I just posted my own remarks on all the other entries, but the spam filter ate them. Let’s hope it’ll poop ’em out some time…

Round 3: This was possibly the strongest SongFu round so far, except for the infamous JoCo-P&S imitation duel last year. Hank, Edric, Molly and Mike excelled! I find it disappointing that none of the masters contributed a song. Some clarification on the reasons would be appreciated. I do understand that health/business/food issues might become more important than this, but if you can’t join the party, why not send a short message, anyway?

Track by track comments:

Jeff MacDougall: I can’t get rid of the R.E.M. reference Eddie Colton mentioned (who btw made a nice shadow-entry). Once again, good production and a song with personality. Yet, the lyrics don’t grip me and I ended up not voting for this one. Sorry.

Edric Haleen: My favourite track in this round. I love the emotive vocals and the swinging piano work. Well done! And, apparently, a great implementation of the given title.

“Buckethat” Bobby Matheson: This one reminds me of the first SongFu installment when we all were less ‘produced’ (or simply absent). Turning the title into a question is a nice twist and I have a weakness for the organ sound. Still, the song remains somewhat mediocre (compared to the other entries).

Insane Ian: Folky guitar and vocals sound nice; the lyrics seem to unfold a story in which some key information is only presented at the end / in the last verse. Possibly as ‘foreseeable’ as the movie-ending songs, a little bit dull music-wise; maybe a bit more insanity would have been in order.

Joe “Covenant” Lamb: Paul Simon-vibes meet movie geek lyrics – Joe still puts a lot of syllables into the lyrics. (My band’s singer used accused me of this time and again, so by now I pay special attention.) The song works in the background, but the samples become a bit annoying under headphones.

Mick Bordet: Another movie geek song. Both tunes are somewhat foreseeable in their lyrics, and both fail to keep up the supsension by musical creative. I like that Joe didn’t overload the vocal tracks; maybe Mick’s song could have been improved by less (and clearer) vocals. In the present state, the track is a bit torn between new wave guitars, a hard rock feeling in the melody and organ, and at times irritating vocals.

The Masked Stranger: The lyrics are only slightly more digestable than the music. Intense words that make Hank’s story almost a bit silly. The distorted recording hurts my ears (or is it my soul?) The exact opposite of pure sugar, I guess.

Timothy Rush: Tiny chicken fai…, eh, tiny attention span fail. A harmonica is shuffling and the (full) vocals drown somewhere along the way.

Crabbydad: Country, yay! Cool guitar work, nice banjo sounds, soothing melodies, good vocals. The final (title) line fails to conclude the otherwise great harmonies. If you could just fly in Hank’s part here… 😉 Still, I think the tune was worth the late-night work on it.

Hank Green: A bit like Joe Covenant, Hank has a tendency to stuff a lot of syllables into the vocal lines. The present refrain suffers a bit from the subsequent monotony. Also, a bit of variation in the first half of the refrain might have spiced things up. Apart from that, I do like the song. The rather serious lyrical approach still has witty touches, but as surprising as it may seem, Hank’s delivered a touching, thoughtful ballad which sets him apart from the other contestants.

Mike Lombardo: Mike’s best vocal performance so far; the harmonies at the title line are great. Maybe the song could have done without the drums (or with a country and western instrumentation instead of the piano), but that’s only a minor flaw. The story takes strange turns and at first it’s basically lemonade. So thanks for posting the lyrics.

Jalapeno Habaneros: They most coherent entry so far. I not a rap fan and I fail to figure out the connection to the actual task. (I know, I’m on thin ice having left out the title line in my own lyrics.) The vocals should have been much more prominent in the mix.

Hazen Nester: My general impression is a slightly shaky one. Otherwise, my attention span fails me. Sorry.

Audiomohel: Good groovy, funky music – but I have a hard time following the song. The “chicken – ohe” part makes me smile, but all in all, it doesn not really make too much sense to me at the end.

Molly Lewis: Possibly the best lyrics in this round and the most thorough implementation of the title. I always wish for more straight-forward harmonies, but Molly appears to prefer more elaborate melodies (and is well equiped to sing them) – and most voters appreciate that. Nice vote-worthy song, anyway.

Jutze Schult: If you haven’t already seen it, I’ve made an somewhat animated video clip to my entry (incl. lyrics): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdeIPpqT1lw – I’m not very familiar with Black Sabbath and know exactly one King Diamond, but tried to write something in that direction, anyway, using lyrics you don’t normally associate with this type of music. I figured that pancakes where the one thing that can’t possible be viewed in a satanic context. Of course, I’m not made to be a metal singer (though I didn’t really strain my throat,) so I ended up with the ridiculous vibrato (the constant joggling of my jugular did hurt.) I also managed to play a halfway decent guitar solo – all in one take, no tweaking! I’m still amazed myself.

Here are the lyrics…

Seek the mother of a calf
And steal some of her milk
Take two cups and a half
Make sure they are filled
Take the feathered’s unborn
And crack open their shell
Take all that’s inside
And pour it into the cauldron
Pour it into the cauldron
Pour it into the cauldron

Seek the wheat in the valley
Defying the wind alone
Cut it down without mercy
And grind it with a stone
Separate it from the chaff
Obtain a snow-white powder
Take enough to fill two cups
And pour it into the cauldron
Pour it into the cauldron
Pour it into the cauldron

Stir it! Stir it! Stir it! Stir it!

Now take some of the thick mass and some oil and pour it into the frying pan
Into the frying pan
Heat up the frying pan
Heat up the frying pan
Devour them all
Satanic pancakes

Finally, a big THANK YOU to Ken and QuickStopEntertainment for three entertaining rounds that were indeed challenging! You rock!

JoCo’s was the best of the three movie songs. And by JoCo I mean Joe Covenant Lamb, naturally.

I also liked Jeff MacDougall’s masterful REM [homage].

In case anyone cares, I finally got new web pages up and running. Here’s the URL — see you all in MoSF #4!

happinessboard.com/Edric_Haleen.html

🙂

Also, is anyone else doing a review of this round? Because so far, Sevin seems to be the only one who has, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Actually… I think I might just do one of my own.

o_o;

Next year, when I’m out of school, and just have my jobs to worry about, I’ll hopefully be a bit better.

I didn’t want to tell anyone at first, but then some folks were like “the more the merrier!!” so I mentioned the contest along with my release of the 10-word song.

Hard to make these things fair…there were so many great songs this round. I felt like mine got progressively worse while everyone else was getting progressively better.

Well said! Faith and integrity restored. Everyone who had the courage and talent to participate deserves to extraordinary praise.

Anyway, good job to all of you, very impressive songwriting skills!