Spoiler: Reactions
Scythia // The Light in Us All - Jim Guthrie & JJ Ipsen
Perfectly pleasant, but feels more like a collection of all the jolly folk-rock cliches of the past 20 years than a track with its own identity. I felt like voices were going to break out into "home, let me go home, home is wherever I'm with you" at any moment.
Portugal // Mary - Porpoise Spit
The guitar style is a little less melodic and a little more clangy than I usually like, and I probably could have done without some of the lead vocalist's more athletic yelps. But I thought this landed in an interesting 'what if the Killers were more punk' space and it had some neat lines in it. Probably not going to seek it out on my own time but definitely felt like it had a raison d'etre.
Mali // Believe Anything - Holy Holy
(my entry!)
Holy Holy have been putting out some of the consistently best work in indie rock over the last few years, while gradually evolving and experimenting with their sound. This is the opener and my favourite track from 2021's Hello My Beautiful World, which I'd put at a close second in their discography to 2019's My Own Pool of Light.
Libya // No Means No Mister - The Kinzie Affair
Ending the chorus with "thinking with your" and then starting the next verse with your "Richard" is cute, okay. And I'm kind of in love with the 2009-ness of this YouTube video, haha (will not affect my points). Song is fine, but mostly passed me by.
Spain // Oom Sha La La - Haley Heynderickx
Parts of this work pretty well for me; nice gentle guitars, a very pleasant baseline for her voice. But oh boy, these lyrics grated on me like nobody's business. "Arbitrary sonogram" is total nonsense but I could maybe be talked around on it if Heynderickx laid out exactly what she was going for with it. "The brink of my existence essentially is a comedy", though... you fucking what, mate? Nothing will convince me that "brink" has any right to be in this line, the result is total gobbledigook and she has the temerity to repeat the damn thing later on.
Mount Celeste // Christmas of a Wandering Ghost - Snail's House
The snares on this are pretty cool, but there is a harsh edge on some of those higher synth notes that is nails-on-chalkboard-adjacent. A neat edge of mystery to the whole thing, but I don't think it's doing enough to draw me in for repeat listens and I definitely think it had pretty much made its entire point by the halfway mark.
Chile // My God Has a Telephone - The Flying Stars of Brooklyn NY
Very nice gentle soul groove, although I definitely don't get anything in particular out of the lyrics. They're saved from being actively off-putting by how small-scale they are - there's nothing preachy here, just a guy saying "this is how I get through the day", basically, then upping and leaving before he has time to make it weird. Fair play. The whole thing ultimately feels very slight - it's rare that a sub-three-minute song feels even shorter than its runtime, but I felt that here - but it's so harmless that I'm not gonna get mad.
Ybor City // Fixed Gear - Pet Lizard
Not really my usual style of guitars or vocals but this kinda worked for me anyway. It felt like they packed quite a lot into three minutes of runtime. Pretty much all of this contest so far has dropped into my "I liked it alright" category and this will as well, but it might be at the top of that group.
Namibia // Haven't You Heard - Patrice Rushen
Ooh, some disco! I can work with this. It'll be one of those where, if they nail the groove, then 6:45 will absolutely fly be for me. This didn't quite hit that sweet spot for me - if I don't want to dance through the extended keyboard solo, then your long disco odyssey hasn't achieved all its goals - but it's still a nice time overall.
Morrowind // Shab - Faramarz Aslani
I haven't the first idea what he's saying but, gosh, that's a lovely voice. This is chill as fuck. I don't know if I'll go out of my way to follow up on it but it's just nice.
Zanarkand // Obamacare - Quelle Chris
My policy on brag tracks is that I have to already think the MC rules for it to work; I want them to earn the right to tell me how great they are by talking about more interesting shit first. I have no idea about what else Quelle Chris has done and in what order but, as an introduction to his work, this doesn't work for me on that level. Especially when the chorus goes from "I am great" to "also I smoke weed", it's like, ooh, daring today, aren't we? I do really rather like the 'demented wind chimes' instrumental aesthetic, though, and the slowly descending melody of the hook, but as a first exposure to Quelle Chris this doesn't really sell me on him as someone who has anything to say that I need to hear.
Russia // Грустная Сука - Ic3peak
The only song in the contest where I could safely say I was entirely uninterested in giving it points. I was kinda intrigued at the start with that moody atmosphere and mysterious vocal, but those bassy farts were really quite unpleasant and they overshadowed everything else for me.