Non-metal Themed Mixtape Game

[dwellerINTHEdark]

Lez get these ratings in so I can choose a tune before my cruise on Friday.

 

[H.P. Lovecraft]

Elliott Smith, Memory Lane - 5/10, Holy cow, that's a really Piedmont blues/ragtime esque acoustic guitar line, vocals are a tad goofily pitched and have a robotic after vibration to them. Overall, meh. Fits the theme.
Ayreon, Day Ten: Memories - 3.5/10, Intriguing non-musical intro, synths are alright, vocals are bleh, acoustic guitar uses the most ass-bleedingly cliché chord progression and tempo combination ever. Electric guitar offers brief interjection that could be ambiguously misconstrued as original had they not heard a single generic improv solo on the electric guitar before this. I died of laughter at the voice at 4:13, so much for the big, epic narrator voice, this sounds more like a 16 year old struggling to lower the pitch of his voice only to discover his balls have yet to drop. Fits the theme.
Michael Jackson, Remember The Time - 7.5/10, Synths are funkier than James Brown's skin tight jumpsuits, Michael's vocal runs are slicker than an Alaskan oil spill, jumps into a perfectly executed shouty passage around the middle. The backing music needs to vary itself more though. Fits the theme.
Free, Remember - 5/10, Fuzz, crunch, blues, and a good groove on that guitar. Vocals are a smidgen generic. Guitar line becomes monotonous and droning after about two minutes sadly, seems they couldn't think of anything for him to do before the solo. The solo is alright. I wish the percussion and rhythm section got more in on the action. It'd add so much flavor. Fits the theme.
Prince, Purple Rain - 6.5/10, Formulaic as a ballad, but it's something Prince managed to make his own and prevent it from being soporific via his immutably unique vocal style. Fits the theme.
Steeleye Span, All Things Are Quite Silent - 6.5/10, Holy Celtic ballads Batman! The vocals couldn't be more evocative of a Celtic ballad if the singer self-identified as a potato-addicted Leprechaun with a surplus of gold pots, rainbows, and Lucky Charms. Instrumentation, though subdued, is good. Fits the theme.
Porcupine Tree, She's Moved On - 4/10, Vocalist overdosed on ambien and bumped his head on the mixing table's reverb knob while passing out before cutting this track. Instrumentation is meh. Soloing is meh. Fits the theme.
The Offspring, The Kids Aren't Alright - 3/10, First off "WE REVERSED THE TITLE OF AN INFINITELY SUPERIOR WHO SONG, LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL, CLEVER RIGHT!?!?". Generic, and ultimately emasculated imitation of hardcore punk and the Ramones. Vocalist is so antiseptic and varies his vocal runs so little it actually hurts. Fits the theme.
Defiance, Ohio, Oh, Susquehannah - 3/10, I like the instrumentation a little. Vocals sound like a horde of local barflys tried to form a doo wop quintet. Nasally hipster chick starts interspersing herself around 2 minutes in. Fits the theme.
Dag Nasty, Never Go Back - 7/10, Thank the lord, some real hardcore punk with a pair of nuts. Spoken word ranting mixed with the snotty punk vocals and shouts is awesome. The guitar and bass rip. Fits the theme.
Johnny Shines, Sweet Home Chicago - 7.5/10, Scintillating cover of the Robert Johnson classic by a man very close him, with curious and unique flourishes on the guitar licks, amazing groove, vocals pack a metric assload of dynamism and emotive power. Fits the theme.
Talking Heads, Memories Can't Wait - 7/10, Zoning, trippy opening, very cool. The rippling sound of the song overall is smooth and interesting. The shaky uneasiness the vocals all too lucidly convey is kickass too. I just wish it changed itself up more. Fits the theme.
Scarlet Leaves, Images of Memory - 6/10, Good ambience at the start, vocals are passable, they've got a dense slather of effects on them, so it's harder to discern their quality. Drum sound is kinda castrated. I enjoy the spacey, dreamlike quality the song has, the synths really build that texture well. Seems to have difficulty deviating from its main schtick and progression into something more interesting.
Regina Spektor, The Flowers - 6/10, Brilliant piano riffs when mixed with this vocal style. She sounds goofy with her pronunciation and phrasing in certain parts. That's part of what pulls you in I guess, cause it's unequivocally a sound I'd like to investigate further. The Eastern European beat goes nuts on the piano toward the end, cool stuff.
Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, Where Do We Go Now But Nowhere - 7.5/10, Unique, somber crooning on this tune coupled to borderline Bob Dylan level lyrics. If Nick jumped further into his lower range, this would be even more epic.
Larry Lurex, Goin' Back - 6.5/10, Bright, soft singing from a young Freddie over an almost folksy instrumental arrangement. He sings in a style approximate to his later ballad style singing, but much more youthfully and vocally undeveloped.

 

[no country for old wainds]

pompeyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

it is time!

 

[Vegard Pompey]

I'll announce a winner in a couple hours

 

[no country for old wainds]

i actually have no idea who's gonna win this one. nick cave? talking heads? steeleye span? something else? seems like one of the closest rounds we've had.

 

[Vegard Pompey]

Hmm, last I checked there was a clear winner but it got savagely downrated by arg so maybe that changed things. Fuck it, I'll just tally this now though I won't do my own ratings until later.

