SpinTunes 8 Round 4 Rankings and Reviews

So, the process is a little different for this round: the finalists are ranked by popular vote and the vote of previous contestants. So I'm off the hook, a bit, for trying to decide which song of the final four is the best. I still need to write reviews, and I will rank the four. There are also twelve shadows this round, including five by the Boffo Yux Dudes. Wow.

The challenge this time was interesting: the contestants were required to use a simple I-V-vi-IV chord progression, and to write about physical pain.

Just a quick note of thanks before the reviews. This was a very enjoyable SpinTunes for me. I've been very impressed by the way every contest seems to result in better and better work. Good job, everyone! I hope I can be involved in the next one too, in some capacity. It's just too much fun not to be part of it.

1. Jenny Katz, Clear

Very few songs ever submitted to any round of SpinTunes or the old Song Fu contests have had the ability to make me sob like a little baby. Jenny Katz can do it. These lyrics are gorgeous and moving. They could apply to a wounded soldier, a loved one dying of cancer, or various other scenarios, and so have a universal feel. Lines like "traitor hope has left us wary" make me shiver. A great vocal performance, and a beautiful doubled guitar part. Just beautiful.

2. Edric Haleen featuring Heather Zink, I Wanna Go Dancing

I could quibble about "physical pain" -- yeah, I know very well that emotional pain can cause physical pain; I've certainly been there, so I guess it's OK. But this is a really lovely synth-pop song. Edric really put on a very different style for this and I'm impressed. Heather's vocal performance is sweet and light, although, I hate to say it, just a little pitchy on some of the verses (this may be partly because I'm just so used to hearing auto-tuned vocals on pop tracks). The instrument sounds are a little canned, but not bad. There are some original but very poppish and fun rhymes, like "I wanna go dancing / I wanna get lost in the noise / Be surrounded by boys / Who aren’t anything like you." Nicely done.

3. Ryan M. Brewer, Christ Speaks

This is impeccably produced but I find myself with some reservations about the way it toys with the subject matter. Can you use the crucifixion as a metaphor for being the one in the relationship that took the brunt of the pain when it ended? Well, of course you can, but I have to ask myself, should you? It's a bold choice but I can't help but feel it's a little off-putting. There are some other ways to interpret it, like a literal Jesus who is talking to his actual lover as he goes to his death, but that's even more provocative and also a little off-putting. So, nicely done, but this lyric just doesn't quite work well for me. I'm not offended per se; I'm a big fan of The Last Temptation of Christ, but I just feel like I can't quite click with the song. If it's going to take on such a provocative idea, it seems like it should take it a little more seriously.

4. Jutze, The Bleeding Dragon

Oh, cool! Wow! Nice music -- yet another different musical style by the incredibly versatile Jutze... wait... what is this song about? Wow, that's dark... happy but sad... wait... what? WHAT? Jutze! WTF! LOL! hahaha ewwww gross hahaha wow...

Shadows -- as time and inspiration allows, I will add brief comments on the shadows.

Glen Raphael, Hangnail (Shadow)

A piece of effective, but completely deadpan humor. Aside from a little looseness in the backing vocals and the guitars towards the end, it is really quite musically lovely, too.

Dr. Lindyke, Relief (Shadow)

The vinyl record sound effects and tinny recording are interesting -- is this supposed to sound like an early blues recording? I'm not quite sure what it is channeling. I like the vocal performance, though.

Caravan Ray, Pain (Shadow)

Not a bad tune, a bit like a live jam, but doesn't really stick with me.

Zoe Gray, Apologize (Shadow)

Musically this is very clever and enjoyable. The lyrics leave me a little confused. I don't think this is about physical pain? Maybe in the sense that Edric's song is about physical pain, but then it gets a bit graphic, which doesn't entirely make sense for me.

Jailhouse Payback, Back Pain (Shadow)

A fun jam. There's something going on with the lyrics but I think I may be too tired and spaced out to get it just now.

Red Watcher, Change (Shadow)

This is really beautiful, musically. The lyrics seem like they are more about the metaphorical pain of change than physical pain.

Boffo Yux Dudes, Is there a Doctor in the House? (Shadow)

Took me a moment to get what this one was about. Very clever. I suppose regeneration does involve physical pain! I like the way it borrows just a couple of notes from the Doctor Who theme music, and a vintage synthesizer waveform.

Boffo Yux Dudes, I'm in Love with the Pain that you Give (Shadow)

This sounds like a Tom Lehrer song. Is Dave singing with the Dudes?

Boffo Yux Dudes, Pain (Shadow)

Erm. Not their finest work. The music is nice.

Boffo Yux Dudes with TC Elliot, Put the Hammer Down (Shadow)

Musically, a very enjoyable song. The joke in the lyrics is just a bit one-note though.

Boffo Yux Dudes, Window Pain (Shadow)

Sounds very nice. I'm going to call this one "WHEN HOMONYMS ATTACK!" Too long.

Dr. Lindyke, Gotta Pee (Parody) (Shadow)

Very nice... I was laughing so hard I almost... well, you get the idea.

