Cut in two parts because, you may not believe it, I have exceeded the 20000 words and 10000 bullshit limits:
Sacul: St Vincent – Rattlesnake
Tell me the truth, this was totally random, innit?
Musical Value: 4 No disrespect, dude, but what the heck? You had found the perfect motherlode, the surest and fastest way to my heart with that lovely sequence of dirty sexy submissions! I was dreaming of yet another sordid rocking tale of wild debauchery in evil twin shape, the Pull Me Undies to Pull Me Under, if you will. What am I to do with this bundle of musical plastic? Let's put it this way: if the last songs you sent me felt like re-enacting 9 ½ Weeks in the middle of the Eyes Wide Shut party during Mardi Gras, this one feels like mansturbating with a prosthetic arm, hence re-enacting the edit cuts from The Fugitive, I guess.
PMU Evil Twinning: 6.5 The situation improves here, as I suppose the theme aspect is the main reason for your submission. In order to enjoy this tune, I assume it helps to turn thoughtful analysis off and let rythm and sound mass work the instincts, which is the exact opposite approach than you need with PMU. I don't know, throw me a bone here, Oh oh, oh oh, oh oh, oh oh, whoa
Total Score: 10.5
Train: Oranssi Pazuzu – Ilmestys
Portrait of a stuck turntable stylus
Musical Value: 4 I am of course a ponce, but I will never deny any piece of music – no matter how bizzarre – its notion of musical value. I just prefer to explain why I don't like it. So, I am drugs clean since the end of last millennium, I have a wife and two cats, hence I have no need or room for an Assyrian demon in my life, and my immediate neighbours live far away enough from me that, even if I played this at max volume in order to make them believe I'm sacrificing human cattle to the Cult of Blackmore in my studio, they just couldn't hear it. I hope I gave you reason enough why this song has little to no interest to me, mate.
PMU Evil Twinning: 7 I may be reading too much into this, but that chord – very similar to PMU's – endlessly stuck on loop is both the epitome of inaction / passive existence and a manipulative device pushing the listener to actually wish for the iconic sudden ending. I think it's the most eviltwinnage available given the musical content this song is able to provide.
Total Score: 11
Elite: Ulver – Son of Man
He never saw Lady Lyndon again
Musical Value: 7 How am I supposed to assess a baroque mass' movement (without knowing the context, i.e the other movements), featuring a Haendel's Sarabande incipit and a Mozart's Lacrimosa finale bookending a prayer mixed with electronica? I can't. But I can say I'm painfully torn between A) admiration for this opus' best moments of absolute power and violent emotion, and B) repulsion for the strong feeling of pretentiousness shining through when my antennas are on, especially after the 5 minutes mark. It can obscillate from otherworldly to cringeworthy, depending on my listening mood, exactly as legit sacred music can, and I mean this as a compliment.
PMU Evil Twinning: 7 The overall pretentiousness and heroic desperation is more tag twin than evil twin, but there is a clear opposition between standing proud and asking the world to put up a fight and bending knees while begging a higher power for forgiveness. Furthermore, whereas PMU ends like we all know, this piece dies slowly, three times.
Total Score: 14
king: Rise Twain – Prayers
RADIOHEAD ALERT! RADIOHEAD ALERT!
Musical Value: 7 I find pleasure in such tasty Univibe guitar work, and the chorus' soothing 6/8 stroll to a bright future ala Spirit Carries On is one of my favourite ways to articulate songwriting ever, generally speaking. Then why, oh why the whole affair must be framed with my absolute less favourite way of singing on the planet, Newcastle pubs included? I'm not joking, the man is otherwise seriously talented; as soon as the drums start he switches one gear up, the tone loses air while gaining body, and everything is ok, and even better when the choir comes in. Thomyorking is always a mistake.
PMU Evil Twinning: 7 I ain't gonna lie: I couldn't catch every word of the lyrics (reason #67 I don't like that way of singing), but I'm pretty sure our pal rolling with clouds lost in the sky isn't exactly in the mood to ask Ophelia to “keep him in her prayers”. Furthermore, when Twain Rises, Shakespeare Falls. Ok, that sucked. Hard.
Total Score: 14
Chris: Mister Mister – Broken Wings
The secret is in the shaker
Musical Value: 7.5 So, how I like this song I should absolutely have heard as if it were a cross between Imagine and We Are the World? First of all, it's impossible I've listened to it but can't remember; the hook is so pervasive that it sticks to your memory more than an Ann Margret poster. Second, it's quietly nice, with a very Tears for Fears kind of beat preventing repetitions to get boring and letting the overpowered hook do the rest. My favourite part – not counting the glorious shaker – is the brief instrumental interludio where everything is turned up a couple of notches and it feels like infinite premises find some developement. Too bad I had to settle for Shout and In the Air Tonight for all these years.