 

[Vegard Pompey]

In spite of arg giving it a 2/10, the winner is indeed @Satanstoenail with Talking Heads - Memories Can't Wait!

1. Talking Heads - 7.62 (Satanstoenail)
2. Steeleye Span - 7.35 (no country)
3. Scarlet Leaves - 7.08 (Serjeant Grumbles)
4. Nick Cave - 6.81 (dwellerINTHEdark)
5. Larry Lurex - 6.62 (Omni)
6. Regina Spektor - 6.50 (funerary_doom)
7. Michael Jackson - 6.38 (arg)
8. Dag Nasty - 6.34 (HBB)
9. Prince - 6.23 (Baroque)
10. Johnny Shines - 6.08 (H.P. Lovecraft)
11. Free - 6.04 (CiG)
12. The Offspring - 5.69 (EspaDa) ex aquüeöauogh Elliott Smith - 5.69 (Black Orifice)
14. Porcupine Tree - 5.38 (unknown)
15. Defiance, Ohio - 4.65 (Mort Divine)
16. Ayreon - 3.50 (Carpe Mortem)

 

[arg]

Listened to it again and felt the same. Lol people like that shit?

 

[CiG]

Listened to it again and felt the same. Lol people like that shit?

Be humble faggot, you probably beat off to retarded European symphonic metal because the singer is hot compared to the rest of her male band members.

 

[Omni]

I found the ratings for my choice that said it sounded just like Queen confusing, since it's compositionally unlike their songs and has massively different production. I didn't expect to win, but that puzzled me.

 

[Vegard Pompey]

Here are my own ratings as host, which naturally were not counted;

Elliott Smith - Memory Lane
I like Smith in a purely musical sense but I have difficulty connecting with his lyrics. This is very pretty though and I'm surprised it ranked so low.
7/10

Ayreon - Day Ten: Memories
I can't even imagine how normal a life you must've had to be able to relate to any of the imagery in this song. And the video looks like it was edited together from commercials.
The storyline of this concept album is super ironic or something; it ends with a twist revealing that the entire album was actually just a simulation run by an alien entity in order to understand human emotion.
(...I know this because I used to be an Ayreon fan)
3/10

Michael Jackson - Remember the Time
I like/respect MJ but I don't like this kind of funk. I just find this sound really gross.
4/10

Free - Remember
6/10

Prince - Purple Rain
If you didn't want to cause us any sorrow you shouldn't have fucking died
7/10

Steeleye Span - All Things Are Quite Silent
I haven't listened to Steeleye Span before because "folk rock" isn't exactly a genre tag that excites my interest, but I love this. The song that auto-played after this one when I was making the playlist was also really good (I forgot its name) so I definitely need to hear more of this band.
9/10

Porcupine Tree - She's Moved On
5/10

The Offspring - The Kids Aren't Alright
Even though I've seen The Faculty I've no memory of hearing this before. Anyway, I really liked this and ended up returning to it more than any other song on the playlist. In fact it's probably my 2nd most played discovery of this mixtape game (#1 being Alice Cooper - Steven).
Much better than the only other song I've heard from this album which is Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)
8/10

Defiance, Ohio - Oh, Susquehanna!
God I'm sick of spelling that song title.
3/10

Dag Nasty - Never Go Back
HBB's picks for this game are consistently excellent, the guy deserves a win already.
8/10

Johnny Shines - Sweet Home Chicago
6/10

Talking Heads - Memories Can't Wait
I predict this'll win.
7/10

Scarlet Leaves - Images of Memory
7/10

Regina Spektor - The Flowers
6/10

Nick Cave - Where Do We Go Now But Nowhere
7/10

Larry Lurex - Goin' Back
I had no idea this existed, but I'm very happy to find out it does.
8/10

Bonus: This is the song that inspired me to pick this theme, and the one that I would've picked if I was participating;

I don't know how good it is outside the anime it serves as the opening to, as I can no longer isolate it from it, but it gives me the feels.

 

[CiG]

Steeleye Span - 7.35 (no country)

@no country for old wainds It was you! You have awesome taste.

 

[Satanstoenail]

Wooo, glad to win the non-metal game. New theme is

RIDICULOUSNESS AND ABSURDITY

I'd like songs with lyrics about anything that you find ridiculously absurd and/or surreal.

 

[Vegard Pompey]

That's an unexpected theme.

 

[no country for old wainds]

yeah, i like it though haha. already got a few ideas.

@CASSETTEISGOD my dad raised me on steeleye span from the age of about three, so i'm pretty much designed to be a fanboy. that's a song i discovered later though, one of their loveliest.

 

[Omni]

I picked the best and most ridiculously absurd song that I can think of, even though I doubt that it has any chance of winning.

 

[no country for old wainds]

it's the "hilariously" part that i'm gonna struggle with here because i don't really look for comedy in my music. there's plenty of absurd/surreal stuff i love though.

 

[Omni]

Yeah, I could only think of one artist that I enjoy who met that description and there was one song in particular that needed to be the one.

 

[H.P. Lovecraft]

*Braces for 12 million Frank Zappa submissions.*

 

[no country for old wainds]

i love zappa but i'll leave that for somebody else i think.