LogFAQs > #948889020

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287: ESTHERO - HEAVEN SENT:

https://youtu.be/0YoE2CWg2EI

Nominator: Jesse_Custer (10/15)

Initial Score: 50.67 [#394]
Revised Score: 51.73 [#412]
Final Score: 62.59 [#287]

(First Thoughts: I should probably do a lot of introspection about why Im not as into this as it seems like I should be. Like in terms of things Ive praised before, weve got:

A: A song the artist has refused to explain, leaving the audience free to make their own conclusions.

B: Is possibly a villainous song? Its usually presumed to be a murder ballad, says some guy on the internet, so its at least villain adjacentif you subscribe to the beliefs about the killing being literal killing and not, like, a metaphor or something.

And the song is performed well enough, i have no objections to the singer or the band or the instruments. And when you look at that, you kinda say well, theres a song Raetsels really going to like, and I just...dont. Its hypocritical, ooh, look at these people nominating exactly the thing you asked for, but Im not a fan of this. At least, not after the first listen. And I kinda need to try to work out where things went wrong.

So for Point A, I do like songs being open to interpretation, but theres a wide variety of beliefs about this song and I very actively hate some of them. Theres also one interpretation (that I personally dont believe) that I would possibly love if it was true. So the song probably fluctuates anywhere between 30 to 70 points depending on which interpretation Im going withand Ill get into those into a minute.

With Point B, I never gave it any thought before Johnbobbs villain song topic, but there are a few specific types of villain songs that I enjoy. In no particular order:

1.I love songs where the villain expresses, even briefly, a moment of regret. This is best exemplified by my most listened to song for almost four years running, Gamma Unchained:

Forgive me for what I have done
I've never felt the need to confess

....

I've cheated, the lies that I've told
Is for a future that I have seen
The death, the lives that I've stole
The end has to justify the means

Simply perfection. I could speak of the song all day, but moving on...

2.I love cartoonish villains. Evil is fine, evil is fun, but I like it to be less realistic. Face Up, Face Down from that Yu-Gi-Oh! album is probably the best example:

What's wrong now
You look so sad?
Losing your soul doesn't feel that bad
Those you love have told me so
And soon my friends
You too will know

Stealing peoples souls through a card game is awesome. Its blatantly fictitious and its fun. Its still evil, hes not just trying to take the main characters soul but bragging about hurting their loved ones, but its a FUN evil. Alice Coopers Man Behind the Mask would also be a reasonable example; Jasons not a cartoon character, but hes gone to space and fought the cast of Mortal Kombat, so were not exactly dealing with someone particularly realistic. (Also every time Alice Cooper sings Hes come out of his hole, it makes me picture Jason as an evil gopher, and let me sayI love this image).

3.Along the same lines, I like theatrical villains. Give me big, loud, boisterous villains wholl ham up the stage. Something like E.G.G.M.A.N. where hes openly singing about how hes going to destroy everyone without mercy (from my machines there is no retreat), but is clearly having grand ol time dancing & singing his own name.

Or to put it a simpler way: Compared to Johnbobb, I look for the exact opposite in my villain songs. And can I just say how weird it is that at least one write-up in all my topics involves talking about Johnbobb, yet hes never popped into any of them? Three years now Ive been talking about him and his tastes in music and he doesnt even know it, its getting a bit awkward now. Notice me, Johnbobb-senpai! </.<

...AAANYWHO, Heaven Sent doesnt hit any of those categories. If were taking the song at surface level then the singer just killed her boyfriends ex; or someone her boyfriend probably fucked at any rate. Its too grounded, too realistic, too ripped from the headlines. Theres nothing theatrical or cartoonish about crimes about passion, and as such, nothing in it to interest me.

At least, if were taking the common belief. Theres another theory that the song is really about abortion, in which case, weve gone way too far along the realism path and the song would be lucky to get a 30 from me. Theres an argument to be made that maybe shes just sleeping with a married man and metaphorically killing the other woman by destroying her life, which... I also do not care about as a story? I suspect realistic murder ballad and cheating ballad probably score similarly (barring extreme cases like Back 2 Good by Matchbox Twenty from last years topic, which is a marvelous song in spite of the subject matter).

But theres one alternate belief out there... that the woman the singer has killed is her own past self, that shes been corrupted and the old her is dead now. Now that is a story that gets you big pointsIve been saying I want more dissociation in my music. But Im not sold on that explanation. You can read it that way, and theres nothing to prove thats not how the song is meant, but... Im leaning towards murder ballad myself. And that gives you points in the low 50s. For now; its possible I might come around on the song later, either out of praise for the uncertainty of the lyrics or because Ive found an explanation I really like or maybe Ill just suddenly like the singer more, I dunno. Like Ive said, initial scores mean nothing.)

Theres an INXS song called Heaven Sent? Drop everything youre doing, were going to listen to that right now!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fydm01xmeqk

...Wow, I do not like that all. I wanted to pretend to be a rabid INXS fangirl and try to turn them into a meme, but seriously, I do not want to listen to that song.

[You wonder if a pool table would improve the song, but decide not to inquire, so as to not further indulge her ridiculous flights of fancy.]

Aaanywho... back to the actual song: I still dont particularly like it. It does appear to do most of things Ive asked songs to do, but I still never connect with it. And I already spent enough time trying to analyze why that was in my First Thoughts (most songs were lucky to get a complete sentence, but this song got quite a bit of unrelated rambling as I tried to work out my thoughts), so Im just going to call it a night here.

...oh yeah, I do find it funny that someone actually nominated Gamma Unchained. Id done this First Thoughts section before the History Repeating albums were nominated or I probably wouldnt have used that as my initial example.

[Not-Quite-Final Thoughts: Catchy enough to be moved up to 60 points, though still not my choice of subject matter.

Also, youll probably point out that INXS Heaven Sent also appeared in Make My Video: INXS and let me make it clearthere is exactly one INXS song I care about and it is not Heaven Sent.

...okay, more seriously (though still wildly off-topic) I kinda like Devil Inside & Never Tear Us Apart. Bitter Tears is....probably catchy enough that I probably like it, but Ive never gone out of my way to listen to it and cant say Ive heard it enough to have a strong opinion. Heaven Sent and Baby Dont Cry are just things I played once in context of the game, remarked to myself about how blatantly inferior to Not Enough Time they are, and promptly forgot they existed. ]

[Final Thoughts: She has a nice voice.]

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