjxsOK5y_0h17vKByMp4

Binky by Snarky Puppy:

(no link provided, to the best of my recollection)





Specific Artists

Assorted artists I wanted to hear a few more songs by. Plan is to just take two or three songs that pop up on Google, but feel free to name specific songs by them if you're someone still around this topic that cares about any of these artists:



Alice Cooper

Dean Evans (Ocean Software)

Jonathan Dunn (Ocean Software)

Jeroen Tel (Ocean Software)

The Mars Volta

Kindo

Vektroid

DM DOKURO

Let's Eat Grandma

Childish Gambino

Pain of Salvation

Arcturus

The Dillinger Escape Plan

Justice

Spock's Beard

The Three Band

Oi Va Voi

Sufjan Stevens



Albums

I Phantom (Mr. Lif)

Third Eye Blind (Third Eye Blind)

Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? (of Montreal)

Imaginos (Blue Oyster Cult)

Rainier Fog (Alice in Chains)

Dirt (Alice in Chains)

Jazz from Hell (Frank Zappa)

R Plus Seven (Oneohtrix Point Never)



Undefined Things

Something described as "avant-garde metal"





...well that should keep me busy for a while.
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MycroProcessor posted...

HOLY shit hahahah wow when this topic started I really did not expect to be literally both your #1 and #2 on this list. Was worried most of my picks would be too weird for many to be ranked very high.

Honestly, you basically called it in your first post:

MycroProcessor posted...

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

I enjoy music with a lot of distortions or weird effects that couldn't be created in the past, or sounds from older game systems; the X68000, Ga

oh shit i actually might do well on this ranking (hopefully i am not speaking too soon)

I had such a hard time not posting shifty eyes in response to that. </.<



MycroProcessor posted...

If you want any recommendations for stuff similar to them please let me know!

I wouldn't get to them for a while since I need to start working through ZA'LIST (and catching up on a few other songs from this topic), but some more...unique experiences like focus tous might be useful to have on hand when I want a break from the more normal songs I'll be going through, if you had any suggestions on that end.

Se7enthrust posted...

I'll certainly keep it in mind for your next ranking if you do another. Great work on completing this one!!! =D

How do you feel?

I would like to do another ranking eventually... have a few different ideas, though it's obviously way too soon to start making any plans.

I feel pretty good. This went much better than I expected it to.
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WINNER!

Song Name: Maclir
Song Origin: PeriTune
Song Link: https://soundcloud.com/sei_peridot/maclir
Nominator: MycroProcessor (1/10)


Truthfully, no other song could have ever come in first place besides this one. Part of me wanted to put each of the top five here:



Dagothwave because putting it in first place would be the most "me" decision possible.

Mentos, because the joy that nomination brought me is second to none. (Well maybe second to one specific section of the Hamilton song...)

Kinetic because it is the most technically impressive song to reach this high of a placement & because I so deeply love everything about it; the story, the futuristic...EVERYTHING. Just everything.

focus tous because I enter an interesting trance state whenever I click that link and I don't think a song can become any more distorted than that without descending into noise.



Truthfully, those four songs are way beyond everything ranked below them. But Maclir stands as far beyond those four songs as they stand above the rest of the nominations. I can't explain why, but this song just speaks to me in a way no other song ever has. I don't know what the lyrics are and I don't want to know, because there is literally nothing that could make me love this any more. On a scale of 1-10, this is a 15.

...No, a 15 implies that it's still able to be judged on a numerical scale. It's more of a ~+~ out of 10, as no human language or scoring system can properly describe it.


GOLD MEDAL!

In Celebration

Lowest Ranked Song: Transdimensional Leakage (179th Place)
Highest Ranked Song: Maclir (1st Place)

Since you took the two highest placements on the list, one can only wonder what might have happened if you returned to the topic to nominate the full 15 instead of sticking with only 10 nominations.

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2:

Song Name: focus tous
Song Origin: bunbleman
Song Link:
Nominator: MycroProcessor (2/10)


I feel like I've waited an eternity for this song. All my desire for more distortions, more artificial sounds, everything I ever wanted... musically, anyway, it turns out there's actually a lot of other non-music things I want. The only three songs I went out of my way to listen to repeatedly for fun were Dagothwave, Mentos, and this song. I was so completely entranced by this song, that I played it three times in a row the first time I heard it and went back to it a few more times over the ranking. Simply amazing.



[FINAL-ER NOTES: Well I've gone back to listen to more songs from the ranking after the ranking started, but during the time I was still ranking songs those were the three songs I would go back to for non ranking related purposes.]

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Songs posted in topic update:

Listened to the other version of Astronomy. It's not bad, but I prefer the nominated version quite a bit.

The first Dir En Grey song (which Google tells me would be "Taiyou no Ao") is alright. I'm not crazy about it, but it's far more personal and heartfelt than I would have expected from the band. The ending of the song with the song fading out and things going dark with only those eight flickering lights remaining... is actually quite pretty.

I actually liked Ranunculus, so you can consider your point about me being foolish to dismiss the band entirely to be well made. I'll get to Lynch tomorrow.





And now, it's time to end this...

...particular phase of the topic, as I plan on posting brief thoughts on every other song posted in the topic and my progress through ZA'LIST until this hits 500.

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3:

Song Name: Kinetic
Song Origin: Arcturus
Song Link:
Nominator: TheArkOfTurus (1/10)


....So, I could have found this song years ago, if I ever bothered to learn what your signature was referring to? So much wasted time....


SILVER MEDAL

In Celebration

Lowest Ranked Song: Allegro Con Fuoco (200th Place)
Highest Ranked Song: Kinetic (3rd Place)

Though not quite as varied as CPU's nominations, you also had a tremendous amount of variety within your 10 songs. This led to your rankings hitting all over the place; from a classical music song that I didn't enjoy so strongly it made all the other classical nominations seem better, to getting an incredible 4 songs in the top 10, your nominations were an experience unlike any other.

...Unfortunately for you, and everyone else, Mycro pretty much had the top two slots locked up. While CPU can be proud that he had the song that I listened to the most times & that it helped me through several rough patches, you can take pride that you had the most songs in the top 10.

Also the largest gap between Lowest & Highest Ranked Song, if that was a stat you cared about. And I think I need to hear a couple more songs by this band, so let's update ZA'LIST again.

[[ZA'LIST

1.Alice Cooper

2.OSTs from games published by Ocean Software.

3.Something by The Mars Volta.

4.Some more Kindo music.

5.Vektroid.

6.One or two more songs by Nightwish

7.The album "New Man Theme" came from.

8.DM DOKURO.

9.Something else described as "Avant-Garde Metal".

10.Third Eye Blind (Album)

11.The album Cato as a Pun came from.

12.One or two songs by Let's Eat Grandma

13.The album Astronomy came from and whatever other songs I'm supposed to listen to along with it.

14.A couple more Childish Gambino songs.

15.Alice in Chains. Maybe two albums worth? That seems like a lot of songs, but it might be worth it. Maybe. [EDIT: Rainier Fog & Dirt.]

16.A couple more Pain of Salvation songs.

17.Arcturus]]



And now for everything added during the topic itself:

[[FINAL-ER ZA'LIST NOTES:

18.The Dillinger Escape Plan (Math Rock)

19.A couple more songs by "Justice".

20.Let's just throw everyone from Thank You Scientist's write-up: Spock's Beard, The Three Band, Snarky Puppy (Binky), Oi Va Voi.

21.Sufjan Stevens

22."Jazz From Hell"

23.R Plus Seven ]]

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Songs posted in topic update:

Listened to Marigold, don't have any specific thoughts on it at the moment. It doesn't hold up too well in comparison to Graves, so I'm probably undervaluing it in comparison.

Dark Hair Down is interesting, I did say this list needed a good revenge song and that seems to fit the bill nicely.

Watched them talking about Graves, which was interesting. Inspired me to go listen to Graves again, still a great song--the additional details probably wouldn't have impacted the ranking at all.





Just one more song at the moment...:



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4:

Song Name: Mentos the Freshmaker(?)
Song Origin: Advertising Jingle (Not Sure Who Wrote/Performed it)
Song Link:
Nominator: IhatethisCPU (1/15)



This song really helped me get through the ranking. It's probably the one I've listened to the most often, turning to it whenever I needed a pick-me-up. Songs reminding you of suicide, genocide, [redacted], or [redacted]? It's easy when you're full of life!

Part of me really wants to give this song first place... but then this song isn't exactly new to me. I've seen the commercials often enough that I knew it reasonably well; didn't know you could find a full length version on YouTube, but it's still not new.

