Walrus 9 Reveal Thread

Sounds excruciating to an anti-social bastard like me, but have fun anyway.

I’m a tad lukewarm on my round 5 pick. I really like it, but not sure about our host.

p.s. Who wants to host next?

I feel the same re my round 5 pick. And I was also about to try and get another game lined up. AND I am currently listening to Pyatnitski’s winning submission from round 5 of my Walrus.

I have an idea I wanted to put out there - maybe I will start that Walrus meta thread for all Walrus discussion not related to any particular Walrus event? Keep your eyes peeled.

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Do it.

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Had an idea for a forum choice walrus. Would set up categories like normal but instead of the host ranking them, the submissions would be posted on here anonymously. Then the host would run an anonymous poll where they hide the results. The reveal would be based on the points earned. So whoever earns the most points from the vote wins, second most points is obviously second, and so on. In the poll, you’re have to rank order your 3 favorites.

Thoughts?

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That would be interesting to try. It could also make song selection quite different since you are trying to appeal to all contestants instead of one host. Doesn’t mean it wouldn’t work, would just be different is all.

Think it might lead to some interesting discussion too. Especially if the rules required contestants not to claim their submission until after the vote closed.

Definitely not a walrus. Maybe an otter or beluga tho

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Look what just showed up in my Spotify Discover Weekly list:

This is on you @pyatnitski :rage:

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You’re welcome.

Update. Tomorrow or more probably Wednesday for the finale. Off to see Sleater Kinney tonight, in fact. Should be good.

Also, we had some people round yesterday and I played category 2 without saying anything. No real reactions but I heard one person humming Django Reinhardt, so I was correct to rate that highly.

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Sleater Kinney were great. I haven’t really listened to any new stuff since they reformed but I probably should have.

Anyway, reveal tonight (barring the unforeseen). I haven’t totted up since round 3 or read any writing attached to R5 entries yet so as to reduce bias to the tiniest amount. I don’t even know which song will win as I write!

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Ok, category 5 where we explore:

5 - Best last-track-on-the-album track
Most albums end, but only some end with something that just feels right as a last track. Feel free to tell me why you think that along with the submission, and I won’t mark people down for not fitting with my own understanding - it’s a lot to do with the album itself anyway. (If you’re under 34 and have never even listened to an album then sorry for discriminating, but what on earth are you doing here?)

Kick off in 90 mins or a bit longer, just need to make my tea and get a decent head start on writing this nonsense.

@cassette
@Jalfrezi
@microbet
@mjiggy
@Pauwl
@Rivaldo
@seities
@suzzer99
@SwankyWilder
@TheDuker

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Ready for the rail

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You’re more than railing this - you’re a playa.

The climax! The final hurdle! The sweet release!

What fun we’ve had. Well, I’ve had, anyway. Well, mostly, I mean it did start with fucking Queen. I hope it has been an OK experience for you all, and I think I’ve only driven one of you to renounce Walruseses altogether (sorry mjiggy). Not bad.

Sadly I wish I could say we were ending on the strongest category, but we’re not. In the final accounting things slipped into place, but for a while I was worried there were about 7 songs in the middle all the same and none I truly liked. Probably just a lack of applied listening on my part and I found stuff to appreciate in all of them by the end, but I do think we’re not quite on the hollowed ground of categories 1-3. I think you all nailed the brief, though, congrats.

What would I have submitted? Well, you don’t get more “last track” than the last track on the last album1 by the great Leonard Cohen, which was made as he knew he was dying. Luckily it’s incredible.

1 I’m ignoring the one his son just put out posthumously

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In tenth place with one point
Interpol - Lief Erikson

Another last place where I’m going to say the song is fine. I vaguely remember Interpol being a big deal back in the day and introduced to me as a band I might like. I never did, but they don’t do anything to offend me at all. There were a few times here where I separated songs that seemed of similar quality by putting the one with sections of varying quality ahead of another consistent entry—so privileging high points over steady achievement. Interpol was the victim in such a decision.

It has a sort of precise quality to it that I enjoy and it sticks to a monotonous rock-build format that I like. The singer has a good, distinctive voice too, but overall it always seemed to pass me by a little bit and perhaps never really quite get started. I dunno, like I said I didn’t dislike it, it just ended up here by other songs being better.

After having ranked it here I found the submitter saying:

This might run afoul of your “moody indie band” hatred but well, someone had to do it.

and then:

At least give it a chance!

Oh dear.

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Blocked for me so I guess it’s not jiggy! :grin:

Well, I think the one that was submitted was blocked for me, so who knows!

In ninth place with two points
Powderfinger - Pockets

So this is the other side of Interpol, a song that starts off a bit aimless sounding (at least to me) and drifts through the first 3 minutes plus not doing much, but then decides to get serious and ends with 2.5 minutes of a decent rock song. It’s fairly obvious stuff as far as music goes, but still pretty satisfying. In fact, Spotify tells me they were “one of Australia’s most popular radio-friendly rock bands” and this then sounds exactly like I’d expect.

I’ll now put what the submitter said as it offers a different, but completely understandable interpretation of the song:

I feel like this band deserved so much more recognition. I love the atmospheric moodiness that this song starts with, which then morphs into some some more climactic rock. That sequence works really well for me as a last track on album song.

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