Forced Listening Thread

[Gzar]

I'm surprised to see that this thread doesn't already exist here. It's certainly a favorite forum game of mine. For those of you who aren't familiar, here's how it goes:

I start by posting a song, using youtube or any site that offers free listening. The next poster will listen to the song in full and write a small review of the song. It doesn't have to be much, but it should be more than just a couple words and should show that you really listened to it. Once you have written the review, you get to post your own song choice and then someone will review it and post their song and it keeps on going. Be sure to listen to the entire song. If you hate it so much that you can't make it through, then leave the reviewing to someone else and wait for something you can listen to.

Now, to kick things off:

[Superfrequency]

I hate Sonic Youth, but I support this thread concept.

You other guys need to post in here. I'm looking at you, Stij.

[Stij]

Yeah, I was meaning to post in this thread, but I kinda forgot until now D :

Anyway, Sonic Youth: To be honest, this is probably the first time I've actually sat down and listened to one of their songs.

The track starts off decent enough - not really my sort of thing, but still tolerable. However, they kinda lose me when the song starts to descend into random psychedelic jamming. I listen to a lot of progressive stuff, so I'm used to long songs, but one thing I just can't tolerate is pointless noise and "experimental" noodling. Overall, can't say I really enjoyed this one.

My submission:

[vincentavatar]

All right, let's see what this Orphaned Land thing is--ha ha ha ha ha ha ha holy shit.

Okay, so apparently we're starting off with Nathan Explosion-esque vocals and some Epic Metal backgrounds, and now there's a dude yodeling or something. For being only a minute and change in, so far this track is hitting some pretty interesting buttons. All right, so the yodeling dude also is doing the chorus, and the Nathan Explosion dude is apparently singing the verses. If this is the same guy singing, that's pretty impressive, but I don't think it is. All right, three minutes in and we're hitting the breakdown bit; new melody introduced and a change in tempo heralding the Epic Metal solo? We'll find out in a few minutes, I guess. Sounds like they're singing in a different language, possibly a constructed one? Man, I kind of have a soft spot for this stuff, in some kind of twisted ironic way I guess.

About 5 and a half minutes in and some more yodeling. We are riding this dragon, ladies and gentlemen. Epic Yodel solo incoming. And choral backings come in around 6 minutes. There hasn't been an Epic Metal solo, and there's only 30 seconds left, and that actually is disappointing to me. Final verdict? I've spent seven minutes of my life in worse ways than this, and the whole Epic Fantasy Metal genre exists pretty much to amuse me, I'm pretty sure of this as a fact.

My Submission:

[Gzar]

I'm glad to see this thread has been given a second chance at life, haha.

Well, right off the bat we have a vocalist with a deep voice. He may not be Leonard Cohen, but I love deep-voiced singers. The song is pretty straightforward. The string flourishes playing lower in the mix add a nice sort of haunting quality to the song. It reminds me a bit of some darker alt country stuff I've listened to, though it doesn't feel filled with quite as much emotion as, say, 16 Horsepower. It's a pretty enjoyable song with good energy, but nothing I've heard done better.

[Zuki]

I am going to review vincentavatar's song by typing stream-of-consciousness as I listen.

Ooooh, guitars. I like guitars. And deep growly soulful voices. I'm going to like this. Yes, definitely, I could listen to this voice for a while.

I'm tapping my feet. Why didn't I go see this movie in theaters, anyways? Right, I was broke.

BASS. And the drums. I like this, yes. That part was a bit busy though.

I'm surprised lyrics haven't become more complicated---oh, there it is. Still, the repetition is effective.

FIDDLE. aaaaaaaaah. FIDDLE FIDDLE FIDDLE. Song just jumped up another two or three notches.

He's coming home, yep.

Okay. Going to play and loop it again while I write up my general summary thoughts.

I liked the first part of the song better than the latter parts. The first :45 seconds or so, or perhaps the first minute, or two minutes, I like best.