...then again there are no rules and I can place any song anywhere I want... but... yeah, I think I want to have the other three remaining songs above it. It's a tough call, but the last songs are so totally amazing that I can't move them down any further. I'm sorry.

[FINAL NOTES: I don't want to eliminate any of these songs... *sighs*



BRONZE MEDAL!

In Celebration

Lowest Ranked Song: W.W. III (Arranged) (176th Place)
Highest Ranked Song: Mentos the Freshmaker (4th Place)

I don't think anyone embraced the chance to nominate literally anything as much as you did, with all 15 songs being truly unique... well I guess there was some overlap between the Madonna & Chicago songs, but the other 13 all clearly stood out from each other. This versatility definitely paid off for you, earning you third place in the rankings.

...yes the only criteria that actually matters to me is your highest ranked song. ]



[FINAL-ER NOTES: This hits a lot of the same notes as Dagothwave, but while Dagothwave is funny, the Mentos theme is strangely inspirational. Getting through the ranking would have been much, much more difficult without the Mentos theme keeping me happy and motivated. Don't care how absurd that sounds, I'm an absurd creature, deal with it.]

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And now for what Anagram has been waiting this entire topic for:


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5:

Dagothwave (I don't know who made this)

Nominator: Anagram (1/3)


I've mentioned loving 80s nostalgia, comedy songs (err, I did actually mention that somewhere before now, didn't I?), and villain songs. This song combines all three of those things to virtual perfection. The only thing holding it back is that I don't like it repeating the "No Recall or Intervention can work in this place / There is no escape" line four times in a row. I'm sure the creator was stuck working with what dialogue was available, but one more unique line of dialogue for the second verse would have helped tremendously.

[FINAL NOTES: I played a decent amount of Morrowind, but mostly I just stumbled around aimlessly stealing everything from every town before quitting. so I have no idea who Dagoth Ur even is.


PURIFY WEIRD SOUL!

In Memoriam

Lowest Ranked Song: Soviet March (172nd Place)
Highest Ranked Song: Dagothwave (5th Place)

Well, you definitely survived the longest in the DANGER ZONE / Death Omen Star, surviving 129 songs (or was it 128? I are bad at math) before your final nomination dropped. While I wasn't too fond of your other two songs, or the Civilization song you wished you nominated, this song was truly amazing.



[FINAL-ER NOTES: Not sure how you could be surprised with this song getting a high placement.

1: I told everyone in the opening post that objective quality was irrelevant to me. The only factor is how much I enjoyed the song.

2: I've admitted to liking objectively terrible things before. I even specifically called out "Whip My Hair" by The Chipettes as being a song I can't truly hate due to the furry-ness of shaking your tail.



I need you to understand; I listen to this song voluntarily (though not too often, admittedly). I own the album. It is horrible, but I don't care--it amuses me and non-human singers are worth infinity bonus points.

3: I've praised Nekrogoblin on multiple posts for playing non-human characters. I may be furry, but I appreciate all forms of non-human singers.

4: I repeatedly complained that the list needed more lighthearted songs to counter some of the more depressing songs.

5: Go back to the writeup for "Friends Forever"

Obscure references? Check

Fictional Bands? Check

This song has those too.

6: Go back to the writeup for "The Haunting (Somewhere in Time)

I'm a fan of Veritas, as I'm a sucker for villain songs and it's basically the most JRPG Final Boss-esque song in existence.

Go ahead and take a quick look at Veritas:



"You will kneel before me and you will confess that I'm God!". Factor in that Dagothwave also features a villain declaring themselves a God and that it's literally about an RPG boss...

Seriously, I was worried that my writeups were too heavily implying Dagothwave was getting an insanely high placement. And this is a song that I came back to on a regular basis throughout the ranking process. When I needed to laugh, or relax, or take a break, this song was always there to cheer me up. Have I cut a lot of objectively better songs than this one? Yep. But I can stand by it because, COME ON, this song was practically created specifically to appeal to me.]

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6:

Song Name: Iter Impius
Song Origin: Pain of Salvation
Song Link:
Nominator: TheArkOfTurus (2/10)


Great song, which is close enough to being a villain song that I'm counting it as one. I mean, it's not like Mr. Money is portrayed in any sort of positive light (at least in this song, I can't speak about other songs that I haven't heard) and "I will stay on my own / On this bloodstained throne" is a pretty dark line. Wouldn't mind hearing more of their songs at some point.



[[ZA'LIST

1.Alice Cooper

2.OSTs from games published by Ocean Software.

3.Something by The Mars Volta.

4.Some more Kindo music.

5.Vektroid.

6.One or two more songs by Nightwish

7.The album "New Man Theme" came from.

8.DM DOKURO.

9.Something else described as "Avant-Garde Metal".

10.Third Eye Blind (Album)

11.The album Cato as a Pun came from.

12.One or two songs by Let's Eat Grandma

13.The album Astronomy came from and whatever other songs I'm supposed to listen to along with it.

14.A couple more Childish Gambino songs.

15.Alice in Chains. Maybe two albums worth? That seems like a lot of songs, but it might be worth it. Maybe.

16.A couple more Pain of Salvation songs.]]




[FINAL-ER NOTES: Ohhh... this song... so brilliant in every conceivable way. A song that tells enough of a complete story that it can stand on its own, but with enough references to other songs that there's more I could seek if I desired... and yet, it still can only manage sixth place.]

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7:

Song Name: Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down)
Song Origin: Hamilton
Song Link:
Nominator: TheArkOfTurus (3/10)


I know it's stupid and childish of me, but I have a tendency to get attached to people who've done voice acting work on shows that I like:

I still get excited whenever I see Jon Lovitz pop up on anything due to an undying loyalty to The Critic. Did you know ABC had a terrible singing show featuring celebrities impersonating other celebrities? "Sing Your Face Off". It lasted three whole weeks back in 2014. I watched that show obsessively because Jon Lovitz was on it and, no matter how stupid it was, IT HAD JON LOVITZ on it.

I don't actively seek out his work, but I still perk up whenever Jason Alexander appears. Duckman was actually an important show to me, so I still want to squeal whenever I see him.

And other actors and actresses too, blah blah blah, you get the idea. I'm actually a pretty big fan of the Ducktales reboot, in which Lin-Manuel Miranda has a recurring role as the new Gizmoduck. And at around three minutes into this song, his voice becomes unmistakably that of Fenton/Gizmoduck.

I had a hard time not squee-ing at that point. It's like, "Look! Look, look, look, look! It's Gizmoduck! LOOK! *SQUEE!*" and I don't care how much that makes me sound like a two year old, I was just so excited and happy at that point. I don't think any song in this contest brought me as much joy as that one moment.

...also there's the usual responses. Happy for the chance to listen to a genre of music I don't ever hear, history lesson kinda nice, blah blah blah. The song is great enough that I'm sure it would have hit the top 10 even without that connection, but it may have been the deciding factor that pushed it over the last two songs.

[FINAL NOTES: I can't decide if I want to listen to the rest of Hamilton or not. I'm sure it's amazing, but that many historical songs in a row sounds very...difficult to get through in rapid succession. I think I'd get more out of it just going with one song a day instead of binging the entire thing all at once.]

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kateee posted...

i've never heard a lorde song aside from Royals which i don't care about but this is good

Huh, I actually didn't realize that song was also by her. Really not a fan of Royals, which is somehow overplayed that even I know way too much of it by heart, but Homemade Dynamite was good.





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8:

Song Name: Just friends
Song Origin:
Song Link:
Nominator: kateee (1/13)


As often as I've mentioned wanting more vocal and audio distortions, you had to know this song was going to get a really high ranking. And I am so glad this isn't one of the two songs you removed; I liked 10-20-40 but it has nothing on this song. Actually, the only reason I immediately listened to the other two even though you removed them from the list, is because I was hoping to find another song like this one.

I can't even fault the song for only repeating the same three lines, since the song quite blatantly doesn't need any more. It's quite impressive how complete a story it manages to tell in so few words. And the wonderful, wonderful distortions... this is absolutely everything I could ask for in a song.



GOLF!

In Memoriam

Lowest Ranked Song: Prom (182nd Place)
Highest Ranked Song: Just friends (8th Place)

Out of everyone, you succeeded in making me feel the widest range of emotions and I sincerely appreciate that.

[FINAL-ER NOTES: This song is so perfect... ohh, how I wish I could move it up, but I'm standing by the placement of every song in the top 10. Everything ranked above this song is there because I want them to be there and I do not regret that.

...but it's so good...]

