Irish Aris' Music Walrus: The Sequel

In 14th place

Nitrous Oxide-Drive

Selected by: @Rikand

Did I know the Artist: Yes

Did I know the Song: No

What about the Rhythm: Put your hands up in the air!

Second attempt at Nitrous Oxide, courtesy of Rikand. This is quite fitting for this category; I can really feel the beat. I find it better than the first one. It sort-of ebbs and flows in an interesting way. Not something that I would consciously listen to, but maybe something that could be part of a playlist that would be playing in the background.

In 12th place

Bold Love-Never Enough

Selected by: @Electric Nitwit

Did I know the Artist: No

Did I know the Song: No

What about the Rhythm: Sipping my beverage, swaying along

Here we have another Irish band that recently called it a day – 2 for 2 for Electric Nitwit. This is a really good song, in the top 7 of likeability factor. But not the best fit for this category. It starts a bit slowly for the first verse, picks up the tempo a bit in the chorus, but never really kicks on the next gear. But an interesting submission, and another unfortunate case of an interesting band not continuing.

In 10th place

Ed Sheeran-Shivers

Selected by: @Necro

Did I know the Artist: Yes

Did I know the Song: Yes

What about the Rhythm: Nodding along and making silly dance moves

Not the biggest fan of Ed Sheeran. He seems like a nice guy to go out for a drink, but I find most of his music rather generic. Necro gets slightly lucky here, as Equals is the only album of Sheeran that I found interesting (primarily because it features my favourite song of his, Overpass Graffitti). I like Shivers too, has a nice rhythm and, like I said in the intro, I could see myself attempting some nerdy moves on the dancefloor!!

In 8th place

Status Quo-Down Down

Selected by: @Bogey Lowenstein

Did I know the Artist: Yes

Did I know the Song: No

What about the Rhythm: I Love to Boogie!!

This was the biggest surprise of this category. When I saw the name Status Quo I thought “this is going to be bottom 3”: never got into them and 70s (where they really picked) isn’t really my decade, very few things that I would listen to. Turns out, this is a great song!! It reminds me of I Love to Boogie by T-Rex/Marc Bolan, which was recorded a couple of years later. Then I read that Down Down was inspired by T-Rex’s Debora. It all makes sense!! The stop/start at around 2:20 is just awesome!! And maybe I need to reconsider my indifference to Status Quo and see what else is on offer.

In 6th place

Melidian-Ready to Rock

Selected by: @Kolido

Did I know the Artist: No

Did I know the Song: No

What about the Rhythm: Air guitar unlocked

Ah, another rock song, glad to see more people paying attention to the OP. This is 80s hair rock/metal, which I believe Kolido is a fan of, so it all tracks. Have never heard of them and it transpires they were very short lived, just one album in the very late 80s. Lots of influencers here – Whitesnake and Pyromania era Def Leppard were the first that came to mind, but also the likes of Lita Ford and Firehouse. This is a good song, proper guitar riffs, and although we have heard it all before, it holds its own well. A bit surprised that I have never heard of them, as I was listening to quite a bit of hair rock from 1987 until 1992.

In 4th place

Florence Road-Goodnight

Selected by: @ShaneU

Did I know the Artist: Yes

Did I know the Song: No

What about the Rhythm: Head shaking and clapping along

I think I have found my new favourite Irish band. What a great song!! It sounds so fresh, and I reckon it will sound fantastic live!! As soon as it hits the drums/hand clapping section around the half minute mark, the rhythm got me completely. Even when the instruments are quieter to leave the voice up front, the rhythm never gets lost. I think in a live setting, the audience would be keeping the tempo going. This is one of the two best discoveries in the game so far (the other comes a bit later), I think it’s even better than Break the Girl that we had in the previous round.

In 3rd place

Five Star-The Slightest Touch

Selected by: @PogoRach

Did I know the Artist: Yes

Did I know the Song: No

What about the Rhythm: 80s Discotheque

Though I have heard of them, I couldn’t name any song of theirs, I think their pick was in 1985-1986 – and I only started listening to music in 1986 with my focus being on the pop basics. This is a superb urban pop/dance song – reminds me of songs by Expose, Lisa Lisa and the Cult Jam and Seduction’s Two to Make It Right that I listened to a couple of years later. Another inspired selection by PogoRach.

In 2nd place

Red Flag-Russian Radio

Selected by: @waterfaerie

Did I know the Artist: No

Did I know the Song: No

What about the Rhythm: Depeche Mode… Mode

When waterfairie send me the selections (s)he wrote “You probably know this amazing piece”. Believe me when I saw I don’t – I have never even heard of the band. This is ultimate synthpop: Depeche Mode an obvious inspiration, it also reminds me of Camouflage and other of the alternative synth pop bands of that time. Not much more to say, this is exactly the type of song I had in mind, and I already bought the digital version of their Naïve Art album that includes this song. I would have liked to give it the win (it’s always nice to give the win to a new discovery), but the song on the top spot, is an absolute classic!

In 18th place

Manifestica Studio-Step Into Your Power

Selected by: @SineadSpears

Did I know the Artist: No

Did I know the Song: No

What about the Rhythm: Bathroom break

OK, kind of contemporary R&B, so not a promising start. Mid-tempo, OK. Sounds a bit over-produced, very squeaky clean. One minute in and something is really off. I had a look at the video (usually I listen a couple of times without observing the video) and I get a sinking feeling: is this AI generated? A quick google and the first result suggests that this is (and I quote) “Manifestica Studio (or manifestica_studio) is an artist on Spotify and Apple Music that creates music designed to shift energy. Known for tracks themed around manifestation, self-love, and healing…”, I stopped reading. A further search gave the following: “Key Details About Manifestica_studio: AI-Powered Music: The project explicitly uses AI to craft its audio,, producing, for example, "Step Into Your Power". I have made my feelings very clear around AI in the last edition of X-Factor. In any case, here this is a bit of a moot point (or moo point, as Joey from Friends said): I didn’t like the song at all, this whole self-power/new age angle is not appealing to me and the melody and rhythm wasn’t to my liking either. And when it comes to meditation, my genres of choice are ambient, dark ambient and drone. Tough luck, SineadSpears, I can definitely see why you selected it, it’s just not for me.

Tauriel and PogoRach put a slim distance on the top, with ShaneU climbing up at 3rd and chased by a lot of people.

Tight competition once again, and it's very easy to quickly go up or down.

Kudos to all of you for submitting interesting songs! 🙂

Looking at the next category (the foreign language): I only know 4 of the 18 songs, but I recognise quite a few artists - and the variety of selections is unreal. I expect that it will be another very strong category, and quite tricky to rank.