Despite that I liked it, it didn't quite as hit me quite as it felt like a similar-but-slightly-different take on the song and subject matter could. It didn't quite do what I expected it might. On the other hand, as a soundtrack or credits piece, this was probably a very good piece. Oh god, yessss. Sorry, distracted by the prominent violent at about 2:40. Nice to relisten to it and notice the traces and sketches of it before that. I also wonder if having it in context with the movie would have made a difference in my enjoyment. I will admit that my taste for grit and blood in my entertainment at times mean I did enjoy the lyrical content.

I guess my main distaste was when the musical accompaniment parts became too loud/noisy/complex and it takes a bit of attention away from the vocals. Actually, okay. It's hard to explain what I don't like this, not sure I have the right words. At the same time though, I seem to have put it on for a third or fourth repetition. Song grows on you. I'd be curious to see someone else's review of this, maybe someone else has the words or the understanding to better articulate what I'm getting at.

It's simple at the beginning, but it's the kind of simple that isn't quite refined enough to stay on simple and be good throughout that way. It's a clearly workable increase in emotion and complexity as the song builds, but not one that quite grabs me emotionally like I feel it should, just something that moderately builds like so. I guess that's it.

Okay. Here's my song. No idea what to call the genre here, but I love the band, and this is one of their more iconic debut singles. So very glad I spotted them being reviewed on NPR one day.

[Gzar]

Sorry to say I beat you to the punch, considering you wrote al of that, haha.

[Zuki]

I kept wobbling around trying to figure out what I wanted to say.

Let's wait a bit and see if some other folks catch up with the two songs we've made available for them.

[Gzar]

I'll just review your song, too, since you put more time into your post, haha.

It's odd that I haven't listened to these guys yet, considering they've gotten so much attention all over. I almost saw them in concert with a friend, actually, but the tickets were sold out by the time I made the decision. I do like the guy's voice, but the sound feels a bit cliched mainstream indie. The tone of the song feels all too familiar to me and not necessarily in a good way. The banjo in the background is a nice accompaniment to the guitar, though and it makes the song pretty catchy. I can see how they got so popular, haha. I liked the quieter section best, since it felt like it had the most emotion in it. I can't feel a lot of strong emotion, otherwise. I can sense it in the lyrics, but the delivery doesn't quite carry it. It either needs to be quieter and more unsettling or louder and angrier, but it ended up in the middle. Maybe I'm just spoiled off of the deeply Moving Mountain Goats discography, haha. A pretty nice song, but not quite a band I can imagine myself listening to.

[Stij]

@vincentavatar: It's the same guy doing the clean and growled vocals. Also yodeling lol what

(incidentally, you're right about the foreign language thing - they're an Israeli band)

[illisid]

Oh my god I am so in on this. Posting something once I get back tonight, but that may be a bit.


hmmm postoponing on account of friend's over

[ThatOtherOtherGuy]

Okay, this sounds fun, I'll throw my hat into the ring.

@Gzar: Okay, the artist is apparently named cap'N Jazz but this doesn't sound much like any Jazz I know. That's fine though! I can't really understand anything the singer is saying but I like how the song progresses. It's a short song but from just a couple of playthroughs it sounds like the song is almost constantly going back and forth between at least two different melodies, if not more. I like how spontaneous this song feels to me. It doesn't stick to the same pattern for more than a few seconds and it makes it work without sounding like some horribly clashing cacophony. Normally I wouldn't like this singer very much because his voice sounds to me rather rough and unrefined but it works very well with this song perhaps because of that same quality. Someone with a better ear than me could probably evaluate that better.

So far this thread has been a lot of guitars and drums and singing and what not, so I'mma just going to throw an entirely different genre in here.

[Stij]

I like the beat behind this track; electric pianos are always cool and they give this song a slick, laid-back vibe. The actual rapping is... alright. He sounds a little disinterested, and not very confident. But like I said, it's a laid-back, mellow track, so I guess I can understand that. Don't have much to say about the lyrics; they were pretty unremarkable. It ends kind of abruptly, and I would've liked it more if it had more of a structure (with a chorus etc.) But that's just an issue I have with rap in general I guess!