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9:

Song Name: Gethsemane
Song Origin: Jesus Christ Superstar
Song Link:
Nominator: TheArkOfTurus (4/10)



For all of our sakes, I'm going to only focus on the song itself. First, I think I like songs that involve directly questioning God. I wouldn't say that's one of my things, really, but... it does grab my attention.

Second, I recently got into Leonard Cohen's "You Want It Darker" album and there's some interesting similarities between the title track and Gethsemane.



Most notably, Jesus & Cohen both refer to God in the context of a dealer, but to very different ends:

God, thy will is hard
But you hold every card
I will drink your cup of poison
Nail me to your cross and break me

Compared to:

If you are the dealer, I'm out of the game
If you are the healer, it means I'm broken and lame
If thine is the glory then mine must be the shame

I feel a lot could be made of the symbolism between Jesus resigning himself to his fate upon realizing that God held all the cards, while Cohen wanted to quit in response.

Both of them accept their inevitable deaths; Cohen writing and performing this song near the end of his life, declaring he was ready. Jesus walking to his death.

Really, comparing both songs is quite fascinating, even though they're not actually related to each other and I'm sure it's wrong to compare the two. Comparing a real person's death to a fictional version of Jesus is just going to provoke everybody, but I love both songs and can't help but see similarities in them.

And... I think that's about as far as I can go. Trying to discuss a song about and sung by a version of Jesus without directly confronting Christianity is difficult and I think I've gone as far as I'm willing to go with this writeup.

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Mr Lasastryke posted...

and yeah, you'll probably like coheed and cambria if you're into concept albums and storytelling in music. their music has this huge myhtology behind it with comic books that tie into the stories in their music and stuff.

That sounds sound very promising, yes.





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10:

Song Name: T.I.M.E.
Song Origin: Neil Cicierga, "Mouth Moods"
Song Link:
Nominator: Mega Mana (1/5)



This nomination put me in an awkward position, due to a frankly bizarre set of events that have nothing to do with the song itself. I heard this song at Se7en's ranking topic and told you quite directly that I absolutely loved this song, so the nomination feels a bit like cheating. Part of me wanted to drop it way back down at The Haunting & Viva La Vida, as I loved this so much that I actually listened to Neil's entire album in hopes of finding another song even half as great. (I did not care for any of his other songs).

But the only reason I heard the song at all was due to a lot of coincidences:

If Se7en had disqualified the song like he said he wanted to, I wouldn't have heard it.

If Se7en enjoyed the song, I wouldn't have heard it. I made an attempt to listen to everything in that topic series, but I was unable to listen for a while and fell way behind and just gave up. Astronomy doesn't have the same problems as this song because I heard it in this nomination list before it dropped at Se7en's topic.

[FINAL-ER EDIT: The Dear Hunter song also didn't have the problem because it was cut after the point I'd stopped listening to every link posted. Point/Counterpoint's appearance didn't matter much because I was already well aware of the song. We now return to the originally typed version of this write-up.]

...okay, so maybe it's just the two coincidences.



I can't give the song a low ranking because then I'm directly punishing it for failing at someone else's topic ; I can't give it first place because I want new songs and I already listen to this voluntarily on a regular basis.

Perhaps mercifully there was one song I truly loved above all others that this wouldn't have had a shot at first place even I was just hearing it for the first time, and I still love the song enough that it legitimately hits my top 10 even without being a new experience.

Not much to say about the song itself, as I think we covered it at Se7en's topic. I never cared for YMCA to begin with, but this song completely transforms the experience into something incredibly powerful. The lyrics are the same as they ever were, but with the overly bouncy disco music, I was never able to connect with the lyrics until presented in this way.

...How a comedy artist that I don't find funny managed to take a song I didn't like and turn into something so powerful, I'll never know.



GORF!

In Memoriam

Lowest Ranked Song: The Way It Goes (177th Place)
Highest Ranked Song: T.I.M.E. (10th Place)

Huh... just now noticing that all five songs you nominated are from vastly different genres. Very nice.

[FINAL-ER NOTES: Obviously it's impossible to know what would have happened had this been my first time hearing the song, but I honestly don't think it would have made it any further. It's incredibly powerful, I love it, and I'd like to declare it the winner... but the quality of songs here is so incredibly high, that I just can't see it as anything more than an introduction to the Top 10.]

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Chris (Hagane Orchestra)
&
Marisa Kirisame (Touhou)

Dracula (Castlevania)
&
Twintelle (ARMS)
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Marshmallow unicorns forever!

Snake5555555555 posted...

Glad you loved So Far Under so much! Rainier Fog is a fantastic album, I think it's easily their best since the 90s. For a classic album to listen to, you should go with Dirt.

Will do! Added that note to the final version of za'list.
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And we end the night by saying goodbye to one more competitor.

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11:

Song Name: So Far Under
Song Origin: Alice in Chains
Song Link:
Nominator: Snake5555555555 (1/15)


When I first heard this back at the start of the topic, I was sure I had found the song that would get first place. This was what I wanted, this was what I needed, and it was both unfortunate and hilarious that the first post nailed it so perfectly.

But then other songs came along. Some exactly what I wanted, things that were the exact opposite of what I wanted that I wound up highly enjoying anyway, and things I never knew existed but can no longer live without. Turns out the competition is much fiercer than I had expected when I started this topic.

While they didn't take first place (and, as of this writing, didn't even break the top 10), I think this might be the band I'm most interested in hearing more from. I definitely want more like this.

[FINAL NOTES: Ouch, cut just before the top 10.

HYPER COMBO FINISH!

In Memoriam

Lowest Ranked Song: Wish I Knew You (196th Place)
Highest Ranked Song: So Far Under (11th Place)

You started the topic off in just about the best possible way. Little Girl Blue was unlike anything I'd ever heard before and, while it didn't get a great score, was still a good experience ; Up and Away was everything I could have asked for in an introductory rap song (though perhaps a bit too much so) ; and this song jumped out in front as the 10/10 song every other song had to try to live up to.



...Huh, I hadn't actually realized Numb was also one of your nominations. That's pretty neat, actually.



[[ZA'LIST

1.Alice Cooper

2.OSTs from games published by Ocean Software.

3.Something by The Mars Volta.

4.Some more Kindo music.

5.Vektroid.

6.One or two more songs by Nightwish

7.The album "New Man Theme" came from.

8.DM DOKURO.

9.Something else described as "Avant-Garde Metal".

10.Third Eye Blind (Album)

11.The album Cato as a Pun came from.

12.One or two songs by Let's Eat Grandma

13.The album Astronomy came from and whatever other songs I'm supposed to listen to along with it.

14.A couple more Childish Gambino songs.

15.Alice in Chains. Maybe two albums worth? That seems like a lot of songs, but it might be worth it. Maybe.]]



[FINAL-ER NOTES: Perhaps the album this song came from and whatever classic album is considered to be their best or most popular? A new one and a classic one to give some context to the band, perhaps? It at least sounds like an idea...]

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12:

Song Name: Night Witches
Song Origin: Sabaton
Song Link:
Nominator: IhatethisCPU (2/15)

Another history lesson about subjects I knew nothing about, but unlike the Hong Kong song before this is one of the best metal songs I've ever heard and has the phrase "explosive violence".

In the future, all history lessons should be required to use the phrase explosive violence.

[FINAL NOTES: Eh, I've grown tired of updating the DEATH OMEN list, now that we're so close to the end. Either way, this is still a very good song.]

[FINAL-ER NOTES: Ehh, if you really want me to type more about this song, try reminding in about two days from now. After that batch of three songs I need to lay down for a bit and I suspect posting the top 10 songs tomorrow will have me too distracted to go back to listen to this again; great song though.]

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YouTube being down limited my ability to listen to things, but I at least cleared everything in post 368.

Song of Myself is too unique to have any coherent thoughts on after just one listen. I have no idea how I feel about the song, but I could see myself coming back to it a few times a year due to how unique it is. It also tells me that I don't think I could handle an entire album of Nightwish as just listening to two songs in one night feels excessive.

I Want My Tears Back isn't bad. I'm noticing a distinct lack of references to bunnies in any actually nominated song, so it gets an unfair boost due to the March Hare reference.

Everybody Jam is interesting... not like anything on the nominated list and conjures up a variety of memories. Louis Armstrong's later hits got some play on the oldies station, so I have a passing familiarity with him from my childhood & Scatman John's biggest song was introduced to me by... someone important to me, let's leave it at that. The memories from two radically different points in time triggering simultaneously, caused by a song I've never heard before, is...different. I'd have to try listening to it again later, now that I know what I'd be getting into.
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Marshmallow unicorns forever!

Bane_Of_Despair posted...