PMU Evil Twinning: 7.5 Nice combination of factors: on one side we have a drum groove in the same universe inhabited by PMU's initial rythmic pulse, while on the other the lyrics finally provide the character the DT's song plot is crucially missing the most: someone providing help, hope and confort. Stop whining, sweet prince. You are not alone.
Total Score: 15
Evermind: Leprous – Passing
You turn me on orc vocals one round late
Musical Value: 8 What the fock happened in one year, Ev? We've gone from being in the wrong roulette to being unable to send me something I'm not liking. Great songwriting, vicious subtle odd meter trickery, masterful distribution of tension and release, and an urelenting and unerring manipulation of the listener from the fierce opening, through the lulling verse and the punch-in-the-guts chorus, up to the glorious solo misdirecting me towards the finale's uppercut. The screams are appropriate, and maybe the same can be said about the final growls, but I could have done without. Me being a wimp aside, this song is one rare instance where I feel everything is strictly necessary and on point inside eight minutes of music outside of DT's or King Crimson's catalogue.
PMU Evil Twinning: 7 in one corner we have Hamlet, in the other a strange sort of desperate Iago or, better, Aaron from Titus Andronicus, dying in damnation while feeling victorious. The evil twin is a bit tainted though, because both our heroes share the same feelings of pride (honour and spite) and will of power: one in defiant survival, the other in vengeful self-termination.
Total Score: 15
ariich: Foxy Shazam – The Only Way to My Heart
Evil Queen meets Mental Muse
Musical Value: 7.5 One of the things I love to do during the unhealthy amount of fantasy time I spend building my pathetic rock theory of everything (seriously guys, you should pity and mock me every day), is playing the Rock'n'Roll Marvel Comics High Evolutionary and cross-breed acts and tunes. Well, it seems somebody has beaten me joining Queen's Somebody to Love with Muse's Feeling Good in some kind of dark humorous chemical marriage officiated by Riff Raff. Definitely funny and thrustdance-inducing; maybe you noticed Sacul's sexy approach to this roulette is paying dividends and acted accordingly. If not, good job nonetheless
PMU Evil Twinning: 8 Ha! Maybe you noticed the Stadler / Donna Summer approach to the tag round payed dividends and acted accordingly, or maybe not. Point is, feral desperate tunnel vision lust is totally a dark twin to PMU's to be or not to be existential doubting wankery. Plus, the end-of-session chaos finale is just the opposite of a sudden cut.
Total Score: 15.5
Podaar: Peter Frampton - Float
Europa's evil twin
Musical Value: 8 The immensely talented and immensely underrated Peter Frampton, unfairly crushed between more myth-friendly axe heroes of the seventies. Great tone (a refined mix between Gilmour, Santana and BB King) and extremely enjoyable 6/8 pace (shades of Eclipse at the beginning, of Shine On You Crazy Diamond at the end), embellished with interesting acoustic tritone tricks and harmonic dual voicing beyond wisdom. Now that I know this cut, it's immediately becoming guitar common sense exhibit #678: you can train your circus noodling gymnastics to your heart's content, but what really makes the difference is the sound in your hands.
PMU Evil Twinning: 7.5 Sure, it has a certain feeling of peaceful sad resignation in opposition to PMU's belligerant defiance. More intersting, even though this song has no lyrics, it's plain as day it's built as a dialogue between two guitar voices, while DT's first hit single is obviously based on the quintessential Shakespearean monologue.
Total Score: 15.5
Puppies: Marillion – Neverland
If only the singer were on the lyricist's level
Musical Value: 7.5 Ok, every round I'm bound to piss somebody off; it's just the nature of the roulette beast. “At times like these any fool can see” this song is written with peak human intelligence and a sensibility, opening spaces – musical and emotional – worth of Pink Floyd at the highest of their powers. It's just gorgeous. Too bad this fool – in every meaning of the term – can't stand and get over any sogging thing the singer is doing except for breathing. There is a reason this is not banned. I love Steve Rothery, I love Fish Marillion – and it can be said they've saved my life a couple of times – but you should know by now I can't award full marks to a song featuring vocals I'm at odds with. I know, it's my problem, but it is what it is.
PMU Evil Twinning: 8 The lyrics (this round's ex aequo best) paint a nice opposition to PMU's tale. There is no solitary misunderstood prince crying louder than centuries crying. Just love – be it actual or remembered – leading to certain salvation, as long as we keep it alive. Plus we go from Shakespeare's mother infatuations to James M Barrie's … different infatuations, as it were.
Total Score: 15.5
To Be Continued ...
Topic: RouletteMania! v. Do It, Gregg! (Read 148061 times)
