Homer J. Fong IS The Walrus - Grand Reveal!

Reaching the business end of the table now, where 13 is a lucky number for Rosparkle as it translates into points for a 5th place finish with Muse - Supermassive Black Hole




Pre-listening notes:
Ah yes I remember this coming out and liking it at the time. I’m not a fan of Muse in general, always found them a bit OTT but this song has a good groove to it.

Listening notes:
Ah, so the opening line is “ooh baby, don’t you know I suffer?”; I always thought it was “ooh baby, don’t you know I’m so fúcked?” Yup, I’m nodding my head and tapping my feet to this, haven’t the faintest idea what the lyrics are supposed to be about but that’s probably not the point. Only bit I’m not keen on is the bit where he does that weird whispery-shout thing before the last chorus and add the end: “supermassive black hoooooole”. Just sounds a bit silly. Otherwise it's all very nice.

Verdict:
It’s flashy, funky, loud and very enjoyable. More style than substance but that bassline is substantial enough to keep it going. When it finished playing Youtube’s ‘Up Next’ moved on to Knights of Cydonia, which is the kind of overblown pomposity that reminds me of why I don’t care for Muse in general. But this song is still pretty good.

Trigger wrote: »

Can we guess who we think submitted what?

Absolutely!

If this was an alphabetical order competition, Aleshark would win every round! But tonight they must settle for 14th place and 4 points with Jim Johnston - Gold Lust



Pre-listening notes:
A WWE tune? Interesting choice. I’ll be honest, I have never understood the appeal of wrestling. Just not my thing. So no idea how this will go.

Listening notes:
I was expecting something very loud, intense and in-your-face here. This sounds very calm and melodic for wrestling! Actually sounds more like video-game music than anything else. To me this music conjures up images of wizards, swords and an enchanted forest under moonlight.

Verdict:
It was quite a nice piece, certainly not the worst way to spend 3 minutes and 49 seconds of my life. But it hasn't made much impact on me, for better or worse. Will I ever actively look to listen to this again? My gut feeling is no.

Just missing out on a podium finish is Palka Stephenflame who picks up a still very impressive 4th place and 14 points for Xylø – Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea



Pre-listening notes:
Name doesn’t ring a bell…ah a female-led duo tagged with Indie pop, Electropop, Dance-pop, Synth-pop. This sounds very promising…

Listening notes:
Very nice intro, nice voice on the first verse, this is all going well, now the chorus…oh, feels a little bit flat to me. Was expecting something with more “oomph”. Bit of an anti-climax initially….but it’s sounding better on the second go, will give this a few more spins before making up my mind.

Verdict:
I reckon this is one that will grow on me a lot after a few listens. It’s got all the ingredients of a really nice tune, just doesn’t quite come together on a first impression. But still a very nice submission overall, strong enough to make me want to check out their other stuff.

Hey Jameslon Barspell, what have you done? It's a nice day to win 3rd place and 15 points for Billy Idol - White Wedding



Pre-listening notes:
Well this is a bit of a classic, isn’t it? Don’t know a whole lot about Billy Idol but I definitely know this one (and his version of Jingle Bell Rock, but we don’t need to discuss that).

Listening notes:
Solid bass riff, simple but effective guitar riff, nice snarling vocals. Punky but poppy together. Definitely very-eighties. Also kind of a creepy vibe to it? I mean good creepy, not Gary Glitter creepy. Can imagine it being played at a Halloween party.

Verdict:
My only gripe with this song is the “hey little sister” bit repeated at the start of every line in the verses – thinking up a few more words surely wouldn’t have hurt? Mix it up a bit, Billy! But overall this is a pretty cracking tune that’s worthy of a very high score.

On the day that the Oscar nominations came out it's fitting that we take a trip to movies. Alas Lolliclarke doesn't quite strike gold as they get 16th place and 2 points for Les Mis Cast - Red and Black



Pre-listening notes:
Musicals generally aren’t my thing. I’ve never seen Les Mis, neither the stage musical nor the movie, although my sister’s a huge fan of it. I know “I Dreamed a Dream” (via Susan Boyle) and vaguely know the one that goes “Do you hear the people sing songs of angry men…” (via aforementioned sister) but that’s really about as far as my knowledge of the subject goes. I should note that there wasn’t any specific version of this song noted, so I’ve taken it from the version from the film as opposed to a stage production, as I imagine the latter can vary quite a bit depending on the cast, director etc. Hopefully that’s ok with our submitter.

Listening notes:
On first listen, this went totally over my head; without knowing anything of the story (only that it’s set in the French revolution) this was just sing-song dialogue with no discernible tune. It seemed to start and stop abruptly to me and while the actors are clearly enunciating for their lives it still lacked the sense of “grandness” I’d expect from a musical number. Reading the lyrics while listening/watching again did help – I now know this lad Marius has the hots for some young one but his cockblocking friend reminds him that he has to go and fight a war instead. Sucks to be him. Anyway the song doesn’t do much for me I’m afraid, the “RED…BLACK….RED….BLACK” chorus just doesn’t feel “epic” enough, at least not out of context from the whole production anyway.

