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Irish Aris's Walrus: The Reveal

Irish Aris

Hello everyone and welcome to my Walrus reveal.

We have 21 Gamers - in order of submission:
Necro
Shane U
Electric Nitwit
JP Liz V1
Also Starring LeVar Burton
s1ippy
beakerjoe
Gru
Sawduck
Homer J. Fong
Mustang Shelly
Kolido
RasTa
Green&Red
lassykk
JohnGreenFan
Osh
phatkev
Zaph
the purple tin
fixXxer

A reminder on the categories:

1. The Fantastic 80s: I was a teenager in the 80s and it was when I started listening to music, so many of my favourite artists and albums are from that era. So simple enough, I’m looking for any song released in that decade.

2. The Irish Aris Connection: I moved to Ireland on October 2011 and because of all the concerts I started listening to a lot of new music. So for that category I’m looking for songs that were released from October 2011 and later. Songs can be by any artist (not just Irish artists) and obviously album tracks are allowed.

3. It takes 2 to make it right: Here I’m looking for duets and collaborations. It could be a straight forward duet (i.e. Elton John and Kiki Dee) or a collaboration (i.e. David Guetta feat. Whatever vocalist is popular). You could also select collaborations with 3 or more people, instrumental collaborations (i.e. Eno and Fripp) or even a duet between 2 lead singers of the same band (Fleetwood Mac pun intended)

4. That’s Not My Name: Simple enough: A song with a name in the title. I will also allow songs with the word “name” in the title.

5. Body of Evidence: For this one I’m looking for songs that mention any part of the human body in their title. And similar to the previous categories with the names, I will also allow songs with the word “body” in the title.

6. The Lasting First Impression: I like listening to albums from start to finish and it is always nice when an album gets to a great start. So for this category I’m looking for songs that open their respective albums and you consider them great openers. The idea here is to make me want to listen to the whole album and expand my music library further!!

7. Preach to the unconverted. . .or the choir: This is like a wildcard category. Give me a song from one of your favourite artists, one that you think everyone should listen to. This could be your chance to prove me wrong on some of the genres that I mentioned as not being a big fan of, so anything goes!!!

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Irish Aris

In 5th place, submitted by

Mustang Shelly

, Nightwish-Harvest

This was the biggest surprise of the list. I was listening to YouTube primarily and after the song started I had to double check that this was indeed the Nightwish song and not some ad. I listened to Nightwish for a couple of years when Tarja was the singer and have associated them with the symphonic metal genre. This song though shares a lot with folk metal – 2 genres that I don’t like them separately but find very intriguing when they are combined. The symphonic elements come only after 3 minutes. Until then Troy Donockley’s voice is center stage on an acoustic set of piano and percussion and ethereal backing vocals. Even after the heavy guitar makes an appearance, the orchestral arrangement is so well done that it still doesn’t feel like symphonic metal. This song took me many years back when I was exploring the German dark alternative scene and at the time discovered folk metal bands like Tanzwut and Schandmaul. An excellent choice, one that will reconnect me with the music of Nightwish.

Irish Aris

In 18th place, submitted by

beakerjoe

, Electric Six-The Bomb

I have the Electric Six’s debut album but other than the 2 first singles Danger High Voltage and Gay Bar I never found them particularly interesting - and this was confirmed when I saw them live after I moved to Ireland. This was mildly interesting in the beginning and it started the rankings from a bit higher but didn’t make any real impact and as other songs grew on me it kept going down.

Irish Aris

In 4th place, submitted by

lassykk

, Thirty Seconds To Mars-Closer To The Edge

I have seen Jared Leto quite a few times in films - and have enjoyed some of his performances, notably in Requiem For A Dream and Dallas Buyers Club. But I have never listened to any of his music with Thirty Seconds To Mars. This will change now as lassykk makes sure to give me a proper introduction to the band. This started as a strong rock song with great production and I was thinking that it would end-up somewhere in the middle of the pack. But at 2:50 the song explodes to stadium rock territory and after that every time I listened to the song I caught myself getting up and jumping along.