SpinTunes 8 Round 3 Rankings and Reviews

So, onward. The number of tracks is going down and so the pressure on the judges is going up! I've been listening to the album this week and procrastinating about actually ranking the songs because it is tooth-grindingly stressful to me -- the quality of these songs is really quite high all around, and I hate to have to think that I will be helping make someone go home sad. But I signed up, so there's nothing to do for it except call 'em like I hear 'em to the best of my ability. So... in order from best-rated on down:

1. Ryan Brewer, Jesus Christ's Biographer Gives a Guest Lecture

Ryan gets my vote for best song of the round. It stands out from the pack here for several reasons: the lyric is sophisticated, funny, subtle, and occasionally dark and chill-inducing; the vocal and musical performances are terrific; the mix and mastering job is beautiful. It has just a bit of the tone and mood of the song "One of Us" recorded by Joan Osborne. It's also almost five minutes long, but impressively, it doesn't drag at all, no portion of it feels too repetitive, and it ends at just the right moment.

2. Dr. Lindyke, A Historical Account of the Life and Accomplishments of Abraham Lincoln of Which Every Word is True I Swear

A rambling blues ballad by Dr. Lindyke? Yes, please! I think this is my favorite Dr. Lindyke song of all time. I love what Dave and Denise did with the vocal performance. The lyric is funny and a little dark, and can be taken as a serious comment on the tendency towards historical revisionism about the Civil War, with some great near-rhymes and striking turns of phrase. I wish I had been able to try recording a guitar track or two for this song! The main rhythm guitar part is a little repetitive and doesn't _quite_ have a convincing blues guitar tone. The mix feels just a bit rough, and it's just a touch long. Maybe taking out the "tar baby" lines and condensing the last three long verses into two might help.

3. Felix Frost, Cloudy

This is my favorite F. F. song to date. The band-in-a-box accompaniment sound goes really well with a more upbeat and bouncy vocal performance here, and the lyric is head-scratching and funny.

4. Edric Haleen, A Brave New World

Edric's piano-playing and singing really come together nicely on this one, and it's clearly a subject he's pretty impassioned about.

5. Jenny Katz, Liars Cheats and Weasels

This is really nicely done, and funny -- Jenny is being an equal-opportunity misinformer here, and the lyric brought a big smile to my face. I think there is a bit of a problem with a song like this that has such a _specific_ context: while it has hilarious relevance this week in this context, it's not actually going to be very meaningful to anyone after the fact. So I find myself dithering a little bit on whether I think it is really a good song because of that. But I'm reminded by what Peter Schickele says: if it sounds good, it is good.

6. Jailhouse Payback, Maritime Archaeology

The music is quite well-done, a gruesome story that sounds like it could have come out of a William Hope Hodsgon short story from a century ago. But the lyric never seems to really pop, with some weak rhymes and odd word choices, and it feels like the happy music isn't quite in alignment with the story.

7. Jutze, Banjo (Rejected Wikipedia Edit)

This track also brought a big smile to my face. I may have LOL'ed. I really appreciate the way that Jutze changes things up -- just last round, he had a death-metal growl on top of crunching electric guitars. The silly music actually gets really pretty in the last bit when he is singing over it. But overall the song just doesn't have much meat to it, so the replay value is a little thin.

8. Zoe Gray, The Truth About Homeschooling

I wish I had been homeschooled! Fortunately my kids are, at least partly. This is funny and mostly terrific. There are some lines that don't really jump, and the piano part is a bit rough here and there, and just doesn't feel like it has enough variation to it.

9. Governing Dynamics, Because

It sounds like a certain Travis has been watching the History Channel. This song is a little frustrating because the music is really nicely put-together, with quite a complex mix with a lot of stuff in it, but it seems to suffer a bit from an everything-including-the-kitchen-sink effect, and doesn't seem to really come together for me this round.

10. Adam Sakellarides, Why the Sky is Blue

Good things about this song: I like the fast guitar rhythm part and the percussion; I like the blend of backing vocals. It's funny. But Adam's voice is a little pitchy and the song as a whole doesn't seem to land on a good hook.

11. Ross Durand, How to Write a Hit Song

I love hearing Ross rap. This is quite funny and very misinformative. His specimen chord progression and melody is definitely a counterexample of some sort. A bold effort but musically, the whole thing just doesn't work that well for me, and I can't really just take the whole thing ironically and still enjoy it that much. I can't believe I'm ranking Ross so low. Sorry, Ross.

Shadows

Trader Jack, Free Your Credit.com (M. A. C. D.)

This is definitely a piece of misinformation! I found it quite hilarious. The music and mix is a little rough, but the idea really has potential... or something...

Menage a Tune, A Simple Set of Rules

This is a "filk" song, something that would be sung at a con. I like the concept of writing a song based on a very funny scene in an old Star Trek episode. This needs some real editing to make it flow better, with more clearly delineated verses and choruses.

