Rounding out the “not-really-bad-but-had-to-put-them-somewhereium”:
In 7th place for 3 points:
Wooden Jesus by Temple of the Dog
This is a perfect example of why I sometimes curse walrus to the heavens. I love Temple of the Dog, I love Chris Cornell’s (RIP) incredible voice, and I like this song. It’s not my favorite TotD song, but it’s still great. It’s here because of familiarity, bottom line. As soon as I heard the first few lines I realized this was on heavy rotation during my edgy militant atheist college days when all the other good little conservative cadets were going to church on sundays and I would sit in my room and get called a heathen by the upperclassmen. But, like much of my time in college, I had blocked away those memories, only to be reminded when this started playing.
I mean i’m not entirely sure what he meant here but seems iffy:
Son, life is a pool of sin, corrupted with foolish men And women with wicked minds, who build picket signs To legalize abortion, the evil eye distortion I quiz Son with my wisdom
Onward into the Pauwl zone, where I also like all of the songs! I kind of hate all of you for making this so hard to rank.
In 6th place for 4 points:
The Loophole by Garfunkel and Oates (if you’re at work, you should put on headphones)
OK, why didn’t the infamous comedy song category have more of these types of submissions? Anyway, I laughed, I cried, I cringed. Ok, well, I didn’t actually cry. It’s funny to me because I went to a catholic high school, and I had never heard of this. Of course, that was like, 30 years ago, and also, we were fairly liberal and I’m not entirely sure any of my classmates actually cared about abstinence. I feel like I’m going to be apologizing a lot to everyone in this thread, because every song so far deserves more points than I could give them.
I Don’t Wanna Pray by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
I like the melody, I like the message, and I like that you sent me a song that sounds different from the rest. I got a few songs that gave off vibes of other great genres and artists, and I like the old-timey spiritual feel of this, juxtaposed with the message of the lyrics.
This is such a fun melody with a great hook, and they manage to distill the message down into simple lyrics that are powerful anyway. I’ve heard of this artist but didn’t know this song, and I’m glad I do now.
Podium time! This was really challenging y’all, but thanks for sending me great songs.
In 3rd place for 7 points:
In My Sleep by Jon Connor (feat. Tito Lopez & Chelsea Blair)
This is such a good song. The melodic hook draws you right in, the lyrics are powerful and well done, and Chelsea Blair’s vocals are gorgeous. The message is at times hard to hear but by the end is uplifting and affirming. This is one of two rap songs on the podium, and both benefitted from a recent rewatch of “Ray” (yes, the Ray Charles biopic with Jamie Foxx). I will explain more in a bit. Great choice and not one I would have ever found on my own.
Mine! Glad to make podium in such a strong field. I also really like when I find relatively unknown music and it does well in a reveal so I go for that as much as possible :-)
This is exactly the type of song I had in mind when I chose this category. Of course, the rest of the field just goes to prove that one should never have expectations when it comes to walrus, because then you might miss some amazing shit. Anyway, the lyrics are exactly what I was looking for, and the melody is just beautiful and haunting and really helps drive home the message. My church is love…and I love this song.
