Board 8 > Raetsel and the Alts finish ranking 784 songs [+ Bonus Songs]

(+) Yeah! (+)

And so we move along to the top 267 songs! We've finally reached the songs that scored at least 70/100 points, marking the arrival at the tier of songs I would say I really liked! We're about to start posting the good stuff, but first:

The List of Songs (with scores for every song posted thus far): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QfNa-zf09__z-Om4WO40ocRPWhEeE_83voAt_s-tXLI/edit?usp=sharing

And a count of how the remaining songs are divided between remaining nominators:

----------------------

REMAINING SONG COUNT

Bane: 13*/38 Remaining
BlackDra90n: 6/30 Remaining
cakophon: 6/20 Remaining
CJones: 3/18 Remaining
CPU: 10**/30 Remaining
DoctorJimmy: 10/24 Remaining
Dragon66116: 8/12 Remaining
handsomeboy: 14/31 Remaining
Haste: 3/31 Remaining
hotdogturtle: 4/14 Remaining
Jesse_Custer: 11/29 Remaining
kateee: 10/21 Remaining
Kopazzynth: 1/21 Remaining
Lasa: 2/14 Remaining
Mega Mana: 15/38 Remaining
Metalmind: 14/25 Remaining
Murphiroth: 8/32 Remaining
NBIceman: 11***/22 Remaining
NFUN: 8/31 Remaining
paulg: 12/52 Remaining
Player_0: 11/33 Remaining
Raka: 17/31 Remaining
rwlh: 9/24 Remaining
sergio: 2/13 Remaining
Snake: 11/32 Remaining
TheArkOfTurus: 6/17 Remaining
TunnelScene: 9/27 Remaining
UF8: 14/30 Remaining
Xtlm: 6/13 Remaining
ZaziGuado: 13/28 Remaining

*Sorry Bro was uneliminated.

**Deja Vu (Classical) was also uneliminated

***I slipped up and had Iceman's remaining song counter increase to 13 instead of decrease to 11 after their last song dropped, number has been corrected.

Raka continues to have the most remaining songs left at 17, while Mega Mana is close behind with 15.

----------------------

There's also an ongoing list of Extra Songs to be listened to after the main ranking ends; feel free to add more stuff to it, but currently that list is as follows:

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

ZA'LIST 2023 EDITION:

UF8: "there actually is another song i probably 100% would've picked had it been fully out then though that also has a harumaki gohan-esque music video, remind me to bring it up if/when the ranking ends in another year or so lol"

The Great Escape by Seventh Wonder

Try something else by Thomas Dimuzio and 5uu's

Try something else by BT

Exit Strategy of a Wrecking Ball (Diablo Swing Orchestra)

Sunbather by Please Remember

The Birthday Massacre - Happy Birthday

The Music Man - Seventy Six Trombones

Deafheaven - Dream House + Irrestible

Make Them Suffer - Doomswitch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw6hANHeIaw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuRZYB9EEZM

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

https://youtu.be/D_Jh6upswd0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT-uWOVP5q0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVbH1BVXywY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCLsqg05boo

https://youtu.be/paepYX9E6iU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUS-_CaMftE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JoC99uBCfo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuFbQ-Mewfw

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOuNKm4ApZY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_X6UNPq2rY

Electric Callboy - Tekno ( Pump It, [the one that might count as a censor bypass], Spaceman, Hurrikan )

Zektbach:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=RzjNof-Tj3M&list=PLSkBT8UcCTh_QUTOs4rLUnd61I43T2P1c&index=1

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Tag.

I have no idea what the order of my remaining songs will be.

tag

First five songs of the tier & the new topic:

====================

#267: Johnny Alf - Vejo a... Cair [2:27]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j19lBIy-2P4

Nominator: cakophon [5/20 Remaining]

Initial Score: 60.00
Revised Score: 60.00
Final Score: 70.00

(First Reaction:

The shadow won
And the joy ended, it ended
And the night came

Yesss, yesss, your sadnessss--give it to me!

[Fluttershy's Note: Raetsel is currently slithering around and hissing, pretending to be a gorgon. We ask that you humor her for the duration of this paragraph and assure you that she'll probably be back to normal in a few minutes. Probably.]

*hiss* Sadnesssss~)

!Great lyrics and a classic sound that doesn't get nominated often; it's not my favorite genre, but it does stand out as being a fairly unique selection & rather enjoyable.

[Final Thoughts: Sadly, I don't shift into a gorgon upon hearing this any longer... -but- I do really like this and the variety it provides, so I'm immediately giving it a 10 point boost to its score.]

====================

-If you were hoping things would be more coherent at this tier level, then I'm sorry.-

==========================================

#266: Takanashi Neiro - Kokoro wo Kanadete (3:39):
https://youtu.be/2PK4VR-uB48

Nominator: UF8 [13/30 Remaining]

Initial Score: 70.00
Reised Score: 70.00
Final Score: 70.00 [Upgraded to 70.00000001]

(First Reaction: A simple and pretty song that I think might wind up making it considerably higher on the list by the time I'm through. It has all the makings of being one of those songs where I'll get ready to eliminate it, spontaneously go "no, this is too pretty to eliminate just yet", and completely throw everything out of whack as it keeps narrowly avoiding elimination at the last minute.

And if not, at the very least, i'd be shocked if this ever dropped below the 70 point tier. This kind of quiet beauty seems to be something I'm reasonably into at the moment--not automatic first place into, but certainly at the "quite liked this"level of into-ness.)

!Much more into anger than beauty at the moment, but even so, this song remains at the "really like" tier.

[Final Thoughts: Simple and pretty.]

[Later: Somewhat ironic that a song with that first reaction turned out to be one of the most consistent with its score.]

==========================================

-song does not go up, song does not go down.-

========================

#265: Raidas - (On a certain day of a certain month) (3:37):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEVhUZ1Wzro

Nominator: Handsomeboy [13/31 Remaining]

Initial Score: 62.56
Revised Score: 67.18
Final Score: 70.00 [Upgraded to 70.0000002]

(First Reaction: I'm impressed with how accurately Google Translate handles this description of someone reviewing the song:

This song uses a narrative method to tell the once carefree, once youthful youth. Coupled with Xu Zhinuo's clean and slightly sad interpretation, the listeners feel that the beautiful scenes flashed by, as if returning to those innocent years . This song is like a faintly smudged ink painting, narrated softly...

"Youthful youth" is a bit redundant, but wow, that is rather poetic song reviewing. Song is pretty; I'm not as captivated by it as the above reviewer, but I can't say I disagree with their assessment.)

!Adding a few points to the score. It's catchier than I remembered it being.

[Final Thoughts: I'm going to go ahead and add this to the Neo Cluster of 70 point songs. I'd say I really like this one.]

========================

-that was likely the most poetic quote from this ranking-

===================

#264: Breath of Fire 2 - The Destined Child [0:39]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Xbmx3YG720

Nominator: paulg [11/52 Remaining]

Initial Score: 50.13
Revised Score: 60.00
Final Score: 70.00 [Upgraded to 70.00000003]

(First Reaction: A song with a dramatic build towards... nothing, really, since it ends at a point where something should happen (in this case, starting the game--I think). It's fine, I suppose)

It's probably a mistake to jump this song up an entire tier, but I'm going to go ahead and do it anyway. The simple fact is that this song nails the dramatic tension and succeeds in making me excited to see what happens next, which is impressive. I do wish we had a full song here because this awesome build is completely wasted at this topic where nothing happens afterwards, -BUT- an amazing song that leaves me desperately wanting more has to be at the "I like this" tier.

[Final Thoughts: I don't care, I really like this song. It manages a perfect dramatic build with tension, without becoming overly epic or boring. I do wish there was more here, but what's here is kinda perfect, so let's go ahead and jump this up another ten points.]

===================

-if only there was a bit more to that song...-

============================

#263: Akihito Okawa - Power Glide (3:53):
https://youtu.be/vJNZAOwna-U

Nominator: NFUN: [7/31 Remaining]

Initial Score: 57.4906
Revised Score: 68.99
Final Score: 70.00 [Upgraded to 70.00000004]

(First Reaction: I don't usually like the Zero Divide OSTs, or at least I haven't particularly liked any that I remember being nominated at other topics, but this track feels like it's several steps ahead of the rest. There's a nice "twinkling stars" type quality to parts of the song that's easy to vibe with.)

!An oddly motivational track. It has very "sitting inside your giant robot preparing for a large space battle" overtones, but there's a level of hope & confidence built in--alongside the beauty of the stars--that really elevates this track to the next tier.

[Final Thoughts: One of only a few songs to go up a tier each time I listen to it, I'm starting to really like the feel of this track.]

============================

re-tag

Woo

I had a bunch of drops early on but looks like I'm starting to do a bit better...!

And the last five of the day:

============================

#262: John McLaughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra - Thousand Island Park (3:20):
https://youtu.be/cU6eykMxiZM

Nominator: NFUN: [6/31 Remaining]

Initial Score: 53.935
Revised Score: 70.00
Final Score: 70.00 [Upgraded to 70.00000005]

(First Reaction: It's not quite my type of music, but I do find it fairly intriguing. It's like... I'm not really fond of the things it is doing, but what it is doing causes my ears to perk up & forces me to pay attention to it. It is an interesting novelty and one I wish to hear more of, to identify why it is making my ears react that way... but when I ask myself if I actually like it, I just kinda shrug and say "kinda??". Like in terms of being interesting, this song is a 90.00, but in terms of things I enjoy listening to it's in the low 50s... and while I should give it far more points for the interest, I feel like I want to keep it in the low-50s for the moment.)

I am unsure why the original score was so low, as a song that is strangely fascinating should be at least one tier above the 50 point level. I'm still not entirely sure what to make of this track and it's not really one of my preferred styles (whatever style it may be), but it's so intriguing that I thoroughly enjoy blinking at it in confusion. I think I shall go ahead and jump this song up two tiers, to the "really like" Cluster. It's certainly fascinating, whatever it is.

[Final Thoughts: I shall keep this at the Neo Cluster level. I really like this, whatever it is.]

============================

-if I'd noticed NFUN was losing two songs back-to-back, I may have rearranged things so they'd both go out in the same post...-

====================

#261: LOONA 1/3 - Sonatine [3:27]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6JmCdDs_GM

Nominator: cakophon [4/20 Remaining]

Initial Score: 65.35
Revised Score: 65.35
Final Score: 65.35 [Upgraded to 67.07] [Upgraded to 68.939] [Upgraded to 70.003]

(First Reaction: Good vocals & nice lyrics. Doesn't really make me think of anything specific, but it's quite good and I'd like to hear more from the group which is nice because the next song you nominated is more from them.)

!Short & pretty. I'd like this particular song to go a bit longer, but there's something to be said for songs that don't overstay their welcome and leave you wanting more.

[Final Thoughts: A sweet type of romance that I'm able to enjoy.]

[Later: Going to move this one up to 67 points.]

[Later: And just under two points, enough to push it right to the edge of the 68 point level.]

[Later: And another boost to reach the next tier.]

====================

-

Inside the darkness
At the end of the road
Will we be able to meet?

-

============================

#260: Linkin Park - Forgotten (3:14):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl6QHZSwyKw&list=PLSZnrWBCBT3ng1xEWEkXC91StoZjD8BP3&index=10

Nominator: Mega_Mana [14/38 Remaining[

Initial Score: 51.39
Revised Score: 59.42
Final Score: 59.399 [Upgraded to 60.00] [Upgraded to 60.47] [Upgraded to 64.12] [Upgraded to 66.08] [Upgraded to 69.41] [Upgraded to 69.9004] [Upgraded to 70.004]

(First Reaction: It's possible I'm just burned out after going through this entire album in one sitting, but this song feels rather exhausting.)

The intro/pre-chorus of this song goes pretty hard, which is a bit of a turn-off and the bridge repeating the same lines seven times in a row is definitely more repetition than I'd like... but the chorus definitely represents things about the band that I love. Chester's singing in those parts is wonderful and the lyrics are very much in line with my interests:

In the memory, you'll find me
Eyes burning up
The darkness holding me tightly
Until the sun rises up

As someone who spends all their time in memories and flashbacks and darkness, those lines definitely work for me. I could live without the sun part, but hey, it's not like the line actively ruins the song or anything. Which brings the question: If I love the chorus and don't really care about the rest of the song, does that average out to "like" (60 point tier) or "generally positive feelings" (the tier it was at, albeit with a higher score because this song definitely does better when it's not being directly compared to the rest of the album)?

I think I'll go with the high-50's here. The song goes a bit too hard for me most of the time and the chorus isn't perfect, though it does offer plenty of reasons to love it. I can revisit things and see if I want to bump it up the last half a point or so it needs to reach the next tier during the Final Score portion.

[Final Thoughts: Louder and heavier than I'd like for most of the song, but the chorus is a definite highlight.]

[Later: Yeah, I really like the chorus, which I'm going to say is enough to move this up a tier.]

[Later: How far can the chorus carry this song? Above the Neo Clump at least, I suppose.]

[Later: Uhhh.... I love the chorus, I still can't decide how high that fact raises the score because the metal parts are still off-putting. I'm going to try 64 points?]

[Still Later: Maybe 66?]

[Later Still: Let's try a few more points while we're at it.]

[Later: Moving this up a tiny bit more... I do love the chorus, I'm just not sure if I love it enough to go up to the next tier.]