SpinTunes 8 Round 2 Rankings and Reviews

I found this challenge and the variety of responses to it very interesting. Once again we had a number of songs of very high quality, which made the ranking difficult. I think that I would have found myself uncomfortable and "stretched" trying to meet this challenge myself, so I have sympathy to the contestants who met it. I also think it was a good challenge, in that it forced people to go outside their comfort zones in some cases. Most of us don't want to think of ourselves as "haters" or even people who occasionally indulge in hate when provoked, and so contestants found a variety of ways to take the challenge and turn it: it became about self-hate, it was about hating humorously, or hating someone for impersonal reasons, or hating one's own weakness, or hating one's own inability not to hate(!)

There were a couple of songs which the judges felt did not express any form of hatred and therefore did not adequately meet the challenge. Personally I tried to keep quite a loose definition of hate, but I still just could not find "hate" expressed at all in three of the songs. At the time of writing, I don't think the final decisions as to disqualifications have been announced. I think Spin is going to edit our final rankings to reflect the DQ'ed songs.

Anyway, assuming that all made some sort of sense, or even if it didn't (I've been drinking rather enormous amounts of coffee here in my cube in the midst of a blizzard), here are my reviews, ranked from best to worst, followed by the shadows.

1. Jenny Katz, Voodoo Doll

This is the finest song of the round. It represents the best of what SpinTunes is all about. It is simply gorgeous song, plaintive but melodic, with a very fine lyric. The lyric is a marvel. It is absolutely free of excessive sentimentality, cliched images, or hackneyed rhymes. The vocal performance is lovely, emotive without being overwrought, tuneful without being flashy. The instrumental accompaniment is tasteful and uses very well-chosen chords. I'm impressed with the song in every single respect. It conveys a very "adult" mood of introspection and self-criticism, but without seeming excessively precious or narcissistic. It reminds me quite strongly of song such as Joni Mitchell's "Blue Hotel Room." If I had to be ultra-picky, I'd point to an occasional imperfectly muted string in the guitar part, but that's really barely noticeable; I just mention it by way of "constructive criticism," since I wanted to find something that I felt could be improved.

2. Ryan Brewer, Fear [of Failure] and [Self] Loathing in Las Vegas

I really enjoyed the darker mood of this song, damning the antagonist with faint praise. I'm not usually a big fan of what passes for country music these days, but the pulsing bass line and vocal style reminded me of some of the great country-rock acts of the 1970s, tracks such as "Ghost Riders in the Sky" and "The Devil Went Down to Georgia." This song has a tremendously enjoyable voice performance and I really like the way it is doubled; the instruments are very well-done as well, especially the ear-candy bits of backing keyboard. The drums are a little artificial-sounding and monotonous in places, such as the pinging cymbal during the bridge. When the song gets to the portion that is sung in a round, "there's a part of me that hates part of me," I'm completely hooked, and then it checks out at the perfect moment. Nicely done in all respects.

3. Ross Durand, Sometimes

This is a very appealing song. Ross is continuing to demonstrate that he's an old pro at this. The lyrics make it clear that the hate is a transmuted sense of loss, and that gives it a little more emotional weight. There are some great lines, like "set 'em on fire, just to watch you burn." The vocal performance is just a touch too loose with pitch here and there. The backing organ sound is gorgeous and lifts the song up very subtly from the background, reminding me of "A Whiter Shade of Pale."

4. TurboShandy, Stoic

This is a nicely recorded song with a great vocal performance and excellent use of harmonica. In mood, you might call it a happysad song, or a happyangry song. The layered nasal vocals against the chugging acoustic guitar lines move the song along very well. The howling hound at the very end is a nice touch.

5. Sara Parsons, Who Am I Kidding?

Parsons is doing something very nice with the vocal harmonies here and I love the way the song kicks off the vocal just a beat or two into the song, without an extensive intro, and the cold end works really well too. The lyrics feel a little abstract to me, not conveying a definitive story or set of images, and so I'm not really feeling the hate in any form I can recognize.

6. Dr. Lindyke, I Hate Myself For Loving You

This song grew on me the more I listened to it. The musical layers are roughly recorded but nicely done in a tango style, and there are some bits of ear candy like the triangle that add interest to the instruments. While the vocal performance is very fine, the vocal track leaves something to be desired -- besides boxiness, I hear compression artifacts, like this was recorded over Skype. The way the lyrics are structured and set to music, as far as rhyme and rhythm scheme, is very nicely done, but the lyric feels a little under-done, with a narrator who is a bit muddled. I'm reminded a bit of Portishead's song "Sour Times," because of the lo-fi sound of the track.

7. Governing Dynamics, Trump Card

This is moody even by Governing Dynamics standards. The lyrics suggest an elaborate back-story here, but it feels at times like a personal story that isn't adequately explained in the song, except for bits and pieces where the lyric really breaks through and becomes universal, in lines.like "a finger on the pulses of frivolity and vanity and greed." It conveys a lot of convincing angst, but there isn't quite enough of an arc -- that is, it starts angry and stays angry. The song drags a bit in the last third or so but ends nicely, and we get one of Travis's trademark mournful guitar solos, with some gorgeous effects strangling the life out of the tone and making it very fitting to the mood of the song.

