Individual SONG review.

Creative Forums Art, Music, and Entertainment
1

I do know that there is a ‘review’ section, but really, who goes there?

So I’ll review my current piece of favorite music. Feel free to review yours. By piece I mean an individual song, reviewed.

Okay, let’s do my current favorite:

“Warrior’s Dance” by The Prodigy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prodigy

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-pC_nJa9AY[/youtube]

The song starts out mellow enough. The unfamiliar listener will probably assume this to be a quiet song. The Prodigy fan will know what to expect.

A quarter of a minute in, vocals kick in. To be honest, it’s kind of 90’s Aerobic class-ish to me. You know the type - ‘Get up and move!’ Something like that. I trust this band enough to know that they would at least back it up with some better than average beats. Could have used some better vocals though. It ruins the kick-assiness of the piece. Some electronica songs make you want to rob banks. This makes you want to wear baby blue leg warmers.

At exactly a minute in, we hear the first ‘drop.’ It’s when they let the real sound of the track kick in, the moment when they kick the bass so to speak.

There is the trademark Prodigy beat - snare punctuated by heavy bass. Some electro-fx. Sounds cool.

At around 3:00, they set the song up for another drop. I like it when songs do this - it heightens enjoyability.

4:00 something, they drop again. You gotta have some decent speakers to hear how this thing sounds as they meant it to. It will melt water.

The song finishes soon afterward. Kinda weak, and there’s some weird dialog going on in the background in the CD version between the band members. Mildly funny.

Overall, I rate this song an 8.5/10. Good for, well, exercising and as a wake up song.

2

I’m really bored, so I’ll review another one.

This one is by Makano, titled Te Amo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makano_(singer)

*I’m not a native Spanish speaker, so I only understand about 65% of the lyrics. It’s more about how the song sounds, anyway. I’m not expecting fucking Voltaire here. It’s basically about him explaining his infidelities to his girl.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbyP5Pd7CDo[/youtube]

First of all, the video is distracting. Try not to watch.

Second, the nanana at the beginning is kind of unusual. While most of reggaeton music, though it sounds ‘hard’, is basically about lovey stuff, they usually don’t nanana in the beginning.

I like how he sings. He goes all out in there, and he can sing - and then there’s the ubiquitous voice-bending software one hears in most productions nowadays. It’s kind of annoying when used too much, but here it just pushes the voice a little bit, for emphasis. Not bad.

I could describe the boom-ba-boom-boom-boom sound of this kind of music, but really almost every reggaeton song out there uses that same bass line. I used to hate it when I didn’t listen to it personally, but now that I do, it’s kind of relaxing. The snare type of sound he does in there fits the song very well, pushing it a little bit out of Sappy Ville and on to I’m Tough but Sensitive territory.

Overall, there’s something about this song that makes it sound a bit different from most other RT songs out there. I like it.

8.5/10 Good for a driving song, a background for work or just drinking ice tea on the porch.

3

Itlog,

I’ll probably post up a few individual song reviews tomorrow, but I just wanted to say that this is probably one of the best Music threads I’ve ever seen created on this or any site!

4

Okay, at this point I don’t know when I will stop. Hey, indulge me.

This time I’m reviewing:

The Hitchhiker by Dog Fashion Disco. It’s experimental metal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_Fashion_Disco

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nk5GxdMtu6g[/youtube]

This one is a bit dark. Okay, it’s dark. It’s basically a song about a serial killer on the highway. He picks up a hitchhiker and threatens that, when he is over, no one will recognize him.

Okay.

This one has a very interesting song structure. It does not follow the usual build-up/chorus/build-up/chorus format of most metal out there. It punches you a bit in the beginning, but then tapers down to a nice jazzy rhythm. There’s even a piano. Punch punch punch again.

Then back to a jazzy rhythm. One of the best features of this band is its drummer.

We come to the chorus. I like vocalists who actually have voices, so it’s great. It’s also over very quickly.

Then they break up the action with muzak. Genius!

…Okay. I get it. Get on with the action.

We get some sort of drum-and-bass beats after the muzak. Wow. Tapers…

We get to the chorus again. Now’s the part where he says he’s gonna kill the hitchhiker by shooting him. This band has got it together. Each instrument complements the next. Impressive.

After the chorus, it ends. Two choruses.

9/10 Good for one of those ‘lying down’ listens with your headphones.

5

Thanks Pav. This thread reminds me of something I once heard - I listen to music so I don’t have to listen to my thoughts. Hehehe.

This time, we are reviewing:

Caruso, as sung by Pavarotti.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8A61eY1Efg[/youtube]

I’ve always liked this song. To be honest, this version of his isn’t as good as I’ve heard it before. There’s a female version of it on Youtube, Lara Fabian. I just enjoy this song better with a male voice.

What I’ve always liked about opera is that I hardly understand a word of it. Like a book where you can picture the images, a song with near intelligible lyrics allows you to put your own words into it. Weird? I don’t know, but it floats my boat.

…Okay, I’m kind of out of my league here. So, instead of making an ass of myself, I’ll just say that this is one great song. Listen for a while. A bit melodramatic, but that’s what you’re paying for.

9.5/10

6

Last one… for today.

This time we are reviewing:

Things Aren’t Gonna Change by the Cribs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cribs

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiJ_Uoh65JU[/youtube]

This band is usually hit and miss for me. For one good song, they seem to have some really bad ones. Even the production quality of this song is a bit questionable, but they make up for it with sheer intensity.

1234… and the song kicks you with this sort of repetitive to-and-fro rhythm - if you listen to it, you’ll understand - and the vocalist sings. Well, shouts.

The to-and-fro continues for the entirety of the song. His band mates back him up with some vocals, and overall it lends a fun, summer-night vibe to the song. It’s got a feeling but doesn’t become sentimental.

I like it when they stop the to-and-fro for a while, and add some horns to the guitar riffs.

It ends soon enough, and overall the song isn’t very challenging to the listener, but it’s fun and has a new-ish sound to it.

8/10 Good for hanging out.

7

“Simon Diamond” by The Coral

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_coral

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3DI9aAls8o[/youtube]

This video is of the live version at V Festival 2002.

The song starts off with a folky picking rhythm and introduces us to the main protagonist ‘Simon Diamond’

Then about 40 seconds in, we get a more pyschedelic melody underneath the main rhythm, reminds me a bit of a scene from an old movie where the character is going crazy and their head spirrals round and round against a backdrop of black and white.

The second verse outlines Simon’s current predicament, namely his change from “human to plant form”

Then we kick into the short chorus, where the tempo increases and loud crashes of the symbols bring an sense of impending worry and crisis

After that we drop into a 30-40 second mildly pyschedelic guitar solo, before the final refrains of 'That’ll do" slowly dying out. I like to picture the camera moving away from the helpless Simon Diamond as the music dies.