Irish Aris's Walrus: The Reveal

Irish Aris · 03-08-2020 8:20pm

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 · 03-08-2020 8:25pm

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 · 03-08-2020 8:31pm

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 · 03-08-2020 8:36pm

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 · 03-08-2020 8:40pm

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 · 03-08-2020 8:41pm

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 · 03-08-2020 8:45pm

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 · 03-08-2020 8:49pm

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 · 03-08-2020 8:53pm

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.

03-08-2020 8:54pm

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 · 03-08-2020 8:57pm

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 · 03-08-2020 8:58pm

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 · 03-08-2020 9:05pm

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 · 03-08-2020 9:09pm

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 · 03-08-2020 9:10pm

JohnGreenFan · 03-08-2020 9:26pm

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 · 03-08-2020 9:41pm

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 · 03-08-2020 10:04pm

Some great new tunes for me this round

Irish Aris · 03-08-2020 10:52pm

JP Liz V1 wrote: »

Some great new tunes for me this round

it's like that in every round for me.

Electric Nitwit · 03-08-2020 11:05pm

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 · 05-08-2020 2:17pm

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 · 05-08-2020 2:23pm

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 · 05-08-2020 7:00pm

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 · 05-08-2020 7:33pm

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 · 05-08-2020 7:35pm

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 · 05-08-2020 7:46pm

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

ShaneU · 05-08-2020 8:29pm

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 · 05-08-2020 8:40pm

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 · 06-08-2020 9:46am

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 · 06-08-2020 10:55am

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

beakerjoe · 06-08-2020 11:03am

Ah pendulum, a band I kinda like. Some of their stuff is top drum n bassy for me, but love Propane NightMares and their track with In Flames, Self vs Self.

The latter would make great fight entrance music.... Hi ShaneU.

Electric Nitwit · 06-08-2020 11:06am

beakerjoe wrote: »

Ah pendulum, a band I kinda like

For me they're like a Jason Statham film - you know they're not actually good, but at the right time you can leave your brain out of it and just enjoy the madness. They're one of the best gigs I've ever been to, but I was hammered and the crowd was right on it!

Irish Aris · 06-08-2020 11:13am

Electric Nitwit wrote: »

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

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

For this category, I have added a second test to help me with the rankings (the first one obviously being: do I like the song): Does this opening track make me want to listen to the whole album?
As it turned out this didn't help very much, almost all songs in the list passed this test.
To your point, this song probably wouldn't place very high, but would definitely pass the test and I would listen to the rest of the album, I feel a story is coming. In the actual list one of the participants (don't know who yet, I haven't checked names yet) submitted a very unique selection of a song. Though it didn't do very well, it was a primary example of an album that I definitely want to listen in its entirety.

Electric Nitwit · 06-08-2020 11:16am

Yeah, a great first song and a great album intro can be two very different things. I love short spoken intros where track two is the first real song, but they usually don't stand up by themselves

Also Starring LeVar Burton · 06-08-2020 11:17am

Irish Aris wrote: »

In the actual list one of the participants (don't know who yet, I haven't checked names yet) submitted a very unique selection of a song. Though it didn't do very well, it was a primary example of an album that I definitely want to listen in its entirety.

Uh oh... that sounds like it could be mine...

Irish Aris · 06-08-2020 11:35am

Also Starring LeVar Burton wrote: »

Uh oh... that sounds like it could be mine...

I honestly don't know - I'm keeping the suspense at the maximum

Necro · 06-08-2020 11:47am

Electric Nitwit wrote: »

Yeah, a great first song and a great album intro can be two very different things. I love short spoken intros where track two is the first real song, but they usually don't stand up by themselves

I personally think mine is both... Though I don't expect to do too well here because of the artist I picked

Irish Aris · 06-08-2020 11:57am

I forgot to mention that in this category we have a song that was submitted by 2 participants. So we have 20 songs instead of 21 and I will skip a place in the rankings and give the song a joined position, i.e. if the song placed 11th, we won't have a song in the 12th place and both players will get the same amount of points for teh 11th place

Irish Aris · 06-08-2020 5:28pm

OK, just finished with work for the day, so we will start the evening's entertainment now!!

Irish Aris · 06-08-2020 5:31pm

In 11th place, submitted by

Electric Nitwit

, Broken Records-Nearly Home (from the album Until the End Begins to Part)

This song was like the yoyo of the category and one of the main reasons that this list took so long to finalise. There are 2 distinct parts to the song. In the first half things are a bit more acoustic. I liked the first minute, which is pretty much an atmospheric intro that sounds lovely, and the song builds from that and the use of strings gives it a very nice flavour. Alas, for the second part (around the 3-minute mark) the song gets a bit “busy”: it sounds as all the mics for all the instruments are turned up to the max and fight each other for listening space. I also wasn’t very fond of the high notes of lead singer Jamie Sutherland (although elsewhere in the song I do like his voice). So when I was stuck for rankings, this took a toll: not necessarily what I would call a great opener, but a good song and good introduction to a band that I have never heard of.

