Best Songs by 21st Century Women+

[poorpete]

It is, yay, thanks. Hope you feel better soon (and I'm coming down with something, and being sick and listening to music can sometimes be the best or least best thing, especially if my ears get f'd up)

[poorpete]

Thanks for the submission Mike! I'm moving the due date to the 8th because my other group of friends haven't submitted either. I've thought about turning this into a podcast but I might only turn it into a fake podcast.

I really liked this round, overall. Though we only had one super hit this round, more is coming soon and I wonder if the new-to-us songs will have a chance

[poorpete]

Move the submission to the 8th just in case some might want extra time.

I really liked this round, overall. Though we only had one super hit this round, more is coming soon and I wonder if the new-to-us songs will have a chance.

[poorpete]

FYI, As of today, with votes from me and Mike, the five moving would be:

1. Let it Go
2. Digital Witness
3. Blue Lights
4. Dy-na-mi-tee
5. Smoke Signals

I'm excited for this list if others agree.

[poorpete]

Of course I've thought of how this would be a podcast. Here's the format

1. Introductions (3 min)
2. Song reviews - listen to a snippet of each song, give opinions (15-30 min)
3. Overall thoughts, note our favorites (4 min)
4. Unveil the 5 songs moving on (2 min)
5. Each participant discusses a song that should have been on the list (5 min)
6. Listener questions (5 min)
7. Closing (1 min)

[Mike]

Do it.

[Phoebe]

Almost done listening!

[Phoebe]

[poorpete]

Yeah, I feel a bit guilt not advancing The McCrary Sisters.

In the final list, Smoke Signals is now out, just barely, and Torres' "Splinter" is in the final spot.

Next poll due February 22nd - will be up later in the day, but here's the playlist
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list ... vtPPdCQQAN

A few changes I'm going to try: 1. ties advance (another change to seek penance for eliminating Kaki King) and 2. Going to highlight a song a weekday here. That'd equal 10 songs for the 10 weekdays between polls.

Starting with...

Sara Bareilles, "Love Song"
NPR Ranking: 180

Hits, songs that have collectively entered our consciousness, are going to be interesting to compete against new-to-us songs. I have a hard time seeing "Let it Go" being defeated by many of these songs. Same goes here, where a quality, piano-based, pop-rock singer-songwriter song has a good chance to advance. But who knows, maybe people really don't like this song. Maybe it's catchiness is a detriment. But for me, it's on good footing, and like "Let it Go" might be underrated here.

This gets to a worry I have with this list. My thought with this whole game was that after weeks/months of really enjoying a song, it might have enough to compete with the hits that are packed in the top 100. I'd understand but be kind of bummed out if we get to Round 10 and on and everything that moves on are songs we've always liked. But maybe that'd be fine too

[poorpete]

Laura Mvula - Father Father
NPR Rank: 179
I really really like this. Feels folky and throwback and twee and grand at once. Would be a good addition to any collection though unsure if it should be discussed among the best songs of the last 18 years.

[poorpete]

NPR Rank: 178
Love the smooth sound and production and the "when I was a kid" lyrics, oh man, the 90s nostalgia, right? With picking songs to move on, it's all subjective and of-the-moment, so I'm wondering if I should always make sure at least one hip hop track and one more experimental track move on. So like, is this considerably better than "Blue Lights" or "Dy-Na-Mi-Tee"? I'm not sure. Also, I guess it loses points for having a guy rap verse and a guy singing the chorus.

[poorpete]

NPR Rank 177
A welcome mix between LCD Soundsystem and Grace Jones. The drum programmer seemed to have the most fun here. I like it. Only complaints: wish the vocalist was up in the mix, also not a fan of the horse neighings.

[Mike]

I am so sorry, Pete, but I'm out. This process isn't fun for me. It's not how I listen to music. I loved following your competition last year, so I thought it would be cool to help out, but it's not my thing.

Sorry.

[poorpete]

No worries. Thanks for trying it out! Thoughts on a listening-to-new-stuff thing for 2020 that'd be more to your liking?