8. Felix Frost, Steely

As soon as I heard those challenging chords in the somewhat long introduction, I knew I was hearing Felix Frost again. F.F. pulls out all the technical stops, creating a complex tapestry of tracks here, and I like his grotesque, angry word choices in the lyrics. I have a reservation, though: it sounds like there's a complicated backstory going on here, about a boss or former business partner, but I feel like I'm not sufficiently privy to this story to understand it emotionally. I think it's a bit of a problem when a lyric is too personal to the author and doesn't succeed in telling enough of a story to engage the listener. As in the last challenge, I feel like F.F.'s style can be, well, a little emotionally chilly, and leaves me feeling a little indifferent to the narrator.

9. Caravan Ray, Disdain in the Refrain

The lyrics here are hilarious, even borrowing a phrase from the challenge and then running with it. The bass line is a lot of fun. I have some very slight quibbles with the backing vocals here and there (the first "dance behind your hearse" sounds a half-step flat to me). The rhythm guitar work is excellent the whole song has such a bouncy ska feel and infectious energy; I'd call it not happysad but happymad. The tracks and mix could use some punching up with EQ and compression. I have some minor gripes about the way the percussion feels over-emphasized throughout the track, particularly that ringing ride cymbal sound that the song ends on -- it doesn't sound quite in key and right for the track.

10. Jutze, I Hate You

Jutze pitches his voice to sound like Cookie Monster and brings the layered, crunching metal guitars. The lyrics are quite funny and the narrator found a good reason to comically hate someone -- the person putting him through his hoops in writing the song! A really enjoyable bit of half-serious homage/mockery of the "black metal" genre.

11. Adam Sakellarides - Damn You

A nice reveal here and we have a good take on the challenge, where it's an impersonal sort of hate towards a celebrity who is preoccupying the women in his life. The awkwardly forced rhymes made me smile, with a twist as the narrator realizes that he is actually enjoying himself more than he'd like to admit. A fun song. I'm imagining it with a wailing saxophone solo in the middle, and a video with a chorus of soccer moms in sweatshirts and yoga pants, kicking their legs in the air, singing a backing vocal part consisting entirely of ooooohhhhs and aaaaahhhhs, from the leather sofas where they've been binge-watching season two on Netflix.

12. Edric Haleen, Born of Hate

This definitely has a dark and relevant story about hate, and demonstrates the way that hatred destroys the person that hates. But it is so emotionally wound up, from beginning to end, that I find myself not wanting to listen again. The whole "oops, I just got shot in the chest and I'm bleeding out -- whelp, better leave voicemail for the wife" just doesn't feel convincing to me (can you get Verizon service in Kandahar? Someone will probably explain to me that yes you can, and yes this really happened, and then won't I feel like a boob...) Also, I can hardly believe I'm saying this, but I think Edric is over-using the f-word in this song, almost to the point where this deadly-serious song veers into Book of Mormon-style satire.

13. Brian Gray, Stupid Face

Is this another song inspired by someone's personal story about a boss or co-worker? The beat-boxing is hilarious and so are the gross lyrics, and then as if it wasn't already weird, it gets _really_ weird. I love the way Brian layered the vocal parts, despite a mix that could use some punching-up. But ultimately there isn't all that much substance to this song.

14. James Young, I Hate You

A fairly simple take on the song, with a twist in that the person receiving the hate doesn't seem to be emotionally deep enough to understand or care. A soaring guitar solo can't entirely compensate for the weakness of the lyrics, with forced rhymes that don't quite work (rhyming "problem" with "autumn," for example). There are some strange popping artifacts on the lead vocal track. The recording sounds band-limited and a little tinny. The tracks could use a good compressor and the final mix could use a good mastering job.

15. Army Defense, What Can I Do

There's some really nice instrumentation here -- it sounds good, especially the doubled guitar tracks and keyboards, but it's hard to get a handle on the story and it doesn't convey a strong impression of some sort of hate. The vocal performance is quite good, although there are some odd artifacts (auto-tune gone wrong?) While I like the lyrics, I think overall there are too few lyrics, even for a short song, which makes it feel like it emphasizes musical style over meaning too much. The vintage keyboard sounds towards the end of the song are cool but at that point it is getting a little over-complicated, sort of a musical everything-including-the-kitchen sink.

16. Zoe Gray -- Black with You

The bridge really makes this song; the rest of it feels a little too long, repetitive and one-note by comparison. I feel like I understand what the lyric is getting at, but the phrase "fallen into black with you" just doesn't quite seem like it is going to take off as a catch-phrase. Maybe it works better in a different language, like the way "we will bury you" makes more sense in Russian?

17. T.C. Elliott - You Cheated On Me

Serviceable but a little drab, with some bad rhymes (heart of glass, alibi). Competently done but doesn't really break ground.