[Later, the same day: Ehhh... kinda close, but I think the chorus is solid enough to let this squeak into the 70 point level.]

============================

-quite a few songs that have received seven or eight upgrades; I'm honestly not sure if anything has reached nine or more since I haven't actually been counting.-

============================

#259: MEER - Picking Up the Pieces (6:15):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuuYf0BuCDY

Nominator: NBIceman [10/22 Remaining]

Initial Score: 67.00
Revised Score: 65.11
Final Score: 67.00 [Upgraded to 69.40] [Upgraded to 70.006]

(First Reaction: Good song. I feel I should be more bothered by how quickly it runs out of new lyrics, but honestly, I think it kinda works here)

!Still good, though I do find myself wishing there was a bit more lyrical content here.

[Final Thoughts: Not sure why this song was moved down, so I'm moving it back up. I should have more to say here about the story it's trying to tell and things, but honestly, I just like it.]

[Later: A couple extra points. I still don't have much to say about the song, but I like it even more than usual right now.]

[Later: I think I enjoy the chorus enough that I want to move this up a tier.]

============================

-two songs moved up based primarily on their choruses in a row. I suppose it makes sense they'd end with similar scores.-

============================

#258: bermei.inazawa - circle (zts mix) (8:30):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0ZpTtZPLII

Nominator: DoctorJimmy [9/24 Remaining]

Initial Score: 63.4724
Revised Score: 63.19
Final Score: 70.015

(First Reaction: I don't really know what that was or what any of those lyrics were, but it's a fun & beep-y journey to...somewhere or whatever.

...I swear that's meant as a compliment.)

!The pulsing beat can get to be a bit much, but it's still a strange journey that's worth taking.

[Final Thoughts: Actually, I really like whatever this is. Going to go ahead and bounce this up a tier.]

============================

I've only been slightly skimming most of the writeups, but I'm still checking for my own songs and will probably read the comments more thoroughly once it gets near the end.

wait i never realized there was a bermie/zts/mirawi circle

Havent posted so far, but Ive been following along and enjoying the write-ups. Curious which of my songs will do the best, since they havent gone out in the order I expected.

Thank you to all who are still here (and thank you to those who were here, but aren't anymore as well) ; three songs to start the day, including our next elimination:

=========================================

#258: Eskimo Callboy feat. Sasha - Hypa Hypa (2:55)
https://youtu.be/OChI5fsBqtU

Nominator: BlackDra90n [5/30 Remaining]

Initial Score: 54.66
Revised Score: 69.00
Final Score: 69.588 [Upgraded to 70.009] [Upgraded to 70.016]

(First Reaction: The most "typical pop music"-esque version of Hypa Hypa, of the versions nominated. It's pretty nice and I like that it features a subdued version of that "pulsing beat" I often complain about--it's a more easy to listen to type of dance beat, which is something I was kinda looking for this year. But it's not the best version of the song, which probably holds it back a bit.)

*loses track of which "Hypa Hypa" song is which and listens to this one instead of the one with the lowest score* Whoops, guess this one's getting a Revised Score much sooner than I intended... at least it doesn't make any real difference and I caught on before the scoring got all messed up.

This song isn't synthwave or anything close to it, but there's a synthetic 80's vibe to it that I'm rather into at the moment and... actually give me a sec to remember what synthwave does sound like.

[Some Time Later]

...Right, I was supposed to be working and *not* falling into a playlist of music from an unrelated genre. I remember that. So this song: Big 80's dance party vibes. There's also this vague undercurrent of almost darkness... like it's not a dark song, not even remotely, but I can easily imagine just a few slight changes to the performance to make it really twisted, Honestly, with lines about her being a drug and the singer willing to die for her, it's wouln't take a lot to make the leap from "happy dance song" to "dark and obsessive dance song".

Either way, I find myself enjoying this quite a bit... in part because I'm imagining the song it could have been, but what's actually here is good too. Good enough to be worth getting lost in assorted fantasies about at least. I'm going to move this close to the top of the 60 point tier--leave a bit of room for some other songs to be further up the tier, but move it far enough that the song has seen a large jump from where it started.

[Final Thoughts: Definitely at the highest level of 60 point songs.]

[Later: I'm surprised this song wasn't already at the 70 point tier.]

[Later: A very minor increase.]

=========================================

-and there goes the final Hypa Hypa song-

====================

#257: King Geedorah - Fazers (3:18):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWN0vQpwcKM

Nominator: rwlh [8/24 Remaining]

Initial Score: 70.08
Revised Score: 66,35
Final Score: 66.359 [Upgraded to 69.53] [Upgraded to 70.007] [Upgraded to 70.017]

(First Reaction: It's almost hard to believe this song came from an artist who was in joint last place at the previous topic, but this song is great. Some really good samples here, especially the backing music which is phenomenal.)

!Neat song. I still really enjoy the backing music and have no complaints about the song, but there also aren't any particular lyrics or moments I'm drawn to... just a general "this is really good, neat" type vibe.

[Final Thoughts: Magnificent backing track and I could always use more exposure to hip hop, so this is a good nomination.]

[Later:

Turn into a triple-X monster from a fairy tale movie
He don't know me very well, do he?

"This line is an old Red Skelton catchphrase now best-remembered through its appropriation by Bugs Bunny."

I honestly did not know that was a reference to anything when Bugs said it. That Genius website actually taught me something. Neat! This doesn't impact my decision to move the song up as I had given it extra points before deciding to try to find something to say here, but it does help create a bit more content than a generic "adding points now" message.]

[Later: And up a tier with this one.]

[Later: Very minor boost to move this above a couple songs.]

====================

-and another Looney Tunes reference, though that one was at least somewhat on topic-

================

#256: Brendan Byrnes - Trillopod [4:32]:
https://spectropolrecords.bandcamp.com/track/trillopod

Nominator: Kopazzynth [Eliminated]

Initial Score: 62.02
Revised Score: 62.02
Final Score: 70.02

(First Reaction: These beeps please me.

...yeah, I feel good leaving it at that.)

!...I no longer feel good leaving things at that, but also can't think of anything I want to say either.

[Final Thoughts: Yes, this definitely pleases me. I am amused and content moving this up a tier, though I wonder why this song was so low to begin with.]

================

--------------------------------------------------

Elimination #2:

Lowest Ranked Song: Danny Playamaqui - Fig: [45.00]

Highest Ranked Song: Brendan Byrnes - Trillopod [70.02]

Average Score: 58.9879

You nominated a fairly consistent set of tracks. There weren't any songs that I disliked and 19/21 songs were on the positive half of scoring. Unfortunately, I didn't have a very strong reaction to many of the songs either; I generally enjoyed the concepts, but didn't quite find anything I loved. Still, your nominations did provide a nice bit of variety and I'm very thankful you took the time to participate.

Average Score Chart

Kopazzynth 58.9879
Shonen_Bat: 55.1250

--------------------------------------------------

I think that's roughly what I'd expect from you for the Hypa Hypa rankings. I thought maybe the original would be higher than the Salatio Mortis version but otherwise feels right.

[Six] songs to end the day, which coincidentally starts and ends with Bane noms. And also some talk about a different Bane nom in an otherwise unrelated song because this somehow became a Bane-themed portion of the list??

[Edit: I meant to post seven songs... but I moved one song that was scheduled to be eliminated up at the literal last minute and forgot to prepare a replacement, so six songs it is.]

========================

#255: Bjork - Possibly Maybe (5:05):
https://open.spotify.com/track/1tuyf2jFaU9kFevnSiMzGh?si=98cb9aa9718b4df4

Nominator: Bane [12*/38 Remaining]

Initial Score: 70.05
Revised Score: 70.05
Final Score: 70.05

(First Reaction: The backing music here feels like a proto-version of chillwave, or vaporwave, or some other [noun]wave and I mean that in a good way. I really, really like the music on this track. The vocals and lyrics elicit feelings of nostalgia for a doomed, possibly abusive relationship. It's a strong combination.)

!I love the heavy, crushing nature of the instruments on this song and the lyrics are rather appealing to me. Definitely one of her best songs.

[Final Thoughts: <3 the backing music here.[

========================

-Look at them! They've jumped on the one franchise I might have considered thinking about possibly becoming interested in.-

========================

#254: Mori Calliope - Bully (4:05):
https://open.spotify.com/track/1Mt287tRgGUKQtB885KHhF?si=34491ad3fedb46bd

Nominator: Murphiroth [7/32 Remaining]

Initial Score: 70.01
Revised Score: 70.01
FInal Score: 70.025 [Upgraded to 70.051]

(First Reaction: I quite like this. It's a very dysfunctional relationship, we've got non-human metaphors with her referring to herself as a hungry wolf, and "love the me that's killing you" is one of the most delightfully twisted lyrics in the entire topic.)

!Also a lot of self-loathing in this song and that's always worth some extra points.

[Final Thoughts: This track pleases me.]

[Later:

(Translation of some of the Japanese lyrics)

Hungry wolf, hungry wolf,
Howl and run,
Once more, Ill raise a mean claw and hunt you.

Definitely the type of lyrics I'm here for. There's also some fun contrasting this song with Dorian Electra's Gentleman, as they cover some similar ground with emotional manipulation:

[Mori]

I'll use and abuse you and never feel bad, until suddenly, funnily, you take my hand
Tangle you tight in the yarns that I've spun
And I'll do it again, to get what I want

[Dorian]

I pick you up
I put you down
I say the perfect thing then I make you spin around

...I mean, that's really only the most surface level comparison and the two songs are nothing alike, but it's still somewhat amusing to compare them.

Anyhow, I'm giving this song a minor boost to rearrange things.]

========================

-kinda disappointed I didn't shoehorn in random comparisons to other Bane nominations in the rest of today's writeups and made an official running gag of it...-

============================

#252: Mint Potion - Alchemy (3:40):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjKLtJkabss

Nominator: DoctorJimmy [8/24 Remaining]

Initial Score: 70.00
Revised Score: 70.00
Final Score: 70.04 [Upgraded to 70.054]

(First Reaction: The world needs more villain love songs.)

!Very neat effect, combining aspects of Plague Knight & Mona's songs together into a surprisingly smooth love song. Very surprisingly good song.

[Final Thoughts: Smooth.]

[Later: Another very minor boost to rearrange a few songs.]

============================

-smooth-

============================

#251: Franchouchou - Tokkou Dance DAWN OF THE BAD (4:12):
https://open.spotify.com/track/4MmeicRXfMEtcm7d0O5r6q?si=ea63601064bf4494

Nominator: Player_0 [10/33 Remaining]

Initial Score: 47.58
Revised Score: 51.26
Final Score: 57.30 [Upgraded to 60.00] [Upgraded to 70.06]

(First Reaction *before clicking play* Please be a decent song so I don't have an excuse to post a lame "more like dawn of the bad song, wa ha ha ha ha ha!" thought.

*after clicking* Well, it isn't bad, but I'm not connecting with it at all either.

This song pays tribute to the song "One Night Carnival" by Kishidan, famous Japanese "gangster" band.

Well, let's just go listen to that for a minute:

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

Not a bad song and I think I can hear similarities. I think I like One Night Carnival a bit more, but it's not a dramatic difference... probably like 53 to 54 points for Carnival. The added context for DAWN OF THE BAD is neat, but doesn't really change how I felt about it.)

Song is catchier than I remembered it being and there's an entertaining "light energy" to the music. Like it's not really an energetic song, but there's a vague sense of being adjacent to energy. It is energetic dance music for those who have no energy, hate dancing, and resent more than the vague implication that dancing exists anywhere in the universe. Which is me. The song is made for me and me alone.

..You'd really think that would be worth a score greater than the low 50's, still here we are. Both of us lonely. Longing for shelter from all that we see.

Wasn't what I was planning on, but now I've got the live version of that song with Dolly Parton stuck in my head and now I have to go listen to that or I'll never be able to focus on anything for the rest of the night:

Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton - We Got Tonight [Live];
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6IIkpmw8Ow

I've always loved Dolly's poppier songs and, while this is obviously a very country song, it has more mainstream appeal than a lot of her solo songs. Like the original version with Kenny & Sheena Easton occasionally plays on non-country stations, so I know it's not just my imagination. Either way, I think this is a fantastic version of the song; their voices work really well together and Dolly adds a fun, playful spirit to the song that the original version was lacking. Her interactions with Kenny are cute and it makes the entire song very charming.

...I really wasn't planning on filling time with a random song, but once I started singing, there wasn't really much of a choice. And now that I've talked about a different song on both the First Reaction & Main Writeup, I suppose I'll have to find a third song to cover during the "Final Thoughts" portion, because now it's crossing the line into intentional running gag territory.

[Final Thoughts: ...No, I'd rather not detour into a writeup for a third song. Anywho, song is cute and fun without being overwhelmingly energetic, so I kinda like it. It's neat.]

[Later: Actually, I think I like this today. Let's add even more to the Neo Clump! ALL SHALL BE CONSUMED BY THE NEO CLUMP'S GLORY. WOO HOO!]

[Later: Just listen to how unenthusiastic the "woo hoo"s are on this song. They're not apathetic, they're just incapable of being excited. I kinda love them.

...yeah, I'm moving this up an entire tier almost entirely due to a lack of enthusiasm. I like what I like.]

