425’s Second Roulette v. Keep your hands upon the wheel

[Crow]

I'm not actually looking forward to bent knee much since I didn't like either of their last two albums much but hopefully they'll play some good shiny eyed babies stuff at least

[Nekov]

Listening to Parama's EP.


Edit: Geez, you weren't kidding when you said it was pop  . Made it to about half the fourth song, my brain couldn't take the amount of sugar.

[Crow]

The sugar runs out after about the 15 minute mark

[425]

Fact check: Accurate.

I'm going to give some impressions now. I think we're probably about 5 days away from results. I realize this is taking a lot longer than people would probably prefer, but I really have been quite busy lately, and the nature of my general impression of this round is such that it's going to be a hard one to score and one that I'm going to have to listen to more than I probably ordinarily would.

First, I'll give my general impression of the round, and then I'll do three EP impressions in a batch. The EP impressions are going to be centered around identifying a key question that is going to determine how well the EP will score.

General impression:
This round is tough to score because the quality of these EPs is really consistent to me. All of them have parts that I really enjoy, and all of them have parts that I'm not so big on. So far, there is not a clear standout, for better or for worse. There is not an EP that wows me like a few of them did in my v1... so far—there are a few that could potentially get there. But there is nonetheless a healthy amount of good material to be found here.


Specific EP impressions:

Every single song on here is enjoyable, but there really isn't one on here that I've fallen for and could see myself listening to a lot after the roulette is over. The key will be to see if some of the songs actually do click strongly enough to make my impression more positive than something like "a solid set of songs." Maybe the opener and/or the closer?

There is one track that could be make-or-break for this EP, which is overall in the quite-good-but-not-great territory, with a lot songs I enjoy but a few that tend a bit toward feeling generic. My impression of that track right now is cautiously positive, but it is still very much up in the air.

This EP has steadily grown on me, and probably has the strongest chance right now to end up as my favorite from this round. Which is especially interesting considering that only a couple of the artists were even on my radar. The key will be whether it comes to hold my attention in the middle section, which is where there are a couple of songs not doing much for me right now.

[Crow]

Corn

[Elite]

Spicy

[romdrums]

[Evermind]

I'll be honest, it's pretty difficult for me to stay excited as the hangman for this round started 20 days ago.

[425]

Yeah, and that's why this is probably going to be my last roulette. People expect rounds to be completed at a certain rate (for understandable reasons, I don't begrudge anyone that), and I'm just not capable of maintaining that rate.

[Crow]

tbh it doesn't feel like 3 weeks because hangmanen went on so long 

again though maybe it's because I have zero chance of winning this so I'm not very stressed about results

[Lethean]

Sometimes. I at least explained what I tries to do with it.

i didn't have any story whatsoever i just picked songs i really liked that went well together

OK, I at least did those things as well, so hopefully it works, or at least makes for an enjoyable listening experience.  (It is for me at least )

[Nekov]

 

[romdrums]

 

[Nekov]

[Crow]

[425]

If we live for a hundred years, amigos, no more tears.


Tbh a major factor in the timeline here has been how demoralized I've been that not one of you commented on my Virtual XI references in the thread title, even after I went through every single track on the album.

Work, family obligations and most recently the holiday week have kept me very busy. But we are in fact mere days away from the conclusion of my ridiculous month long round. I'm going to start the writeups tomorrow, and once I do that there will be some good forward momentum for me to finish the rest.

Thanks for hanging in there for my slowness.

Here are the rest of the snippets:


This EP starts off really strong for the first half, then seems to peter off a bit. Those first few songs are incredibly strong, but then I feel myself losing interest somewhat as we advance beyond that midway point. The key is going to be whether it can come to carry its strength along through the entire EP.

The other top contender so far for strongest EP. There's one song here that was my immediate favorite from the whole round, and a few others that carry a really strong appeal. A couple of others have some strange elements that I have gone back and forth between liking and not liking, so the question here is where I will end up regarding those.

This EP really has a great flow. Clearly the submitter put a lot of thought into that aspect of it. My general impression has been that this is pleasant music that flows really well, but without any superlative songs. And so the key will be how highly its flow strength will factor in, and to what extent any of the songs can get closer to the superlative level.

There are a lot of different styles strung together on this EP, which on the whole tends toward an emotional feel that I am not usually crazy about. Some of the songs I find really good, and others not that appealing (it remains to be seen whether I'm mostly apathetic to these songs or whether aspects of them actively annoy me). Fortunately, one of the artists here that I do really like has multiple songs.

[Crow]

i don't know what a virtual xi is. is that an iron maiden album i think? 

mine is likely the third one there but who knows

[Evermind]

Good Apollo, I'm Virtual XI

[Sacul]

Good Cockroach, I'm Cockroach XI

My sympathies

[425]

i don't know what a virtual xi is. is that an iron maiden album i think? 

mine is likely the third one there but who knows

It is an Iron Maiden album. Not one of their best ones, either! But I was still hoping someone would say something. Oh well.

Yours is definitely one of them.

Good Apollo, I'm Virtual XI

The Willing Well III: Virtual XI: Don't Look to the Eyes of a Stranger

[Crow]

woo you actually did a snippet for my EP 

[Nekov]

Having read through all of them I think the first snippet from the first batch is mine.

[jingle.boy]

I stopped following this a couple weeks back.  Just so I got this right... this EP round has been going on a month, and it's still in the 'snippets' stage?

[425]

Yes. I am a very slow music listener. I simply cannot maintain the pace that DTF wants for an EP round. Which is why, since this is such an issue, I don't think I'm ever going to do another roulette.

[Crow]

just don't splent on us okay

[Lethean]

Yes. I am a very slow music listener. I simply cannot maintain the pace that DTF wants for an EP round. Which is why, since this is such an issue, I don't think I'm ever going to do another roulette.

What about a roulette without an EP round?  Mine didn't have one, and people seemed OK with that - or at least, if they weren't, they didn't tell me.

[Nekov]

The EP round wasn't here for a long time. Not sure who implemented it first but it seems to have caught up. However, as Lethean says, it's not necessary at all, though I understand it's a good way to get a lot more music without having to run several more rounds.

[Crow]

425 started the EP round with his first roulette 

[425]

Yeah, as the inventor of the EP round I don't think I could then go on to omit it!

I did set the EP round at 20-30 minutes, however, and DTF popular opinion changed it to 30-40. If I ever actually did a v3, I would restore it to 20-30. Aside from obviously being more manageable, I liked that length better for an EP, anyway. Felt more compact and punchy.

[Nekov]

[romdrums]

[Crow]

But we are in fact mere days away from the conclusion of my ridiculous month long round.

[Nekov]

[jingle.boy]

On my decision not to participate in this one ....

[Nekov]

That's assuming you could make it past the first elimination