18. Jailhouse Payback, Clippedcorners

Musically, this song is beautiful. I love the use of the banjo here, and there seems to be a story implied, but I was not able to discern what it was about. I can't detect any sort of coherent mood of hate in the lyric or music. Is the antagonist dead? Has the protagonist forgiven him, or not? Is this a song about a song? It all comes off a little frustratingly vague. There really nice instrumental backing, especially towards the end, although overall the song is just a touch too long (the banjo riff is very nice, so let's play it over... and over...)

-----------

Heather Miller, You Make Me

A hate song about winter personified! As I'm writing this, it is supposed to hit sixteen below zero in Saginaw this evening and I nearly slid off the road driving in blizzard conditions. Yesterday as I came in to the office for a meeting I noticed that my knuckles were bright red and nearly bleeding where the skin had nearly split, just due to the extreme cold and dryness. This song has really fun lyrics and a nice sultry vocal performance, with a bass line that propels the song along. The guitar line tends to drift off the beat here and there. If it had been in the running, it would have been towards the top of the rating.

T. C. Elliott, The Kitchen Table

Some funny lyrics and a lot of anger, but there's not much to it beyond a contrived storyline and general feeling of misogyny. The timing drifts somewhat aimlessly against a canned drum track.

Menage a Tune, Wevenge

I think this would work perfectly as an animated children's video if the narrator's performance were much more over-the-top, and the quoted bits were actually in Mel Blanc's voice. That would present some copyright issues. The emotional tone of this song seems muddled -- it features real death in a way that the cartoons never did. Remember, kids, meat is murder! Overall it is pretty amusing, but towards the end the overlaid second keyboard part seems to wander off track in a few places.

Boffo Yux Dudes, Suitcase Full of Hate

This sounds like something very different from the BYD. I like the music track. Some very amusing rhymes. It sounds kind of like the Dickies, Ramones, or a similar early punk group. This one would have been mid-pack if it was in the official running.

@suspiciousden, to dust

This tune sounds like it should be performed in the background of a David Lynch movie, on an glowing, antique console radio set. A very nice mood is established and maintained through the whole song, with a beautiful vocal. It reminds me a little bit of the last track of Annie Lennox's album _Diva_. It works so much better than her round one song. I wish Denise was still in the contest!

SpinTunes 8 Round 1 Rankings and Reviews

I am judging entries for SpinTunes 8. There are two basic requirements for a judge: I'm supposed to provide some sort of review for each song, and I'm also supposed to rank them in order from best to worst. The review part comes naturally to me; the ranking is a bit harder.

I find it especially hard to explain my criteria at ranking. I'll take a quick shot at it. Every day this week, I've listened to the whole album (almost two hours) Starting day three, I started making notes as things occurred to me while I was listening, and I've also come to remember the songs and I know which ones I'm interested in hearing again, and which ones I wish I could skip over (although I'm not actually skipping over any).

What makes me want to hear a song again? Well, first, lyrics that interest me and move me, and especially lyrics that don't make me wince because they use easy, cliched rhymes or phrases. (In 2014 you can only rhyme "moon" with "June" if you are doing it ironically). I appreciate clever wordplay and a song that tells or at least implies a real human story.

Then there's vocal performance. I don't expect perfection. Lord knows I don't achieve it in my own songs. I can be moved by a singer who isn't technically very good, but if you're really pitchy and your performance is not very moving, then that's a weak track as far as I'm concerned.

Then there's the music. I like a lot of different genres, but I don't really enjoy playing that is all flash or deliberately bombastic. Keeping it short and sweet is pretty important (and yes, I know I've failed at that in some of my own songs as well). I can't give you an exact time that represents a perfect song; it depends on the song. I know when I'm listening along, I know when I _feel_ that a song should end. If the song agrees with my feeling, that seems like the right length to me. A pop song has to be unusually interesting in its structure or lyrics to keep my interest for longer than four minutes; Don McClean's _American Pie_ is 8 minutes long, but it has a truly epic lyric.

Production counts for something too, but there's not just one kind of production I appreciate. A live track with just a singer and guitar can be just fine. So can a full multi-tracked song with all the bells and whistles.

I will review and rank a cappella songs, but I must admit that I find these a little problematic at times. Someone like Billy Bragg can hold an audience rapt with a song like "Chile, Your Waters Run Red Through Soweto," but he doesn't do an entire show a cappella. Very few pop acts can pull off a wonderful and moving a cappella song that consists of just one singer with no accompaniment. In general, I'll rank you on whether it seems like you know what you are doing with the recording. If you can only achieve a simple live track, record a good simple live track. If you want to record 24 tracks of instruments, feel free, but they ought to be well-mixed. If it sounds like a train wreck that way, maybe you should have used a simpler arrangement based on what you can achieve technically. And yes, I've _definitely_ attempted mixes that were technically beyond me, so I have sympathy for people who are learning as they go. One last thing: if you do use instruments, they shouldn't sound completely generic. If it sounds like you just hit the "demo" button on a Casio keyboard and sang along with it, I'm not going to really appreciate the music portion of your track.

