Thanks for the submissions. All in all, I think the songs were all-around good. With that quickly out of the way, I'm gonna go ahead and rank your submissions from best to worst. The person at the bottom will be eliminated. I'll also give each a little sentence describing my thoughts on them.
Don't worry if I sound overly critical, I just tend to emphasize negatives even when I think a song is perfectly decent. None of these songs were bad. With that out of the way, here's the ranking.
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1. FromAWindow: Every Summertime (NIKI): A catchy 70's throwback, this one really had the best vibe out of all of them. Very lush and organic production, and NIKI has one of the best singing voices of everyone in this group, if not the best. Supremely impressed.
2. Symmetry888: Cabinet Man (Neil Cicierega): Catchy *and* morbid, a prime example of Neil Cicierega's talent for all things weird and interesting. This one really makes my muscles involuntarily flex.
3. Demgirl6: Nomu (Good Kid): Not particularly hard, but still rocks harder than anything on alternative radio right now that isn't just ripping off mid-2000s pop punk. Only issue is the vocalist has some rough vocals in some spots.
4. Jaxon: Don't Go Knockin' on My Door (Britney Spears): You can't really go wrong with this late-90s-early-00s production style. That being said, it feels a bit sparser, when you really want to go all out, almost maximalist with this style of production.
5. tennisplayer963: A Public Affair (Jessica Simpson): Very glitzy and polished, generally prefer Simpson's earlier stuff and it doesn't hold a candle to its inspirations but this is perfectly catchy.
6. bigdizzleyomama: Thumbs (Sabrina Carpenter): I distinctly remember hearing this way too often when I still had cable. It's pretty full of itself and rambly, and Carpenter is as indistinct a singer as it gets, but I dig the production.
7. Absol: range brothers (Baby Keem & Kendrick Lamar): The cousins have good chemistry and Kendrick's good as always but Keem's performance was inconsistent (girlfriEeEEeeEEnd). Still, the second beat was still pretty good, and "top of the morning" will never stop being funny.
8. coolkat: Pills n Potions (Nicki Minaj): Putting who Nicki is as a person aside (same goes for the producer), it's perfectly decent pop rap, if a bit dull. Okay subject matter, focusing on themes of using and being used, if nothing groundbreaking.
9. camell22: If I Had You (Adam Lambert): Adam Lambert is certainly a talented lyricist, and there's definitely a pulse to the production. That being said, it just feels extremely glossy, not a lot of edge and lacking in the personality that typically makes these upbeat dance songs connect.
10. oswordo3: Nothing. 0/10.
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With that being said, I'll have to eliminate oswordo3 by default. Such is life when one doesn't submit.
And now the first round's over. I'll see if I can't post the next round tomorrow or the day after, hopefully it shouldn't be too hard to come up with a theme. Thanks for participating, and I hoe to see all nine remaining players continue to put out quality.