Honestly you should try to listen to most of Coheed's discography imo

We'll see. I already have quite a few whole albums added to the list, particularly for someone who doesn't really listen to entire albums... if the follow-up is as good as Number City, I'd definitely be interested.

NBIceman posted...

That definitely wasn't me ten years ago - I only came to B8 in 2014! And I had no idea at all that you'd be familiar with it.

Curiouser and curiouser, though I suppose it doesn't matter who introduced me to the band.
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NBIceman posted...

The Number City/Gravity's Union one-two punch on Descension is a big part of that

...Not that I don't have enough songs on lists (I still haven't gotten to anything posted yesterday), but I'm pretty sure I'm obligated to listen to at least Gravity's Union now...
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13:

Song Name: Point/Counterpoint
Song Origin: Streetlight Manifesto
Song Link:
Nominator: NBIceman (1/15)


Of course this song would be on the list. It couldn't not be on the list.



About ten years ago or so, Board 8 had a brief interest in a somewhat basic flash game that someone found on some Japanese site. It would play a song with each line displayed on screen, and you would have to try to type out the lyrics before the start of the next line. If you downloaded the program, it was incredibly easy to add your own songs and lyrics, sparking some interest in deciphering how to do so.

It was an easy program, I think everyone figured almost everything out with some basic trial and error within a day or so. Someone, possibly even you yourself, made a joke about daring someone to convert a Streetlight Manifesto song to the program. I don't know if this person posted a song by the band, but it put them on my radar and I listened to one song--possibly even this one.

I hated it.



Time passed and this song appeared in someone else's music ranking topic, years later. I don't think I commented on anything, but I was on a kick where I really wanted new music and listened to everything that was posted. It was the same mythical topic where R.I.P. was nominated that proved that there were rap songs that I enjoyed.

I recognized the band instantly. It was these guys. Again. And it was a song dealing with suicide.

....I didn't care for it.



When the song appeared again at Se7en's ranking topic, even more years later, I didn't even need to listen to it. Of course it was this song, by this band. It had been an eternity since I had heard it, but I practically knew it by heart. All the tempo changes, some of the lyrics, the subject matter, the song had apparently left more of an impact on me than I gave it credit for.

....Actually, the song wasn't half-bad.



And here we are.

Again.

It couldn't have ended any other way, could it? I can't even be sure if the connecting thread to everything is you, who has had a slavish dedication to this band for ten straight years, or if everyone on this board loves the band. I'm not even sure they have more than one song; perhaps it is just this one song. Maybe I'm trapped in a sitcom and neither I, you, or this band even exisists. As soon as I admit that I like the song, there will be a laugh track as our reality fades to black & the end credits roll.

Perhaps it's the stockholm syndrome setting in, but I apparently like this song now. After so many lifetimes, it's become strangely comforting, like a nightlight.



SPIDER WITH A TOP HAT BLAST!

In Memoriam

Lowest Ranked Song: The Haunting (Somewhere in Time) (150th Place)
Highest Ranked Song: Point/Counterpoint (13th Place)

When your lowest ranked song is one that I basically disqualified on the grounds that I loved it too much, you know you picked a good set of songs. There weren't any real weak links anywhere and I think you got the most things added to ZA'LIST... though I haven't actually counted.

It's also highly interesting that both your lowest & highest ranked songs were songs I knew quite well, perfectly illustrating the inconsistencies in my ranking, no matter how many different ways I justify the exceptions.

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Marshmallow unicorns forever!

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14:

Song Name: Shadows
Song Origin: Childish Gambino
Song Link:
Nominator: Dragon66116 (1/15)


Well, I did say that the only rap song I ever truly loved was a Childish Gambino song with distorted vocal effects. So, obviously, I really enjoy this too... it just falls into the trap of being too obvious? It's like, "here's that artist you like doing those things you like him for!"

[FINAL NOTES: I should make more of an effort to listen to his songs. He's 2/2 on songs I like and if I truly want to listen to more music like that, that's as good a place to start as I'm ever going to get.

[[ZA'LIST

1.Alice Cooper

2.OSTs from games published by Ocean Software.

3.Something by The Mars Volta.

4.Some more Kindo music.

5.Vektroid.

6.One or two more songs by Nightwish

7.The album "New Man Theme" came from.

8.DM DOKURO.

9.Something else described as "Avant-Garde Metal".

10.Third Eye Blind (Album)

11.The album Cato as a Pun came from.

12.One or two songs by Let's Eat Grandma

13.The album Astronomy came from and whatever other songs I'm supposed to listen to along with it.

14.A couple more Childish Gambino/Donald Glover songs.]]


Unfortunately...

TOUCH OF DEATH!

In Memoriam

Lowest Ranked Song: Red Sam (197th Place)
Highest Ranked Song: Shadows (14th Place)

...After being reminded of Red Sam, I can't focus on anything else. ]





[FINAL-ER NOTES: Alright, alright, I know that's not a fair note to end on.

First, I did want more exposure to rap music, and you gave a decent variety of options; from recent songs like They.Resurrect.Over.New. to classics like It Ain't Hard to Tell, you offered a wider look into that genre than any other single nominator.

Real World proved to be an unexpected joy; I expected to dismiss it as "too familiar, next", but it managed to soar into the top 50. And may still have been slightly undervalued, as I could really go for a relaxing song like that right about now...

Other songs also covered a lot of ground and, while I strongly disliked Red Sam, like I said in the intro--I'm honestly grateful for the opportunity to listen to something that's as far from my comfort zone as possible.]

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MycroProcessor posted...

You should check out the rest of the R Plus Seven album

Sure, I'll add it to the final version of ZA'LIST



Mr Lasastryke posted...

interesting. personally i've never thought of them as a post-hardcore band.

I'd agree that this particular song sounds nothing like anything else described as post hardcore this topic, which is what made the running gag so frustrating. There was no common ground between anything; Secret G didn't sound like the same genre as My Chemical Romance songs (at least, the one or two songs of theirs I'd heard from game soundtracks). Then you get into people arguing that SZA could be post hardcore if you changed the instruments and Wikipedia declaring everything to have Post Hardcore influences.

Like the term comes up absolutely everywhere, to a point that it feels like it has no meaning. Does Number City sound like it has any connection to those other songs at all? Nope. Does Wikipedia feel the need to list Post Hardcore as one of the bands four main influences in the opening paragraph for what feels like no reason? Yep.



I'm still not clear on what the genre is even hypothetically supposed to be, other than punk music. I get that it's a subcategory of punk, but that's about all I've gotten out of this topic.
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Marshmallow unicorns forever!

Bane_Of_Despair posted...

Also that isn't post hardcore either! Now you're really pushing it with that! They used to be a bit early in their career but now they definitely aren't

Blame Wikipedia's editors who feel every band in existence is at least 1/4th post-hardcore!

The group's music incorporates aspects of progressive rock, pop, heavy metal, and post-hardcore

They're progressively heavy post hardcore metal pop rocks.
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16:

Song Name: Number City
Song Origin: Coheed and Cambria
Song Link:
Nominator: Bane_Of_Despair (1/15)


This song does just about everything I could ask for. It's unique, experimental, it clearly tells a story, plenty of artificial beeps (and at one point a voice that seems straight out of Berzerk), and it's from a genre I don't recognize.

...

...A genre I don't know, huh? Then it must be post hardcore.

*checks*

...Ehh, song is fantastic enough that I'll allow it.



[FINAL NOTES: I really don't want to cut this one yet... but once again, we're at a new block of songs where I don't want to cut anything. The top 16 is SO GOOD... but I feel like this one gets cut here, as much as I'm sure I'll regret it.

FINAL SMASH!

In Memoriam

Lowest Ranked Song: Coming Down (192nd Place)
Highest Ranked Song: Number City (16th Place)

All of your nominations were a joy, as they were pretty much all songs that I would never hear in any other context. While I may not have enjoyed all of them, the contest wouldn't have been half as fun without their inclusion, and I truly thank you.]



[FINAL-ER NOTES: I want to move this up to 14th place. I do regret having it this low, just... not very much because everything is so good now, that rearranging things to get it any type of boost is very difficult.]

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15:

Song Name: Americans
Song Origin: Oneohtrix Point Never
Song Link: https://open.spotify.com/track/3fPqgONMLh8tIO2ndpqdXT
Nominator: MycroProcessor (3/10)


I have no idea what I just listened to, but I feel like it comes close to perfection.

[FINAL NOTES: I said the songs were great, I didn't say the write-ups were.]

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Marshmallow unicorns forever!

And the final song to be stuck in this particular clump is...