Irish Aris

In 19th place, submitted by

Deleted User

, The White Stripes-Little Ghost

My musical relationship with Mr and Mrs White never went past Seven Nation Army. I found their sound a bit “dry” – probably because they are very economical with the bass. Little Ghost had a nice upbeat rhythm and I caught myself tapping my foot. It ended up low in the rankings, due to being too close to country territory.

Irish Aris

In 3rd place, submitted by

Electric Nitwit

, 65DaysOfStatic-Radio Protector (live from escape From New York)

I discovered 65DaysOfStatic a few months ago through 2 of their recent Eps, the Exvironments parts 1 and 2 which see the band move to ambient (almost dark ambient) soundscapes. Radio Protector is a proper post-rock tune. It starts quietly with an atmospheric intro, then an amazing piano melody comes in and goes on for more than 1 minute, and then the rest of the instruments come in and build the song. There is another beautiful quiet interlude in the middle of the song, before we move to a crescendo, which threatens to become noisy but never does, as the piano is still in the core and keeps things under control. I think I mentioned before that I really like how post-rock creates these loud sounds in a very natural way and 65DaysOfSatatic is another great example of this school of sound.

beakerjoe

Irish Aris wrote: »

In 18th place, submitted by
beakerjoe
, Electric Six-The Bomb

I have the Electric Six’s debut album but other than the 2 first singles Danger High Voltage and Gay Bar I never found them particularly interesting - and this was confirmed when I saw them live after I moved to Ireland. This was mildly interesting in the beginning and it started the rankings from a bit higher but didn’t make any real impact and as other songs grew on me it kept going down.

Wow.... you're all sorts of wrong but I shall forgive you.

Love E6, seeing them live in the academy one Christmas week made me love them as a band. High energy, fun times to he had.

Irish Aris

In 20th place, submitted by

JohnGreenFan

, Mumford and Sons-After The Storm

This is the type of indie folk that I don’t like. Acoustic, no drums/percussion, everything based around the guitar and the vocals. This is not my scene anymore (was it ever really??) – I could only find interesting in a live setting, but not in the comfort of my living room.

Irish Aris

In 2nd place, submitted by

the purple tin

, Tom Waits-Hell Broke Luce

The Bad As Me album was released the same month I moved to Ireland. I was never into Tom Waits as I thought that his voice is something of an acquired taste. Before that I could only namecheck two songs of his: Temptation (from covers that Diana Krall and others have done) and God’s Away On Business (from the end credits of the documentary Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room). I can’t even remember how this song came on my radar, but I loved it from the first listen. The heavy production suits Waits’ voice perfectly and I liked the quirky lyrics. This song led me to check Waits’ discography with mixed results, but I would always go back to this song.

Irish Aris

In 21st place, submitted by

Gru

, Stereophonics-The Bartender and the Thief

I’m not a fan of the Stereophonics. They weren’t very popular in Greece so I don’t know much of their music, but even after I moved to Ireland I never saw the appeal in them. I didn’t like this one, it was loud but with nothing to make it interesting.

[Deleted User]

I think the scores for this round should be inverted - those of us in the basement section clearly did the best job of "preaching to the unconverted"!

Irish Aris

Deleted User wrote: »

I think the scores for this round should be inverted - those of us in the basement section clearly did the best job of "preaching to the unconverted"!

hahahaha, good point!! :pac:

Irish Aris

In 1st place, submitted by

Kolido

, Bon Jovi-Dry County

One of my favourite Bon Jovi songs ever. An epic 10-minute power ballad that gives the opportunity for some great solos – the built up to the guitar solo around the 5:30 mark has some amazing drum work and Richie Sambora shows what a great guitarist is. I also think this is one of the best vocal performances of Jon Bon Jovi. An excellent choice, a song that I would encourage anyone that hasn’t heard it before to give it a chance.