============================

-continued in next post-

==============================

#250: Mariko Takahashi - Until the End of the Festival (4:21)
https://youtu.be/72d-pTfaHPs

Nominator: Snake [10/32 Remaining]

Initial Score: 58.48
Revised Score: 70.07
Final Score: 70.07

(First Reaction: A rather nice 80's j-pop ballad. I don't have any real attachment to the song or lyrics, but it's pretty and I enjoy listening to it.)

!The tender romantic lyrics aren't the most original, but they're oddly working for me tonight. I actually kinda really like this at the moment... enough to go ahead and leap this up two tiers.

[Final Thoughts: "Close your eyes and touch me" is so... basic, yet tender that I am rather strongly drawn towards this song.]

==============================

-there's always a sense of whiplash when we transition to one of ETID's songs, but the shift from tender and romantic to our final song of the day feels especially jarring-

========================

#249: Every Time I Die - AWOL (2:10):
https://open.spotify.com/track/0zE0NaTrsqnsMvD0EMajLL?si=3ee8cd548d634571

Nominator: Bane [11*/38 Remaining]

Initial Score: 50.50
Revised Score: 58,13
Final Score: 58.13 [Upgraded to 60.00] [Upgraded to 65.131] [Upgraded to 68.131] [Upgraded to 70.0075] [Upgraded to "something"] [Set to 70.074]

(First Reaction: Not bad, but it's currently the weakest track on the album and there are no lyrics or moments that I wish to draw attention to. It's fine, but disappointing in the context of the other songs it must be compared to, and ultimately a bit forgettable as a result.)

This song is definitely a lot better when it's more separated from the rest of the album. It doesn't compare too favorably to the best songs on the album, but it does bring a lot to the table that non-ETID songs don't. Buckley's ability to deliver vocals that are, inexplicably, both clear & harsh at the same time is practically second-to-none and it's impressive that a song described as "dissonant and atonal" can be so.... almost pleasant to listen to? Like when I think of atonal metalcore with harsh lyrics, i think of things that are way harder to enjoy than this song! The fact that it evidentally appeals to both me and the more hardcore fans is, admittedly, pretty impressive.

That being said... I still don't find myself really drawn to many of the lyrics. I almost connect with:

I owe myself an apology
I hope that I mean it

There's a decent amount of pain there, hoping that you can ever forgive yourself, It's... I can almost love aspects of the song, but I never quite get the emotional connection with it that I'm looking for. Still, it's definitely one of the best songs on the 50 point tier and a fair amount better than I thought it was at first.

[Final Thoughts:

Don't just stand there and look at me
Come and give me your trash

I'm not saying that I'm picturing Buckley as a raccoon after that lyric. I'm also not explicitly denying that either.]

[Later: Neo Clump'd.]

[Later: Has this really only been moved up once? I swear this feels like a song I've listened to five or six times by now... moving this up again.]

[Later: ...68 points.]

[Later: A harder song than I usually go for, but I like the lyrics enough that I feel like moving this up another tier.]

[Later: Moving this song aside for a day or two by giving it a null value.]

[Final: This song definitely took a while to get there, but its lyrics eventually propelled it up quite a ways from where it started. It's certainly not the most dramatic increase in points, but it's also nowhere near being the lowest scoring song of the album anymore.]

========================

Two songs to start the morning, including one of the three things I'm sure will be the most controversial:

========================

#248: Novembre - Venezia Dismal (6:02):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqlsOx1qalM

Nominator: Ark [5/17 Remaining]

Initial Score: 53.38
Revised Score: 53.86
Final Score: 54.80 [Upgraded to 55.00] [Upgraded to 55.00000002] [Upgraded to 57.50] [Upgraded to 59.405] [Upgraded to 62.19] [Upgraded to 63.195] [Upgraded to 64.608] [Upgraded to 70.08]

(First Reaction: I was actually looking forward to the Porcupine Tree song, since "Trains" was such a trip. I know songs are open to multiple interpretations, but it felt like everyone was all over the place on that track, ranging from sweet & wholesome to remarkably disturbing. Do all of their songs inspire such varied reactions or is Trains just special that way? Doesn't matter, I suppose, and I could always look into them on my own time if I cared that much.

*getting back to actual topic*

This song started off pretty well, but the demonic yelling after the four minute mark certainly caught me off guard. Especially when the song goes back to normal rather quickly. It feels as though they were contractually obligated to SCREAM during this track, so they just kinda stapled this random section in for the sake of being jarring. It's not bad, but it's so sudden & overwhelming that I can scarcely recall what the other 90% of the song even sounded like.)

The lighter progressive metal that makes up the majority of the song is nice, but it's hard to enjoy when I'm constantly on edge waiting for the screaming to start. Which is odd because I've enjoyed screaming before & also songs that flip between clean and shouty vocals on occasion. It's not like this song is doing something I don't like, I'm just slightly opposed to it here for some reason. I think it's because it's not cleanly implemented into the song: It's a fairly standard song for a good 60% of its runtime, flips out, and then quickly goes back to normal; if the more metal aspects were integrated sooner and more frequently, it wouldn't feel as jarring. Granted, "incredibly jarring" could be exactly what the band wanted to convey with the song, in which case: Well done.

Either way, I wouldn't mind hearing more from the band: The singer's voice isn't bad and I have no objections to the band or the style of music in general. I just don't think this song is quite for me and there aren't any lyrics or moments I'm especially fond of. It's good and I like it, just a bit too randomly jarring.

[Final Thoughts: Not a fan of the musical jumpscare with the screaming, but I kinda like the rest of it.]

[Later: Actually, I don't mind the screaming at all this morning... perhaps I'm in the mood for angry growl shouting? But while I am hesitating a bit, I don't think I want to move this over the wall... I mean, I do kinda like it (and bizarrely I could use more of this type of subdued screaming, where the song is going really hard but the volume is low enough that it doesn't actively hurt &....

...ehh.... maybe I will move this up a bit...]

[The Latest News, Sports, and Weather: Yeah, I'll add a few points to this song's score. It's what I'm in the mood for.]

[Breaking News: Let's go up to the 59 point zone.]

[NEWZ: I've oddly had the first verse stuck in my head today, so I think I'm going to try raising this to the 62 point zone for a while.]

[N3WZ: One extra point.]

[N3W5: I'm back to not being into the growling portion of the song, but I seem to like the rest of it considerably more than usual. Going to try giving one more point?]

[ |\|[-\|/$ : ...Never turn a 1337 translator to max settings, Either way, I think I enjoy the verses to this song enough to go ahead an take it up another tier.]

========================

-and now for another song where I had to add addition dividers because the way the writeup is formatted confuses me every single time-

++++++ (this is the song with an incorrect nomination, it's going to confuse you whenever you scroll past it) ++++++++

==========================================

#XXX [not actually ranked]: Hachigatsu Ni Yuki - Mugen [incorrectly listed as Sorrow's Color]
https://youtu.be/VQkIYpohco0

Nominator: UF8 [X/X]

Initial Score: 56.15
Revised Score: 56.74
Final Score: 52.33

(First Reaction: A more energetic song than I anticipated from the song title. Not a bad song or singer, I might try listening to a few random songs on Spotify later since I randomly found her while trying (and failing) to get anything about this song's lyrics.

*proceeds to get distracted and click a few songs*

"Hachigatsu Ni Yuki - In the trace" is pretty nice. It's got a nice, toe-tapping beat... kinda like the jpop version of "Live - Horse" from last year (though In the trace is not nearly on Horse's level, still quite a nice song to have found).

!The energy in this song is rather uplifting (though it probably wouldn't be if I had a clue what was being sang, judging by the title) and the performance is good enough that it inspired me to check out a few other songs, but I'm not super wild about this track. I like it, but... yeah.

[Final Thoughts: Alright, so this was an "accidental nomination" (the intended song was Sorrow's Color, which is why I kept talking about how this song didn't seem to fit the title...) and it's a fine song. A bit too upbeat for my tastes, but I have positive feelings about it & sometimes kinda like it. Kinda feel like dropping this down a bit though, as it's not quite what I'm in the mood for.

Of course, we could always ditch this song and sub in the one that was always supposed to be here in the first place...]

#247: Hachigatsu Ni Yuki - Sorrow's Color:
https://open.spotify.com/track/5XWc5Z5aOtzKNQpteuY2AJ?si=c9499ef40ec442db

Nominator: UF8 [12/30 Remaining]

Initial Score: N/A
Revised Score: N/A
Final Score: 57.40 [Upgraded to 60.00] [Upgraded to 62.984] [Upgraded to 65.21] [Upgraded to 66.93] [Upgraded to 70.082]

The acoustic guitar playing that opens on this track is much more in line with my current tastes and the other instruments are so on point that I'm not even upset when they come in and replace the guitar. Even the electric guitar solo near the end is enjoyable, so very well done on the instrumentation. Her singing is about the same quality as on Mugen; not one of my favorite vtubers, but good enough to be worth listening to. This is a definite "kinda like" song.

And I think I'll use this song as the one that actually gets ranked. It's blatantly cheating because I didn't know about the link mix-up until after all the Revised Scores were finished, but... I prefer it and it's the track I was supposed to be listening to all along anyway. Also, this is unlikely to be the most controversial decision I make in regards to nominated tracks, so I may as well go all-in at this point.

(Also, it's not directly related to anything, but I'm less into "In the trace" now--though I do still kinda like it.)

[Later: I'm totally here for the sad, quiet guitar playing on this track. Adding it to the Neo Clump.]

[Later: I'm starting to like this more and more. Going to move this up a ways.]

[Later: And a few extra points for this one.]

[Later: A few more points, though I think we're hitting this song's limit.]

[Later: Okay, now I really like this tonight. Going to go ahead and jump it up a tier as well.]

==========================================

++++++ (this is the song with an incorrect nomination, it's going to confuse you whenever you scroll past it) ++++++++

Three more for now, will be back later this afternoon:

====================

#246: Port Blue - I Am The Aeronaut (4:34):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FchlswTNyTc

Nominator: ZaziGuado [12/28 Remaining]

Initial Score: 51.72
Revised Score: ??.?? (set to "72.11")
Final Score: 70.14

(First Reaction: It's nice enough, but it feels a bit sleepy... not in a bad way, just kinda lulls you into lowering your guard and feeling a bit tired.)

This feels like "music that is nostalgic for a happy childhood". It's all 'pretty sun dresses', and 'secret clubhouses by the beach', and 'fun', and 'happy'. And I'm not sure how to score that right now.

*sets the score to "??.??" and vows to come back to it in one or two days*

[ONE DAY LATER]

72.11 points. I really do like this quite a bit. There are definitely days where I do not want to listen to it because, well. let's just say there days I'm less prepared to "remember" things than others. This is technically a song that has a very volatile score as it really depends on the current emotional state, but I don't think it's quite severe enough to get into the top tier purely based on its volatility---it's not a case of "I can't decide what score to give this" or "I don't know what my reaction to this is", because it brings to mind very specific thoughts and feelings.

...of course, I didn't have any reaction to it the first time, but let's just forgot that little detail...

[Final Thoughts: Bouncy, bouncy score. Score goes *makes airplane noises* and then *swooshes* back down the list and then vrooom-y back int o the really like level, ya know? That's not a typo, I feel quite strongly that "int o" is the way that sentenc ewas meant to end.

...now, see, the word "sentence" there, that one's a typo. Which I could correct! But I don't think I will. It feels appropriaate to have an actual typo in that section that was talking about what looks like a typo but is not a typo (incidnetally, both of these are typos as well... I don't seem to be able to type as well as I usually do.]

*takes a few minutes to hard reset*

Okay, so I was pretty loopy for a minute there, but I think my mind-state's back to average values. This song is an interesting specimen. My reaction to it is never the same... I like that about it. I think I'll keep this on the Really Like tier.[

====================

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==========================================

#245: Mamori Nezune -S'il vous President (3:13):
https://youtu.be/Zm4P1XQ8yB4

Nominator: UF8 [11/30 Remaining]

Initial Score: 64.18
Revised Score: 64,18
Final Score: 62.29 [Upgraded to 64.18] [Upgraded to 64.938] [Upgraded to 67.29] [Upgraded to 68.3997] [Upgraded to 69.75] [Upgraded to 70.155]

(First Reaction: This is catchier and more endearing than it has any right to be.)

!Cute comedic song, I like it.

[Final Thoughts: The backing beat of the song is a bit thumping, but the lyrics and performance are endearing enough that I like this.]

[Later: Moving this song back up where it came from.]

[Later: Moving this towards the end of the 64 point songs.]

[Later that afternoon: : ...Moving this up made sense when there actually were some 64 point songs, but since ALMOST EVERYTHING has gone up to at least the 65 point zone, this... didn't really delay the elimination much at all...

I don't know, 67 points? The way today is going, I'll probably run into this again immediately because nothing is being eliminated. It's been over an hour... so many songs, none of them dropping...]

[Later: One more point.]

[Later: Why is this song so hard to find on YouTube? It has a full English name and description, yet if I search for "Mamori Nezune S'il vous President"--words that are very much in the title of the video--this doesn't show up anywhere. I have to get the link each time I want to hear the song because it's hidden quite well for some reason. Either way, here's another point.]

[Later: I had this ready to be eliminated, but I think I enjoy this enough to move it up at the literal last possible second.

...well considering that I can retroactively raise scores after they're posted, I suppose it's not quite the last second, but still.]