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17:

Song Name: Road Head
Song Origin: Japanese Breakfast
Song Link:
Nominator: mcflubbin (1/15)


I don't usually enjoy any song with explicit lyrics and I've docked songs on this list for significantly less than the opening verse of this one. But, there are a few exceptions and somehow I found myself incredibly drawn to this song.

Considering the subject matter of trying to do anything to please your partner sexually to save a damned relationship, I don't think it could have gone any lighter without ruining the song.

Also, she decided to explain every part of this song, but.... I forgive it in this instance. This song never had any mysteries to ruin as it was always fairly straightforward. Also there was a pretty neat story about Tammy Wynette, so it's fine.

Really, the greatest testament to her strength as a performer, is that I was able to connect with her and her lyrics, in spite of the subject matter. She's truly great and deserves more attention than she seems to be getting. Not even a million views yet?

CRITICAL FINISH!

In Memoriam

Lowest Ranked Song: Break-Thru (184th Place)
Highest Ranked Song: Road Head (17th Place)

Hunnybee is probably the song I've gotten stuck in my head the most times since starting this ranking. Also, I think you had a very good selection of different songs, all of them stood out in some way... even Dinner, which full disclosure, I don't think I can recall even one line of. I've heard it six or seven times now, enjoyed it every time, and I still can't recall anything other than her walking dogs in the video. It's remarkable how amnesia inducing that song is.



[FINAL-ER NOTES: Ehhh, calling this part of the clump is selling it a bit short. While I could easily shuffle placements #18 through #37 around--Hunnybee is amazing, but I could easily argue the haunting beauty of Sorrow should give it that spot ; the fact that Lateralus has the best opening of any song here gives it good claim to the 18th slot; the intensity of Graves, the emotional video of Sparkle, the mysterious nature of Astronomy, and pretty much every other song in that clump... all could easily take the 18th slot.

I'm not taking any of those over Road Head. It is definitely a cut above everything that came before it.

...not that this helps its placement any. The number of > signs I place between placements 18 & 17 is irrelevant, as it still translates to just one ranking anyway.]

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Marshmallow unicorns forever!

handsomeboy2012 posted...

Yeah... you probably might want to watch the film. Surprised that you haven't at least heard of it, it was a pretty big deal.

Sorry, meant to reply to this last night but it was a busy evening. I had heard of it, but none of the specifics; I knew it was popular, starred humans, did not feature robots, and was sad. Suffice to say, that minuscule information had no impact on my enjoyment or interpretation of the video.





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18:

Song Name: Hunnybee
Song Origin: Unknown Mortal Orchestra
Song Link:
Nominator: mcflubbin (2/15)



I hated this song the first time I listened to it. I couldn't make out a single complete line he was singing, the chorus repeated too often, and the video was designed to be incredibly stressful. It wasn't until the second listen, armed with a copy of the lyrics and the knowledge that no one was going to die*, that I could even try to enjoy the song.

It ultimately turned out to be quite catchy and bittersweet in the best possible way, but if I only counted first impressions, this would have wound up in the bottom 10.

*One commentor's girlfriend believes that hunnybee does die in the video; the tree branch falling symbolizing tragedy. I don't agree with that, but it's probably a good thing I didn't read that comment until after I already liked the song. </.<

[FINAL NOTES: Huh. I really didn't expect this whole "star targets another victim as soon as someone dies" bit to be a running gag, but it seems to be happening a lot.

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[FINAL-ER NOTES: This is another of the songs that got stuck in my head on a regular basis.]

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19:

Song Name: Nanmushi's/Nimeoseudok's Theme
Song Origin: Violent Vengeance
Song Link:
Nominator: NFUN (1/9)

YEAH, BOI!

[FINAL NOTES: I felt this song would be the perfect introduction to the top 10%, but after rearranging the list at the last minute it wound up making it just a bit further.]



ZETSUMEI OUGI!

In Memoriam


Lowest Ranked Song: Battle (199th Place)
Highest Ranked Song: Nanmushi's/Nimeoseudok's Theme (19th Place)

So... songs about 9/11 and whatever this was, huh? Interesting. ]



[FINAL-ER NOTES: Like Madonna's song, I think this one's slightly too high... I'd probably drop this one to #36, so it could still be part of the clump while giving a boost to some other songs.

...though I feel like having this above Sufjan Stevens is a crime. He really should be in this clump too, I think I undervalued that one... too late to move Futile Devices up to #35? I suppose so.

Aaanywho..., I do honestly enjoy this. As blasphemous as it is to compare this to R.I.P., there is a certain similarity in what I like about both songs--what drew me into R.I.P. was the sampling of a different song and the sampled parts skipping and breaking, which this song has in spades. I've also stated repeatedly I wasn't going to be remotely objective and that I enjoyed songs that made me laugh, which this one did. This was always going to get a really high score.

Nomination list was suitably eclectic. I approve.]

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Marshmallow unicorns forever!

Se7enthrust posted...

I actually prefer Metallicas version of Astronomy but I do understand the nostalgia level of BOCs.

No nostalgia involved. I hadn't heard this version until it was nominated here and I didn't hear Metalica's until your writeup, which wasn't too long after... think I'd only heard the BOC version twice at that point. I also have no particular nostalgia for the band themselves; I've only heard three other songs of theirs ( (Don't Fear) The Reaper, Burning' For You, and Godzilla ; the latter only from Guitar Hero and IIRC that was a cover version anyway).





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20:

Song Name: Calling to the Night
Song Origin: Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops
Song Link:
Nominator: Mega Mana (2/5)



I never finished Portable Ops. I made a brief attempt at it when it was new, but quit after the first boss--some ice guy whose name I can't be bothered to remember. Ice Guy became a playable character afterwards, but was so much weaker than when he was a boss that it was almost comical, and I just quit there.

When Peace Walker came out and dismissed all of Portable Ops in one line of dialogue, I felt validated in my choice to not continue with the game.

Now, I'm thinking I should try it again. Any game with a song this good can't be all bad. And after everything between Kojima & Konami, it's not like there's going to be any more actual Metal Gear games, so this is about all I have left.

...well I haven't played Ghost Babel yet, though I've heard good things about it. And several other spin-offs, I suppose. Never finished either Acid game or Revengeance, but those aren't really traditional enough to scratch the Metal Gear itch.



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21:

Song Name: Room of Angel
Song Origin: Akira Yamaoka feat Mary Elizabeth McGlynn
Song Link:
Nominator: IhatethisCPU (3/15)



I don't really go for anything horror related. Books, movies, songs, TV shows... if it's horror related, I'm going to stay away from it. Same for anything dark or violent, usually ; it took me years to start watching Arrow because everything I'd heard about the first season painted it as way too dark to be anything I'd want to see. It wasn't until trailers for Legends popped up that I was willing to even give it a chance... and with all the time they're spending hyping the next season as super DARK and ultra VIOLENT and bragging that they had to fight the censors for the right to be SUPER ULTRA DARK VIOLENT FEST, I may just be done with that whole universe at this point.

The bunny pauses for a minute as she tries to follow that train of thought back to where it was before it derailed so completely.

...

YouTube suggests she listen to the full version of The Real Folk Blues, which she does, leaving things paused for the next six minutes.

Huh? Oh right, right. The point I was getting to is that I have very little experience with Silent Hill. But after this song and "Walk On Vanity Ruins", I'm starting to wonder if I may actually like the soundtracks to that series. So far, it's 2-for-2 on lyrical songs that I enjoyed, and the songs came from different games... it's definitely a good sign.

[FINAL NOTES: Coming up tomorrow, the 20 songs that were determined to be better than 90% of the stuff nominated!]

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Marshmallow unicorns forever!

I'll get around to all links posted (the other Nightwish songs, the unrelated Scatman song, the Caligula's Horse songs mentioned without links, the story of Grave, the other version of Astronomy, and those four songs right above), though not tonight ; it's late, I'll start working through links again tomorrow and post responses as I go along.

NBIceman posted...

I'm almost definitely the biggest BC fan on B8 and probably one of the bigger concept album obsessives, and even I can't figure out what the hell's going on in that whole story, mostly because depending on who you ask, it's not even clear which songs are part of the story and which aren't.

Well considering how often I've complained about artists revealing too much about their songs, it'd be rather refreshing to go with something with the exact opposite problem. There is something mysterious about an unfinished story that I have no hopes of truly understanding that makes it completely irresistible...





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22:

Song Name: Like a Prayer
Song Origin: Madonna
Song Link:
Nominator: IhatethisCPU (4/15)

It's interesting that I haven't heard this song as often you would expect. It feels like the radio tends to stick with Open Your Heart & Borderline these days, to a point that I still get a little excited whenever any other song of hers plays.