Irish Aris

With one round to go, there are 6 gamers that are still with a chance to win this - but it looks more of a 3 horse race. Can LeVar hold on to the lead or will s1ippy or phatkev manage to make one final run for the win?

Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Round 5 Round 6 Round 7 Total Points
Also Starring LeVar Burton 14 20 11 19 21 8 93
s1ippy 16 19 10 16 12 16 89
phatkev 18 6 21 9 20 13 87
Kolido 5 15 8 13 16 21 78
beakerjoe 15 21 17 10 9 4 76
JP Liz V1 12 17 16 12 10 9 76
Necro 21 12 5 4 19 11 72
lassykk 1 14 4 21 14 18 72
fixXxer 4 18 15 5 17 10 69
the purple tin 10 2 18 6 11 20 67
Shane U 11 11 9 14 13 5 63
Mustang Shelly 6 4 13 20 3 17 63
Electric Nitwit 8 3 12 18 2 19 62
Homer J. Fong 20 10 6 17 5 3 61
Zaph 19 9 14 11 1 7 61
Osh 9 8 19 1 8 14 59
Sawduck 7 16 1 7 15 12 58
Green&Red 13 7 7 8 6 15 56
Gru 17 5 20 2 4 1 49
RasTa 3 1 2 15 18 6 45
JohnGreenFan 2 13 3 3 7 2 30

Irish Aris

And the YouTube playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUaRXycpvvkHLBOU-p75vtoihnk-0VBHo

The final reveal will most likely be on Wednesday for the great album openers. I had another listen earlier today and there are fewer songs moving up and down, so I think I will be able to finalise the list tomorrow.

Kolido

JohnGreenFan

Irish Aris wrote: »

With one round to go, there are 6 gamers that are still with a chance to win this - but it looks more of a 3 horse race. Can LeVar hold on to the lead or will s1ippy or phatkev manage to make one final run for the win?

Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Round 5 Round 6 Round 7 Total Points
Also Starring LeVar Burton 14 20 11 19 21 8 93
s1ippy 16 19 10 16 12 16 89
phatkev 18 6 21 9 20 13 87
Kolido 5 15 8 13 16 21 78
beakerjoe 15 21 17 10 9 4 76
JP Liz V1 12 17 16 12 10 9 76
Necro 21 12 5 4 19 11 72
lassykk 1 14 4 21 14 18 72
fixXxer 4 18 15 5 17 10 69
the purple tin 10 2 18 6 11 20 67
Shane U 11 11 9 14 13 5 63
Mustang Shelly 6 4 13 20 3 17 63
Electric Nitwit 8 3 12 18 2 19 62
Homer J. Fong 20 10 6 17 5 3 61
Zaph 19 9 14 11 1 7 61
Osh 9 8 19 1 8 14 59
Sawduck 7 16 1 7 15 12 58
Green&Red 13 7 7 8 6 15 56
Gru 17 5 20 2 4 1 49
RasTa 3 1 2 15 18 6 45
JohnGreenFan 2 13 3 3 7 2 30

Wooden spoon all but confirmed for me at this stage!!

Tauriel

Irish Aris wrote: »

In 5th place, submitted by
Mustang Shelly
, Nightwish-Harvest

I'm glad you enjoyed Harvest. Nightwish really stepped up their game on folk metal when Anette was lead singer as she couldn't hit the high notes. I would be bitterly disappointed if they left out a folk metal song from any of their albums.

I must say that Human :II: Nature is my favourite Nightwish album and has finally converted me into believing that Floor is a better fit in Nightwish than Tarja :eek:

JP Liz V1

Some great new tunes for me this round

Irish Aris

JP Liz V1 wrote: »

Some great new tunes for me this round

it's like that in every round for me.