==========================================

-

===================

#244: The Body - Nothing Stirs (5.56):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3EAujCdfJ4

Nominator: Xtlm [5/13 Remaining]

Initial Score: 60.00
Revised Score: 55.26
Final Score: 57.63 [Upgraded to 60.00] [Upgraded to 66.01] [Upgraded to 70.18]

(First Reaction: The second verse of the song was amazing. Her pure vocals with that dark ambience is simple perfection... then she starts repeating the same phrase over and over, followed by METAL SCREAMING joining in to completely overshadow the parts of the song I loved. I was expecting this song to be in the mid-80s (at least), but it doesn't stick the landing... since it has a section that I love, I think I'll try adding this to the Clump of 60 point songs as an opening move. I don't think it's an appropriate placement and this song could jump way up or way down the list later, but until I calculate exactly how much that outro is hurting the score, this score shall have to suffice.)

!It's not a bad attempt, but a two word outro that repeats endlessly for almost the entire song is just not something I can get into.

[Final Thoughts: I really enjoy the overwhelming darkness of this song and I'm not nearly as bothered by the outro as I was the second time around. The plea to March On becoming increasingly desperate and raw is a rare example of repetition done right and I don't particularly mind the indecipherable screaming at the moment. I don't quite think I like it enough to go up a tier, but a few extra points should help put this song in a more appropriate position.]

[Later: The heaviness of the instruments is quite pleasing to me right now & the lyrics are totally something I'm into:

At night, a prayer of death
At day, a curse of life

Yeah, I think I'm definitely moving this up the Neo Clump at the very least.]

[Later: I like what the song is trying to accomplish. The weight of the song isn't quite enough to be crushing, but it's at least trying to create an overwhelming pressure that grinds the listener into a paste, so I give them props for making the attempt. I'm going to take a leap and move this one up quite a ways out of respect,]

[Later: Going to go ahead and jump this song up a tier.]

===================

-like Reality TV before it, Sorry Bro got another extra point and was not eliminated here-

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

Also, this is unlikely to be the most controversial decision I make in regards to nominated tracks, so I may as well go all-in at this point.

i mean the only one cheating the system by doing this is technically me since this puts me well over 2 hours lol

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

Why is this song so hard to find on YouTube? It has a full English name and description, yet if I search for "Mamori Nezune S'il vous President"--words that are very much in the title of the video--this doesn't show up anywhere.

it's probably like the thousandth most viewed cover and from a vtuber with almost 0 english fans i can't say i'm too surprised

although it's this far into the topic, i've at least gone and made predictions for the order of my last 10 noms. going to see if the cheating by waiting this long and all those writeups helped with accuracy

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

#246: Port Blue - I Am The Aeronaut (4:34):

ok it finally took me until like the third song that i liked by this artist in the topic to look up more and i just found out this is Owl City lol

all the comments in the links kept referring to "Adam" too (even if i never thought of Owl City as 'Adam' just that I had heard him referred to as that before) aaaaa. not that i listened to him much since i fcking hated Firefleis

But kateee, you would not believe your eyes

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.)

-

============================

#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*]

============================

-

============================

#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.]

============================

-

========================

#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. ]

========================

-continued-

============================

#240: Lights - Saviour (3:28):
https://open.spotify.com/track/5dSTEwEBqCutDNXtueASXg?si=6d64f1f557d94eb6

Nominator: Kateee [9/21 Remaining]

Initial Score: 90.00
Revised Score: 83.652
Final Score: 63.793 [Upgraded to 66.00] [Upgraded to 66.009] [Upgraded to something] [Something set to 70.43]

(First Reaction: I may actually listen to this entire album later. I loved Saviour and while I really need to be listening to nominated songs, I did continue to the next song (Drive My Soul) which is also really good... I'm tempted to just let it roll onto the third song, but I suppose I have other things I need to be doing right now and it is rather late at the time I'm writing this. Still, a fantastic song that seems like a lead-in to a great album, unless it goes completely off the rails later on.)

!Beautiful song, but not quite a type of beauty that I'm looking for at this exact moment... I definitely want to save this track and the album somewhere though because I'm positive it'll wind up being one of my favorites of all time if I'm in the right mood when I listen to it.

[Non-Final Thoughts: I... am not really feeeling this track tonight. I played it three times in a row because I remember loving it, but I'm bouncing really far off of it. I'm going to wait a day or two and try this again later.]

[Final Thoughts: I suppose ultimately I just don't want a saviour right now, which is limiting how much I can connect with the song. It's beutiful and I can see why I loved it--there's a lot here that could trigger some very specific flashbacks, but right now, I... like it still, but I'm not clicking with it these days.]

[Later: A bit of a rough song to listen to. I know why I loved it... there are a lot of memories and flashbacks associated with these lyrics and this song can absolutely break me if I'm in a certain headspace. I'm... not exactly there right now, but I think I'll add a few points because I don't want to eliminate this just yet. It's not connecting right now, but considering all the feelings attached to it, I wish to stalll for a few days and give it another chance before I officially eliminate it.]

[Later: I don't know... I'm going to add this to the group of Null Value songs and worry about it some other day.]

[Later: I'm still keeping this at a null value for now... some of the null songs are getting definitive point values and eliminated, but I haven't decided where I want this yet. All I know is that it's not being eliminated tonight.]

[Later: And I think I'll be cutting the song here. While there are definitely times that I love it, now isn't exactly one of them and this tier level is absolutely brutal with deciding what cuts to make... so I do really like this, but I really like everything and this one just isn't clicking enough as of late to avoid elimination forever.]

============================

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============================

#239: Jukebox the Ghost - Fred Astaire (3:39):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd345a2eAfU

Nominator: DoctorJimmy [7/24 Remaining]

Initial Score: 72.02
Revised Score: 58.24
Final Score: 56.20 [Upgraded to 60.00] [Upgraded to 60.83] [Upgraded to 63.01] [Upgraded to 68.25] [Upgraded to 70.19] [Upgraded to 70.464] [Upgraded to 70.485]

(First Reaction: A happy romantic dance song that I like quite a bit, even though those are far from being my favorite adjectives to describe a song.)

!Romantic and sweet; I like it, but it's not quite what I'm looking for at the moment and the lyrics can get pretty repetitive as the song goes on... kinda thinking it's a bit below the 60 point tier at the moment.

[Final Thoughts: Apparently there are times when I'll be super into this type of sweet romance and dancing, but unfortunately for this song, that's not really where I am right now and the chorus repeats itself too often for my blood. I still kinda like it and obviously kinda love it on the right day, just not today.]

[Later: Ohh, let's go ahead and add this to the Neo Clump. I think I like this often enough that it fits better there.]

[Later: This is still a thousand miles away from the heights of its Initial Score, but decidedly a few pegs better than "Neo Clump" status. Going to add some fractions of a point so it can move a bit ahead of the pack.]

[Later: That slower part at 2:30 is great. I think I'll add a few extra points for that.]

[Later: I'm still not as into this as I was the first time--the lyrics are just too repetitive for me to move it back up a tier--but I do like the song enough that it's much closer to that tier than it has been in a long while.]

[Later: I'll go ahead and move this song up a tier as well. It's starting to grow on me again.]

[Later: Minor boost.]

[That same day: I keep giving small boosts to songs and running into them again... so again, I either have to give this another boost or eliminate it. And I haven't decided yet.

...ehhh... alright, an extremely minor boost that moves this over one song. We'll see if it gets another boost tomorrow.]

[...: Well, I didn't eliminate that song either and we're here, again, for the third time. I think I'm okay eliminating this song now; it's fun and catchy and sweet, but I think this is as many points as I want to give. Now that we're at the point that I really like everything, this is getting rough. ...Which I just said one song ago, but it still remains true.]

============================

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

#254: Mori Calliope - Bully (4:05):

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

#252: Mint Potion - Alchemy (3:40):

There wasn't a #253, so all the numbers have been off by one since then. Edited the most recent eliminations to have the correct number next to them.

----------------------

REMAINING SONG COUNT

Bane: 11*/38 Remaining
BlackDra90n: 5/30 Remaining
cakophon: 4/20 Remaining
CJones: 3/18 Remaining
CPU: 10*/30 Remaining
DoctorJimmy: 7/24 Remaining
Dragon66116: 8/12 Remaining
handsomeboy: 12/31 Remaining
Haste: 3/31 Remaining
hotdogturtle: 4/14 Remaining
Jesse_Custer: 11/29 Remaining
kateee: 9/21 Remaining
Lasa: 2/14 Remaining
Mega Mana: 14/38 Remaining
Metalmind: 14/25 Remaining
Murphiroth: 7/32 Remaining
NBIceman: 9/22 Remaining
NFUN: 6/31 Remaining
paulg: 11/52 Remaining
Player_0: 9/33 Remaining
Raka: 17/31 Remaining
rwlh: 8/24 Remaining
sergio: 2/13 Remaining
Snake: 10/32 Remaining
TheArkOfTurus: 5/17 Remaining
TunnelScene: 9/27 Remaining
UF8: 11/30 Remaining
Xtlm: 5/13 Remaining
ZaziGuado: 12/28 Remaining

*Sorry Bro was uneliminated.

*Deja Vu (Classical) was also uneliminated

Okay, had several errors to correct as expected (including one song that kinda got deleted from existence--thankfully I have backup files to retrieve its writeup), but they should be fixed now.

Raka continues to have the most songs at 17; Mega Mana & Metalmind tie for second most remaining at 14.

EDIT: Err... wait, these numbers still aren't adding up. Give me a few more minutes. </.<

MORE EDITS: ...Okay, I think we have 238 songs remaining? That's how many the Public Song List counts (236 if you count the two un-eliminated songs), the number of songs in my file of writeups after finding the song I lost, and what I get when I tally the remaining song count.

So... let's just say that's the correct count?

----------------------

kateee posted...

ok it finally took me until like the third song that i liked by this artist in the topic to look up more and i just found out this is Owl City lol

all the comments in the links kept referring to "Adam" too (even if i never thought of Owl City as 'Adam' just that I had heard him referred to as that before) aaaaa. not that i listened to him much since i fcking hated Firefleis

Port Blue is much different than the Owl City stuff. I, too, was not the biggest fan of Fireflies and have never listened to an entire Owl City album. But Port Blue, Colour Therapy, and stuff released under his own name are all instrumentals. He's claimed that his true passion in music is movie scores, so with these projects I think he tries to invoke that.

Haha, the last four Grimes drops have been in the same order as my Spotify Liked Songs:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/1/6/AAVhdjAAEGzA.png
They're roughly in order from good to great too. From the four Art Angels songs left, there's two that I really like and two that I'm neutral on...

#258: bermei.inazawa - circle (zts mix) (8:30):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0ZpTtZPLII

I was worried that nominating three zts tracks was gonna backfire. Glad to see they all placed in the top third!

#273: Diablo Swing Orchestra - Snake Oil Baptism [4:40]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYsywfOsuN8&list=PLbqs-W3v0JokCip1yCvbDS5Diki_yhvvC&index=9

Nominator: CJones [3/18 Remaining]

Initial Score: 60.00
Revised Score: 64.38
Final Score: 64.38 [Upgraded to 69.44]

(First Reaction: It's not an absolute masterpiece like The Dear Hunter's "Bitter Suite IV &V", but this has a similar energy to The Pimp/Priest's songs that I enjoy. Why do the voices in the last part seem so quiet & distant though? It feels like something's off with the audio--which I know is a common complaint on the album, but this is the first track where it actually sounded wrong to me.)

!Twisted hard rocking gospel music. Quite an enjoyable song, I like it, but the audio mixing on that outro still feels off to me... it's not enough to ruin the song, but it feels like a baffling design choice.

[Final Thoughts: Yeah, definitely the sort of song I like, though that outro is... a thing.]

[Later: Not quite ready to move this up a tier, but I'm going to move it close to the line.]

I was away from my computer for about a week, so I must have missed some of these. Will have to go back through the last few pages of the previous topic.

If you like Snake Oil Baptism and Bitter Suite IV & V, you'll probably also like DSO's Tap Dancer's Dilemma.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6_Uy6HBAJY

That's actually a fan made music video that is quite good. Also, the sound quality is SO much better on this album (Sing Along Songs for the Damned and Delirious, their second album). I really hope they remaster Swagger and Stroll at some point. I'd buy it again.

Speaking of The Bitter Suite, I managed to track down a copy of Act IV. Pretty good. I don't like it as much as Act V though. Also found Act II, which I'm listening to now. Still looking for I & III for a reasonable price.

Also, yay for Skimbleshanks. One of my favorite songs from Cats. When I was a kid I wanted to be a train Engineer :)

#401: Haken - Atlas Stone [7:31]:
https://youtu.be/YZ8v_evgiS4

Nominator: CJones [8/18 Remaining]

Initial Score: 63.00
Revised Score: 64.00
Final Score: 62.007

(First Reaction: Not often a fan of non-lyric voalizations, so the first solo is a bit of a low point. But the second solo has some amazing electric guitar that is rad in the best way possible, a real treat. The piano intro & outro were also pretty great and the lyrics ain't half-bad either for the most part (they can get a bit too high-pitched). I like this.)

!A nice progressive metal track that manges to keep things fresh and interesting for its runtime. The first solo is still not the type of thing I'm interested in, but it's quite short in comparison to the rest of the song so it's not much of a drawback.

[Final Thoughts: Just a generally good song all-around.]

Damn, I thought this was still alive. It wasn't until I checked the masterlist that I saw it wasn't. Had to do some searching to find the write-up. I expected this to be my second highest ranked song, after Salt. Wrong again :P

I can't disagree with anything you said, and I do agree with you about the "vocal solo" bit. Still, The Mountain is my favorite album by Haken, one of my favorite bands, and this is my favorite song off it. I just really like the grandiosity of it.