It's also possible that I'm suffering from confirmation bias--I'm tired of hearing those two songs, so I always notice them. Other songs that I like would just register as "hey, something I like is playing!" and not register in the same way. Fortunately for this song's ranking, I can neither confirm that, nor do I care. It feels like I don't hear this song as often as I'd like to, so it manages to take a high score.

Still, I do honestly know this song well enough that I didn't need to try to look up lyrics or anything. And it's not as exciting as something truly new. So... there's still a limit on how far I'm willing to take it, cutting it just before it hits the top 10% of nominations.

[FINAL NOTES: I think Take A Bow and Material Girl are the only two Madonna songs I've ever gone out of my way to hear.]

[FINAL-ER NOTES: I still like the song and want it to have a high placement, but perhaps not quite this high... while I maintain that all songs from #17 to #37 can be placed in just about any order or seen as tied, it feels like I'd rather have the "too familiar" song at #37 so that the newer songs could get more of a chance to shine. But, the list is what it is.]

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23:

Song Name: Astronomy
Song Origin: Blue yster Cult
Song Link:
Nominator: NBIceman (2/15)



Ooh boy, this one is a doozy. The Moon/Awake felt like it would be impossible to understand, but Astronomy is on a whole other level. Like comparing a preschool book to something written by a member of Oulipo. ((One of my favorite books is "If on a winter's night a traveler", which is the only reason I'm aware of that group.))

There's so much to unpack here: From what I can recall of my research this song is part of a concept album. The concept album was difficult to understand to begin with, but the recording label changed the orders of the song, making it even harder. And it was meant to be part of a trilogy, but the other parts were never released and with Sandy Pearlman's death, we'll never know the full story. And also there's a demo tape out there with a few unreleased songs that are canonically part of the story.

Also aliens.

Well, I'm sold. One of these days, I absolutely have to try listening to all this stuff.

...also, for what it's worth, I really don't care for the Metallica version. It's just louder, stripping out all soul from the song, and it feels entirely pointless if you don't cover the rest of the album. It's the equivalent of taking one chapter from a book, editing it to be in CAPS LOCK, releasing it by itself and pretending you're an author. Blech. I would have posted that over in Se7en's topic, but I couldn't without giving away this song getting a high placement on my ranking, so I had to wait until over here to comment on it.

[FINAL NOTES: And once again, while it is a coincidence, as soon as one person falls another one takes their place. Though in this case someone had to lose two songs back-to-back to take said place..



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[[ZA'LIST

1.Alice Cooper

2.OSTs from games published by Ocean Software.

3.Something by The Mars Volta.

4.Some more Kindo music.

5.Vektroid.

6.One or two more songs by Nightwish

7.The album "New Man Theme" came from.

8.DM DOKURO.

9.Something else described as "Avant-Garde Metal".

10.Third Eye Blind (Album)

11.The album Cato as a Pun came from.

12.One or two songs by Let's Eat Grandma

13.The album Astronomy came from and whatever other songs I'm supposed to listen to along with it.]]



[FINAL-ER NOTES: Song is slightly too low. Think I want it to be at 19th place, not that it's enough difference to matter.]

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IhatethisCPU posted...

So I *just* noticed you were curious about Nightwish...

Had a bit of extra time to listen to the first two. The first wasn't bad, but I can't recall anything about it; the second was so intense (in a good way) that it kinda... obliterated any memory of whatever happened before that experience and I need a break now.

By pure coincidence that's the exact same reaction I had to the song in 24th place.

...that's kinda freaky, honestly, but now I have to post said song. Probably not a surprise, as I think there's only one song left that I could even plausibly compare to The Poet and The Pendulum...





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24:

Song Name: Graves
Song Origin: Caligula's Horse
Song Link:
Nominator: NBIceman (3/15)


It is quite good and I don't fault it for its length, but by the time I get through it, I don't really want to talk about it. I just want to rest and take a break from everything to cool off for a bit. 15 and a half straight minutes of prog metal telling a story divided into multiple chapters that I don't 100% understand is... a bit draining, to be honest. It's good and an experience I am very glad I got to have, but draining none the less.

[FINAL-ER NOTES: The Poet and The Pendulum would have basically the exact same writeup and likely wind up in this exact place, so, that's kinda neat.]

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I will listen to those later, probably tomorrow, and get back to you then.

For now...


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26:

Song Name: Violet Hill
Song Origin: Coldplay
Song Link:
Nominator: NBIceman (4/15)


Alright, I apologize for my earlier remarks on Viva la Vida. I guess I did want to hear one more Coldplay song.

[FINAL NOTES: But just this one, as I still have no interest in listening to a third.

Also, this officially gets us into the top 25 songs! Yay!!]

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25:

Song Name: Sparkle
Song Origin: RADWIMPS
Song Link:
Nominator: handsomeboy2012 (1/15)


Showing pretty much the entire film in the music video was an interesting choice. It's interesting how close I was to understanding it without any knowledge of the anime--the only thing that tripped me up was I initially thought it was about parallel universes, which led me to a few misconceptions.

The song's good, but it gets a tremendous boost due to the video & it's the only song on this list to be significantly impacted by coming with a video. It pulled me in completely and I just couldn't look away from it... and while that's not entirely fair to all the songs ranked below it, I did say that my opinion could be easily swayed due to any outside factors, so you were all warned in advance.


SOUL CRUSH!

In Memoriam

Lowest Ranked Song: Windows Error Remix (198th Place)
Highest Ranked Song: Sparkle (25th Place)


o.O?

Well those are certainly two different songs alright.

Your nominations were consistently some of the most intriguing. I was never sure what I was going to get with each link, but it was always interesting--from surprisingly educational, to spellbindingly bizarre, to an anime film that managed to be emotionally touching even without being able to hear the dialogue.

Really, it covered just about everything I could have wanted a nomination list to cover.

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BlackDra90n posted...

I would also suggest to not give up on Lynch or Dir en Grey! Both bands have a lot of great songs that are less extreme which I can recommend as well if you'd rather not go through a bunch of more uh, crazy stuff.

I don't know, I really hated JOKER... but I suppose Sorrow was great enough that giving him a second chance wouldn't hurt. If you want to name one or two songs by Lynch and Dir en Grey, I'll listen to them when I get a chance.
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27:

Song Name: Golden Chords
Song Origin: Deakin
Song Link:
Nominator: mcflubbin (3/15)


I can't place the memory, but something about this song is reminding me heavily of The Beatles' later work. I feel like I should be able to be more specific about which Beatle or song this is reminiscent of, but it's not coming. While I have a reasonable familiarity with the band because of how omnipresent they were on the oldies station--as a band and with each of their solo careers--I've never actually listened to a Beatles album or paid much attention to who sang what or when. So the feeling is just too vague, it's like 'this is like that song, by the guy, when the band was going through that one phase. You know, with the stuff!' where I simultaneously know exactly what I mean and have no clue.

Trying to force the memories is giving me a headache, so I guess I'll move on now. One commentor compares Deakin to George Harrison, so sure, let's go with that.

Either way this is brilliant and touching and blah blah blah. I may not be the biggest fan of The Beatles, but even from me, it's very high praise to compare anyone to a band that influential and popular.

[FINAL NOTES: I still haven't figured out what song this is making me think of, but then I haven't bothered listening to any Beatles music to try and track it down.]

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28th:

Song Name: Lateralus
Song Origin: Tool
Song Link:
Nominator: NFUN (2/9)

Now see, I was expecting Post Hardcore this time, but instead it's "Post Metal". </.<

The intro to this song might be the greatest thing I ever heard. I don't usually connect with music, but this just resonated with my soul in an almost painful way... I wasn't sure I could survive over nine minutes of a song hitting me this hard...

...and then it became incredibly loud, utterly shattering the atmosphere. Then the singer came in and further demolished the song.

Alright, it's never that bad but the difference between "this is the most powerful thing I've ever heard, bordering on a spiritual awakening and the emotions are too powerful to handle" to "pretty good song" is so unbelievably massive that most of the song feels like garbage in comparison to the intro.

Yeah, yeah, it's a great song and deep symbolism and math and whatever. Just not quite what I'd expected or wanted.


[FINAL NOTES: As soon as one person drops, the star of death descends on another competitor...

DEATH OMEN STAR:

Anagram
handsomeboy2012
Snake5555555555
Dragon66116
kateee
Bane_Of_Despair
NFUN ]



[FINAL-ER NOTES: I have no idea how this song wound up with a "th" next to its number, since nothing else on the list does.]

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Marshmallow unicorns forever!

