Tough but fair!
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I’m only planning on doing a walrus so I can give cassette last place in every category
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Ok, about to get things going here.
As a reminder, this is Category #2. A song that draws you in. Maybe its a song that always gives you goosebumps at a particular spot, or a song that always demands more of your attention when it’s playing.
This category was definitely the hardest to do the reveal for. Ya’ll really brought it for this one. I took something from every submission here, but you know how this goes…I can’t give every track 1st spot, so I had to find a way to rank. No matter how arbitrary.
Grab yourselves a warm drink. I’ll be back momentarily.
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In 6th place, with 1 point:
SkyDiver8 - All Hail The Silence - The Alarm
Maybe a little surprising given you know BT was a hit with me. I like all the components of this. But I just felt like it was about 1-2 minutes longer than I wanted and this was a super tough category.
With that said, you are responsible for what is likely gonna take up the most of my time after this Walrus is over by introducing me to BT. I have all their music loaded up into one giant playlist.
SkyDiver8 finishes with 16 total points.
Strong start, this song is pretty sweet. Consider me drawn. It is long though, I’m at 3 minutes and it feels like it should be wrapping up.
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That wheat tho
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In 5th place, with 2 points:
JohnnyTruant - Israel Kamakawiwo’ole - Somewhere Over The Rainbow_What A Wonderful World
Man, if there is a hell I feel like I’m going there for putting something this beautiful in 5th place.
I’ve spent far too much time procrastinating on Reddit, and every time there is a thread started for “most beautiful song” or something this song gets mentioned. Apparently the “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” recording came out of a moment of inspiration late night/early AM. Here’s the Wiki info:
The song was originally recorded in a spur-of-the-moment in 1988. Israel called the recording studio at 3 am, and was given 15 minutes to arrive by recording engineer Milan Bertosa. Bertosa is quoted as saying “And in walks the largest human being I had seen in my life. Israel was probably like 500 pounds. And the first thing at hand is to find something for him to sit on.” The building security found Israel a large steel chair. “Then I put up some microphones, do a quick sound check, roll tape, and the first thing he does is ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow.’ He played and sang, one take, and it was over.”
Here’s the thing - I just don’t like the two songs being mashed together here as much. In a really tight category it was enough for me to land this one in 5th. That said, wow….what a voice. So, so beautiful.
JohnnyTruant finishes with 17 total points and the satisfaction that he may have doomed me to an eternity in the fiery pits of hades.
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In 4th place with 3 points
Rexx - Ultravox - Vienna
This was really cool. It probably shows my ignorance that I didn’t know of this song already, but in my defence it came out before I was born. Still, it feels a bit ahead of its time? Everything about this song for me is about how the vocals soar over the top of the catchy sound underneath. I didn’t much care for the instrumental breakdown in the middle but really liked everything else around it. Fits the category really well and sent me googling for more information about the song and what it meant. Unlucky to miss the podium, this is some inspired stuff.
Rexx finishes with 15 total points. I am literally going to put on that Mental as Anything tune now to cheer me up some and help power me through the rest of this reveal.
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“Too many times, too many times…”
I think Skydiver submitted this for a different walrus.
I saw that and laughed.
In 3rd place with 4 points
RiskyFlush - Sara Bareilles - Hold My Heart
Does anybody know…how to hold my heart?
So yeah, that line pretty much just takes my feels and uses them as a punching bag. And to make matters worse, I went and looked up a live version:
I almost needed to get on the couch with a tub of icecream after that. Really good choice.
RiskyFlush finishes with 18 points.
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Ive got that playing now!
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Yeah they mentioned they thought they submitted it for another one actually. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Yup, currently running it on repeat. So glad you brought that song to me <3
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In 2nd place with 5 points
cassette - clipping. - Nothing is Safe
Killer track my man. The flow. The wordplay. The way the intensity built as the song went on. I really felt this one and it’s my fave of all the tracks you submitted for this Walrus.
Interestingly I checked out the rest of their stuff of the same album and it seemed to be a lot of filler to me? If you have one or two other tracks by them which you think are in the same ballpark as this one, lmk.
I will say I wish they just stopped the track right on the last “Nothing is” at 4:05. But I assume their reasons for the long outro are to do with how it fit in with the rest of the album.
Nonetheless, really really enjoyed this one and its going to get a lot of play from me.
cassette finishes this Walrus with 19 points and takes the lead. But looming large is the goat…
“Too many times, too many times…”
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In 1st place, with all 6 points
Goat Pyatnitski - Slint - Good Morning, Captain
Oh man. This. This this this this this. I can’t put my thoughts about this track down in a coherent way yet but suffice to say the power of this one kept me awake for a while after my first proper listen.
I read that all band members were 18 or younger when they recorded the Spiderland album which this is from. Incredible. For me a number of the artistic choices here seem so mature, and so raw at the same time. I have a lot more I want to say, and at the same time don’t feel capable. In true Pyatnitski form, I could very easily see this song running dead last depending on the Walrus host, but for me this is absolute top shelf stuff.
Pyatnitski finishes this Walrus with 20 points, and pulls off what I will respectfully call a “Reverse Pyatnitski”, taking first place. We have our winner. Well done, sir.
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So the two current walrus champs are also the upcoming hosts? That’s wild. Maybe that means I’ll win one before I host? Probably not…
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Wrapping up!
A big thanks to everyone for submitting your songs. I really took something away from everyone who played this game. Also wanna thank the people who railed here even if they weren’t playing (special callout to mjiggy). It makes it a lot more enjoyable to host having some conversation and feedback. Ya’ll are good peeps.
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