Finally, if a song doesn't meet the challenge at all, in any sense, it would be disqualified, but subjectively, I will still rank songs on how well I think they meet the challenge. That includes whether songs take a very obvious, conventional approach, or have fun with the challenge. In this case the challenge is pretty simple. There's nothing wrong with just writing a simple song about a lost loved one. But I do appreciate the songs that took a special twist on the challenge.

I'm not going to assign numeric fractions to these general categories because I don't really believe I can make rankings somehow more objective that way.

All right, here we go:

1. Ross Durand: Sitting Right Here

This is a great take on the challenge. My stepfather suffered from an Alzheimer's-like form of dementia so this song speaks to me. The happysad approach is touching and the lyrics are powerful.

2. Sara Parsons: Guilt

I tried not to tip my hand too much in the listening party by making a lot of comments as I heard the songs for the first time, in part because I didn't want to praise a song in that context and then have to decide later that maybe it wasn't all that good. In the case of this song I couldn't really help myself -- I think I typed "Wow!" or something similar. This is a very strong song. The accompaniment is simple but I like the way Sara's pedal base notes (or sometimes alternating bass notes) keep a rhythm going and propel the song along. She should learn more elaborate Travis picking if possible at some point, but this works fine. The lyric is quite strong. She has a very straightforward take on the challenge but manages to avoid all traces of false sentimentality and cliche. The only real weakness I see is that the line "stroll up and down the lines" doesn't seem quite right to me, and the details of the story feel just a little unclear. But even in the listening party, even on a first hearing, this song brought tears to my eyes. Nicely done!

3. Brian Gray: The Child I Left Behind

Just when I was prepared to be fed up with a cappella songs, someone like Brian comes along and sings an a cappella song that is really beautifully done and moving. I appreciated in particular the use of reverb to thicken up a single voice. Brian mentions Mandy Patinkin in his song bio and I can certainly hear that. The twist on the challenge -- that the narrator misses his own younger self, his inner child, is a nice take on the idea.

4. Caravan Ray: Missing You

Well, you could not argue that the song doesn't meet the challenge. The arrangement is a lot of fun and the twist is the funny bitterness. I enjoyed the silly falsetto backing vocal parts. It is a short and sweet song and quite funny.

5. Governing Dynamics: Song to Stay Awake (700 Miles)

Travis has produced another moving and sad song. I particularly like the keyboard in this track. If I understand the story, the narrator has awakened from a dream in which he imagines that his absent girlfriend has shot herself, and he decides to jump in the car and drive to her side, whether she wants to see him or not -- although there is some real ambiguity here; maybe it's already happened, and he's just convinced himself that she is still alive? ("At one in the morning I'd reached the end / of the elaborate game of pretend.") In any case it's a beautiful lyric, and the whole song is one of the very best this round.

6. Turboshandy: Torch Bearer

I read Turboshandy's song bio about the very minimal and low-budget approach to recording this song. It's impressive that this was done with just an SM-58 and a couple of very basic instruments, and open source software. The simple but not simplistic lyric, a very straightforward take on the challenge, and some well-crafted lyrics, and the basic approach to melody and harmony, all make this a strong entry.

7. Jailhouse Payback: Hey Eugene

This is also one of my very favorite songs from this round. The mix and accompaniment are very nicely done. The vocal performance is understated but works very well. It seems like a happysad song, but then becomes an angrysad song. There's an undercurrent of bitterness to it that blends beautifully with the very upbeat music. The challenge is met adequately, although like several of the songs this round, the story feels a little hidden and vague. There's just a bit of a guitar train wreck at the end but that's only a minor distraction.

8. Dr. Lindyke: Why

Dave's vocal performance on this track is quite lovely and nuanced, although the harmony "aaaah" seem to be a bit off-pitch here and there. The lyrics are up to Dr. Lindyke's usual high standard. It's touching that Dave dedicated the song to RC. I've listened to this song at least five times, and I'm still a little unclear about how I feel the drums. Sometimes they seem just a little too busy to me, particularly the kicks, but then on another listen they seem just right, and they seem to keep the song propelled along. I can't quite decide. It's an interesting choice. This is one of the stronger tracks, but maybe not quite in the very top few.

9. Jenny Katz: Secret Love Life

Jenny's take on the challenge is one of the most positive. The song is beautifully performed and recorded, with some subtle vocal harmonies, marred only by some slight pitch trouble. I'm strongly reminded of some of my favorite chill-out dance tracks, particularly songs like "Future Love" by Presence. I was impressed by this song in the listening party, and after listening repeatedly it still sounds beautiful. The lyrics are uneven, though. Lines like "spinning like a maple seed" are gorgeous, but lines like "I know that nothing is ever gonna change" don't really make for a strong story.

10. T.C. Elliott: Broken Mind

I like it when a lyric can do things that are a little unexpected, with concrete details: "corner grocery or Japan" is a nice detail. Some of the rhymes like "changed/rearranged" aren't that strong. The electric guitar part is nicely done, and the acoustic breaks especially are very nice, and the rhythm has a "broken" staggering quality that fits the song well. The twist on the lyrics here is that the reason for the separation is that the narrator has "a broken mind" and I can certainly relate to that.