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29:

Song Name: Sorrow
Song Origin: Lynch
Song Link:
Nominator: BlackDra90n (1/5)


I was planning on saying that I absolutely loved his voice, but YouTube suggested I listen to another of his songs (JOKER)... that was a mistake. He sacrifices everything great about his voice in exchange for RARR THIS IS METAL I AM GROWL YELLING RARR, while singing about sex slavery, with an underaged girl in the video.

Now I'm questioning if I can drop this down fifty or so rankings just because I resent that appearing in my video suggestions.

....



Ugh, but his voice in the song you actually nominated is so beautiful & perfect, I just can't hate it. He joins The Interupters in the "I'll never listen to more songs by this artist" category, but this specific song is good.



HEROIC BRUTALITY!

In Memoriam

Lowest Ranked Song: Ningen wo Kaburu (178th Place)
Highest Ranked Song: Sorrow (29th Place)





In spite of only having five nominations and all of them being Metal, there was a pretty decent amount of variety. Thank you.



[FINAL-ER NOTES: Your best and worst songs go in exact opposite directions, with Sorrow being hauntingly beautiful and one of the best songs in the entire contest, while NwK was so extreme I very actively wanted to shut it off after about 30 seconds.

The Void had great lyrics, Barbie Girl was always funny, and... well I don't remember The Circle, at the moment. And if you needed clarification, I don't think the other song actively hurt this one's placement; like I've said, we're at an everything is too good point in the list. It feels too low, but so did a lot of songs before it and a lot after it. The next two cuts in particular are especially painful for me.]

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Marshmallow unicorns forever!

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30:

Song Name: Phoenix I. Rising II. Falling (yea this one is my long one, sorry)
Song Origin: Night Verses
Song Link:
Nominator: Bane_Of_Despair (2/15)


I like everything about this song and I think this is exactly what I had in mind when I wanted new songs. It's metal, but easy to understand without any of that growl yelling stuff (well, there's some growling in the background, but the lead singer is easy to understand) ; long, but without ever overstaying its welcome like some other songs ; lyics that sound cool and are vague enough that you can pretty much beleive whatever you want with them ; and generally just above-average in every possible respect.

Actually, is this metal? It seems slightly too tame for that....

*looks*

"Post Hardcore"

....If one more band on this list is described as post hardcore, I'm going to incinerate this wretched planet and dance among the embers as your species lets out their final, primitive screams.



DEATH OMEN STAR:

Anagram
BlackDra90n
handsomeboy2012]
Snake5555555555
Dragon66116
kateee
Bane_Of_Despair
The Planet Earth

....okay, fine, planetary destruction might be a tad excessive. I'll probably just turn into a wolf and growl or something.



[FINAL-ER NOTES: Again, such ramblings are a joke that had no impact on rankings and you may as well consider this entire block of songs in a 21-way tie for 17th place.]

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Marshmallow unicorns forever!

And the last two of the night:

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32:

Song Name: Falling Into Me
Song Origin: Lets Eat Grandma
Song Link:
Nominator: mcflubbin (4/15)


It comes very close to perfection, but I don't really care for the lyrics. The music itself is amazing, the way it keeps shifting in style throughout the song, it's simply wonderful and amazing... and I just don't care about the lyrics or the story they tell, which keeps it from greatness.

I should listen to more of this band; if this song is any indication, I have a feeling I'll find the greatest song of all time on one of their albums. But this isn't quite it.

[[ZA'LIST

1.Alice Cooper

2.OSTs from games published by Ocean Software.

3.Something by The Mars Volta.

4.Some more Kindo music.

5.Vektroid.

6.One or two more songs by Nightwish

7.The album "New Man Theme" came from.

8.DM DOKURO.

9.Something else described as "Avant-Garde Metal".

10.Third Eye Blind (Album)

11.The album Cato as a Pun came from.

12.One or two songs by Let's Eat Grandma]]

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31:

Song Name: Mothball
Song Origin: Tawny Ant
Song Link: https://tawnyant.bandcamp.com/track/mothball
Nominator: MycroProcessor (4/10)


With a different singer this would probably make the top 5 ; as is, I'm conflicted. I fully and completely love everything about the music itself, but that voice...especially when he warbles "cat-er-PILLLLarrr", I have a hard time not laughing at the song.

...then again I do like laughing at songs, so maybe that doesn't hurt the song as much as I thought it would.



[FINAL-ER NOTES: Well, I did say I wanted more distortion on the voices...]

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Marshmallow unicorns forever!

Raiden (Metal Gear Solid 2)
&
Missile (Ghost Trick)

Amy Rose (Sonic Adventure)
&
Leia Rolando (Tales of Xillia)
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Marshmallow unicorns forever!

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34:

Song Name: Blindfolds Aside
Song Origin: Protest the Hero
Song Link:
Nominator: TheArkOfTurus (5/10)


I wouldn't have expected to love a metal song about an execution, but here we are. Tried another random song off the album and didn't like it as much (though it wasn't bad)... don't know if I'd ever want to try a third song by them, but I do like this one.

[FINAL NOTES: Like Father John Misty, I'm leaving my experience with the band on a high note instead of seeking anything else out. For now, anyway.]

[FINAL-ER NOTES: Ehh... if ZA'LIST weren't overflowing with songs right now, I'd reconsider that position. I feel like I'd perk up and get excited if another song by them was nominated (especially a song from a different album), but I don't know that I'm motivated enough to seek any out on my own.]

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33:

Song Name: Cato as a Pun
Song Origin: of Montreal
Song Link:
Nominator: mcflubbin (5/15)


Another song that's presumably way too deep and symbolic for me to get in a casual listening topic. It seems incredibly straightforward about a deteriorating friendship, but then everyone starts talking about Roman statesmen, and the Julius Caesar play, & the recurring themes of the album itself and arguments on if there's even more than one person in the song itself since...something something someone in the band is taking on a new persona and obviously they're just arguing with themselves.

On the plus side, I don't care if I get it ; I love the instruments and the static-y buzz-y sorta noise at the start of the track and, while the main singer isn't what I expected, the voice is starting to grow on me.

[FINAL NOTES: ...Yeah, sure, let's add that to ZA'LIST, maybe I'll get around to listening to it someday.

[[ZA'LIST

1.Alice Cooper

2.OSTs from games published by Ocean Software.

3.Something by The Mars Volta.

4.Some more Kindo music.

5.Vektroid.

6.One or two more songs by Nightwish

7.The album "New Man Theme" came from.

8.DM DOKURO.

9.Something else described as "Avant-Garde Metal".

10.Third Eye Blind (Album)

11.The album Cato as a Pun came from.]]

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Marshmallow unicorns forever!

NFUN posted...

nom:

Not bad, but I'm not crazy for it. Probably lands near BFG Division in the rankings.



NFUN posted...

maybe i shouldve nommed this instead

This, on the other hand, is amazing. I don't know that it would have gotten a much better placement--it probably moves ahead of Tap Dancer's Dilemma, winding up in the current clump of songs that I don't want to eliminate but have to because we're never going to hit the Top 16 if I don't; a slight improvement, but nothing dramatic.

It does prove that I really need to listen to more DOKURO music.
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Marshmallow unicorns forever!

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35:

Song Name: I Love You, Honeybear
Song Origin: Father John Misty
Song Link:
Nominator: kateee (2/13)


I think I really like this artist, in every possible way. Everything I learn about him makes me like him more and his performance of Bored in the USA on Letterman may be the best live music performance I've ever seen; of course I don't watch live music, so I have almost nothing to compare it to, but it feels hard to top. The fake piano, the canned laughter, the awkward applause of an audience that has no idea how they're supposed to react until Letterman practically forces them to cheer more. Oh, it was perfect.

This song's opening is more explicit than I usually tolerate, but he can get away with it; either because he's just that great or because I'm too biased in his favor to judge him objectively any longer, it doesn't matter. To quote a Pitchfork review that can put things into words that i cannot "..passionate and disillusioned, tender and angry, so cynical it's repulsive and so openhearted it hurts."

I'm not sure I'll seek out the rest of the album. It might be nice to hear at some point, but then he's at a perfect 2-for-2 in songs that I like. I almost hate to risk sullying his perfect record by pushing any further. Considering how poorly things go when I try to look up information on artists, we should just quit while we're ahead.

[FINAL NOTES: Yeah, I'm not going to add him to za list, as I'm happier leaving my knowledge of the artist where it is now.


DEATH OMEN STAR

Anagram
BlackDra90n
handsomeboy2012
Snake5555555555
Dragon66116
kateee ]

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Marshmallow unicorns forever!

Mega Mana posted...