Electric Nitwit

Irish Aris wrote: »

In 3rd place, submitted by
Electric Nitwit
, 65DaysOfStatic-Radio Protector (live from escape From New York)

Whoo-hoo

Delighted you liked it. I read the brief as favourite song by favourite band, but looking back I think I made that up. Anyway, that's what this is, I love 65dos and am always happy when they go down well (in Rikand's walrus, the first ever, they came second in the intros round with Retreat! Retreat!)

Irish Aris wrote: »

I discovered 65DaysOfStatic a few months ago through 2 of their recent Eps, the Exvironments parts 1 and 2

That's pretty niche! They were part of a year long subscriber series, they released an EP each month on bandcamp for subscribers, but they're all available now. It was meant to highlight in some ways the background to their last album, Replicr 2019

Only just back now so missed all the fun, I'll be trying to catch up on some listening tomorrow

Irish Aris

my apologies folks, something came up and I won't be available to do the reveal tonight.

I will move it tomorrow evening, I will confirm the time tomorrow morning but it will probably be around 6 or 6:30

Electric Nitwit

I'm off on holiday tomorrow (a whole 30km from home :pac:) so will miss out on my crowning glory, I'll just say now that you're all welcome! Enjoy!

JP Liz V1

Electric Nitwit wrote: »

I'm off on holiday tomorrow (a whole 30km from home :pac:) so will miss out on my crowning glory, I'll just say now that you're all welcome! Enjoy!

Enjoy that very far away holiday

the purple tin

Irish Aris wrote: »

my apologies folks, something came up and I won't be available to do the reveal tonight.
I will move it tomorrow evening, I will confirm the time tomorrow morning but it will probably be around 6 or 6:30

:pac:

the purple tin

Electric Nitwit wrote: »

I'm off on holiday tomorrow (a whole 30km from home :pac:) so will miss out on my crowning glory, I'll just say now that you're all welcome! Enjoy!

That's like the old Neil Tobin joke: 'Cavan people emmigrate did you know? It's true, some of them make it as far as Monaghan'

s1ippy

I've a feeling this one is going to take me way down!

ShaneU

We're spoiling you with a double bill tomorrow, my Walrus starting right after Irish Aris finishes his. Can safely say Electric Nitwit won't be winning mine

:pac:

Edit : just seen I have one more point than him and I've no chance

Electric Nitwit

ShaneU wrote: »

Edit : just seen I have one more point than him and I've no chance

Yeah, I'm reliant on my folk song being so good that it converts Aris onto folk, and as a reward I get 30 bonus points. Could happen... :pac:

Irish Aris

ShaneU wrote: »

We're spoiling you with a double bill tomorrow, my Walrus starting right after Irish Aris finishes his. Can safely say Electric Nitwit won't be winning mine :pac:

Edit : just seen I have one more point than him and I've no chance

Good morning everyone,
as ShaneU said, we have the pleasure of offering 2 reveals in one day - the end of one epic Walrus leading to the beginning of the next epic one!!

Thus I will start at the earlier time of 5:30-ish so we can finish by 7:30 and gives us some time for the build up to Shane's grand opening.

This category was really really strong and at least 19 of the 21 songs made me want to listen to the whole album.

Many of my favourite album openers are uptempo - something to set the tone and make me want to dance - Duran Duran have many of those, this one is the classiest:

That isn't always the case though, and this one by Morrissey is one of my favourite opening tracks ever:

And for the rock fans, this is an excellent start of an excellent album:

See you all later!!

Electric Nitwit

I was very tempted to go for this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihJtmeSPFo0

As a standalone "song" it doesn't really stand up but as an album opener I think it's brilliant. Cracks me up every time too, even though I think they meant it earnestly

Somewhere out there in the vast nothingness of space,
Somewhere far away in space and time,
Staring upward at the gleaming stars in the obsidian sky,
We're marooned on a small island, in an endless sea
Confined to a tiny spit of sand, unable to escape,
But tonight, on this small planet, on earth
We're going to rock civilization...

It helps that it leads straight into "Slam" which is a belting tune