Walrus Again - Reveal

Sports & Other Games
1

Ok here we are, about to begin the reveals for this 5 category walrus, which were…

  1. A track from a genre you don’t normally like
  2. A track featuring a female vocalist
  3. A track with a saxophone (even a single note would do)
  4. A track with a girl’s name in the title/chorus/lyrical hook
  5. A track by an artist/band strongly connected with London (birth or relocation at a young age)

A track will be rated on a combination of how much I like it and how unfamiliar I am with it. If you get me listening to something I haven’t heard before in my own time outside of this walrus I’ll rank it very high.

@MimosaDef
@smrk4
@pyatnitski
@Pauwl
@skydiver8
@Rexx
@zikzak
@microbet
@DodgerIrish
@suzzer99

First, let us assemble here for

Category 1, A track from a genre you don’t normally like

4 Likes
2
1 Like
3

@cassette because there’s a post limit of10 @'s

FIrstly, a mea culpa. On the face of it, asking people to choose tracks from genres they don’t normally like sounds interesting but in reality it puts people in a difficult spot a lot of the time, and I didn’t consider this. I think, though you might all disagree, this is the weakest category of the five quality-wise though there are still some peaches here.

So let’s begin…

In equal 10th place, tied with 2 points apiece, are

skydiver8 with “Life Sentencer” by Casino Madrid

Fucking Hell. Skydiver notes “Either turn your headphones down, or up, depending on your mood, I guess. 99% of the time I actually despise this genre of music…Sometimes, I just want to be really fucking angry and smash things. That’s when I put on this album.”.

Yup I get that because this made me want to smash my laptop. Strangely I’d have preferred the song if it didn’t have the incongruous Eurovisionesque chorus but hey I’m an old so I’m allowed to scratch my head and grumble about this sort of thing. Musically this old found it unlistenable. Sorry.

and

smrk4 with “Red and Black” from Les Miserables

Good grief, show tunes huh? Poor old Victor will be turning in his grave. I know this is going to come as a huge shock, but this just isn’t my kind of thing.

As smrk himself says “I am agog, I am aghast. Musicals ftl.”

I’ve never been to a musical and probably never will. There, I said it. Some plusses: at 3:25 it’s mercifully short; it’s not a Lloyd Webber; and I believe it’s a sure sign you must like literally all other music genres including c&w and boy bands to have chosen this genre, so I salute the eclectic taste.

I once knew a guy just like that, and I was in awe of him and his 6,000 record collection. Unfortunately there are no extra points for diversity here, and this one doesn’t make me want to listen to it again, quite the opposite. Sorry

2 Likes
4

In 9th place for 3 points is

Rexx with “Smoke On The Water” by Deep Purple

Ah, bit of a problem here. I had a tape copy of Machine Head back in the 70s so I’m over familiar with this track, but there’s no denying it’s a classic of its type though probably second best to Whole Lotta Love as GOAT riff. All of which makes it hard to rate here, which is a shame.

(Close but no cigar - if Rexx had nominated their Fireball instead with Ian Paice’s incendiary drumming she’d have podiumed in this category. )

1 Like
5

8th place for 4 points goes to new boy zikzak for

“Nude Disintegrating Parachutist Woman” by Budgie

I vaguely remember this lot. This is 70s hard rock very typical of the music of the period. It begins with a decent enough hard rock riff and breaks into a middle section around 3:45 with a voice/guitar call and response lifted from Dazed And Confused a few years earlier. And then goes on. And on.

Doesn’t really reach the heights of any of its influences, for me. Sorry to do this in your first walrus entry but meh.

3 Likes
6

A friend used to sing, “Smokey Waters, the fire-engine guy”. No idea why. He made himself giggle everytime. Got me a couple times too, tbh.

5 Likes
7

Firstly I lol’d at starting a review with the words “Fucking hell” but it also seems incredibly apt.

SkyDiver8 I’m impressed! Wayyyy outside anything else I’ve seen you submit.

1 Like
8

I wasn’t around for the 70’s, so listening to this was fun for me.Very long though, so I skipped forward multiple times just to see what direction they took things.

1 Like
9

In 7th with 5 points we have microbet with “99 Luftballons” by Nena

The link that micro gave is now unavailable so I’ll add this one in its place. Unfortunately it doesn’t sound any better.

Microbet says “The only genre of music I can think of that I don’t normally like is silly pop songs, so…”.

Well it’s a catchy bit of sub-Blondie-lite-Europop so I find it hard to like it or hate it apart from the archetypal keyboard sound of that era, though it’s way over-familiar (which is the drawback with choosing a hit pop song I guess).

3 Likes
10

What direction did you find?

11

Nude Disintegrating Parachutist Woman

Now THAT’S how to title a song.

2 Likes
12

Sounds like a gfycat url

13

Time for a spot of washing up to give people a chance to digest that batch.

The next choices all had something about them I liked.

1 Like
16

Lateral thinking is earning me lateral scoring, but I hate c&w even more; it was an act of self mercy to fish from a genre other than c&w.

17

Back with glass of wine in hand, which could spell disaster when it comes to the stir fry later.

2 Likes
18

Ok, I’m going to try to cover 6th to 4th places before I start cooking. Shouldn’t be too hard if I stick to this one glass, though I do wish I’d saved the youtube links.

19

In 6th place for 6 points is MimosaDef with “Sweet Thang” by Shuggie Otis.

Google tells me that Shugs is a former session musician and son of famous R&B musician Johnny, who produced his 17 year old son’s first album.

It’s fairly interesting and has a decentish shuffle and nice bluesy guitar, but I thought it would make a better fit for film and TV soundtracks than as a piece of music that stands on its own merit.

2 Likes
20

I just lol’d

1 Like
21

In 5th place for 7 points with something a little different, Pauwl and String Quartet no.15 Op.144 by Shostakovich

OK this is a welcome surprise in choice of genre though only a guarded welcome from me as it’s Shostakovich, a composer whose symphonies I never really warmed to.

This however is a pleasant enough piece of music though with a funereal sombreness, so if you’re down about Trump or coronavirus I can’t recommend it. Google tells me it was his last quartet so its bleakness is hardly surprising, but despite liking plenty of depressing music it didn’t really get to me as much as I hoped.

1 Like
22

Happy to not be last for my first ever walrus submission. I think that’s a distinction I will struggle to maintain for the next two categories.