Ooh! Forgot I almost nominated the entire thing!

Kind of glad I didn't since "Semi-Charmed Life" has a lot of drug references, and "Jumper" is about suicide, so...

...fits right in with all the other noms, huh?

I still plan on listening to it anyway. There are always exceptions to things that I typically dislike; there's at least one more song dealing with suicide that hasn't dropped yet, Big Empty got a high placement and praise for having some of the best lyrics in the entire contest, etc, etc. It's not the most promising subject matter, but it's not a deal-breaker.





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36:

Song Name: Nobody
Song Origin: Mitski
Song Link:
Nominator: mcflubbin (6/15)

*sigh*

Amazing video, tremendous song, the vocal distortions at the end of the song are what I've been waiting this entire topic to hear..

...and then she goes and uploads a video explaining every single line in the song.

STOP DOING THAT

For the second time this list, a song has been ruined by an artist being too honest about what everything means. There's no mystery left, nothing to discuss or think about. It's all spelled out, in the most boring way possible. And it hurts, because this was one of my favorite songs... but now, it just isn't the same. It's not ruined or anything, but it's definitely dropped a long way from where it could have been.

[FINAL NOTES: If she didn't explain everything, this would probably have come in around...17th place? The top 16 is really hard to break into, but this song would have definitely came as close as possible--might have even made it into that tremendous group, honestly, but we'll never know.

That it makes it so incredibly high on the list even after having its score dragged down so far is a testament to how great the song truly is.]

[FINAL-ER NOTES: Just append the usual "cutting this song so early is physically painful" to all write-ups from now until we hit the top 16. It's not like the next cuts are any less painful than this one was...]

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Marshmallow unicorns forever!

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37:

Song Name: Motorcycle Drive By
Song Origin: Third Eye Blind, "Third Eye Blind"
Song Link:
Nominator: Mega Mana (3/5)


Fairly great song. It's an interesting transition from soft & beautiful, to loud with occasional screaming, and then back to being quiet. Everything about this song is good to great... but I don't think I'm really looking for a breakup song at the moment, which holds it back somewhat.

[FINAL NOTES: I should probably just go ahead and listen to that entire album at some point, like you wanted me to.

[[ZA'LIST

1.Alice Cooper

2.OSTs from games published by Ocean Software.

3.Something by The Mars Volta.

4.Some more Kindo music.

5.Vektroid.

6.One or two more songs by Nightwish

7.The album "New Man Theme" came from.

8.DM DOKURO.

9.Something else described as "Avant-Garde Metal".

10.Third Eye Blind (Album)]]



[FINAL-ER NOTES: This is the exact moment that cutting any song is painful. I don't want to eliminate this yet... but I also don't want to eliminate anything else. Can I just declare a tie for all songs Ranked from #18 to #37?

...suppose not.]

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Marshmallow unicorns forever!

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38:

Song Name: A Tap Dancer's Dilemma
Song Origin: Diablo Swing Orchestra
Song Link:
Nominator: NBIceman (5/15)


Swing metal? Well that's about as different as it comes, yes. And I do love bands with fictional backstories. It doesn't have robots, but it does have rebellion against a corrupt church, so I really want to give them bonus points for the story...

...but the songs above this are just so good that I can't bring myself to move this song even one rank further, regardless of how much I want to celebrate their backstory. '

*checks*

"Avant-Garde Metal", huh? Now that sounds like a genre with a lot of potential... though I'll have to wait to try to do any further research on that topic.

...also this song reminds me of Cuphead, but while I did not care for the Cuphead song that got into VGMC, I actually do like this. Since I haven't actually played Cuphead, I can't waste time speaking about the game even if I wanted to, but.... well but nothing, that train of thought was never going to go anywhere, kupo.

[[ZA'LIST

1.Alice Cooper

2.OSTs from games published by Ocean Software.

3.Something by The Mars Volta.

4.Some more Kindo music.

5.Vektroid.

6.One or two more songs by Nightwish

7.The album "New Man Theme" came from.

8.DM DOKURO.

9.Something else described as "Avant-Garde Metal".]]

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Marshmallow unicorns forever!

Mr Lasastryke posted...

music critics disliking his album jazz from hell because it "wasn't human."

I literally cannot think of a better selling point for an album than that. I'm skeptical that I'd be a fan, but I'm pretty sure I'm obligated to listen to that whole album now. Adding it to the final version of ZA'LIST.
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Marshmallow unicorns forever!

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39:

Song Name: Servants of the Scourge
Song Origin: Terraria Calamity Mod
Song Link:
Nominator: NFUN (3/9)


DM DOKURO may be the closest thing to a modern Tim Follin. They're not exactly the same, obviously, but the joy I feel listening to this song is comparable to the joy of any random Tim Follin song.

Interestingly enough, while I love Tim Follin for his work on computer systems with highly synthesized and digital sounds, he apparently hated them. He decried the very idea of computer music as being "silly", wanted the entire genre to die out, and prefers orchestral music for being "more human".

...Eesh, never read anything about your heroes, am I right? </.<



I think I want to hear more of DM DOKURO's work, at some point.

[FINAL NOTES: Nothing in this topic broke my heart quite like that Wikipedia article about Tim Follin. For one of my favorite artists to turn his back not just on all of his own works, but on the very concept of the genre existing at all? That stung.]

[[ZA'LIST

1.Alice Cooper

2.OSTs from games published by Ocean Software.

3.Something by The Mars Volta.

4.Some more Kindo music.

5.Vektroid.

6.One or two more songs by Nightwish

7.The album "New Man Theme" came from.

8.DM DOKURO.]]



[FINAL-ER NOTES: And don't even get me started on praising orchestral music for being more human. As if I needed more reasons to be biased against that type music!]

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Marshmallow unicorns forever!

NFUN posted...

nom:

I'll try listening to that later tonight.





Mega Mana posted...

Recommend:

Dragonball Z Abridged is everything amazing ever.

And holy ****ing ****... The first episodes were TEN YEARS AGO

I recall seeing some of the first season back when it was new... it was funny and I've been saying I'd catch up eventually, but I hadn't realized it had been that long. </.<

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40:

Song Name: Hellfire (Metal Cover)
Song Origin: Jonathon Young (Original by Tony Jay)
Song Link:
Nominator: IhatethisCPU (5/15)


There are so few villain songs on this list that I kinda have to take whatever I can. In fact, this song basically doesn't have competition, which guarantees it a decent spot by default.

That's not to say this isn't a good song, but I prefer the original. With the more modern instruments and music, Young just doesn't feel like an evil priest anymore. He's still a good singer, the lyrics are still great, I'm still excited to hear any villain songs... but he took a song I know by heart and made it slightly worse. I feel like I should have eliminated this song back around Viva la Vida & The Haunting...

...but it's still good, I've never heard this version before, and the options for villain songs are so incredibly slim, it winds up here.

[FINAL NOTES: I am a bit surprised this ranked 45 spaces higher than the song that I said drew direct comparisons to this one.]

[FINAL-ER NOTES: Yeah, I think I'd go back and drop this back at around Viva la Vida at around 151st place and move everything else up. It's still good, but so were a lot of things that have been cut a long time ago. Thankfully we're well beyond the point that I could do so, so it's high ranking stands.]

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Marshmallow unicorns forever!

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41:

Song Name: New Man Theme
Song Origin: Mr. Lif
Song Link:
Nominator: Dragon66116 (2/15)


Well, this is another good introduction to the genre like I was looking for. I was surprised to find out that this song was part of a concept album and that there are four songs before it; I'd dismissed it as being fairly simple and possibly autobiographical, but looking at Wikipedia's article on the album, I seem to be selling this song short.

And while I'd like to listen to the entire album (preferably with access to the liner notes that I'm told help explain things), that's a bit beyond the scope of this topic. After it's over, remind me that I need to go back and listen to that album.

[NOTE TO SELF: Make a list of all the follow up songs & albums you planned on listening to "some day" because if you don't have a list, you'll never remember what they are.]

[FINAL NOTES: First, the good news--something else is added to ZA'LIST!

[[ZA'LIST

1.Alice Cooper

2.OSTs from games published by Ocean Software.

3.Something by The Mars Volta.

4.Some more Kindo music.

5.Vektroid.

6.One or two more songs by Nightwish

7.The album "New Man Theme" came from.]]

And the bad news....the DEATH OMEN STAR has fallen over Dragon.

Anagram
BlackDra90n
handsomeboy2012
Snake5555555555
Dragon66116

Yes, now that we've entered the top 50, the Danger Zone has been replaced by Fist of the North Star references for no apparent reason.]


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Marshmallow unicorns forever!