LogFAQs > #970954538

Five more songs to end the day. Tomorrow will be a day off due to real world things that need my attention. I'll also be posting a status update following these five songs because I've made so many alterations and adjustments over the past two hours that I'd be absolutely shocked if the numbers were still correct.

(Error with the numbering was found, adjusting the numbers now)

(...additional errors were found.)

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#243: Grimes - Butterfly (4:12):
https://open.spotify.com/track/01dQHUYz6EerSF6JQDolCC?si=1183e50ce93e4231

Nominator: Player_0 [9/33 Remaining]

Initial Score: 56.10
Revised Score: 60.00
Final Score: 70.40

(First Reaction: I have a fair amount of like for this song, though I'm not currrently sure why.)

!I still haven't figured out why, but I think I do like this. Enough to add it to the NEO CLUMP of exactly 60 point songs.

[Final Thoughts: The good news is that I like this more everytime I hear it. The bad news is I've got nothing to say here. *shrugs*]

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#242: The Dear Hunter - The Moon / Awake (6:09):
https://open.spotify.com/track/7yg3UIbYx9kiOWHoGtFMqG?si=d797c3f9654a449b

Nominator: NBIceman [9/22 Remaining]

Initial Score: 60.10
Revised Score: 67.92
Final Score: 70.311 [Upgraded to 70.41]

(First Reaction: *before listening* I've been waiting a long time for this, as it has taken us years to reach this point. This was the first Dear Hunter song NBIceman nominated way back at the first topic, where I was quite bewildered by it:

Oof... first time I'm even hearing of this band and we're starting at Act V. Yet another concept album song I won't be able to fully appreciate because I don't have time to listen and study to so many different albums.

On the plus side I do like the song and wouldn't exactly be opposed to listening to the other albums, but it feels like a massive undertaking to try following the plot at this point.

[FINAL NOTES: Song would likely do better without the Awake portion. That weird outro might be unique, but it's not doing the song any favors in terms of placement.]

Iceman would take me up on the "wouldn't be opposed to listening to the other albums" offer, getting me to listen to Acts IV & III at last year's topic, giving this song at least some of the context that it needs. And I think we can say that I'm a fan of the band now... kinda; I listened to an abridged version of Act IV a lot last year: I'd start at "A NIght on the Town" until it got to the parts I didn't care for, skip ahead to "The Squeaky Wheel", love "The Bitter Suite IV and V" (often listen to that two or three times in a row), then skip to "King of Swords (Reversed)" & "If All Goes Well" which I prefer to think of as one long song. Sometimes I'd continue to "The Line" as a bit of an epilogue.

So, not really such a big fan that I listen to the entire album, but it had some songs that I was playing on an endless loop, which I'd say displays a certain fondness for the band. I listened to my abridged Act IV so many times that I honestly considered listening to Act V on my own, but I figured that would hardly be fair to Iceman; he's quite literally spent years building up to my revisiting the song, it'd be cruel to not wait for him to officially nominate it.

Aaanywho, here we are. Last time this song was ranked was "October 7th, 2018". It came in 101st place out of 200 nominations, just missing out on making it into the top half. Now, with all the added context, the newfound fondness for the band, multiple years of build-up and hype, we come back to THIS SONG. Will I finally love it? Will I decide that, actually, I have enough Dear Hunter songs that I've listened to on an endless loop and I'm a bit bored of them now? WIll the song, inexplicably, land in the middle of the pack once again, revealing that context is ultimately meaningless and this was all a cosmic joke/complete waste of time? LET'S GO!

*hits play*

Okay, so my reaction to the song is not as dramatically different as we may have hoped. I do actively love the bridge near the end of the song:

If the younger me just could've seen the trouble I'd create
He'd never have agreed to carry on

That line in particular just nails the feelings I'm looking for, so perfectly. And I don't mind the slightly odd outro--I'm surprised I seemed bothered by it back in 2018. I'm not really into it or anything, but it's different and doesn't really detract from the experience, and 2018 was basically the peak of me being into weird sounds.

But... when the song is over six minutes long and I only really love one part, it becomes a bit harder to justify giving it a really great score. Not that the rest of the song isn't good, just not super-top-tier like the bridge is.)

!I'm more into the lyrics in general at this moment--"Would such extremes repair our broken past?" is another line that appeals to me--so I'm moving this song closer to the 70 point tier. I'm not prepared to move it up an entire tier, but this feels like more of a high-60's type song than a low-60's.

[Final Thoughts: Well, let's go ahead and move it up to the really like level this time.]

[Later: Minor point increase to rearrange the list.]

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#241: TM Network - Get Wild (4:00):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1Z68Y0mAaI

Nominator: Handsomeboy [12/31 Remaining]

Initial Score: 53.144
Revised Score: 57.99
Final Score: 61.87 [Upgraded to 66.31] [Upgraded to 70.42]

(First Reaction: The first verse (or the translation I found of it, at least) sounds oddly depressing:

My tires bite into the asphalt
As I slice through the darkness.
I risk my life on cheap thrills
Yet I still fear what tomorrow might bring.

A hardboiled detective racing the streets at night, gambling his life on nothing? Ooh, I like where this is going! For the first minute. Then we start singing about the puzzle of love & mending broken dreams, which is not the "modern noir" aesthetic I was expecting from the first verse. It's still a nice song (and the "get wild and tough!" repetition in the chorus is memorable and catchy), but it's not quite what I got my hopes up for. I may be undervaluing it a bit--really not fair to judge the song for what it isn't--but we'll see how I feel about it next time around.)

The opening verse is still A+, but the chorus continues to let me down. There's still some traces of pain: "There is no room for weakness in this town" is certainly rough and the singer's vow to fix their broken dreams even though they're alone doesn't exactly paint the happiest picture. I just never really "click" with the song after the first verse, leaving me feeling oddly disappointed in the rest of the song; it's definitely good and I like it, I just feel like it mostly goes off in a direction that I don't find as interesting which is making me be rather unfair to the song.

[Final Thoughts: Hey, I like this song and don't know why it's not already up at the "like" tier. Boing!]

[Later: It's another song with a fairly low score that I was oddly hyped up to listen to again. Moving this up a few extra points.]

[Later: I'm surprised this wasn't up at the 70 point level already, to be quite honest. ]

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