LogFAQs > #970080600

It was a neat song!

Going to try to get through six songs today; a half-day because I'm still running behind (busy day has become busy week), +1 to make up for yesterday only having 4. The first three drops:

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#604: The Dear Hunter - Mr. Usher (On His Way to Town):
https://open.spotify.com/track/6uVVr0cgubpmWkol8skkpg?si=134f9025c5534c1a

Nominator: NBIceman [20/22 Remaining]

Initial Score: 59.76
Revised Score: 57.40
Final Score: 52.50 [Upgraded to 53.03] [Upgraded to 53.7125] [Upgraded to 53.778 ] [Upgraded to 55.609] [Upgraded to 55.95] [Upgraded to 56.00004]

(First Reaction: It's always nice to get new villain songs. I'm not as into this one right now, but I'll admit it might grow on me with time.)

!I enjoy the song, but I'm not sure this type of 50's Sinatra style lounge song really suits the singer's voice. I appreciate the attempt at a different style, but that style's never been one of my favorites & it feels like this is a solid step below several of their villain songs.

[Final Thoughts: It's fine, but I think this may actually be my least favorite track on the album these days. This isn't my favorite style for Casey to sing, Mr. Usher is a random diabolus ex machina thrown in virtually out of nowhere (and significantly less interesting than the Pimp/Priest), and--since this is a pure setup song--nothing really gets to happen here. I know nothing can happen during a character introduction because all the time needs to spent on introducing them, but for all our assurances that he's a manipulator who'll kill people, he just... kinda... walks into town? And yes, obviously all the payoff is in future songs, but if I were to judge this song entirely on its own merits--which I'm hypothetically supposed to, though I hardly keep to that standard--this doesn't actually stand terribly well on its own.

The song isn't a miss--it does a fine job of hyping up the new villain & offers a distinct style you won't find elsewhere on the album (...that I recall, at least), but I'm just... not super into this one tonight.]

[Later: Moving up slightly.]

[Again: Just a tiny smidge of a boost for organizational purposes.]

[And Again: And what's probably going to be the final tiny boost. Maybe.]

[And Again And Again: Actually, I kinda like this tonight.]

[...And Again & Again: Minor boost to rearrange the list slightly.]

[& the next day, & the next day: I've hit an odd impasse. I do not want to give the song any more points and yet I do not wish to eliminate it either. It's odd because I obviously need to do one or the other--it either has the lowest score and should be eliminated or it's being given extra points and thus no longer being the lowest scoring song avoids eliminations.

And while its amusing having this song in an odd void where it simultaneously eliminated and not eliminated, I think I'm FINALLY cutting it. I say this every day, but there's really nothing else I'd rather cut at the moment.]

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-do you know what it's like to be built this way?-

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#603: Franchouchou - Hikari e (3:34):
https://open.spotify.com/track/6q0iBMVQpMzRJi2771HiCD?si=3cafab084be74350

Nominator: Player_0 [22/33 Remaining]

Initial Score: 47.82
Revised Score: 56.02
Final Score: 50.43 [Upgraded to 50.94] [Upgraded to 55.00000009] [Upgraded to 56.02]

(First Reaction: I'd have preferred an instrumental version of the song (simple piano songs may be one of my things at this exact moment in time).)

I'd still prefer a pure instrumental track, but this is a cute & sweet song. It's close to being so sweet that it radiates with me and gets infinity points, but something is off... I think a single singer giving a heartfelt performance would work better for this song than a group song, but I'd like to believe I have a better reason than that for this song missing the mark.

...not that I have any clue what that reason might be...

Good instrumentation, good idea, cute enough that i like it -but- missing something to really push it over the edge into greatness. Still, I do like it and feel like jumping it two tiers to kinda like level, so that's progress.

[Final Thoughts: I think I overcorrected a bit with the extra points on the second listen... it's sweet and I like the backing music, but I'm still not really connecting with it & feel like it fits in better with the early 50's instead of the mid-to-late 50's. Still, definitely much better than the Initial Score indicated.]

[Later: I want to like this. It's a cute farewell song (or tragicute, depending on when and how it's played), but I'm just not that into it.]

[And Later: ...FINE, I do kinda like it still.]

[And also later: Ehhhhhh.... alright, let's try putting this back to the Revised Score for a bit.]

[Later: Like Mr. Usher before it, this is in that odd state where I don't want to raise the score any further and don't really want to eliminate it either... but ths cuts have to start somewhere and, though I did take another day to reconsider things, I still think this is as far as the track goes.]

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-with only the power to push others away?-

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#602: Kimihiro Abe - Rock Castle (3:17):
https://youtu.be/3rlI2_iUWJg

Nominator: Haste [18/31 Remaining]

Initial Score: 57.31
Revised Score: 57.31
Final Score: 56.111

(First Reaction: A song fit for a monarch that rules an ancient, evil kingdom. It's both regal and foreboding , which is a fun combination of feelings--also, considering the name is "rock castle", is probably what the song was going for. Good for it.)

!Good ambience on this track, I like it. Not quite at the next level, but I do like it a reasonable amount.

[Final Thoughts: Ancient Technologically Advanced Evil Kingdom Army Theme.]

[Later: Another of the songs where I like them enough that I don't feel good cutting them, but also don't want to throw out any extra points.]

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