Also did someone drop out? I’m counting 13 entries on recount but only received 12 submissions and was under the impression there were only 12. Anyway get hyped for walrus!
A reminder of the categories:
A cover you like more than the original.
A duet.
A song from 1996-2000.
A song you don’t love but still listen to because it has a great intro/chorus/solo etc.
I was in the middle of working on my entry with the intention of submitting on Sunday afternoon when beetlejuice said everything was randomized and ready for you late Saturday night, so I gave up.
Alright before we start category 1, let’s remember what I wrote in the OP OP:
One thing I have been listening to a lot of lately is covers of modern songs by their contemporaries. Not sure why but I’ve always been a big fan of covers. The catch here is that I don’t want to hear covers that sound exactly like the original; after all if that’s what I wanted to hear I’d just listen to the original. I will only be rating this based on the quality of the song submitted, not how well it stacks up with the original song and there will be no particular deductions based on popularity of either song. Something I haven’t heard will score higher than something I’ve heard if they’re about equal but I don’t really mind if you don’t show me something new.
If I’m being honest, category 1 was a little bit of a let down, but this was mostly a product of my own making. There was quite a bit of well-tread territory (my own fault for not penalizing, although that would not have been in the spirit of this particular walrus) and most of the new stuff didn’t exactly blow me away, although this was more due to my initial expectations than anything.
When I started listening to some of the entries and comparing them to the originals, I was surprised how much they all followed the structure and even feel of the original songs. What I thought I was looking for was an entirely new spin on the song and not just adapting it to the new artist’s style, but the the more I listened the more I realized that’s all covers really are and that the degree of difference between covers and originals is mostly a function of the genres. For example, here’s a cover that I would consider completely different from the original:
Here’s the original:
So yes, they do sound pretty different, but the cover isn’t totally unique; it’s basically just playing the song with heavily distorted guitars and singing it in Jack White’s voice.
That’s unfortunate because the deadline was still Sunday and your entry would still have been temporarily anonymized if you had submitted it to beetlejuice. Feel free to post your choices at the end of each category, some others are already planning on doing so.
Having come in last place with my first ever walrus submission (on a song I really love no less) and repeating that feat on multiple entries, it gives me no pleasure to make this post, but under the current scoring system someone has to come in 12th place. I award one point to whoever submitted:
Midge Ure - The Man Who Sold The World
Honestly, I appreciate the submitter making this easy for me by running afoul of my one rule for this category: a cover shouldn’t sound exactly like the original. Am I crazy or is this barely different from the Bowie version? I guess it has a longer, more repetitive outro but I wouldn’t consider that a positive. If it makes you feel better I don’t think the Nirvana version would have done much better, although I might be more inclined to listen to that one again.
Going to try to post one more and then give people time to catch up. In 11th place for 2 points:
Postmodern Jukebox ft Puddles Pity Party - Royals
I wanted to like this one, being a fan of both the Lorde song and Puddles after having seen him a little on America’s Got Talent, but unfortunately this didn’t come together for me. It doesn’t distinguish itself much from the original and I didn’t think it was a good showcase for Puddles’ voice; he should be doing songs with big notes, but here he’s sort of just shouting for parts of the song. Bonus points* for submitting a cover of a modern song.
*Bonus points not reflected in leaderboard standing.
I considered changing the scoring system to avoid the feelbad of the bottom few positions but I know that other walruses have come down to a matter of a few points so at this time I’ll just leave it until the forum devises a better method.
Meh may as well knock out as many as possible while I have time, never know when I will get pulled away. In 10th place for three points we have:
Nirvana - Love Buzz
Like most Nirvana songs, this just doesn’t do a lot for me. To me, it sounds like a demo or a sample or a piece of something larger, like a song off of a soundtrack, rather than a self-contained song. Does that make sense? The guitar riffs are fun at least. Meaningless bonus points for linking to a wacky original song/video.
