These write ups are making me nervous.
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I was nervous after the 10th place writeup. Feeling better now.
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I’m in the top 5 here!
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Happy to make the top half
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Oh man I had forgotten about that The Knife song. What a classic.
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5th place Calvin Harris – Giant [Feat. Rag’n’Bone Man]
To show you how out of it I am, I have never heard of Calvin Harris (or Rag ’n’ Bone Man), even though this song has 290 million hits on you tube. The song sounded vaguely familiar, so maybe I heard it in an ad or something. Wiki tells me that Harris is a Scottish DJ/songwriter. The first half of the song doesn’t sound too much like what I think of “electronic” music, but it does get more electronic-y. The song starts off with a slow gospel-y organ sounds, which I assume is a synth of some sort? Then the piano/keyboard kicks in and the tempo kicks off a very poppy section. The lyrics aspire to be inspirational, sort of a “I can lift you up” deal:
Now I’m strong enough for both of us
Both of us, both of us, both of us
I am a giant. Stand up on my shoulders, tell me what you see
I am a giant. We’ll be breaking boulders underneath our feet
There are also “horns” throughout the song, which again may be synth horns. These little horn hooks are pretty catchy (see 1:05 to 1:20) and stuck in my head for a few days. More up-tempo poppiness and hooky horns, leading to the guest vocalist, who has a satisfyingly rich voice. Meanwhile in the video, the main dude runs around in a blue track suit, until all of a sudden there are lots of people in red track suits. Also horses! Lightning! An owl! Fog machines!
It’s just a very poppy catchy song. I’m not sure how inspired I am, but I’d put it on an exercise playlist for sure.
Ok, moving on to top 4. I didn’t know it, but what I was really looking for was… weird. Different. Let’s get strange!
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This was mine. I really have a large range of electronic stuff I listen to, but no idea where to focus my efforts for your submission so I went with something that I thought was really fun.
Enjoying the reveal!
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I liked it.
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I feel I should send a fruit basket to the household
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Kinda dig it. Not bad for a pop song.
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That gives me optimism
That and being in the top 4
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4th place Bjork - Hyperballad
The link provided didn’t work, so just dug one up. Seems like the same version.
I of course know who Björk is. I have heard a few songs of hers over the years, although I can’t say I really know any by heart. Her style always struck me as too self-consciously weird and arch. After listening to this song a few times, that impression still holds, but I feel like I should investigate more. This song had an intensity and depth I wasn’t expecting. She’s still a weirdo. The singing is breathy and halting at first. A wash of bass and some rain sounds, with some fast but soft percussion. After a while some synth/piano/keyboard and then the chorus is sung with much more intensity.
Let’s check out the lyrics.
We live on a mountain
Right at the top
There's a beautiful view
From the top of the mountain
Every morning I walk towards the edge
And throw little things off
Like car parts, bottles and cutlery
Or whatever I find lying around
The singing at first is a little stilted, but also dreamy and hypnotic. The word “cutlery” is a specific and striking and disconcerting word. Not sure why all that stuff is at the top of the mountain though
It's early morning
No one is awake
I'm back at my cliff
Still throwing things off
Roger that. You do this every day? A little weird but whatever
Imagine what my body would sound like
Slamming against those rocks
When it lands
Will my eyes
Be closed or open?
Wait, what? That escalated quickly. But she’d doing it to get the weirdness out of the way for her partner
I go through all this
Before you wake up
So I can feel happier
To be safe up here with you
Musically it’s pretty interesting as well. At 2:45 the beat picks up, and then a nice build-up to 3:30, where it’s dance party time. I like her voice when she starts belting it out. Symphonic-style fadeout at 5:00. I am sold on the overall musical progression from weird/slow to dance/fast.
I would listen to this again and try out some more Björk stuff, thanks
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Oh it’s funny but the original video takes it to galaxy brain level 4:
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And of course this is me.
Pretty sure you know the song is allegorical and you’re just taking the piss. 
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Podium time! Let me crack a Two Hearted
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3rd Place
the Books - “Enjoy Your Worries, You May Never Have Them Again”
There’s a movie quote that sums this song up: “It feels out there. I mean, it’s a major rush. I mean, it feels radical in kind of a tubular sort of way, but most of all, it feels out there.”
I find the musical motif that starts right off the bat to be simple but very effective. I think it’s just a strummed acoustic guitar that is sampled throughout the song. Clearly this is some avant-garde shit. Shades of Beatles Revolution 9—except it’s a lot better. Revolution 9 was crap because at that point the Beatles thought whatever they did was genius, and they could just vomit random effluents into a song.
This song is more put together. It’s collage-like in the middle, lots of spoken word samples and misc weird percussion noises. There’s a violin that comes in the second half, again just sampled and repeated. All the various noises and snippets have room to breathe (not crowded in and piled like in the Beatles song), and they fit in to the guitar and violin riffs.
Pretentious? Yeah, sure, whatever, but for me it works. I will listen again and probably seek out other stuff from them. This is pretty far from The Who. This is a bigger wasteland than they ever dreamed of. Kudos to whoever submitted this, you said “fuck it, let’s get tubular” and it worked out.
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Mine :)
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What the hell is this?
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All that random shit reminds me of this
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