Irish Aris · 06-08-2020 5:38pm

In 12th place, submitted by

JP Liz V1

, Walking On Cars-Catch Me If You Can (from the album Everything this Way)

Another great song from a band that I knew as a name but not any of their music. I liked the piano intro and how the song builds up from there to gradually come to full speed. Great energy and I like Patrick Sheehy’s voice. At first listen I didn’t find it interesting enough and thought that I wouldn’t want to listen to the rest of the album, but it grew on me and changed my mind, so this goes in the (long) list of albums to discover.

Irish Aris · 06-08-2020 5:40pm

In 10th place, submitted by

phatkev

, Hot Chip-Melody of Love (from the album A Bath Full of Ecstasy)

Hot Chip was an accidental discovery when I saw them live in Longitude festival a few years ago (that day I have gone for Kraftwerk). It is surprising that I didn’t know them before that as their music is exactly what I like. This is a great dance song, trademark Hot Chip sound and you have to love Alexis Taylor’s voice. I was expecting this to be higher, but there were so many great songs so it barely made it to the top-10.

Irish Aris · 06-08-2020 5:45pm

In 13th place, submitted by

Gru

, Arctic Monkeys-Brianstorm (from the album Favourite Worst Nightmare)

We have previously established that I’m not crazy about Arctic Monkeys. I will give them though that this is a great opening track for the album. The energetic, fast pace is what I normally look in an opener. The guitar riff gets slightly repetitive, but this is only 3 minute long so I wasn’t really bored with it. Plus I’m a sucker for the kind of pause they have at 2:35. I don’t have this album, and will make sure to give it a listen.

Irish Aris · 06-08-2020 5:48pm

In 9th place, submitted by

beakerjoe

, Years and Years-Sanctify (from the album Palo Santo)

I don’t think I have heard this song before, if I have it never registered with me. I have the debut Years and Years album but didn’t think too much about it, so when Palo Santo came out I didn’t give it a chance. Based on what I heard here, a mistake that I need to rectify. The chorus is one of the catchiest in this list, and I like that it is arranged a bit differently than the rest of the song so it makes it stand out. Olly Alexander is another singer that I don’t always like, but he sounds great here.

Irish Aris · 06-08-2020 5:54pm

In 14th place, submitted by

RasTa

, Radiohead-2+2=5 (The Lukewarm) (from the album Hail to the Thief)

After the. . . ehm. . . debate that My Iron Lung’s placing caused in a previous category, 2+2=5 does better. I have mentioned that I got interested in them from the Kid A album onwards when they introduced electronic elements. Hail to the Thief was a return to a more rock sound, but the use of electronic sounds is still obvious. Not everything is perfect here (Yorke’s voice sounds whiny at some parts) but I liked the drum parts (in the first minute or so it sounds like a drum machine, not sure if that’s the case or not) and I really liked the “explosive” part between 1:55 and 2:25.

Irish Aris · 06-08-2020 5:58pm

In 8th place, submitted by

Mustang Shelly

, Evanescence-Going Under (from the album Fallen)

A great song and great album opener. From the first second Amy Lee’s voice is everything in this song. I have seen them live the year after they released this album and she sounds incredibly live. I also like the balanced production on the whole album: her voice is center stage but doesn’t overshadow the rest of the instruments and everything falls into place nicely.

Irish Aris · 06-08-2020 6:02pm

In 15th place, submitted by

fixXxer

, Jeff Wayne-The Eve of the War (from the album The War of the Worlds)

This is an album and song that I have never heard of, although it transpired that it is quiet famous. There are many things that I liked about this one: the space disco sound of the music, the narration of Richard Burton and the repeated motifs which in their majority are really catchy. The singing parts are probably the less interesting aspect of it. Although it got stuck in the lower places, this is something very interesting and I plan to listen to the whole album – but after I acquaint myself H.G Welsh’s novel (I checked and have never read it).

fixXxer · 06-08-2020 6:08pm

You've said that about my last two picks and that's honestly better than points. War of the World's is a matter piece, with Thunder Child possibly being my favourite track off the album.

Irish Aris · 06-08-2020 6:10pm

In 7th place, submitted by

Zaph

, Lloyd Cole and the Commotions-Perfect Skin (from the album Rattlesnakes)

If I had done this Walrus 3 years ago, this song would have been to the lower ranks, as I have never explored or admired that indie/guitar pop 80s sound. Since then I have discovered (and in many cases loved) many of the artists that play around this type of sound: The The, Deacon Blue, Prefab Sprout, Aztec Camera to name a few. Lloyd Cole is next in line. I actually listened to his latest, very interesting album Guesswork last year and now I plan to explore his old catalogue, starting with the 3 Commotions album. This is a great song, it has this very distinctive guitar pop sound that was very prevailing at the time, especially in the Scottish and Northern England music scenes. And I love his voice in this one. A great choice of a song, 80s rule!!!

Irish Aris · 06-08-2020 6:13pm

fixXxer wrote: »

You've said that about my last two picks and that's honestly better than points. War of the World's is a matter piece, with Thunder Child possibly being my favourite track off the album.

Yes, your selections were very off the beaten track, but none of them out of bounds. Metallica remains the biggest surprise, a song that I started listening to with a bit of bias against it, and I loved it. I know some more points would have been great, but you definitely fulfilled the idea of introducing me to new music!

Irish Aris's Walrus: The Reveal

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