Verdict:
Perhaps if I’d seen the whole movie or if I was in a theatre watching the grand production, I’d feel the energy and passion of this a bit more. It may well be quite a spectacle when watched on the big screen and probably even more on a big stage but as a stand-alone piece I’m afraid this didn’t do much for me. Je suis désolé.

Tonight's silver medallist is Hayesshine, who wins 16 succulent points for Pearl Jam - Black



Pre-listening notes:
My knowledge of Pearl Jam extends as far as Alive and Jeremy. But I do like some grunge from time to time, so this *might* be up my street. Only one way to find out….

Listening notes:
Aaaaaayyyyy……Eddie Vedder has quite the distinctive voice, doesn’t he? I think it’s a voice one needs time to get used to; my initial reaction is to not want to listen to him singing for too long, but as the song progresses and the tension escalates, when he starts to belt rather than mumble….I find myself much more into it. On first listen I like the second half of this song more than the first half; the ending is really damn good. It's definitely an acquired taste this song: on a repeated listen I'm now enjoying the full package much more from start to finish. Very nice.

Verdict:
Had to listen to this a couple of times to make up my mind on it, and the repeated listens have definitely helped. It’s left a positive impression on me and made me more likely to listen to some more Pearl Jam (it’s probably quite shameful that I haven’t already listened to Ten, given what a famous album it is). So yeah, this is a good’un. Definitely worthy of further airplay.

Our unlucky 17th place finisher for Round 1 is Yompson Hamoondancer, who gets 1 point for Coldplay - Yellow



Pre-listening notes:
Oh dear. I wouldn’t go as far as to say I hate Coldplay, because they have written a few fairly decent songs. Unfortunately, this isn’t one of them. Chris Martin’s whiney voice is at its whiniest here and I’m afraid a repeated listen of a song I usually go out of my way to avoid won’t help its cause much here. So let’s get this over it….

Listening notes:
Intro is pretty nice actually, you’re ready for this to kick into gear and be taken some place wonderful….but then he starts singing. >_<; Putting vocals aside, I can respect songs like The Scientist and Fix You because they’re well written. But this one just feels words that rhyme for the sake of rhyming. We have a nice opening line “look at the stars, look how they shine for you, and all the things you do…” so far so good, but then for no reason "…they were all yellow”. Why did you write a song where everything is yellow? Why is your love all yellow? Does she have jaundice? Is this why you’re whining, because you’re sad? This song has always rubbed me up the wrong way unfortunately, and re-listening with fresh ears hasn't done anything to mitigate that.

Verdict:
Musically this song is fine, it has that going for it at least. Lyrically it aims at sweet and emotional but comes off more like daft, but I could overlook that if it came with a killer vocal. Sadly Chris Martin’s whimpering on this one veers into nails on a blackboard territory. I don’t mind him so much when he sings low but all those squeaky “for youuuuuu” bits go through my head. I fear this will come on or near the bottom of the pile.

And so we come to tonight's winner....

*drumroll*

...congratulations to Kingolas who takes the first gold medal and 17 lovely points for LUH - Future Blues




Pre-listening notes:
An awful lot of blue in this category, isn’t there? I’m not familiar with this group, though Pitchfork tells me that their debut album is “a vast, swaggering colossus”. Sounds promising….

Listening notes:
Hmm, not what I’d call swaggering; instead we’ve got a rather downbeat intro, which is fine; I like downbeat. Very cool watery bass, an unusual female vocal kicks in. Can definitely imagine putting this on when sitting alone and feeling a bit down, would fit nicely onto a “get drunk while feeling lonely” soundtrack (ok, nicely might be the wrong word in this context, but you know what I mean!) First 90 seconds is very nice, at the two minute mark the volume is rising but the tempo is staying downbeat. The background riff that plays throughout the song is gorgeous. Male vocals join in and it creates uneasiness and tension, their voices don’t gel smoothly but I think that’s probably the point. Definitely want to hit “replay” on this once it’s ended.

Verdict:
“This future is unwritten but it still haunts us.” – That’s a very simple line but it works. I really like it. This is going to the top of the list. Bravo, contributor!

So here's the table after Round 1. I haven't made up the Spotify playlist yet because I'm lazy but I'll have that ready to go soon.

Thanks everyone for dropping by, hope you've enjoyed Round One. Hoping to do Round Two, "LOVE - songs" on Wednesday evening so be sure to cancel any other plans ye may have!

Rank Alias Colours Love 90's 10's Joker Total Score
1 Kingolas 17 17
2 Hayesshine 16 16
3 Jameslon Barspell 15 15
4 Palka Stephenflame 14 14
5 Rosparkle 13 13
6 Fanghoward 12 12
7 Spencerpop 11 11
8 Yollins Roseverse 10 10
9 Mediphira 9 9
10 Countess Bathrobinson Bailecoffin 8 8
11 Harmony Cullran 7 7
12 Helraham Jamesorty 6 6
13 Marflutter 5 5
14 Aleshark 4 4
15 Marshallazora Satanwest 3 3
16 Lolliclarke 2 2
17 Yompson Hamoondancer 1 1