A WILD TRACK APPEARS



(I was originally gonna post a different one but it's not on Youtube anymore bluh)

[Gzar]

@Gzar: Okay, the artist is apparently named cap'N Jazz but this doesn't sound much like any Jazz I know.

Yeah, it's quite different, haha. Cap'n Jazz were one of the great real emo bands, up there with Rites of Spring and Moss Icon.

(I was originally gonna post a different one but it's not on Youtube anymore bluh)

Man, I haven't listened to TMV in a while. I usually just stick with Porcupine Tree and The Tangent for my modern prog fix. I never really understood their Spanish obsession, since they were fine with how things were on Deloused. Then again, I never really listened to much of their material outside that golden album, since not much of it impressed me. This song really takes a while to move. I'm used to listening to a lot of drone and other genres with songs that take long times to shift momentum, but I like my prog better with lots of gratuitous shifts in sound. That complexity in song writing defines the genre. The shifts here are much more subtle. It's kind of cool to hear how the song evolves over the course pretty subtly, but I think it doesn't move enough in the first half to hold interest. The guitar solo is pretty nice, but it really doesn't work well off of the main riff in my mind. Maybe this song works better in the album (is this a mid album piece? That's what it sounds like). Section around the eight minute mark is welcomed, but could have been used much earlier. I like the psychedelic riffing the songs ends with, too. It doesn't really stand that well alone, in my mind.

[ThatOtherOtherGuy]

@stij That particular beat behind that track was from another song by Epik High called Over. He's a Korean rapper and raps in a different genre than that other guy (well, honestly, I'm not very educated in rap/hip-hop genres so I actually have no right to say that... :P) but his songs (as do quite a few Korean rap songs in general) have that mellow feel. Nujabes (R.I.P) was a Japanese hip-hop producer who had a lot of tracks with mellow beats.

I'll probably end up posting a wide variety of examples from the rap and hip-hop genres, but I'll let someone else have a chance at a turn first. If the majority of the posters here don't like those particular genres just tell me and I can find other things to post.

[Gzar]

The point of this type of thread is to expose people to a variety of music, so keep on trucking. Besides, hip-hop can be pretty damn awesome (Nujabes is one of my favorite producers. It's a shame he died so young).

[Stij]

Yeah, keep it coming! I like listening to stuff I normally wouldn't.

@Gzar: Yeah, I had a better TMV track I was gonna post originally, but it wasn't on youtube :/

I'm gonna let someone else go next 'cause I don't wanna dominate this thread or anything

[ThatOtherOtherGuy]

Okay, it's been 24 or so hours and no one new has done anything so I'll guess I'll take a turn to move things along.

@Gzar I don't spend a lot of time listening to this kind of music unfortunately. Fortunately, though, I rather like it. It's mellow, almost ambient at points. Easy to listen to and the melody is simple and pleasant. I like the subtlety of some parts of it, like how at the end of the verses when he builds up to the refrain the music builds up with a few different sounds. The singer sounds somewhat bored, and I think that works for and against the song. The "bored" tone fits with the verses but not so much with the refrain in my opinion. In short, not something I'd probably go back to but enjoyable nonetheless.

I feel kinda bad that I can't examine the song in the same detail you gave Stij's. >_>

[slyfan64]

First review, hope I'm doing this right:
At first I was tentative about listening to a song named "Ghetto Story," but Lupe ends ups painting a wide picture with his words. Describing just about every detail you ever wanted, mostly didn't, about the ghetto he comes from/is passing through, from the price of milk to abandoning children. However, I would only listen to it for the lyrics. The song's beat has just a mellow and dragging on quality that, while it mirrors the 'story,' doesn't hold up for the almost 6 minutes that the song is. This is probably the main reason that I don't venture that far into hip-hop/rap, because a lot of it seems to stay on one plain. Lupe does some cool off-beat accents in the first verse, but either he dropped that style or I missed it in the other 2 verses and it's definitely something I would have liked to have seen continued. So, I really did enjoy the lyrics (surprisingly the middle verse where he just describes what he sees out of his car stuck the most with me) but there wasn't much else to carry the song all the way through for me.

funny enough it reminded me of someone entirely different, Joanna Newsom so here's my post:

[diacritical]

I think that's my favorite Joanna Newsom song, actually. Her voice is fantastic, as always, and the melody and winding way of the lyrics really appeals to me.