At least Salt is still alive.

Man, I've got a lot to catch up on. I was doing a lot better keeping up earlier in the topic. Fortunately I don't have a whole lot to say about a lot of these.

The Haves Have Naught: It's funny that you enjoy the duet aspect so much, because even after years of listening to this album, I'm still not sure I like it. It feels weird to have just one song in the Acts where anyone but Casey is doing anything but backing vocals. I also don't exactly love Gavin Castleton's voice all that much in the first place. Admittedly, though, I'm not sure the song really even works without it. It's not like Act IV's "Wait," where you can easily understand the overall point of the song without even knowing it's meant as a duet. And anyway, those are nitpicks - it's a cool song.

Regress: Narrowly edges out Writing On a Wall as my favorite intro song in the Acts. Piano and violin are my two favorite instruments and the lyrics do a more perfect job of setting up the overall feel of the album than any of the others. Also, a fun tidbit: an early version of the sheet music without lyrics showed up online a good while before the album released (https://my.scorecloud.com/song/41388a4a409189b8d8d86e1564f4228b/TDH1) and I distinctly remember actually tearing up the first time I heard the part beginning at 0:43. I wore out that replay button waiting for Act V to drop, lemme tell you.

The Most Cursed of Hands: The guitar work in this song is just so groovy and I love the parable aspect of it for the uniqueness in the story. I do think it's effectively a middling song among Acts IV and V, though. Another fun tidbit: the band released a full short story about it and it's pretty fun, if somewhat cheesy. https://i.redd.it/orwp7nhabo081.jpg

The Fire (Remains): The Simpsons memes are honestly kind of hilarious, so no worries there, even though this is a top 20 song all-time for me. It's about the most perfect climax I could've hoped for, with Casey's work in the last chorus being among his finest performances ever IMO.

The Revival: That's certainly a depressing drop from the Revised Score. I feel like I have one song every year that does that. For whatever reason, this is the Act V song that I find stuck in my head most often - something about the melody is very earworm-y, I guess, with the theatricality of it all. It's such a fun track despite the unsettling subject matter.

Picking Up the Pieces: I basically have the same thoughts on this one as you do. It's pretty easily the least interesting song I nominated this time around, I think, so I kind of expected it to be gone long before it even was. But that's obviously not to say it's bad. I think the lyrics that are present are quite good and pretty much everything I've heard from MEER has had outstanding vocals.

And theeeen...

The Moon/Awake: Definitely a bit of a bummer that this one didn't get more of a bump. I currently have this as my #7 favorite song of all time, and some days I feel like moving it into my top 5. I think this is something of a career peak for Casey, because it has some of his absolute best lyrics (which is saying something) and also maybe his best vocals work.

I'd bare you my heart if I knew that it still was there
I'm too nervous to look
Too afraid to close the book

Chills every time. Four-plus albums of buildup for Hunter to finally demonstrate a tiny bit of self-awareness and it comes out in that poetry. Casey sings it with such a palpable feeling of regret and desperation and sheer, utter sadness, and with his wife supporting him in the background with those restrained ethereal accompaniments... There may not be another example in music that gives me that frisson sensation. The only one I can think of that comes close is The Show Must Go On by Queen, but I don't think it's quite the same, and a lot of that has to do with the real-world circumstances behind that song anyway.

A lot of TDH superfans, myself included, tend to think of many of their songs as needing a bit of time to grow on you. I like most of their output from my first listen, but I rarely decide which songs I love until I've heard them at least a half-dozen times. The Moon/Awake bucks that trend; I adored it from my first time hearing it. I had to get over some initial feelings of confusion, granted, because the #2 tracks on the Acts had always been very high-energy, shouty affairs (outside of The Lake South on Act I, which is basically an extended intro anyway that moves into City Escape being more of what I just described), whereas The Moon is restrained and almost reticent for most of its runtime. I could tell the chorus was beautiful immediately, but I'd been waiting for bombast that didn't come, so it kinda took me aback.

It comes later, though! The end of that bridge section that brings Casey screaming The spirit split in TWO made me start nodding my head and smiling, and then he immediately tops himself with the Dear Apparition section (hearing him perform that live is quite something, as a side note).

Anyhoo, I'd certainly hoped it'd go a little further, but I can't complain about it landing in the "I really like this" tier. I'm just glad you're not tired of the band by now!

CJones posted...

If you like Snake Oil Baptism and Bitter Suite IV & V, you'll probably also like DSO's Tap Dancer's Dilemma.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6_Uy6HBAJY

I actually think I may have nominated Dilemma for this ranking last year? I know I've done it for at least one song ranking on this board.

Speaking of The Bitter Suite, I managed to track down a copy of Act IV. Pretty good. I don't like it as much as Act V though. Also found Act II, which I'm listening to now. Still looking for I & III for a reasonable price.

Glad to hear you're enjoying the band! I look forward to hearing more thoughts.

Got a lot to reply to now that I'm back:

PIayer_0 posted...

Haha, the last four Grimes drops have been in the same order as my Spotify Liked Songs:

Wow, that's surprising. Usually my order of songs never lines up with anyone else's for anything, so that's pretty neat!

DoctorJimmy133 posted...

I was worried that nominating three zts tracks was gonna backfire.

...Yes, I am observant and definitely noticed those three were by the same artist before this exact moment.

CJones posted...

If you like Snake Oil Baptism and Bitter Suite IV & V, you'll probably also like DSO's Tap Dancer's Dilemma.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6_Uy6HBAJY

NBIceman posted...

I actually think I may have nominated Dilemma for this ranking last year?

It was the first ranking actually, so I haven't heard it since late 2018. It came in 38th place out of 200 songs, so I was really into it at the time, though it's not one I've revisited since that ranking... I'll add it to the post-ranking list; I enjoy revisiting songs from the first topic and I'm curious how I'll feel about it now.

CJones posted...

Speaking of The Bitter Suite, I managed to track down a copy of Act IV. Pretty good. I don't like it as much as Act V though. Also found Act II, which I'm listening to now. Still looking for I & III for a reasonable price.

I'm glad you found something you enjoyed from this topic!

I haven't gotten to Act II yet myself, so I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on it. (Also, I kinda love Act IV, so if you want to talk more about it then I'm definitely here for that).

Also, while I'm sure it's blasphemy to like anything from The Dear Hunter's most recent album (Antimai), I'd also like to say I was briefly obsessed with Ring 7 - Industry:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRgTjYvg4Xs

It's not related to the Acts at all and the album isn't the best (most of the songs are kinda same-y & it's concerned only with building the world, so it's a concept album without a story? And switching areas/characters every song means there's no continuity or plot), but I love Ring 7.

-

And I'm running late, no eliminations right now--will be back later.

First four of the day, featuring the second of the three controversial decisions:

============================

#238: Broken Social Scene - Windsurfing Nation (4:35):
https://youtu.be/FjltvPzzYog

and

Broken Social Scene - Swimmers (2:55):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enJgAKUV9H0

Nominator: Kateee [8/21 Remaining]

Initial Score: 57.10
Revised Score: 70.00
Final Score: 70.56

(First Reaction: I'll admit, I am curious how the next song on the album goes. I should hate how this song seems to just end a few seconds into the next song, but somehow it's almost charming here?

*proceeds to listen to Swimmers*

Neat. More a typical pop sound, but I like typical pop these days, so no complaints. It's a bit odd that Swimmers actually ends completely instead of leading directly into the next track, since I just kinda assumed this was going to be one of those "every song segues directly into the next" albums, but that's not quite the case. Huh. Well, I enjoyed both songs. Time will tell if I think they'd be better off as one long song instead of divided like this, but it was fun.)

!There is something oddly mesmerizing about this track. I do wish it were paired with Swimmers though; I really, really love that seamless transition and I find the shorter pop song pairs incredibly well with Windsurfing as an intro.

...can I retroactively pair this nomination with Swimmers and give the duo 70 points? I suppose I can't because they're very much two different songs and I can't find a way to objectively treat them as one long song... I am still considering it though. And for health reasons this is probably going to be my last giant ranking topic, so it's not like I have to try to preserve my credibility; if I wish to destroy everything by factoring in a song that *quite literally is not nominated* then I don't see how anyone can stop me.

....Yeah, I'm actually doing this. Windsurfing Nation + Swimmers are henceforth combined into one nomination and getting 70 points. (If you *insist* then I can give a lower score for Windsurfing Nation by itself, but I really like combining the two songs.)

[Final Thoughts: I still think this song absolutely needs Swimmers attached to it. The odd way Windsurfing Nation plays the first little bit of Swimmers & stops abruptly is quite off-putting--it's not like they invented the idea of songs seamlessly transitioning into each other (see: just about every nominated Dear Hunter song), but somehow the abrupt end here kinda annoys me. It's like the song ends, starts playing the next song, and then just stops playing after a few seconds. I wouldn't call it triggering, exactly, but it is very unpleasant. Adding Swimmers as a sort-of coda to the song (I'm probably grossly misusing that word) with its mellow, easy-listening vibes makes everything flow smoothly to a satisfying conclusion. I cannot fathom separating the two tracks, so I'm sticking with my absurd decision to keep them together.]

============================

-

============================

#237: Radical Face - Ghost Towns (3:53):
https://open.spotify.com/track/0qCqz7oecY7QqS8lhW62XI?si=VeZldivnT3CNOLUQg3ngaA

Nominator: Jesse Custer [10/29 Remaining]

Initial Score: 70.00
Revised Score: 76.00
Final Score: 70.035 [Upgraded to 70.565]

(First Reaction: [this space was accidentally left blank or deleted, but it had a good score so please pretend there were some generic platitudes that you've already read in approximately 275 other writeups copied here.[)

!...Bold of past me to think there'd only be 275 songs with virtually identical writeups. I'm also going to... pass on talking about this for now. Cheating to not have any writeup for the first two parts, but hey, we'll all be surprised by what the actual writeup is! Presuming I make one at the FInal Score part. Which isn't looking likely.

[Final Thoughts: Some great, painful lyrics here. Traveling with no past, no future, no way to go back, and living a lie because the lie is all you've got. This is the type of story that plays quite well for me. I'm not quite as into the song itself as I was the second time, but I still really like it.]

[Later: This is the song that got lost when I was making so many edits to the list, so any comments I may have made since the backup file was created are also lost. This is an oddly cursed song... it lost its First Reaction, it's "Later" additions, and its entire existence.]

============================

-

============================

#236: Blues Traveler - The Mountains Win Again (5:05):
https://open.spotify.com/track/2BLkpiR7oE09eY8DHUk6Bx?si=ce33309b5fee4b32

Nominator: CPU [9*/30 Remaining]

Initial Score: 60.00
Revised Score: 82.07
Final Score: 70.58

(First Reaction: Another good song for the 60 point Clump.)

!Jumping this up two tiers. Just a good song.

[Final Thoughts: And back down one tier. I really like this song, but I don't think I'd say I love it. They're a good, mainstream pop band with a good sound to them & there's a good amount of pain and hope in the track. It's not as infectious as Run-Around--*pauses to go listen to that song because now she's not going to get anything accomplished while that's stuck in her head*--but this track's also got a good sound to it. I may try looking at the full album someday... two songs that I really like is more than most albums have at least.]

============================

-

===================

#235: Garrett Williamson - Windows 95 but it's a PHAT hip hop beat [2:36]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMUDuL_gyRU

Nominator: paulg [10/52 Remaining]

Initial Score: 60.00
Revised Score: 71.35
Final Score: 70.81

(First Reaction: It is a great beat... I was going to put this in the 59 point range, but decided to bump it up to the Clump of songs at the last moment.)

!Let's go ahead and move this beat up an entire tier level, because this is great.

[Final Thoughts: A much better beat than expected, this is unironically great.]

===================

(Youtube playlist for Four, should you get the itch to listen to it in the near future: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLof-0uG9G5GmjLghohC6UR-3DNtwR0pw2)

I've grown to really like Blues Traveler over the last few years, not... wholly sure how that happened, mind,, was during one of my 'end /start the New Year listening to new stuff' binges, which... went a lot better than the Christian Rock experiment a bit before it.

Sure, I'll add it and the Lights album (The Listening) to the list.

-

Six songs to end the day, most likely divided across two posts:

============================

#234: Vengaboys - Superfly Slick Dick (5:20):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCxVWgxW_W8

Nominator: hotdogturtle [3/14 Remaining]

Initial Score: 36.71
Revised Score: 51.74
Final Score: 61.06 [Upgraded to 63.20] [Upgraded to 64.20] [Upgraded to 67.46] [Upgraded to 68.77] [Upgraded to 70.129] [Upgraded to 70.61] [Upgraded to 70.811]

(First Reaction: If you removed the pulsing dance beat, I'd probably like this more than you'd expect--there is a part in the middle where it's actually really good--but too much of the song is spent on repetitive thumping & a chorus that just repeats the song title endlessly. There's enough positives that I don't actively dislike the song, but I definitely didn't like it either.)