11. Felix Frost: Cat's Eye

I read the song bio with some interest. The challenge is met perfectly well, if with a strange conceit. I like what F.F. is doing with a real story, with a lot of concrete detail and very specific odd details. There's no denying that this song is very pretty. I wouldn't mark a song down because the lyrics were odd, or surreal, and this song's lyrics definitely are. The performance is not just fine but quite good. But the song is complicated, both in the imagery in the lyrics and the shifting beats and tempos. Somehow in that complexity it starts to feel a little emotionally detached, and fails to really sell the story as an emotional ride. I'm still scratching my head, but F. F. definitely gets extra points for creativity.

12. Edric Haleen: On the Matter of Bullying (Part 3)

The song clearly meets the challenge. In Edric's song bio he writes that "...this seemed far too aligned [with the concept of the previous parts] to consider writing any other song this round." I'm glad this challenge gave him that opportunity. It is again a very moving song and I know this is an issue Edric is passionate about. It's very nicely done technically. Edric has tied everything together in a way that feels very convincing. I feel a little bowled over, though, by the intensity of both the subject matter and the performance, and it's not entirely a comfortable feeling. I'm not sure there's an argument to be made that this subject would work with a little subtler or lighter approach, but if there is I would prefer it.

13. The Orion Sound: Without You (A Valentine's Stalker Song)

This is quite a thing! I'm impressed by a song that sounds like an extended piece in a musical theater production, although it isn't really that long. Musically, it is quite elaborate, and creates a real story arc. It definitely meets the challenge, and in a very creative way. The recording is a little fuzzy and distorted in parts, which is a shame, but not painfully so.

14. James Young: Never Coming Home

The lyric sounds boxy and that's somewhat distracting, although it's lessened because the performance is good. The twist on the challenge seems to be that it isn't entirely clear why the person in question is gone, and you never quite find out, although it does not sound like the person is dead ("your story remains untold/will you get to grow old?") I like that ambiguity. The lyrics are quite unsentimental and well-done and I always appreciate a good guitar solo. Overall the song feels just a bit long. I would not drop the instrumental ending or the guitar solo, but perhaps the verses could be tightened up.

15. Spencer Sokol: Burdens

A plaintive song and the lyrics have some nice parallels and interesting wording that leaves a lot of room for interpretation -- it tells a story quite elliptically. It sounds to me like the narrator is talking about several different people he's missing rather than one, so I suppose it technically meets the challenge, but not really in a strong way. There's some distracting crackling in the mix. Overall a good effort and this song reminds me of songs such as "Lightning Crashes" by Live.

16. Jutze: Nancy (Please Don't Go)

The lyric is very boxy and that's a bit distracting. The accompaniment tracks work fine, with a happysad approach (a very upbeat melodic figure) with sad lyrics. The twist on the challenge is that the song is a boy singing about losing his favorite teacher, which is funny and surprising.

17. Trader Jack: Doom Dah

I cringed when I first heard the vocal part, but it has grown on me because the narrator character is just so funny and weird. I wound up loving the creative twist on what seems like it could either be the drunken muttering of someone with a broken heart, or maybe someone having a psychotic break. It doesn't meet the challenge strongly, in my opinion, but I still enjoy it because it's just so goofy and weird, while still conveying the feeling of heartbreak.

18. Zoe Gray: Ginger Twins

This piano needs tuning and I have a hard time listening to an out-of-tune piano. The vocal performance is very nice. It seems to meet the challenge, although I'm not clear on the details of just who the narrator is missing -- a childhood friend? A literal twin? In any case the lyrics are still fairly strong. The song feels slightly too long, as well.

19. Menage a Tune: The Box Feeling

This is a 4 minute a cappella song. The lyric is a bit of a mixed bag. Rhymes like heart/apart and too/you are too easy, but other parts are better, like the way the verses end with five-syllable lines where the mood turns a bit each time. The song feels slightly too long and slightly too slow. JoAnn's vocal performance is touching if a little loose on the melody. I think the song would have been better with some simple accompaniment, because the vocal performance isn't quite powerful enough to really hold me rapt for four minutes. I did like JoAnn's twist on the challenge -- missing someone she can no longer talk to _online_. Overall this is a good effort that probably would have been better with accompaniment and a little more polishing.

20. Taylor R: Missing You

The raw-sounding guitar and bass here remind me strongly of Joy Division's classic track "Love Will Tear Us Apart." The lyrics have that raw feel as well. It's lacking just a little bit of something I can't quite put my finger on. Maybe it's just that the mix is too low and lacks proper compression and mastering.

21. Army Defense: Phil and Don

I like the arrangement and the vocal performances here -- there's a lot going on. It feels like an unsettling blend of E.L.O. and Sly and the Family Stone. This song seems to meet the challenge only by the skin of its teeth, though. The narrator misses his brother who has left -- in some way. In what way is not clear. Overall the song just doesn't have enough of a story; there aren't enough lyrics. So despite the fact that I like the music a lot, and the production, and the vocal performance, it gets knocked down for feeling incomplete.

