CalebH

cottonmouthed vocal works for me for the most part. could use some strings or something... push it further into radiohead territory. dissonance toward the end was interesting, probably need another listen to know if it worked for me. what does this need? a good chorus could work wonders here, I think.

It ain't quite Fahey, but it's got a nice melody and it's warm. Compelling little instrumental. Somewhere between corny and masterpiece. I'll vote feature.

Jesus this sucks. Just kidding. But seriously. This sucks.

Ease up on the flanger. Don't overplay those Final Placement riffs. "Oh we are all needing some money." Ha. That made me smirk.

It feels like you learned how to use autotune and not much else in the studio. None of the lyrics stuck with me. The breathy vocals feel too affected. Chord progession is generic. Do something new. Listening a second time, the lyrics don't really say anything. Tell a story or evoke images or something, but don't waste words.

I think the problem is that this doesn't sound very cool. Can't think of a better way to put it. "Words CAAAAAN blah blah blah" part made me kind of cring each time. It's good that there's at least a melody, but it doesn't go anywhere unexpected. Doesn't have to be Pet Sounds. Just throw me for a loop sometime.

It's shaky. Need to ease off that reverb, ease off that Bright Eyes binge. Singing in tune throughout would help. But I like it enough to hit feature.

laser samples aren't loud enough.

Lyrics are a little trite, but the sentiment is there. Turn up the piano. I like everything else. Yeah, Wilco-ish. Maybe try experimenting with the tempo, just to see what happens.

#@&%! REO Speedwagon, but that's what this sounds like, and you manage to make it pretty enjoyable. The synth is distracting to me. And for the love of everything holy, mic your acoustic guitar and never ever ever go direct in ever again. The lyrics are generic and say next to nothing. But other than that, this is a style I don't normally enjoy but you did a good job and the melody is strong. Maybe Chris Bell is a better point of reference for this. So yeah. Pretty good harmonies and stuff.

Pretty sharp. Cool melodies, though they feel a little... jagged and not-quite-directionless-but-almost. Which is fine if you don't overdo it, and if you have the real hooks somewhere. The main hook is pretty good, but I think it could've been stronger. Drums sound like drums should sound. Actually, the melody starts to get lost around 1:40. But then the song picks up again... but not in a way that makes you hang on every second-- and that's what should be going on, because the actual sound of this is really cool and this could be really, really good. But it's not quite there yet. It's getting lost in itself. If you don't like the sound of that, well, I'm sure Phil Spector heard that enough. So. Maybe you're doing it right.

Turn up your voice. If it was My Bloody Valentine-type stuff, it'd be different. It's not. It's acoustic singer-songwriter stuff, so you're basically stuck with the rules of the genre. Nobody's going to listen to a singer they can't hear.

There is more excess time in this song than there are excess letters in "Feheley." I really don't know what else to say, except that it didn't really go anywhere. The sax is kind of cool. It's kind of smooth jazzy, though-- which is another way of saying it's kind of like going to the dentist's office, when you get laughing gas and you don't know whether it was a good trade or not. Oh, and the flange/phaser is gimmicky, and the drums aren't kitschy enough to be cool-- they just sound like bad fake drums. And the fade out is too long.

But this isn't as painful as it should be, for some reason. For a 6:40 song that didn't do much for me, well, I didn't cringe or anything, and I got through the whole thing fine. So at least it's harmless. Second stage. Why not.

It's like Yo La Tengo with a mediocre producer. The vocals don't blend very well with the guitar sound or the sound of pretty much everything else. At parts, it's like Phil Elvrum singing for... one of the x-thousand bands that sound like this. The last minute or so is the best part. Either chill out all the compression and guitar pre-amps and overprocessed stuff going on with the instruments or work more on developing vocals that work better with this kind of music. As it stands, it's not awful. But it is boring, and it isn't something I'd be stoked to sit down and listen to. And the lyrics, the lyrics, the lyrics-- they don't say anything. Nothing that caught my ear anyway. Show, don't tell.

It's alright. I've heard more interesting refrigerators. But it's alright.