Well, I suppose I do kinda like the song. It doesn't really do anything I'm really into , but it does its thing well enough that I find myself having a fairly good time with the experience anyway. I'm curious how this song would have fared at my first ranking topic; anything with a robotic voice was guaranteed a high score, but I was less tolerant of songs with a very pronounced beat which should have guaranteed an abysmal ranking. Would the pros & cons have cancelled each other out completely, resulting in a final score much like this one, or would one overpower the over & give the song an absurdly high-or-low value? No way to find out now, but it would have made an interesting test subject. Sadly, I'm not really into mechanical voices these days or as strongly against dance songs, depriving us of any strong reactions.

[Final Thoughts: I have no idea why, but I was bizarrely amped up to listen to this again. Like, "oh yeah, now we're getting into the songs I like level!" hyped. Which is odd, but hey, I guess I like this now.]

[Later: I don't know why I like this song, but this is getting a few extra points.]

[Later: Going to add another point. This doesn't seem like a song I should be into (and definitely wasn't the first few times), but I'm starting to get fairly into it.]

[Super Later: And three more points.]

[Later: I think I'll bump this up to the high 68s.]

[Somehow Later Still: I think I'd say I really like this these days? Not my genre, but I'm pretty into this lately.]

[So Much Later: And I'll be adding a bit more to this score as well.]

============================

-

============================

#233: Yasuhisa Watanabe - Purple Town (4:49):
https://youtu.be/aqCVfVUhCFY

Nominator: NFUN: [5/31 Remaining]

Initial Score: 59.00 [upgraded to 64.50 during the First Reaction]
Revised Score: 64.50
Final Score: 70.20 [Upgraded to 70.39] [Upgraded to 70.48] [Upgraded to 70.64] [Upgraded to 70.812]

(First Reaction: Feels like it'd be a good track to listen to while riding a motorcycle at a reasonable speed. It's not a lazy song, but it's not a high octane thrill ride either. It's for those who want to feel the wind in their hair and the freedom a fast vehicle allows you, while still being mindful of all local laws and ordinances. Perhaps you'll ride your bike down to a park or nature preserve, so you can look at the beauty of nature. Especially trees--I feel like if you are the type of person that loves this song, you also appreciate the beauty of trees. Probably pine trees. Yes, if you could ride down a road lined with pine trees while a flock of birds flew overhead and this song played in your ears, that would be a pretty sweet day.

...actually that does sound pretty nice, I'm going to add some extra points for that.)

!Yes, I still like riding respectfully & trees..

[Final Thoughts: This is some really nice ambience, so I'm going to go ahead and raise this up to the "really like" level.]

[Later: Very minor boost to the song's score. I don't want to move it up really far, but I also do not want to eliminate it right now.]

[Later that afternoon: And here we are again. Going to give this another tiny increase, though hopefully enough of one that I don't run into this again until tomorrow.]

[Slightly later: ...Or I could continue boosting the score of every song I encounter. There hasn't been a single elimination since the last time I heard this. Moving it up a bit further, I suppose...]

============================

-

============================

#232: Kenji Ito - Alone (5:05):
https://open.spotify.com/track/0kRU4DWDa78J5rnlItHQ8P?si=da5232d3719542ce

Nominator: CPU [8*/30 Remaining]

Initial Score: 56.14
Revised Score: 59.36
Final Score: 59.36 [Upgraded to 60.204] [Upgraded to 62.83] [Upgraded to 64.149] [Upgraded to 65.12] [Upgraded to 70.10] [Upgraded to 70.69] [Upgraded to 70.813]

(First Reaction: Ah, SaGa Frontier... been a long time since I went through that game. I've finished every character's story at least once, but as I said, that was a while ago. I can't recall where this song plays... it feels like it might play during one of the magic quests? Feels like it might go with the Sword Card.

*checks*

Bio Research Lab, huh? Well, I was way off. I suppose this song's gong was throwing me off and reminding me of the audio cue attached to the Sword Card's timing game. Either way, this is pretty nice exploration music.)

!I don't quite get "mad scientist lab which is creating abominations" from this track, but it's definitely a tense exploration song which I enjoy.

[FInal Thoughts: Definitely one of the better exploration songs to be nominated.]

[Later: I like the atmosphere on this track, I'm going to go ahead and move this just over the Neo Clump.]

[Later: A few extra points for creating an intriguing atmosphere.]

[LaterL And a few more points.]

[Lateral: One more point to reach the 65 point zone. It's not a particularly significant milestone, but it feels like one and isn't that what's really important? No, what's really important are Joe's Grandaddy's Peas!:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74UZNexK8a4

I didn't intend for this to be a running gag and I'm now out of pea related links, which is probably best for everyone.]

[Later; Feels like an ominous trek into forgotten lands that should stay forgotten. I'm moving this up a tier.]

[Later: Still not quite time for this to be eliminated. Adding a minor boost to delay it for a day or two.]

============================

-continued-

============================

#231: M83 feat. Susanna Sundfr- Oblivion (5:57):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjpbQ1OWMPE

Nominator: DoctorJimmy [6/24 Remaining]

Initial Score: 61.14
Revised Score: 71.14
Final Score: 65.486 [Upgraded to 67.53] [Upgraded to 70.60] [Upgraded to 70.71] [Upgraded to 70.814]

(First Reaction: My favorite parts are the instrumental intro & piano outro--while I don't have anything against Susanna's voice, I really just want to focus on the atmosphere of the music which is exactly the type of thing I love. Her voice and lyrics are fine, but not exactly what I'm listening to the song for.)

!I think I'd still prefer an instrumental, but I'll admit that I'm undervaluing her contribution to the song. I wouldn't mind hearing more songs from either M83 or Susanna, as I'm fairly curious how they perform without each other.

...also I'm really, really into that piano outro right now... +10 points and a full tier level to this song.

[Final Thoughts: I still like the song quite a bit, especially the piano outro... but I don't know that the outro is amazing enough to keep the song up an entire tier from where it started, especially considering how brief said outro is. Going to try having this in the middle of the 60's instead; still several spaces ahead of where it started, but not quite as drastic of an increase as the Revised Score offered.]

[Later: The instrumentals are doing the heavy lifting on this track, but I like them enough to raise this up to 67 points.]

]Later: And I think I will move this back up a tier after all.]

[Later: There's a certain weight to the backing music that I really enjoy and her voice compliments them more than I gave her credit for; going to give this a bit of a boost. Not enough to stall the elimination even for a day, but it rearranges things slightly.]

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#230: Lil Wayne - Mahogany (2:57):
https://youtu.be/6uIsw1pM9bE

Nominator: Kateee [7/21 Remaining]

Initial Score: 53.00
Revised Score: 60.00
Final Score: 65.48 [Upgraded to 66.36] ]Upgraded to 67.123] [Upgraded to 69.343] [Upgraded to 70.0002] [Upgraded to 70.77] [Upgraded to 70.815]

(First Reaction: It's a fine song but I can't bring myself to care about the lyrics. Without an interest in sex, guns, or flashy wealth then the song is just kinda there. It's fine; I want to listen to more rap music and I have no objections to it, but without a personal attachment to any of the lyrics or a killer hook (like Kendrick Lamar having perhaps the greatest combination of music and vocals of all time in ADHD) then I can't really see the song as anything other than fine.)

My feelings are pretty much the same as before, though I do like it a bit more this time around. There is something pleasing about the almost "stream of consciousness" rambling nature to the lyrics that somehow seem almost sleepy & yet delivered non-stop without any time to take a breath. ...actually, I've listened to this song three times in a row trying to find something to say about it, and I'm actually starting to get into it now. Think I'm actually going to bounce this up a tier.

Anywho, I do like what he's doing on this track--besides the aforementioned delivery of the lyrics, the song has some lower notes in the background that are neat--they're not as pronounced and rumbling as I'd like, but as the song would be absolutely ruined if Lil Wayne was drowned out by the music, I get it--and the song's actually pretty damn tame in spite of the sex and splattered brains (this feels like a contradiction, but then, most things in the song do). I still don't have any particular lyric or aspect of the song that I want to glomp onto, but it's still a good song and I like it.

[Final Thoughts: Alright, so I still don't have any specific praises to offer, but it's generally a good sign when I put a song on repeat because I like it enough that I actively want to spend more time analyzing it.]

[Later: A bit of a boost up to the 66 point level.]

[Later: An upgrade to the 67 point area.]

[Later: Two extra points, I suppose.]

[Later: Yeah, I'll say that I really like this now. I'm admittedly not fond of the end of the song, where it really slows down.. it feels like an unsatisfying conclusion, but I like the rest of the song enough that I don't want to eliminate it yet.]

[Still Later: A bit of a boost to delay this elimination a bit longer.]

[Final Later: The song definitely took a while to grow on me, but I like the backing track and his general flow.]

============================

EDIT: It would help if I actually posted six songs instead of five.

(Edit: Also help if I remembered to actually upgrade all the scores that were upgraded for organizational purposes)

====================

#229: Elis Regina & Antnio Carlos Jobim - guas de maro [3:30]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1tOV7y94DY

Nominator: cakophon [3/20 Remaining]

Initial Score: 58.14
Revised Score: 58.14
Final Score: 56.64 [Upgraded to 59.547] [Upgraded to 59.946] [Upgraded to 60.873] [Upgraded to 64.873] [Upgraded to 69.84] [Upgraded to 70.82]

(First Reaction: I'm not a fan of the lyrics which feel almost monotonous, endlessly repeating "it is [insert word here]" until the very concept of metaphors themselves have been beaten into the dirt. I'm aware it's poetic but to my ignorant & uncultured mind, the technique comes across as tedious.

The good news is that I like both of their voices and the song is pleasantly charming in a way that I'm not as interested in the lyrics anyway.)

!I still agree with that. I don't care for the lyrics themselves, but the song is pleasant & their voices complement each other well so I generally enjoy it anyway.

[Final Thoughts: Pleasingly simple, charming, and laid-back with two singers who bring out the best in each other.]

[Later: It really is quite nice. Adding a few extra points.[

[Later: Going to slightly delay this elimination again.]

[Later: So charming and soothing that I will move this one up a tier.]

[Later: And four extra points! This is so sweet and laid-back that it's becoming a real treat whenever it shows up.[

[Later: Ahh, what a nice delight it is to find this song again. Take a few more points and I'll see you again later.]

[Later: Such a nice song. One more point to reach the next tier.]

====================

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

Initial Score: 36.71
Revised Score: 51.74
Final Score: 61.06 [Upgraded to 63.20] [Upgraded to 64.20] [Upgraded to 67.46] [Upgraded to 68.77] [Upgraded to 70.129] [Upgraded to 70.61]

Haha, nice jump.

I had recently heard this song and was shocked by how different it sounded than the few big songs that this group is known for. So this was one of my most spontaneous nominations.

The B-Side of that Vengaboys album is nothing like the side with all their hits. It's like a completely different group lol.

That said, Superfly is definitely a standout song on the album!

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

Also, while I'm sure it's blasphemy to like anything from The Dear Hunter's most recent album (Antimai), I'd also like to say I was briefly obsessed with Ring 7 - Industry:

No blasphemy at all - I like Antimai a lot. Not every song lands perfectly and it definitely doesn't compare to the Acts for me, but it was still easily my most-played album in 2022. Ring 8, Ring 7, Ring 6, Ring 2, and Ring 1 are all pretty awesome in my book.

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

#232: Kenji Ito - Alone (5:05):
https://open.spotify.com/track/0kRU4DWDa78J5rnlItHQ8P?si=da5232d3719542ce

Nominator: CPU [8*/30 Remaining]

Initial Score: 56.14
Revised Score: 59.36
Final Score: 59.36 [Upgraded to 60.204] [Upgraded to 62.83] [Upgraded to 64.149] [Upgraded to 65.12] [Upgraded to 70.10] [Upgraded to 70.69] [Upgraded to 70.813]

(First Reaction: Ah, SaGa Frontier... been a long time since I went through that game. I've finished every character's story at least once, but as I said, that was a while ago. I can't recall where this song plays... it feels like it might play during one of the magic quests? Feels like it might go with the Sword Card.

*checks*

Bio Research Lab, huh? Well, I was way off. I suppose this song's gong was throwing me off and reminding me of the audio cue attached to the Sword Card's timing game. Either way, this is pretty nice exploration music.)

I played every character twice, and I couldn't remember where it played either. I'm a fan of Kenji Ito, though that's more for his battle themes.

vengaboys are dutch and i always forget they're known outside of my country too.

-hotdogturtle-- posted...

I had recently heard this song and was shocked by how different it sounded than the few big songs that this group is known for.

Huh. I'm not sure I've heard any of their other songs...

NBIceman posted...

No blasphemy at all - I like Antimai a lot. Not every song lands perfectly and it definitely doesn't compare to the Acts for me, but it was still easily my most-played album in 2022. Ring 8, Ring 7, Ring 6, Ring 2, and Ring 1 are all pretty awesome in my book.

That's a surprise. The few reviews I read of the album were extremely scathing, so I thought it was a bit of a black sheep. Ring 7's definitely my favorite, though I also enjoyed Ring 4 with the corrupt police officer--it felt like a bit more of a complete story than the other rings.

-

First five songs ot the day, including the song with the largest number of Upgrades (thus far). Not sure how many posts they're going to have to be split into... probably two, but maybe three?

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#228: Turnover - Dizzy On The Comedown (4:18):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q34dZ6VmI04

Nominator: Dragon66116 [7/12 Remaining]

Initial Score: 72.13
Revised Score: 72.13
FInal Score: 71.061

(First Reaction: Lines about life/reality being an illusion are always worth some easy points, as simple & unrelated to the majority of the song as it may be. The main song has a wistful, vaguely depressive feel to it & the singer's voice seems well-suited for the vibe it's giving off.)

