In 10th place, scoring 6 points, Twist with Spem In Alium by Thomas Tallis, performed by the Tallis Scholars
This piece is from the 50 Shades of Grey soundtrack. I assume it was commissioned especially for that movie
My ex was big into choral singing and I have even sung in a couple concerts myself, so I was more receptive to this than I might have been. This is a big polyphonic piece, itās in 40 different parts, which I think makes it difficult to record. There were a number of points in it (for example the crescendo just after 4:50) where the sound gets muddy. I tried different sources but I had the same issue. I felt I wasnāt able to really get to grips with it as a result.
I couldnāt imagine playing this game that way. I see it as a way to expose people to music I like that other people may not have heard, not just the person running the game, but everyone following along in the thread. I gotta be me and I have a hard time bowing to what other people want.
In 9th place, scoring 7 points, Master3004 with Road Trip by Ninja Sex Party
Not huge on joke music, as I mentioned, but this was fun. I enjoy the opening (āCause if this girl and I go on one more date/Weāll start a meaningful relationship/FUCK THAT! WOO!) and itās catchy, but the bit where they do puns with place names drags for me a bit, especially on re-listens. Not bad. Frankly I feel silly sitting here dissecting it like this, but at least weāve established that it is better than a Renaissance classic of sacred music. Take that, Thomas Tallis.
I see it the same way. I only submitted songs that I personally love except one which I merely like. In addition, I had very little idea what Chris might like and rank highly. To be honest, I still couldnāt confidently pick a song to finish on the podium.
Iām probably more vicious. I sometimes donāt care about winning if I have other goals.
My dad tells the story about how back in his day, the teachers in his high school would actually set up a boxing ring and let students settle differences there. I realized that it is probably a horrible idea to use with someone like me because when I was a teenager, I would have jumped at the opportunity to get my enemies in the ring so I could hit them below the belt, then rabbit punching them before anyone could stop me. Actually, thatās still what I would do now because I would care more about hurting them than winning.
If I truly cared about winning this, I would have researched all of ChrisVās previous Walrus behavior, both in how Chris ranked things and what was submitted to contests run by others.
I went back and forth on ordering of these a few times so Iām going to reveal them together. I switched them again while writing this post :)
In 8th place, scoring 8 points, Pauwl with West Coast by Coconut Records
Solid pop-rock song. Heard it before, but it grew on me over repeated listens. I like the multi-tracked backing vocals/synths towards the end. Pretty good.
In 7th place, scoring 9 points, WesleyC with Domino (Live) by Van Morrison
Also pretty good. Wes has definitely played this for me before. Musically tight, but the song is just OK and I think itās played too fast and loses some of the swing and funky feel that it should have because of that. If it would just slow down a little it would be more enjoyable to listen to, a bit like Wes himself. Man, thereās a joke for an audience of one.
In 6th place, scoring 10 points, Louis Cyphre with Fjara by SĆ³lstafir
Pretty solidā¦ um. I guess this is a hard rock song? Not really sure. Has a layered sound that rewards additional listens. Enjoyed it without ever getting to love it.
Side note: if you cut and paste directly out of Excel into the forums, rather than pasting the text, it pastes as an image. Ctrl-Z doesnāt undo this, you have to highlight it, delete it and copy the text from somewhere else. I have now re-learnt this approximately three million times.
In 5th place, scoring 11 points, hokie with Never Stop by FM-84
While I stand by my first place for Gunship - Tech Noir (also hokieās), this is a lot cheesier and more disposable. Iām frankly a little embarrassed to be placing something so shamelessly nostalgic this high up, but itās reflective of the fact that I wasnāt crazy about this category in general (this wonāt be the last time this reveal I say this). At times the cheesiness got to me, but in the end I couldnāt deny how it managed to worm its way determinedly into my brain. File under guilty pleasure.
I mean the responses, but in retrospect Iām not crazy about the category I set, either. As I said, if I could do it over, Iād avoid categories that are like āyour relationship to this song must be Xā, like last category and this one, because I think it puts a straitjacket on people being able to freely choose.
In 4th place, scoring 12 points, pyatnitski with Roygbiv by Boards of Canada
Iāve heard this before on compilations and such but never sat down to listen to it. Itās got a weird little groove to it that I grew to really quite like. I found it fun to listen to rather than really emotionally moving which makes it an odd fit for the category, but far be it from me to tell you how to feel about songs. Although, you know, that is what this entire game is premised on. Anyway, it climbed the rankings until it ended up here. Itās the little song that could.