22. Adam Sakellarides: Right Place, Wrong Time (The Time Traveller)

This is a great twist on the challenge: the narrator can't be with his love "right now" because she's a freakin' time traveller! I love the lyric, and the vocal performance fits the mood of the song. The bass line is muddy and the piano sound is not well-done, unfortunately, especially in the solo. A good effort but just a little too rough, musically.

23. Ominous Ride: When I Lost You

It's unclear exactly how the narrator lost his love, but the dark music suggests that there is something dark at work. I enjoyed the lyrics and the vocal tracks but the music is a little overpowering, and some of the keyboard tracks seem to fight with the guitar slightly. The vocal performance seems like it was very good but suffered a bit from a muddy mix. At almost five minutes, the song drags a bit.

24. Sid Brown: Who You Used to Be

Another pretty straightforward take on the challenge. I appreciate the garage band feel of this track, and the repeating acoustic guitar figure. The vocal performance is not very strong, though.

25. Ryan M. Brewer: Burn Out or Fade Away

The production is very nice here -- it's an interesting combination of very real-sounding and very artificial-sounding instruments. It's just the right length. The vocal performance is very strong. But the lyrics in many places seem to be more about the rhyme and sound than the meaning, which is disappointing (what does a line like "a moneyball boiled a bastard" actually mean?) and it does not feel to me that this song meets the challenge very convincingly, so unfortunately I have to mark it down for that.

26. The Boffo Yux Dudes: Dead Wrong

I sigh when I see that the song is under three minutes but the lyrics don't start until 30 seconds in. The lyrics are not strong. The challenge is technically met. The lyrics don't make a whole not of sense to me; it seems to suggest a few funny twists on the words "missing you" but doesn't really jell.

27. Hudson and Day: I Tried, Okay

This is a very conventional take on the challenge using a very unconventional song structure. Denise often uses these very unstructured, free-form songs that ebb and flow in a very organic way. I feel like from about 1:45 to 2:10 it is starting to come together and have some beautiful harmonies, and there are some sweet sounding parts here and there, but at least to me, the song fails to really come together as a coherent whole and the looseness in this case means it doesn't build up to much of an emotional peak.

28. Dex01: Monster

The mix is not good: the tracks feel like they are all at the same level, over-compressed, and the mixed track is too hot and filled with clipping and crackling. The lyrical take on the challenge seems fine. The vocal performance is a little disappointing; the song seems to me like it needs more of a Violent Femmes-style sarcasm.

29. Wait What (the Band): Without You Here

I don't really understand who this song is for. It's too dirty for minors -- I wouldn't want to play it in front of one of my boys, because he'd run around at preschool singing "stick my dick in peanut butter" and giggling. But it seems to me that anyone older than sixteen would not think it was that funny. So is it targeted at a Junior High School audience? That's when I thought Austin Powers was funny. So, the song clearly meets the challenge. The music is nothing to write home about. The vocal performance is actually pretty good, especially the backing vocal. I just don't like the adolescent lyrics. I don't think using "negro please" as an alternative to saying "nigger" is very funny, but what do I know; my wife and kids are black, but I'm white. I don't think the narrator hoping his wife or girlfriend's "gina" is intact is that funny, given how many female soldiers are raped over there. Honestly, this lyric just wants to make as many gross jokes as possible, and Wait What, Imma let you finish, but Philip Roth wrote the best scene where a guy masturbates with food -- in his novel _Portnoy's Complaint_, in the _sixties_ -- and that book was actually banned in Australia and pulled from libraries. In 2014 it's old news and has little in the way of either shock or comedy value.

SHADOWS -- I did not include shadows in the ranking (because I'm not supposed to). The fact that they are down here at the end doesn't mean they are "below" all the songs that are official entries. All three of these, if I ranked them with the others, would come somewhere from upper-middle to middle of the pack of songs.

Heather Miller: Greatest Generation (Shadow)

Sometimes simple is best. This song has quite a conventional style and structure while managing to avoid obviously cliched rhymes. It is one of the few songs that took, I think, a completely straightforward approach to the challenge. Heather's vocal performance is low-key but touching; it reminds me slightly of Stevie Nicks.

Andy Glover: What's Making Me Sad

This may be the most straightforward breakup song and the most basic take on the challenge in the whole bunch. It's a good effort, a basic but serviceable guitar part, and a vocal style that suits the song. Really I've got nothing to criticize, although the song also doesn't stand out strongly amidst a number of good entries.

T. C. Elliott: Will You Run Away with Me, My Love (Shadow)

Nice use of percussion. The guitar part feels a little busy to use as a continual backing. The vocal performance is good but not really strong. The lyrics feel a little cliched here and there (rhyming new/you), but the chorus "will you run away with me" feels very straightforward and honest, and I like that about this song. It's a straightforward take on the challenge.