![passes on typing anything for now]

[Final Thoughts: I know I'm taking the easy copout of just saying "I really like this" too often this tier, but I really like what I really like.]

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#227: The Johnson Mountain Boys - Duncan & Brady (He's Been On the Job Too Long): (3:18)
https://open.spotify.com/track/6ZCZfFSMH4JnMMvj1dCkgr?si=86dd430920d84f43

Nominator: CPU [7*/30 Remaining]

Initial Score: 36.15
Revised Score: 51.07
Final Score: 55.40 [Upgraded to 67.89] [Upgraded to 69.38] [Upgraded to 71.17]

(First Reaction: A murder ballad isn't a bad idea for a nomination, but this type of really old fashioned country is a bit too old for my blood. I like the idea, not really sold on the performance of it.)

There are a lot of covers of this song, but I can't say I particularly like any of them more... some have different instruments that appeal to me more, such as Judy Henske & Frank Fairffield's renditions of the song, but I'm not wild about their vocals. And I flatly have no idea what to make of Bob Dylan's cover:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DRisOsrbhk

It's certainly different and I suppose I like it, but it's... it's different.

*coughs*

Back on topic... I think I just don't care for banjo music?

*clicks a few random songs that won't be mentioned to avoid derailing things any further*

Alright, so claiming to dislike an entire instrument was stupid and I'm fine with banjo music when it's played at a lower pitch. I am officially miffed by higher pitched banjo notes. Now, I know what you're thinking: That is both incredibly specific and incredibly stupid. And you would be right! I have no justification for this. There's no secret tragic backstory for my aversion to those notes, no lingering resentment, nothing triggering... it's just an almost generic level of "hey, you know that sound there? I don't like that particular sound for absolutely no reason other than personal preference". As such, this might possibly be the first song I've ever disliked for something resembling a valid reason, and that's pretty neat!

The lyrics are fairly enjoyable. I'm always up for a crooked cop getting what's coming to them song (see also: My love for Emerson, Lake & Palm'er's "The Sheriff", which I suspect might be why this track was nominated to begin with) and this easily doubles as a villain song. Granted, they're both kinda villains--Brady wanted an excuse to murder someone for fun, Duncan didn't seem to have a particularly good reason to kill Brady outside of "you interrupted us" and "Brady tried to arrest him"--but whatever, it's a fun story. It goes on a bit too long after Brady's death, but the extra verses aren't bad or actively detract from the song.

I do wish the story was more fictitious than it is.. being based on a real murder makes it a bit harder to enjoy. Though the details have been altered so much that the story might as well be fiction; the song combines Duncan (the man executed for the murder) & Charles Starkes (the bar owner who may have been the actual shooter, depending on who you ask), amongst other embellishments or changes.

https://web.archive.org/web/20120316081901/http://www.tdblues.com/?p=629

(From a comment on that page:)

James Brady was indeed a police officer in St Louis, although, perhaps not surprisingly, allegations that he was corrupt are denied by the PD and his family. The drives around in an electric car line in the song is probably an attempt to display him as a man of money (ie., corrupt on a cops wage) but is most likely a mix up deliberate or otherwise with the gangster Diamond Jim Brady (James=Jim) who was the owner of one of the first electric cars, the Baker Electric Car.

Lots of fun historical information to learn in regards to this song, which is neat. I'd say I enjoyed learning about the song and comparing different versions, so I like this nomination. Kinda. Still not big on the instrument choices though.

[Final Thoughts: Yeah, I kinda like it.]

[Later: I like this quite a bit tonight, for whatever reason.]

[Later: A bit more of a boost. It took some time to adjust to this song's style, but I like the story enough that I want to give this a little bit extra.]

[Later: And enough of a boost to take this up a tier.]

[Later: There is no good reason for it, but one of the lines reminds me of a scene from Scrubs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-c3iOYqbfTw

Something about the song's flat "Now you're lying dead on the barroom floor" just reminds me of that "You don't care, do you? 'Cause you're unconscious." in that making snarky comments to someone who can't possibly respond way.

Either way, I really like the story told in the song and I eventually came around on it. It did take a while to adjust to this style of song, but I enjoy it these days.]

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#226: Frances Yip - ('The Bund' Theme Song) (3:19):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tNg5N6hi1k

Nominator: Handsomeboy [11/31 Remaining]

Initial Score: 58.4902
Revised Score: 58.49
Final Score: 58.493 [Upgraded to 59.493] [Upgraded to 60.00] [Upgraded to 60.00000005] [Upgraded to 61.99] [Upgraded to 65.06] [Upgraded to 66.56] [Upgraded to 67.4999] [Upgraded to 69.18] [Upgraded to 70.38] [Upgraded to 71.002] [Upgraded to 71.172]

(First Reaction: A fairly relaxing song to listen to. I don't really connect with the lyrics and its metaphorical river (though I couldn't tell you why not), but the song is pleasing enough that the specific lyrics don't matter much.)

!Pretty and relaxing, though it has the standard 50 point response of "I don't fully connect with it for some reason"--though I have nothing negative to say about her performance or the song itself.

[Final Thoughts: It's pretty, but I'm just not connecting with it enough to give it that last little push into the next tier.]

[Later: One extra point.]

[Later: I think I've changed my mind a bit. While I still don't have a personal attachment to the song, I think it's pretty and tranquil enough that it brings something unique to the Neo Clump and I will move it up.]

[Later: Pretty enough to be moved above the Neo Clump, in point of fact.]

[One More Time Later: Adding another point to this.]

[Once More, With Feeling: And another extra boost.]

[Here We Go Again: A point and a half to go up to 66 points.]

[Later: I do like this. It's quite pretty... think I'll add another point onto this one.]

[Later: And one, most likely final, boost to the 69 point level.]

[Later: ...Nah, let's go ahead and go up a tier after all.]

[Finally, at the end: Hey, a song that reached nine score upgrades! I think that may be the record thus far.]

[...A few hours later: And I don't want to eliminate this after all. Moving this up to 71 points.]

[Actually Ending: And one final minor boost for reorganization purposes gives this the record for most upgrades at 11.]

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#225: Spiritbox - Eternal Blue (3:59)
https://open.spotify.com/track/6gJ0ydZombiOIs4NaxnFXR?si=67525a72f55d4a47

Nominator: BlackDra90n [4/30 Remaining]

Initial Score: 59.9999999
Revised Score: 59.9999999
Final Score: 59.9999999 [Upgraded to 60.00] [Upgraded to 61.51] [Upgraded to 62.00000006] [Upgraded to 62.195] [Upgraded 62.21] [Upgraded to 64.56] [Upgraded to 71.00] [Upgraded to 71.175]

(First Reaction: A song that I should love and that does everything right, but I don't quite want to put even at the 60 point tier--much less the 90 point tier the song seems specifically designed to be reaching. I haven't quite worked out why yet.

And what's left of me, a cavity
At least this space is mine
It's where you left me to die

Hard to get lyrics more blunt than that and this is certainly a good, well performed song in all respects. But I'm not all that into it--it's very much still at the "I like this song, -BUT-" tier which is... slightly confusing. My working theory is that while the lyrics are similar to ones I love, they're just not lyrics that I can personally connect to. To go back to our running gag of me comparing everything to "I Think I'm OKAY", that song paints everything as being the singer's fault: "Watch me take a good thing and fuck it all up", in contrast to Eternal Blue which seems to be placing the blame on the other person "it's where you left me to die".

I'm not positive, not really good at the whole self-reflection thing yet, but that's the best guess I've got after one listen.)

!i still don't fully get it. The song is doing everything I like and doing it well, but I still feel it's *ever so slightly* below the 60 point mark.

[Final Thoughts: The song should be at the highest tier, but it never quite resonates with me in spite of doing literally everything right. I know that's not going to be a satisfying response, but it is what it is.]

[Later: Is this the first song described as being as blunt as it can get? Because I say that so often that you can make a drinking game out of it. I should gather all the lyrics I quote as being especially blunt and sad, then see which one is truly the most blunt... but that feels like a lot of work, so I probably won't.

And.... perhaps I will let this song have that final microscopic fraction of a point to reach the Neo Clump.]

[Later Still: I think I do like this more than the songs currently in the Neo Clump. I'm going to add one extra point to this.]

[Eternally Later: Moving this up a tiny bit to reach the 62 point zone.]

[Later Than That: Just a very minor boost that I don't think will change the ranking in a substantial way, but does move this ahead of a few songs.]

[Marginally Later, Though Still the Same Day: One tiny little nudge to reach the top half of the list.]

[The Next Day: A slightly more substantial boost to delay this a bit longer.]

[Later: This is another of those songs that I haven't been able to get out of my head--in part because I've listened to it *so many times* because I have to go through this every time that I don't eliminate it, but I think I'm starting to really like this. Going up a tier.]

[Later: One final minor boost for reorganization purposes.]

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#224: Serj Tankian - Cornucopia (4:28):
https://open.spotify.com/track/4zJ9MPBwBsYEW8MlCQ7M5e?si=85c3624d8547433f

Nominator: Murphiroth [ 6/32 Remaining]

Initial Score: 53.679
Revised Score: 60.00
Final Score: 62.000005 [Upgraded to 64.73] [Upgraded to 70.21] [Upgraded to 70.89] [Upgraded to 71.176]

(First Reaction: It's not my favorite song about environmental damage, though I do appreciate how direct the song is about the topic.)

I kinda wish I had an instrumental version of this song because I swear the backing music would go really well with a fast-paced platformer. Not Sonic-esque exactly, but this feels like "running and flipping past obstacles" music to me and I'd be tempted to try to sync the audio up of an instrumental up with gameplay footage to see if it actually worked. ...Though I suppose that wouldn't really matter to the score at all.

Aaanywho this song is actually pretty catchy and I'm starting to get into the lyrics. Apocalyptic climate change is still an apocalypse & I like how... direct the song is in contrast to something like Marvin Gaye's "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)". Well, not that that track was subtle, but it's easy to get lost in his seductive voice and completely forget that he's singing about wildlife dying from radiation.

...now that I think about it, it's really weird how sexy that song sounds considering the lyrics... but I've gone wildly off-track again. "Cornucopia" is a good song and I'm moving it up a tier to the 60 point level.

[Final Thoughts: Good subject matter, one of his catchier vocal performances, and a really fun backing music track. Perhaps too fun for the subject matter, but who cares? I like this one.]

[Later: I actually rather like this at the moment.]

[Later: I think I actually really like this? Most of it, at least.]

[Later: Minor boost.]

[Later: Moving this up very slightly for reorganizational purposes.

...also, this isn't terribly relevant, but "Kiss an ugly turtle and make it cry" is certainly a lyric.]

========================

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

Huh. I'm not sure I've heard any of their other songs...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Zbi0XmGtMw

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

#226: Frances Yip - ('The Bund' Theme Song) (3:19):

I think the river was supposed to represent the burst of emotions. Or how the passage of time buries everything. I'm not really sure either.
Didn't think this would last this long because another old-fashioned song of mine was eliminated pretty early

Raetsel_Lapin posted...

Huh. I'm not sure I've heard any of their other songs...

Ever see a six flags commercial in the 2010's? lol

NFUN posted...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Zbi0XmGtMw

Xtlm posted...

Ever see a six flags commercial in the 2010's? lol

...Ah. Never knew who did... that. Let's just say Superfly is better and move along.

-

Five more songs, all of them from my null value group--I set quite a few songs aside without a specific score to revisit them later and most of them will be falling here.

Also, we have our first two-way tie of the topic! So that's something.

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#223: Bjork - Hyperballad (5:21):
https://open.spotify.com/track/4z1fNs2B7KndCsvyPgrhq5?si=57180a01d9f447c5

Nominator: Bane [10*/38 Remaining]

Initial Score: 64.02
Revised Score: 65.0505
Final Score: 65.58 [Upgraded to 67.58] [Upgraded to "something"] [Something set to 70.018] [Set back to something] [Something set to 70.178]

(First Reaction: A very heavy song. It starts off with the sort of low tones that I always love and then goes hard, with thoughts of suicidal ideation (or metaphorical suicide, at the very least), quickly becoming one of the most emotional songs in the entire ranking. It's all objectively incredible and possibly the best song from such a stand point, though I have a hard time scoring it or deciding if I actually "enjoyed" it; it is art, incredible powerful and moving art, with complexity that impacts people in wildly varying ways and should be commended for its brilliance ; however, I find myself developing a headache and wishing for a strong drink. I don't drink, but this song really makes me want to. Is that a good thing? I mean, it's certainly inspiring strong feelings, so... I think I'll place it in the mid-60's, rather in the middle ground between "I like this" and "I really like this" because I fear it's a bit too heavy for me to feel good about jumping it up a whole tier at the moment.

Still, probably the song in the topic most deserving of winning awards, so that's something.)

!I love the feel of the song and what it's doing, but I still feel like it's solidly in the middle of the 60 point tier.

[Final Thoughts: Not a lot to add. A very objectively good song with compelling lyrics. I like it.]

[Later: I don't think I want to move it up a tier, but I'm going to add two extra points.]

[Later: I don't know what I'm doing with all these null-value songs, but apparently I'm adding this to that group for a bit. Don't want to eliminate it, don't want to give it any specific point value, so... we'll see what happens?]

