I have some confidence in my pick and predict I will get 4 points. This will be my first non-nodium.
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OK, let’s go. I found this category slightly strange to judge. Most of the way through I thought it wasn’t a great one, but then when I did the rankings I ended up with what seemed like a solid majority of songs that I enjoyed. So who really knows? Maybe I was just getting sleepy?
What would I have submitted? Well, late night music can mean lots of things but here’s one that’s been a staple of my post midnight diet for years.
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Video unavailable for me, this one worked:
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5 o’clock in the morning. Where you gonna be?
(Outside on the corner)
imo
really enjoyed that category. different folk, different music . nice winner, @smrk
and the one track you’d previously heard, good stuff @seities . that one chord or broken chord dissonance he returns to. and his voice is awesome… reminded me of someone I couldnt quite place
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Christ, these restrictions are annoying. I can’t hear that one, but there is also a lying one on youtube so careful now. It should be ~6:20 long.
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In tenth place with one point
Zero 7 - In The Waiting Line
Maybe you’re unlucky here. This is from a while back and when it started I remembered I’d heard it and didn’t like it. My musical tastes have shifted since then so perhaps without prejudice it might have risen. Perhaps. But also perhaps not.
There’s stuff in this area (folktronica? trip hop?) I really like, but also quite a lot of tracks like this that just pass me by. It floats along and then minutes later I suddenly realise another song has started and I can’t remember a single thing about the previous one. I think there’s some nice-ish singing, an acoustic guitar, that sort of thing. I think.
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damn like 100% of the times Pauwl said things are unavailable to him it was working here so i assume he’s making it up as my personal perspective is the absolute truth, but that actually is unavailable.
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I’m here because of Garden State
It’s from that?! No wonder I had bad associations.
I have to keep score on this one don’t I? shit!
eta: Please, identify your songs everyone!
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In ninth place with two points
Liv Kristine - 3am
At this point I’ll address a theoretical issue. Late Night music can mean several things, but clearly one is being soothing and quiet, preparing for or invoking relaxation and sleep. I’m fine with that, but in the effort to sooth or be quiet you absolutely can’t be boring or pointlessly inoffensive. I’m happy to acknowledge personal taste in that judgement, but it’s a fine line that once crossed means a plummet down the rankings.
I didn’t know this one and I guess it’s more some sort of rock music, but it gave off the same vibe as Zero 7 I’m afraid. It wrestles another point from me because there are parts I found slightly more memorable. I kinda like the warbling electonics and the odd guitar phrase in the background, and again it drifts along pleasantly. Just, (and I really hate to say this so baldly) I don’t like it.
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Just put me down for 6th.
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In eighth place with three points
Scott Walker - Rosemary
This is just a dreamy song. It mentions dreaming/sleep in the lyrics, but it just feels so comforting and relaxing. His voice prepares me perfectly to go to sleep and dream.
As ever Walrus exists to ruthlessly expose weakness. I feel like I’ve been told about the genius of Scott Walker’s late 60s albums countless times from all sorts of people, they can’t all have been wrong. I guess I can hear it. His voice is lovely and the arrangements are lush, he clearly has a studied and idiosyncratic take on music and I do admire and like some of his later stuff when he went proper weird. But, honestly, whenever I’ve listened to Scotts 3 and 4 they’ve kept me at arm’s length.
Rosemary is a careful ballad, it has slightly eerie verses with stop start strings and then a soothing release for each chorus. It’s definitely late night music and I don’t want to be too down here as it’s a significant step up from the last two. But it still isn’t changing my mind on Scott overall, I guess these albums just aren’t my thing.
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Keep your own scores, jackass!
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@CanadaMatt3004 ok the jig is up. We know you’ve taken over Louis’ account in a misguided attempt to win a Walrus.
Let the man out of your basement and I’m willing to tell the cops you were in the midst of Walrus-fever and that it’s driven all of us to extremes at one point or another.
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In seventh place with four points
The Velvet Underground - After Hours
The thing I mostly thought about while listening to this was if it’s my least favourite Velvet Underground song. (Excluding that album where everyone was gone apart from Doug Yule.) At first I thought the only other contender was “The Murder Mystery”, which precedes this on the album and which is a bit tedious (but also them properly trying something). Then I remembered “Lonesome Cowboy Bill” which is rubbish, so it isn’t.
But again I’m too negative. Choosing the worst Velvet Underground song is a bit like identifying the best Donald Trump tweet—technically there must be one but it feels very wrong. Admittedly the song’s a bit throwaway and I’m sure my complete idolisation of Maureen Tucker (who sings this) always helps, but it’s another significant step up and I like it. I’ve listened to this by choice countless times (which is, of course, the reason my mind drifted, not the quality of it). It’s a very pleasant song and her voice suits it well. You did fine! Fine!
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We drop two categories right?
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In sixth place with five points
Daughters - Long Road, No Turns
Daytime listening trends family friendly, for me. Late night with headphones is the time to go ham. Something as textured as this also benefits from the headphone experience, imo. Also some repetition-hypnosis in there for ya.
In certain moods I could have written that, there’s a lot of noisier or more confrontational music I spare my family from. (They should thank me, but they rarely do.) And this is certainly noisy and confrontational—a slightly aggravating repeating riff with drums pounding along while someone speak sings about sad stuff. What’s not to like?
Well, on first listen I did really like it, but then I liked it a little bit less on each subsequent sampling. I’m not sure why, but I think it’s that while other songs revealed new elements or let me hear more intricately what exactly they were doing, with Daughters it was still just the bracing initial impact that made me enjoy it. It resisted me somehow. It’s true that I don’t really listen to much quite like this, most ‘noise’ music I like doesn’t have lyrics, but I’m not sure that played a part.
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