Nur Ein 14 Round 4 Reviews

Agony Sauce
Again, I’m impressed you’re making this harder on yourself than needed...and still killing it.  Good use of the title, and the chiptune sounds fit in perfectly.  The only part I didn’t really care for was the break.  The less dominate sound just made me cringe.  Really enjoyed the story & vocals for this.  Having your cadence be robotic & actually still catchy is just really cool.  I need to stop listening in alphabetical order on first listen...you set the bar very high for everyone else.

Berkeley Social Scene
You really embraced the novelty song this round, and did a GREAT job with it.  Used the title & the computer sounds prominently in the chorus.  Told a clear, entertaining story.  Vocals & music both were catchy.  This is just damn fine work.  I’ve only listened to 2 songs at this point, and I think they should both win the round.

Faster Jackalope
Before I finished the first verse I had to get Google to help me out.  Googled Memory Man, capstan, scanned the lyrics & Googled echoplex…  I don’t really know anything about this stuff, but I can paint a picture of what the song is about now.  When the pre-chorus came in it was a bit shocking.  The music was jarring & the vocals were a little lost in the mix in places.  The chorus wasn’t bad, but every damn time that pre-chorus came on I wanted to use the memory wiping device that BBS is selling.  Not sure why you needed the Latin bridge, the English one was fine aside from the backing vocals being a bit distracting.  This song sounds like a mashup of different songs that didn’t want to go together.  Individually might have liked 2 of them, but the different sounds just didn’t flow together all that well for me.

Frankie Big Face
I love this song.  It might be because I relate to it a little too much though.  Your funny bits got a laugh when they were supposed to, the music was catchy, and you checked all the boxes with the challenge.  I had 2 minor issues lyrically though.  #1 Who plays a first person shooter on a Mac...from the couch?  #2 Why doesn’t he have any memory?  Was it because he was distracted by his wife trying to get his attention & he forgot what was going on in the game?  The “No Memory” part isn’t laid out as clearly as I’d like.  It’s used in the chorus & it’s catchy, so those are minor complaints.  But after listening to Agony & BBS I’m going to be looking for things like that to make adjustments at the top of my rankings.

Grumpy Mike
I’d like to hear that “bullshit”.  Lyrically this is my favorite song so far.  It’s rage against the rage, and it’s catchy as fuck.  I thought the blips & bloops were used well, and honestly I don’t care much about you not using the title in the song, but this is the 4th song out of 5 that’s going to find a home on my MP3 player...and little things will make a difference in the rankings at this rate.  I honestly can’t find anything bad to say other than that.  Do a little extra complaining in the forum this round to make up for my lack of complaints here.  Great song.

Max Bombast
“Sisyphusin’” lol.  Way to turn a proper noun into a verb.  Loved the lyrics to this & the vocals were great.  Good use of the title & the bloops were catchy & reminded me of a 16-bit fighter.  The Bohemian Rhapsody quote at the end fits well & is a good way to wrap things up.  You’ll be competing for a top spot again.

Merisan
BBS must be selling a lot of those devices…  This started a bit slow for me, but I was enjoying the lyrics.  When the chorus came around you got me.  Head bobbin’, singin’ along...I was sold.  Great hook.  All the challenge requirements were checked, and the only negative I can come up with here is that it’s a bit too repetitive coming in around 4 minutes.  Only 2 verses, and even though the chorus is catchy, you nearly ran it out of gas.  Excellent work.

Nick Soma
This song starts to suck me in at times, but spits me out over & over.  Every time I get to a line where you pause before the last 2 syllables you lose me.  All the flow is lost, and it’s just so odd sounding at times.  The song has it’s moments.  The music is catchy enough at times & you check all the challenge boxes.  The story isn’t bad either.  But with an insanely good crop of songs thus far....you’re on the verge of being in my bottom 4.

Rachael Layne
There’s so much I like about this.  You nail the performance, and the lyrics tell a great story.  You check all the boxes for the challenges, but I think I’d actually like this more without the blip & bloops.  When I here this, I picture a woman singing with her guitar kinda daydreaming about the past & thinking about her future.  The lyrics don’t really connect to the chiptunes part of it, and the image I have in my head listening is different.  That being said, they sounded fine, they weren’t distracting & I thought were used well.  I just think I could like it more without.  Either way, for me it’s your best song of the contest thus far, and a job well done.  Oh, and I loved the line, “There’s no memory to save who you became the day you changed”.

The Sunday Colors
I think the time has come.  I was wondering how far you could get with your limited production, and I think this might be it.  Honestly I liked the song, it’s good story telling.  You do guy with guitar really well.  But in terms of the challenge this was weak.  You nailed the title, but your blips & bloops didn’t really add much or feel like a part of the song.  If the standard wasn’t so high this round, I could see you getting through another round...but this was a tough round.  Good luck.

Vowl Sounds
Really enjoyed the music, and owl’s vocals.  You paint a great picture & get across some very uneasy feelings while being pleasant to actually listen to.  1 thing that did bother me was the overlapping vocals.  I can zone out & just enjoy the dreaminess of them, but at the same time you had me hanging on your every word.  So when I start to struggle to hear the lyrics, it bugs me.  Your vocals are very wispy, so they get lost easy when a lot is going on.  Slow songs aren’t really my bag, but this IS a good song, still might be in my bottom 4.