[poorpete]

Debating... if this is turning back into something that's just me when random input from others, if I should do another bracket. A bracket of 200 songs miiiiiiight be fun. I'm thinking double-elimination, and any song eliminated once had to have been heard at least 5 times, and any song eliminated twice needs to be heard 10 times. That would mean listening to My Back another 6 times, but maybe I'd finally like it by then.

[poorpete]

This looks insane... but kinda comforting too
https://challonge.com/ldpm241q

[Phoebe]

I thought I was going to like My Back but I ended up NOT LIKING IT.

Gasp!

That song was a lot better both Bleeped Out and in Memory rather than Reality.

However, she shares the charming expression "something in the milk ain't clean" and I think is singlehandedly responsible for spreading it further through popular culture (via the vector of Dlisted, which I stopped reading and probably shouldn't have) so she is okay by me.

I love your musical experiments, but I don't know if you should go to the trouble of making the bracket depending on how time consuming the setup is for you, and depending on whether you are down to just a few of us. At least this one of us is staggering along through difficult circumstances timewise and may have quite sporadic, random endeavors where listening is concerned. I have listened to all of the ones you've bracketed so far a few times now. I guess it depends if you have people on FB or whatnot. Anyway, give us the ones you are listening to, at least, so we can sample?

[poorpete]

I think I'm just down to you and me!

Let it Go is still #1 (that bridge is one of the best in Disney musicals)
Sara Bareilles' "Love Song" moves on (liked it even more finding out that it's an anti-love-song love song)
Jorja Smith's "Blue Lights" continues on (oof that switch from "don't you run" to "better run" oof!)
We both had Jhene Aiko's "The Worst" (solid!)
and Laura Mvula's "Father Father" (I'm sucker for roots soul and this is great)
in our top 5 or 7 so they move on!

Runners up:
Digital Witness - sad to see go but she has another on the list
Dy-Na-Mi-Tee - tough one to leave too, but their are other good modern R&B songs continuing, so I'm ok
Eras - this was just outside my top 7, probably the best foreign track yet, it's fun!
City Of Refuge - Th

New and not moving on:
Cathedral City - one of the best mixes of classical music and electronic beats I've heard. Feels like the future.
Habib Galbi - lots of fun. Just outside my top 7.
D-medley - definitely good, my electronic music experiments sounded a lot like this, with the build of instrumentation.
A Certain Person
Diddy Bop

[poorpete]

FYI, here's round 4, I'll list my favs on Friday-ish

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list ... vtPPdCQQAN

[poorpete]

Run Away with Me - Oh that synth sax line is so good, and the typically pop-perfected Sweedish production values from Mattman & Robin. I assume at some point the world is going to move on from the Sweedish sound and I wonder if everything from this era will sound outdated. But for now, this is very good.

Muniera for Chistina - Very fun percussive and folky song. Not always int he mood for it, but very fun.

Orchard - Sabbathy rock. Quite good for what it is, crunchy and gloomy.

Poron Pom Pom - Fun pop goodness (and I think I hear an MIA sample in there)

Ooops - about the same as what I remembered it. Good, silly. Love Missy & Timmy, they can do no wrong.

I-89 - funky folk, and I really like Sarah Jarosz, so happy to hear her here.

Mambo Na Ma - lots of fun, joyous.

Dixie/Strange Fruit - Ooof, if you're going to put these two songs together you gotta know what you're dong. Could be renamed "Point/Counterpoint". And she really hit it out of the park. But... minus the voice and the message, it's pretty standard vocal jazz. Well that trumpet is fab. And "Strange Fruit" has been done better. I mean, very good, I couldn't do better, but dunno if I'd move this on.

Hold My Hand - beautiful, lyrically top notch and sung and produced. At some point in 2017 I said "are we in a golden age of hip hop", now I'm going to say the same about Country. I think that says more about me, that just like rock there are great songwriters and singers and musicians and producers working these fields.

Milkshake - This has been a silly fav for a long time. One of my fav experiences was at my friends' Josh and Dave's wedding, where we all danced to this and then started singing "I drink your milkshake! I drink YOUR milkshake." Good times.