[Later: Officially putting this into the next tier. It's... rough. The song's a bit much to be something I listen to often, but I'd say I really like the experience it brings.]

[Later: Moving this song back to a null value and setting it aside for a few days.]

========================

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#222: zts - S (8:36):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxwKdsma9g0

Nominator: DoctorJimmy [5/24 Remaining]

Initial Score: 64.0000000
Revised Score: 63.24
Final Score: 58.007 [Upgraded to 59.402] [Upgraded to 60.01] [Upgraded to 64.02] [Upgraded to 70.019] [Upgraded to something] [Something set to 70.179]

(First Reaction: Ooh, when this song transitions around 4:30, especially that bit just before the five minute mark.... that interlude with the low buzzing, ah, such absolute 100 point perfection. And then we go dancing and lose that feeling. Le sigh. Le boo hoo. Le profound sadness. Have some extra zeroes that technically mean nothing but are symbolic of sadness or whatever.)

!It's interesting. The opening has "Game Boy Beach" vibes, there's a great interlude, and most of the song is... upbeat dance music which is fine, I never get particularly upset at it.

[Final Thoughts: It's neat and I still kinda like it, but I'm not clicking with any of the aspects of the song as much as I usually do. The opening is strangely pretty and has a very retro gaming feel to it, but once the beat drops it becomes something else entirely that I'm less into.]

[Later: Very good opening & a perfect transition. Is it enough to move the song back up a tier? ....Probably not, but I'll delay this until the 59 point range at least.]

[Later: Ah, there are enough parts that I like and it's actually quite a charming little song, let's move it back up above the Neo Clump.]

[Later: The song is kinda thump-thump-thumping in places, but there are enough beach vibes in place that I'm moving this back to the 64 point zone. And that interlude around 4:30 is something I actively love, so this might go further up later. Maybe.]

[It's Been A While: I love that intro and that interlude. I'm still not as into the main part of the song, but there are enough 90 point sections that I feel like 64 points aren't enough... but can I say that I really liked it when so much of the song has that pulsing beat that I'm not into? Oof, this is a rough song to rank. But those buzzing tones... yeah, I'm going to go ahead and move this up to the 70 point tier.]

[Later: Moving this song to a null value and revisiting it another day. Don't know what score to give it, I just know I'm not eliminating it today.]

[Later: Cutting this song hurts because it has some of the highest highs of the entire ranking, but the pulsing beat of the main part of the song can be a bit rough...]

[Later: Ehh, moving this to a null value and setting it aside. Cutting something with such moments of pure perfection is rough.]

[Finally: Alas, sweet chiptune beach song. Parting is such sweet sorrow, but I'm afraid this is the limit. A lot of songs that I've been hiding under a null value are getting cut tonight.]

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-continued-

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#220 {TIE}: Sunday in the Park with George (2017 Broadway Company) - Sunday - Finale (4:13):
https://open.spotify.com/track/3PzAUMMxPcaXEfWEvMx469?si=58595175ed774942

Nominator: @Raka_Putra [16/31 Remaining]

Initial Score: 60.26
Revised Score: 60.22
Final Score: 70.03 [Upgraded to 70.065] [Upgraded to "something"] [Something set to 70.83, and then reset to something almost instantly] [Something set to 71.18]

(First Reaction: A curious song. I'm not really a fan of art, so a song about art & artists wouldn't be my first choice of subject matter. I also have no idea who Georges Seurat is or anything about his work, so I fear this song was at a disadvantage from the start... but it is curious enough that I do like it. It's not anything I'm likely to ever understand or appreciate on a deep level, but it is a subject matter unlike any other I've heard and it grasps my attention in an interesting way.)

!Considering how heavily fictionalized the play's version of George is, it's probably just as well that I know nothing about Seurat.

[Final Thoughts:

"White. A blank page or canvas. His favorite. So many possibilities..."

I've found myself thinking of that line a lot over the past year. The story here is far more compelling than I gave it credit for.]

[Later: While not my favorite song, it is quite curious and compelling. A very well made song that I'm grateful for the chance to listen to. Minor boost for rearranging purposes.]

[Later that day: Ehh.... let's set this to a null value and move it to the side for a bit. I don't want to eliminate it just yet, but I'm also not sure how many points I want to give. Will revisit later.]

[Later: And I think this is the point the song goes out... as I've said before, this section of the list is rather brutal in terms of making cuts. It's a beautiful song that I really like and think about often, but I... really like everything else here too. Kinda the point of this tier level.

...But... ehhh... go back to a null value for a bit.]

[Final: A beautiful song, but I think this track falls here. It's emotional and moving, but everything that I really like has to go at some point this tier... also, I can't possibly compare this song with the one I'm also eliminating right now, so I'm just going to take the cheap way out and place them in a tie.]

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-and now a look into exactly how deranged my mind is-

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#220 {TIE}: Stupendium - Nook, Line & Sinker [3:47]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxXB3S-IjtE

Nominator: paulg [9/52 Remaining]

Initial Score: 53.27
Revised Score: 53.27
Final Score: 58.44 [Upgraded to 67.40] [Upgraded to 67.70] [Upgraded to 68.93] [Upgraded to 70.008] [Upgraded to something] [Something set to 71.18]

(First Reaction: This story isn't even remotely related to the song, but the worst nightmare I ever had was when I made the mistake of reading some Animal Crossing creepypastas shortly before bed. I may have told this story before--I remember typing it out, but I feel like I deleted it or scaled back on the details? Whatever; if it's new to you, cool. If not, I've never shied away from repeating myself, no matter how much I attack repetition from other people.

I dreamed that i was testing some new game that would be played entirely in your dreams for a new level of realism and interactivity. You'd have the ability to rewind time and undo mistakes, as well as the ability to wake yourself up at will if things got too intense. So I start playing and some important character dies; well, no problem, I figure I'll just rewind and save her this time. But as soon as I try to rewind, I get teleported to this creepy mansion; everything is solid white (floors, chairs, walls) except for messages scrawled in blood about how I failed--"you can't go back", "you didn't save her", and the like.

I'm still not too bothered at this point. A bit annoyed that I was tricked into playing a horror game, but fine, I'll just wake myself up. Only that just made things so much worse--I found myself paralyzed and staring at a crayon drawing of various Animal Crossing characters that took up my entire vision while an unknown voice whispers the messages into my mind: "You didn't save her."

At this point, I start panicking--being trapped in a horror game and paralyzed is very much not what I signed up for, so I start trying to force myself to wake up repeatedly. Each attempt brings about a new crayon drawing & message. The drawings, while always child like, begin getting more and more disturbing with various dead animals and pools of blood. And mixed in with the whispered messages of failures, a warning: "He's coming".

Finally, I wake up with my heart pounding. I take a moment to catch my breath and calm down before reaching for my glasses. The moment I put them on, I'm paralyzed again and treated to a jump scare of Villager swinging his ax at me before actually waking up.

...honestly, it took a few minutes before I was bold enough to try putting on my glasses again because that was the most brutal false awakening I ever experienced. And that's not even how dreams work! They're not supposed to paralyze you and take away your vision for a jump scare, nor are they that well scripted. The fuck is my dream doing, actively writing in a hope spot where I get to believe I've escaped from the dream ONLY TO THEN KILL ME WITH ABSOLUTELY PERFECT TIMING. THAT'S NOT HOW ANY OF THIS WORKS. That's only how dreams work on sitcoms and this dream only makes sense if I'm a fictional character and my show's writer doesn't understand how dreams work, in which case, fuck you, you stupid two-bit hack.

...

Aaaanywho, you nominated a song. Good for you!)

You could probably transplant the writeup for Redd's song and it'd apply equally well here. Comedy animal villain song by Stupendium with clever puns that gets a lower score than you expect? Kinda feel like we've been here before. Though after that song got a sub-50 point score perhaps this song actually has a higher score than you expected? *shrugs*

[Final Thoughts: Actually I kinda like this tonight. Not one of my favorites, but theatrical cartoon villain songs are usually quite welcome and this is neat enough.]

[Later: Well, I've this song stuck in my head all day, so I suppose I'll be moving this up a tier.]

[Later: Eesh, it's been a long time since the first Stupendium song dropped. That one was in #763rd place. Doubly funny since that writeup implied this song didn't have a good score either... though, in my defense, it didn't have a high score at the time that was posted. Anyway, giving this a small bonus to move it over a few other songs.]

[Later: ...Ehhh, maybe another point?]

[Later: I suppose I do really like this these days.]

[Later: Going to throw this in a pile with all the other null value songs and figure out where I eliminate it later.]

[Final: The funny talking animal song or the emotionally moving song? I've gone back and forth between the two a lot and... yeah, I got nothing. They both appeal in such opposite ways that it's an absolute coin flip which of the two I'd take at any given moment, with the songs changing places multiple times per day. So I'm just going to call this particular showdown a draw.]

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-continued again-

-incidentally, there is one other writeup that goes wildly off topic and ends with that "you nominated a song" which appears to be this topic's verbal tic when something has gone catastrophically wrong in the writeup but I inexplicably don't redact it all. So look forward to that! Or dread it. Either way-

...Also, good Lord, the emotional whiplash between the last song and the next is... something alright. I probably should have flipped Sunday & Nook's position since they were tied anyway to avoid this, but we're here now.

-

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#219: The Uncluded - TV on 10 (3:30):
https://youtu.be/9OEPi4SH6yw

Nominator: Kateee [6/21 Remaining]

Initial Score: 60.00
Revised Score: 60.006
Final Score: 64.15 [Upgraded to 65.00000002] [Upgraded to "something"] [Something set to 67.121] [Upgraded to 70.205] [Upgraded to 70.336] [Set back to "something"] [Something set to 71.185]

(First Reaction: I'm glad to have more Aesop Rock in these topics and was delighted by his surprise appearance... right up until the point I learned this was based on a real tragedy. Now, it's all sad and awkward.and I need a drink.

I suppose it's good to have a song that inspires this strong of a reaction & I do love hearing Aesop again... I'll just throw this into the clump of 60 point songs and worry about it next time.)

!Great song, but a bit too heavy for me to really "enjoy". Not that all art needs to be designed to be enjoyed and I'm not making any real critiques here.

[Final Thoughts: Great song and I do like it, enough to move it a fair distance away from the Neo Clump, but the subject matter's significantly heavier and more real than I'm likely to listen to very often & even I have the common sense to not ramble incoherently on a writeup for a song dealing with real life tragedy like this.]

[Later: Ehhh... I think I like this track a bit more than 64 points, so I'm going to just barely move it above the 65 point line.]

[Later: I don't know. Let's just set this score a null value and add jt to that group; I'll find a score later, probably?]

[Later: It's a memorable song and I do like it quite a bit, but it's probably just a touch too real to be something that I revisit constantly. And while I do like it quite a bit, we're starting to get into the really good stuff here in the top 300, so I think this is as far as I want to bring the song right now.]

[Later: ...Nah, I like Aesop too much to let this get less than 70 points.]

[Later: A bit of a minor boost for this song as well.]

[Later that day: Well, again I wound up moving so many songs up the list that this didn't really delay the elimination at all... just going to move this to the side and revisit it another day.]

[Final: And I think this score works here. I love Aesop's voice and want to listen to more songs featuring him and I really shouldn't be avoiding real stories like this, but I really like every song left.]

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Two songs to start the morning, featuring two songs that were at the top of the list and have fallen a ways.

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#218: Serj Tankian - Harakiri (4:19):
https://open.spotify.com/track/3ea7U1vcJigOPJTmbvMPQf?si=1f7770bbe1274920

Nominator: Murphiroth [5/32 Remaining]

Initial Score: 96.20
Revised Score: 88.73
Final Score: 71.45

(First Reaction: I actually suggest watching & listening to the video for the song instead of the album version:

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

While the video does help emphasize the song's message, I particularly like the choice of Presidential speeches to sample. I think the added dialog really pushes the song to the next level. It's a great song and it honestly doesn't need the push, but you know I'll take the version with spoken word samples over the one without every time.)

!Definitely one of the better environmentalist songs I've ever heard. Catchy enough to be memorable and a great song, while still being brutally honest enough that the message isn't lost or overly watered down.

[Final Thoughts: "Don't read the comments" is always good advice, but doubly so on a video that's explicitly anti-capitalism and about global warming. I feel like the added voice samples improve the song because of course I do, I pretty much always vote in support of spoken word samples taken out of context, just... don't be dumb enough to subject yourself to certain idiots. (This does not have an impact on the score. Just... don't.)

Anyway I'm not quite in love with this song right now--not the album version, nor the video version; it's still incredibly catchy, a good message, and probably his best performance on the album & I do really like it... just wouldn't say I'm in love with the song right now. Though it definitely was at the very top off the list originally.]

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#217: LOONA 1/3 - Fairy Tale [3:08]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBMI-er1v2o

Nominator: cakophon [2/20 Remaining]

Initial Score: 64.309
Revised Score: 90.70
Final Score: 71.46

(First Reaction: A very nice, dreamy song.)

!Somehow this romantic dream song is hitting unbelievably hard tonight... I'm *almost* crying in response, which is... interesting. Let's move this song up to the 90 point tier for a bit.

[Final Thoughts: A beautiful song with a very dreamy atmosphere, though it does feel a *bit* repetitive towards the end. Still a definite highlight of the topic though. I'm also not vibing with this even half as much as that second time around... I really like the atmosphere it creates & it's very cute and sweet, but it's not completely emotionally destroying me at the moment.]

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