I guess this is kind of unfair because I already knew it and had an opinion on it but you know? Oh well. This is one of the only song I really liked on Have One On Me. Ys was really good though.

(Sorry if that was a sub-par review )

[Stij]

I, uh, I'm not sure what you'd call this exactly. Folky pop sung by disinterested-sounding British men? Not my preferred type of music, I'll admit, but it's pretty well done for what it is. The chorus is catchy, but the song as a whole seems pretty languid and doesn't really go anywhere. It only got interesting near the end, when the horns and strings kicked in. Other than that, it was sorta forgettable.

I did, however, like the music video a lot! It was weird, clever, and funny. It managed to keep my attention through an otherwise mediocre song. So props for that, I suppose.

[illisid]

man I come in here to finally get in on this thread and stij has the latest post, and I already know he has similar tastes to me I feel like I'm cheating.

Anyway here goes. The players here are all fantastic. *looks up members of the band* holy shit that's a lot of former members of the band! I can definitely tell it's Jaco on the bass, the keys and sax are awesome. Is that a steel drum in there? Not sure what else to say, I enjoy this song. Never actually took the time to look these guys up before but I should do so.


(I won't get shanked for posting a more popular band in here right?)

[vincentavatar]

Gonna preface this by saying that I never really saw the appeal of Modest Mouse; I had one or two of their albums and never managed to get through them. This particular song starts off all slow and drab, and promises to build to something. Eventually. We've got five minutes to work with, I guess. Lyrics are all variations on a theme thus far, and it basically sounds like the kind of music you'd listen to when you were stoned and really wanted to get it.

Like, life, man, you know?

I'm like a fucking juggernaut you guys, I just keep listening to this song and it keeps not really going anywhere interesting. It's like Death Cab for Cutie's "I Will Possess Your Heart," but without the payoff. Almost four minutes into it and they're making hints at building into something... We've added some more echos and suchlike to the mix, but with 30 seconds left they pull back and it's basically just how the song began all over again. Is there a place for this sort of music? Yeah, but probably not with me.

How about something fresh, something new? Something... hot off the presses.

[Gzar]

Is this the new youtube fad or something? I've seen this around a couple of times, but never listened to it. I guess it's supposed to be funny because it's upbeat and saying fuck you, but that doesn't impress me. The random pop culture pieces popping up in the song don't really come off as interesting or clever. It's definitely catchy, but it sounds so generic. It can probably be classified as one of the ten pop songs ever made (the ones they keep trying to resell you). I guess this could be fun to drink to when you're out of a relationship, but the Andrew W.K. has already covered the manic end of that spectrum, while Shellac's got the depressive, both having done a much better job. There's nothing that really interests me about it.

[That Fancy Chap]

I'll do this, I guess.
It starts out pretty good. Very psychadelic. The reverb and odd instruments kind bode something. The vocals start off a little weak, but the harmony starts to pick it up. Around 1:-30 when the percussion kicks in, gets pretty tense and exciting, music is definitely building up nicely. And, as I suspected at about 2:40, it's it gets to peak. The lyrics are pretty cool, but just sound like they belong in the soundtrack to a specific fantasy novel/movie. The use of more than one person singing at different intervals makes it hectic, losing rhythm kinda delving into madness. Definitely something I could imagine for like, an uprising in a kingdom or soemthing

My review probably sucked, but here's a song I've been listening to a lot lately.